Spider-Man comes by the scene of a murder that’s taken
place right outside Mary Jane’s apartment building! Spidey makes the guess that
Mary Jane likely saw the whole thing and heads inside to try and talk her into
saying something. Mary Jane is surprised to see Peter so late and admits she
doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t want to involve him but admits that she
saw the whole thing and not only that, the killer saw her watching him! She’s
worried that she may be targeted if she says something, which angers Peter. He
lashes out, saying that she’s acting cowardly and forcefully leaves. Outside,
Peter admits to himself that he’s just trying to get her to go to the police,
even if out of spite, and that saving her life is worth damaging their
friendship. He changes to Spider-Man and soon gets swooped down upon by the
Vulture! Spidey quickly makes the connection that the Vulture must be the
killer that MJ saw. The two tussle until Vulture manages to stun Spidey,
knocking him to an alley below, where Spidey narrowly cushions his fall with a
web net.
The Vulture flies off, thinking Spider-Man dead, and
Spidey quickly regains consciousness, deciding to split before the cops arrive.
Spidey then heads back to the Baxter Building to resume building his new
Spider-Mobile with the Human Torch. The two work all night until dawn comes
when Spidey realizes he has to leave. Peter heads back to his apartment to grab
some breakfast, where he runs into Harry. Harry is still giving Peter the
silent treatment and when Peter tries to reach out more, Harry roughly shoves
him away, stating that they were never friends! A bit later, at ESU, Peter runs
up to Mary Jane to apologize for how he acted the previous night. MJ tries to
act like she had just been joking about the whole thing, but Peter isn’t buying
it. The two hitch a ride from Flash in his new car, when Peter’s spider-sense
starts to go off! The Vulture then swoops down and lifts Mary Jane right out of
the car! Flash ends up swerving and crashing right into telephone pole, while
Peter jumps clear of the car! Peter checks on Flash and discovers that he
thankfully isn’t badly hurt.
As Peter runs to change into Spider-Man to chase the
Vulture, he bumps into Professor Warren at the worst possible time. Professor
Warren is adamant that he needs to talk to Peter about his attendance in his
class but Peter stresses that he can’t talk now and runs away to change to
Spider-Man. Spidey quickly catches up to the Vulture, who drops Mary Jane as
soon as he gets near! What happened with Gwen flashes through Spidey’s mind as
he catches Mary Jane, making sure that the same thing doesn’t happen again! He
deposits Mary Jane on the ground (even calling her Gwen briefly in his stupor),
before swinging back up to locate the Vulture. He hears a scream coming from
the biology lab and swings in to find the Vulture threatening one of the lab
assistants. Spidey holds off the Vulture so she can escape, while noting that
he seems somehow more monstrous than he ever has before!
Their fight takes them outside, as the two tumble to
the ground. The Vulture takes to the skies once more as Spidey tries to web him
up, as he notices that a crowd has gathered, including police! The Vulture
bares down on Spider-Man once more, and Spidey times his webbing perfectly to
blind him before he gets too close! The police use the opportunity to throw a
huge net over both Spider-Man and the Vulture, while in the crowd Harry
silently cheers for Spider-Man’s downfall! The Vulture tears free of the net
and blindly grabs Spider-Man, thinking he’s the Vulture’s prey! The Vulture
carries Spider-Man high into the air as everyone else watches from the ground,
most in worry but Harry in anticipation! The Vulture finally gets the webbing
from his eyes and realizes it’s Spidey he grabbed. He simply drops Spidey, who
worries that this high up, with no buildings to snag onto, that this may be it
for him! To be continued!
Give that special marvelite a timely gift