Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #157

After seeing a notice from Corona Motors threatening to sue him if he doesn’t turn up with the Spider-Mobile he was paid to promote, Spider-Man dives into the east river where he crashed it months before. He shines his spider-signal to give himself more light but ends up finding only a side-view mirror, the rest of the wreckage has vanished! Spider-Man resurfaces to be faced with a couple of cops pointing their guns at him. Spidey yanks them into the river at the same time he pulls himself out and goes swinging off into the night. Meanwhile, Flash surprises Harry by picking him up from his latest therapy session. Harry says that his therapy seems to be going really well, and that his memories of right after his father died are hazy. The two are then interrupted by Liz tapping on the window, wanting to see if Harry wanted to get coffee sometime. Harry happily agrees and the two go walking off together, leaving Flash mystified!

Elsewhere, Doctor Octopus washes up at Aunt May’s apartment and changes into the costume he had her hold onto, stating that thanks to her, Doctor Octopus lives again! An hour later, Peter stops by to see Aunt May and is shocked to see Doc Ock there. The two exchange awkward greetings before Peter decides he needs to find out what Ock is up to. He asks Aunt May to look for his red sweater to get her out of the way for a bit, and immediately asks Ock what his deal is. Doc Ock claims that he doesn’t wish to harm either of them and decides to tell Peter how he survived the island explosion (from ASM #131). Doc Ock faced down Hammerhead at the Nuclear Processing Plant that Aunt May had inherited. Despite Ock’s warnings, Hammerhead ended up ramming right into the reactor and getting his head stuck! Realizing this would still start the chain reaction he feared, Doc Ock left Hammerhead to die and took refuge in a safety shaft built into the plant, and wrapped his metal arms around himself. Hammerhead finally got his head unstuck but a moment later, the whole place went up in a massive explosion! Doc Ock ended up washed up on shore and discovered his tentacles were once more permanently grafted to his body.

Claiming that he returned for something only Aunt May could help him with, Aunt May comes back into the room just in time for everyone to see what that is! The ghostly image of Hammerhead appears right in Aunt May’s apartment and promises that Doc Ock will pay for murdering him! Aunt May faints and Doc Ock grabs her and smashes his way out of the apartment, intent on escaping Hammerhead by whatever means necessary! Peter changes to Spider-Man and chases after him, quickly finding Ock. Doc Ock dodges Spidey’s initial attack, causing Spidey to go crashing into someone’s apartment! Spidey catches up to Doc Ock once more and blinds him with his webbing, before snatching Aunt May from his grasp. Spidey sets Aunt May down somewhere safe before he’s grabbed once again by Doc Ock, and slammed into the ground. Spidey then follows Ock up the side of the Pan Am building, only to discover his web-shooters are empty! As Spidey runs up the side of the building, Doc Ock reaches the top and hijacks a helicopter meant for the Senator. Spidey then reaches the top and refills his webs just in time to snag onto the bottom of the helicopter. Doc Ock becomes aware of Spidey’s position, and severs his web-line, leaving Spidey to plummet to the ground over an open field, without anything to web onto! To be continued!