Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #132

Spider-Man swings through the city, complaining about a cold he’s come down with, when he spots two cops investigating a break-in at the Natural History Museum. Though the culprit is long gone, Spidey peeks in the broken skylight and notices it seems to have been scorched. He learns that the culprit stole some meteor rock fragments and discovers some scorched footprints at the front of the building. The cops then spot Spidey, forcing him to flee and swing back to his apartment. Not wanting Harry to potentially see anything, Peter changes a few blocks from his apartment and decides to walk the rest of the way, when he’s spotted by a surprising figure from his past! Meanwhile, across town, the owner of a hotel takes to cleaning up one of her rooms when the occupant of said room returns and angrily throws her out, saying he doesn’t want to be disturbed! Thinking he may be a thief, the hotel manager then puts in a call to the Daily Bugle, figuring they’ll be interested in the story!

As it turns out, the figure from Peter’s past is revealed to be Liz Allan when she approaches him and asks to talk. Liz tells Peter that she’s in deep trouble and, seeing how worn out she is, he takes her to Mary Jane’s place. Liz falls right to sleep, while Peter reminisces about their history together, and Mary Jane promises to watch over her until she wakes up. At the Daily Bugle, Ned Leeds takes the hotel manager’s call and agrees to head over after telling Robbie where he’ll be. As soon as Ned gets to the hotel, the mysterious tenant’s room explodes! Ned rushes in and finds the hotel manager stunned, before he’s accosted by the mystery man! Back at the Bugle, Robbie asks Peter to get photos of the hotel, not yet knowing that anything’s wrong! Spidey quickly swings over and finds Ned injured and unconscious. Just then, his spider sense goes off and he’s attacked by the mystery tenant who is finally revealed to be Molten Man!

Molten Man attacks Spidey, revealing that he can now superheat his body, burning up anything he touches! Spidey dances around Molten Man’s attacks, as he burns hotter than ever! Spidey tries spinning a web-glove to better hit Molten Man but even that proves ineffective. Molten Man charges at Spidey, who dodges, causing Molten Man to fall out of the apartment, plummeting several stories before landing on a fire hydrant! The resulting burst of steam allows Molten Man to escape, and Spidey realizes he needs to get Ned to the hospital. He swings Ned over and walks him in as Peter Parker but is unable to answer too many of the doctor’s questions. Ned is diagnosed with radiation poisoning, which Peter realized must be a result of the meteor fragments that Molten Man stole! As Peter heads to exit the hospital, he starts to feel the effects of the radiation as well, and collapses in the middle of the hallway! To be continued!