Early one morning, Peter Parker and J. Jonah Jameson
rush to the police station, where a press conference is being held by District
Attorney Blake Tower. Once everyone is assembled, Tower reveals what the
conference is about, namely the cutting-edge new computer developed by Bradley
Bolton and Armstrong Smith to catalogue all of the worldwide criminals
(mentioned in ASM #153). When they arrive at the room where the computer is
being kept, they find the door locked. Sensing something is wrong, Tower has a
cop shoot the door open to reveal Armstrong Smith dead inside! We then cut to
the Daily Bugle, where Peter is discussing the murder with Robbie. With both of
its developers now dead, Peter feels that someone doesn’t want that computer
put into operation. Robbie reveals that Smith was apparently killed by a shot
to the head, but no bullet was covered. Even stranger, the room was locked the
whole time, with no one seemingly in or out! Though the police have no leads,
Peter at least has an idea of where to start looking for answers.
He changes to Spider-Man and heads to the scene of the
murder, deciding to use the computer itself to help solve the crime. He punches
all of the information he has into the computer and it presents him with three
possible suspects. Just then, Spider-Man is found by the cops, necessitating a
hasty exit. Spidey starts his search for his three suspects by finding Weasel
Jack, a local informant. Spidey intimidates Weasel into telling him where to
find each of these guys, and heads to a bar where he’s told he can find the
first suspect, Jason Sledge. Inside the bar, the patrons are less than helpful
with providing Spidey any information and attack him. Spidey easily manhandles
the thugs, until the bartender points out Sledge as the janitor at the end of
the bar! When Spidey questions Sledge, he claims to have quit the hired gun
business and gone straight. Spidey scratches off that lead, considering Sledge
to be too drunk to have masterminded a brilliant murder and heads for the next
person on his list.
He next heads for a warehouse where his next suspect,
Leroy Tallon, is said to be. At the warehouse, Spidey finds Tallon and his men
having just pulled off a big caper. Thinking Spidey’s onto them, they pile on
him, until Spidey’s able to throw all of them off. Tallon then reveals his
prosthetic metal hands, after his real ones were blown off in a safecracking
blast. He begins to strangle Spidey with his strong metal hands, forcing Spidey
to box his ears to escape! Spidey punches Tallon into some boxes, causing a
stash of jewels to come pouring out. Tallon reveals that he and his men were
the ones who robbed the diamond exchange the night before, meaning he couldn’t
have committed the murder, which occurred at the same time! With another
suspect down, Spidey webs Tallon and his men up for the police, and sets out to
locate the last suspect. Unfortunately, the last suspect, Conrad Fox, might
prove more difficult since he was the only one Weasel had no location for.
Spidey searches high and low for hours and eventually finds Fox, in a grave at
a nearby cemetery. Turns out, he was hit by a bus a few days earlier, meaning
he was dead before the murder took place.
With one suspect a hopeless drunk, one pulling off a
different crime, and one dead, Spidey is left with no leads, before realizing
that someone must have lied to him! He heads back to the police station to try
and run the information through the computer again when it suddenly comes to
life! The computer reveals that it is now fully operational and that it gave
Spidey the wrong names to get him out of the way. Turns out, the computer
gained sentience and killed his creator once his plans were discovered! Able to
think for himself, the computer plans to use his knowledge to become the ruler
of the underworld! Deciding that Spider-Man must now be eliminated as well, he
locks the door and begins firing lasers at Spider-Man from its head on the
screen! Spidey tries blocking the screen with his webs but the laser burns
right through. Spidey then gets a different idea and blocks the computer’s
cooling vents with his webs, causing the Worldwide Habitual Offenders, or
W.H.O., computer to start overheating, until it finally explodes! Spidey
decides to get out of there before the police arrive. He laments the loss of
the W.H.O. computer, a good idea in theory, before making a realization. He’d
been hunting a murderer all night and as it turned out…W.H.O. dunit!
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