Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #164

After the events of last issue, Spider-Man awakens strapped to a table and connected to a strange device. The device is also connected to a comatose Richard Fisk, and the Kingpin tells Spider-Man that he’s going to steal his life force so that his son may live again! When Spider-Man inquires, the Kingpin recounts how his son came to be in this situation. Richard had ended up falling in with Hydra and acting as an unwitting dupe for the Red Skull. Red Skull used Richard to activate the fifth and final Sleeper, and Kingpin sent his forces against it while Captain America and the Falcon took out the Red Skull. Richard was injured in the battle and Kingpin has had him in suspended animation until he could find a way to save him. Just as the switch is about to be flipped, the Kingpin’s wife Vanessa arrives asking him to reconsider, claiming that Richard would not want to be revived at the cost of someone else’s life. Kingpin claims he knows his son and orders the switch flipped, sending an excruciating jolt coursing through Spider-Man, transferring his energy and life force to Richard. Richard awakens, groggy and confused, and Vanessa takes him away, leaving the Kingpin all but forgotten.

The Kingpin then frees Spider-Man, having no use for him anymore, and Spider-Man finds he can barely move! The Kingpin swats Spider-Man away and tells him that due to the energy transfer, he now only has hours left to live! He orders his men to dispose of Spider-Man and they dump him on a random street. Spider-Man wearily and barely makes it back to his apartment, and changes back to Peter when he hears the doorbell. He opens the door to find Glory checking on him, and she can instantly tell something is wrong! She has Peter lie down while she goes to find a doctor. However, Peter knows he can’t wait and heads out to find the only doctor who can help him, Curt Connors! Spider-Man makes it Curt Connors’ lab and collapses, quickly explaining his situation. Connors tries having Spider-Man stand in an enervator he designed to restore some of his energy. However, the machine soon overloads and explodes near Connors! Only rattled, Connors reconfigures a taser he designed for the police to act as a siphoning mechanism, meant to reverse the energy transfer between Spidey and Richard. Spidey heads out, and thanks Connors for everything he’s ever done, in the event he doesn’t make it back.

Spider-Man then scours the city, looking all over for the Kingpin, his spider-sense attuned to Richard due to currently having Spidey’s life force. Spidey eventually tracks them to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with less than thirty minutes left on his clock! Spider-Man watches the Fisks from up high, as the Kingpin notes that Richard seems quiet. Richard admits that he’s unhappy to have a man’s death on his conscience now, just as Spider-Man hits him with the siphoning mechanism! With Spider-Man’s energy now coursing back to him, the Kingpin tells his men to stand down so that he can handle things himself! He knocks down the scaffold Spidey is perched on and the two end up trading blows! Vanessa orders the men to fire at Spider-Man, causing him to scamper away, ending up on a raised platform. The Kingpin swings onto the platform as well with a crane hook and the two resume their fight. Spidey ends up webbing the Kingpin’s foot to the platform, before noticing the crane hook coming back around right for Fisk! With his foot still webbed up, the Kingpin gets hit by the crane and grabs onto a crossbeam. Spider-Man tries to help Kingpin, but he chooses to fall instead, destroying the platform on the way down and sending the whole thing plummeting into the water!

With the Kingpin seemingly dead, Spider-Man crawls out of the water, coming face to face with Vanessa. She reveals that Richard had Spidey’s life force long enough to rejuvenate his body, removing him from fatal danger! With her husband now seemingly dead, but her son back with her, Vanessa decides to let things go there, leaving with Richard to head someplace he can recuperate in peace. She warns Spider-Man not to cross her path again, and leaves him to contemplate things alone.