Our story opens with Spider-Man perched outside the
Daily Bugle, reading the news coverage of the previous issue with disdain, as
J. Jonah Jameson yells at him from the window. Spider-Man notes that Jameson
wrote the article as if he were the hero and angrily tells Jameson his
newspaper is worthless. After being surprised by a large ringing clock, Spidey
realizes he’s due in class soon and makes his way over to ESU. Flash Thompson
excitedly sees Spidey swinging by and Gwen Stacy inquires if he would still like
Spider-Man if he turned out to be someone Flash disliked under his mask.
Harry Osborn then approaches, frustrated that Peter is always coming and going and
fed up with being his messenger boy. Peter changes in the gym and hastily makes
his way down one of the climbing ropes, almost getting caught by his professor,
Miles Warren. Warren invites Peter and a guest to accompany him to the science
exposition happening after class, while Peter is just relieved that Warren
didn’t see anything too suspicious.
Peter asks Gwen be the one to accompany him with
Professor Warren, and she eagerly agrees, while Harry is still annoyed at
Peter’s frequent absences. Professor Warren commends Peter for his choice of
date and Peter and Flash get in a tiff when Gwen admits she has a date with
Peter. Gwen breaks up the fight and she and Peter head off with Professor
Warren, while he discusses the nullifier being demonstrated, capable of jamming
enemy missiles. The group arrives at the demonstration when suddenly Peter’s spider-sense
starts going nuts, while he frantically looks around for the supposed danger.
Just as the demonstration is about to begin, Doctor Octopus reveals himself
from the crowd, looking to steal the nullifier for himself. Peter slips away to
change to Spider-Man, as the guards try to douse Doc Ock with tear gas. Doc
Ock, however, whips his powerful tentacles around, dispelling the gas, and
knocking the guards for a loop!
Spidey swings in at Doc Ock, who braces himself for
the attack and after a short scuffle, is able to knock Spidey out the window.
Spidey follows the fleeing Ock up the side of the wall and webs him in the
eyes, blinding him. Doc Ock leverages his situation by dropping the heavy
nullifier he stole onto the crowd below, forcing Spidey to abandon him to save
the people, though not before Spidey plants a spider-tracer on Ock for good
measure. Spidey safely catches the nullifier, as Ock, still unable to remove the
webbing, blindly makes his escape. As he makes his way back to his lair, Doctor
Octopus reminisces about his and Spidey’s famous previous encounter, during the
fantastic Master Planner story. He chronicles how he was able to escape by
holding himself above the water in an air pocket, while retrieving and oxygen
tank and escaping out the very same tunnel that Spidey had. Back at his lair, Doc Ock finally rids
himself of the webbing from his goggles and discovers the spider-tracer, as he
plans to use it to turn the tables on Spidey.
With Doc Ock having escaped, Spidey switches back to
Peter and makes his way back to Gwen and Professor Warren, with the excuse that
he got separated looking for a camera. Gwen is just happy that he’s safe while
Pete is happily shocked that she didn’t ask for any explanations. Peter and
Gwen make their way to the Coffee Bean, where they run into the whole group of
Flash, Harry, and Mary Jane Watson. Peter notices that Harry seems possibly
jealous that he and Gwen are getting closer while Flash jokes that Gwen must
have lost a bet. Aunt May and Anna Watson then appear and excitedly tell Peter
that they’ve put an ad in the paper that they’re renting a room, in order to
make a little extra money. Peter then takes Aunt May and Anna home, in order to
go out to look for Doc Ock. Speaking of whom, back at his lair, Doc Ock set up a trap for Spidey, by constructing a replica of himself and pinning the tracer to
it. Ock then leaves to watch Spidey’s arrival from another safe location.
Spidey, meanwhile, starts swinging around the city,
eventually getting a read on his tracer. He is led to a waterfront shack, when
his spider-sense suddenly alerts him that something isn’t quite right. He peeks
in and sees the Doc Ock replica, and though nothing seems amiss, decides not to
take precautions. He constructs a web ball and slingshots it at the replica,
causing the entire hideout to explode! Doc Ock watches in glee from his other
hideout, thinking he’s finally gotten rid of Spider-Man. Ock then plans to move
locations once again, to somewhere more low-key, where no one would ever think
to look for him. We then see that Spidey naturally avoided the explosion by
pre-emptively diving into the river, as he determines to find Doc Ock no matter
what. We then see a little tease for next issue, implying that Doc Ock is
likely to become Aunt May’s new tenant! To be continued next issue!