After fishing Spider-Man out of the pond last issue,
Ka-Zar concludes that he isn’t dead and swings off with him. Ka-Zar’s tiger
companion Zabu scatters the police to give Ka-Zar time to abscond with
Spider-Man. Atop a nearby rooftop, Spidey regains consciousness and discovers
that the shock of hitting the water has cured his amnesia and he has his full
memory back again! Back at the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson wallows in yet
another failed attempt to bring in Spider-Man, when Betty Brant informs him that
he has a call from Spencer Smythe. Smythe tells the irate Jameson about his new
plan to take down Spider-Man that is sure not to fail this time! Switching
gears yet again, we check in on John Jameson and Captain George Stacy, as
Captain Stacy assures John that he’ll continue looking into Spider-Man while
John is away overseas. Meanwhile, the Captain’s daughter Gwen Stacy, along with
Harry Osborn, visit the ailing Aunt May in the hospital and continue to worry
about Peter’s whereabouts.
With all of that set-up out of the way, we check back
in on Spidey, as he explains his whole recent ordeal to Ka-Zar. Ka-Zar then
hears Zabu growling on the streets below and rushes to his animal companion’s
aid. Ka-Zar smashes the guns he thought were going to be used on Zabu while
bending a lamp post over a car so as not to be followed. With that dramatic
display done with, Ka-Zar and Zabu head off while Spidey realizes that Aunt May
must be worried sick and rushes to get to his apartment as quick as he can with
empty web-shooters. Meanwhile, Jonah arrives at Smythe’s lab, where Smythe
shows Jonah his newest robot, the new and improved Spider-Slayer. When Jonah
objects, saying he has no intentions of killing Spider-Man, just locking him
up, Smythe assures him that the name is merely for dramatic purposes. Smythe
demonstrates the power of his new robot and Jameson eagerly agrees to get
started on hunting Spidey down.
Back at the Daily Bugle, John Jameson arrives to see
his father and tells Betty and Ned Leeds that he’s shipping out soon.
Joe Robertson overhears as well and wishes John well on his new assignment. The
other Jameson, meanwhile, heads out with Smythe to follow the Spider-Slayer as
it searches for Spider-Man via its ability to detect spiders. It doesn’t take
too long as right after Spider-Man wearily makes his way back to his apartment
and tries phoning Aunt May, he hears what sounds like footsteps walking up the
wall. He looks outside and sees the new Spider-Slayer, the screen on the face
showing Jonah’s face, doing just that. Spidey tries kicking him off the wall to
no avail and decides to go on the move. Smythe takes the controls, in much more
lethal fashion, firing a destruction beam from the robot’s head, while Jameson
objects, not wanting to kill Spider-Man. Smythe ignores Jameson and continues
to follow Spider-Man, who seeks refuge in a nearby garage. The Spider-Slayer
quickly finds Spidey anyway and Spidey maneuvers so that his dodged blast hits
the main support beam, toppling the entire garage onto the robot.
While this doesn’t slow the robot down for long,
Spidey takes the opportunity to race to a nearby phone booth and look up Smythe
in the phonebook, as he wonders why movie characters don’t do that more often.
Jameson denounces Smythe as just wanting petty revenge instead of actually
caring if Spidey is a menace to people and Smythe continues to chase Spidey.
Spidey leads the robot back to Smythe’s lab where the controls suddenly stop
working and after Smythe tries increasing the power, the robot completely short-circuits
and explodes! Spidey explains that he set up all of the spiders Smythe had as
test subjects close together, so that it would overload the robot’s sensors,
causing it to short circuit! Jameson kicks Smythe out of his office and Peter
finally gets around to changing to go look for Aunt May, running into Ka-Zar
one last time, who is puzzled, as he thought he sensed Spider-Man was nearby,
while Peter simply smirks.