At the end of last issue, a defeated Spider-Man was
thrown from the roof by Doctor Octopus! Spidey awakens and realizes he’s out of
web fluid! He grabs onto Doc Ock’s tentacles and uses them to swing into the
building. He ducks into a vent as the arms continue to chase after him.
Spider-Man squeezes himself into the far end of the vent as the arms start to
hesitate, unsure of where he is. Spidey breathes a sigh of relief as the arms
start to retract, letting him know that Doc Ock has lost track of him. He throws
a spider tracer onto one of the tentacles for good measure and heads outside to
find Doc Ock gone. He changes back into Peter and is found by Captain Stacy.
Peter realizes he took more of a beating than he thought and collapses into
Captain Stacy’s arms! Peter awakens sometime later to Gwen, just the medicine
he needed! Captain Stacy makes some comments that makes Peter wonder how much
he knows but decides not to dwell on it.
Peter quickly heads home in order to devise a way to
stop Doc Ock. Peter pours over his science equipment, spending hours developing
a special chemical compound that he’s hoping will aid him against Doc Ock. He
loads his new compound into his web shooters and fastens a firing button for it
on his belt, before heading out to look for Doc Ock. Spidey combs the city for
over an hour before he finally gets a read on his spider tracer. He peeks
inside the room his spider-sense lead him to only to find it empty. Doc Ock
then grabs Spider-Man, having found his tracer and decided to lay a trap for
him! Ock slams Spidey against a wall and assails him with his tentacles,
keeping Spidey from getting to the firing button for his new gizmo.
Finally, Spidey gets free and tags two of Ock’s arms
with his webbing coated in his new formula. Ock suddenly realizes that he’s
lost control of those arms, Spidey’s chemical compound acting as a jamming
device to keep his arms from listening to his brain! Ock struggles as his
tentacles struggle against each other, the affected ones even turning around to
attack him directly! As Ock struggles against his own tentacles, the crowd
below, including Captain Stacy, spot the battle going on atop the roof. In the midst
of the tentacles’ uncontrollable flailing, they smash into a nearby chimney,
sending debris falling to the crowd below! Just as a young boy is about to be
crushed, Captain Stacy pushes the boy out of the way, getting buried in the
debris himself! Spidey swings down and frantically digs Captain Stacy out,
feeling only a faint heartbeat. Spidey tries rushing Captain Stacy to a doctor,
before Captain Stacy stops him. He calls Spider-Man Peter and tells him to look
after Gwen, before succumbing to his injuries. Peter realizes that Captain
Stacy must have always known who he was and promises to protect Gwen, while
worrying what may happen if she ever learns that her father died…because of
him!