Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #169

After a dull evening of looking for some action, Spider-Man witnesses two cops get tossed out of their own paddy wagon by their prisoners! As the prisoners try to drive off in the stolen vehicle, Spider-Man jumps down and rips a lamp post out of the ground. As the prisoners drive right for him, Spidey swings the lamp post right into the car, stopping it in its tracks! He quickly takes out the prisoners and leaves them for the cops, before telling them to keep a handle on things next time! Meanwhile, at the ESU lab, Marla Madison fixes up the Spider-Slayer while J. Jonah Jameson vents his frustrations at how much repairing the damage will cost him. Having felt like the Spider-Slayer route was a bust, Jameson heads out to try another method of stopping Spider-Man that he’s been keeping as a backup! Elsewhere, Harry finishes up a therapy session with Dr. Hamilton, and is met there by Liz. Dr. Hamilton says farewell to the couple and marvels at the progress Harry seems to be making.

Back with Spidey, he’s just returned to his apartment and changed back into Peter when he hears his doorbell. He looks out the window and is surprised to see it’s Jameson but quickly buzzes him up. Jameson then reveals that he’s here to reveal Peter for the imposter he is and starts to grab at his hair, looking to pull off his fake Peter mask! It’s soon clear to Jameson that Peter isn’t wearing a mask, and he presents the envelope and tells Peter to look at the photographs within, thinking the current Peter is Spider-Man who killed the real Peter and took his place! Peter pours over the photos, and feigns hesitation in coming up with an answer, not wanting to make the plan he concocted last issue look too easy. Eventually, Peter claims the photos look familiar and finds old prints of his, actually ones he made the day before, showing that the photos Jameson has have been doctored from these seemingly old prints. When Jameson asks who could have done it, since Peter was the only one with access to the “originals”, Peter suggests maybe it was Harry during the period that he was the Green Goblin. This seems to assuage Jameson, who offers Peter an apology and gruffly shoots down Peter’s suggestion of a raise! With Jameson gone, Peter collapses to the floor in relief!

With everything seemingly back to normal, Spidey bounces around the city, his spirits on top of the world again. He thinks about how Jameson will probably never know that the photos he had were the real ones or how close he came to nailing him! As Spider-Man stops to rest, he spots several strange man enter an old dilapidated building, slowly one after the other. Deciding this seems suspicious, Spider-Man grabs the next guy he sees headed for the building and interrogates him about what’s going on. Down in an abandoned subway tunnel, Spidey finds the henchman’s accomplices using a high-tech laser cannon to drill through a wall! Spidey attacks the henchmen, before one of them turns the laser cannon on him! Spidey ricochets off the walls and ceiling, making it hard to get a lock on him, and is able to take out the goon controlling the cannon. Spidey turns it off, and he’s grabbed by a few more goons. One tries punching Spidey, and ends up breaking his hands against Spidey’s tensed stomach! Spidey takes out the remaining henchmen, when their boss makes his presence known from the shadows. With his cigarette holder and large frame, Spidey thinks it’s the Kingpin and tells him to come on out! However, Spidey is given quite the shock when the man turns out to be Doctor Faustus instead! To be continued!