Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #154

Feeling angry and responsible for Bradley Bolton’s death a few hours previous (last issue), Spider-Man swoops down on some thieves trying to mug a woman. Spidey easily takes out the two muggers, but his anger gets the best of him and he savagely and repeatedly beats on the second guy. The woman he saved snaps Spider-Man out of his angry state and he realizes what he almost did! He thanks the woman and swings off, retrieving his camera and realizing that he can’t sell any of the photos he got, as they would only prove Jameson’s claims about him! Still feeling the adrenaline, he swings off to look for someone else to hit! Elsewhere in the city, the Sandman is being transported by police truck inside a plexiglass tube. The truck is then attacked by the same costumed guys that worked for Paine last issue and Sandman is able to free himself, flowing right out of the air vent. Sandman questions who freed him, when a car pulls up and the men tell him that he can reserve any questions he has for their boss!

Elsewhere still, the same mysterious derelict man seen in ASM #152 continues his desperate scrounging. He trips a passing man in order to steal his wallet but the same sight he saw before stuns him and he runs off once again in fear! Meanwhile, when Sandman gets to the secret lair of his helper, he finds his old costume waiting for him. The man who had Sandman freed asks him to steal a specific mechanism from a research facility across town and bring it to him. Feeling like it’ll be a piece of cake, Sandman decides that he’ll also use the opportunity to settle the scores with the men who last caught him (in Marvel Team-Up #40), starting with Spider-Man! Speaking of Spidey, after hours of swinging around with no luck, he’s suddenly alerted by his spider-sense to a signal from one of his spider tracers! Confused as he hasn’t used one of the tracers in awhile, Spidey follows the signal to a research facility where he spots a couple of the same guys who were working for Paine posted outside. Spidey quickly webs up the two henchmen and heads inside the plant, setting up his camera in case there ends up being something worth photographing.

Spidey makes his way through the facility until he’s surprised by Sandman, who throws the spider tracer at his feet! Sandman explains that bought the tracer from a fence in order to lure Spidey there, and it worked just as planned! The two of them fight until Spidey tries webbing up Sandman head to toe. Sandman is able to simply slither out of the webs and surprises Spidey, knocking him out with a powerful blow. Sandman decides to use the device he was sent there to steal, a Cryogenic Converter meant to freeze people with fatal diseases until cures can be found, on Spidey himself! He straps Spidey to a table and boots up the machine, just as Spidey reawakens to discover his predicament! Spidey struggles against the extra strong restraints to no avail, and just as the freeze beam comes shooting at him, is able to flip the table over to take the brunt of the blast! With the table now frozen and brittle, Spidey’s able to smash it apart as Sandman attacks him once more. Spidey and Sandman’s fight continues, until Sandman gets sent flying back right into the path of the freeze beam! Spidey is just too slow to turn the controls off, and Sandman gets flash-frozen! Spidey lets the frozen Sandman down gently and with him defeated, grabs his camera to see if he got any photos out of it, his pessimistic mood making him doubt it!