Though Spider-Man has his memory back, he is still wanted
by the police, and so must evade them so that he can get to the hospital to see
Aunt May. Spidey webs up the cops and swings to the hospital, snagging a
directory to discover that Aunt May is on the top floor. Spidey crawls in and
changes in a closet, narrowly avoiding a janitor. When Peter reaches her, Aunt
May is overjoyed to see him and the doctor tells Peter that knowing he’s safe
was better for her than any tonic. Afterwards, Peter realizes he has to come up
with an explanation for where he has been and heads to the police station.
Peter is questioned relentlessly and meets Captain George Stacy, who asks about
Spidey’s memory loss. Peter then gives the story that the amnesiac Spider-Man
grabbed him while he was taking photos of the webslinger but let Peter go once
his memory returned and he realized Peter was harmless.
After all the questioning, Captain Stacy asks if he
can spare any of Peter’s time and takes him back to his house. There, Captain
Stacy shows Peter videos and other information he’s compiled on Spider-Man,
wanting to know Peter’s thoughts on his assessments, having seen Spidey up
close recently. The Captain’s daughter, Gwen Stacy, then appears, also
overjoyed at Peter’s return, embracing him and making him feel rather
self-conscious in front of Gwen’s father. Peter and Gwen then head to the
Coffee Bean, where Peter and Harry Osborn are able to reunite and they tell
Peter about Mary Jane’s new job at a club. Meanwhile, at that very club, the
Gloom Room A-Go-Go, we find that Mary Jane is to be used as an unwitting pawn
in a nefarious scheme by the mystery owner of the club, the Brainwasher.
They’ll snap free photos of important city officials, which will leave them
open to suggestion, allowing them to be brainwashed completely via the
Brainwasher’s complex machines, putting the city government in his pocket.
The next morning, Spidey easily stops a robbery
happening in broad daylight. The owner of the business thanks Spidey but
laments about how the crooks will just be free again soon. This puzzles Spidey,
and he wonders if it has anything to do with something he overheard at the
police station, about various hoods being freed quickly on bail. Meanwhile,
Mary Jane Watson demonstrates her dancing prowess for her employers and
receives her instructions to walk around snapping free photos of the previously
designated patrons. The big opening of the new club arrives the following
night, and Peter, Gwen, and Harry reserved a front row table. Gwen is surprised
to see her dad arrive as well and Harry notes that he recognizes quite a few
city officials in the crowd. The group applauds Mary Jane on her performance
and MJ goes around snapping the photos of the city bigwigs, including Captain
Stacy, who suddenly starts to feel lightheaded afterwards. Captain Stacy gets
up to clear his head and feels compelled to walk to the back of the club, where
the Brainwasher’s men are waiting to fully brainwash him.
After a while, Gwen is concerned that her dad’s been
gone so long and Peter offers to go look for him. Thinking something is fishy,
he changes to Spider-Man and sneaks back in the club, immediately having to
contend with the guards. An alarm is raised backstage, causing even more guards
to swarm upon Spidey’s location. After taking care of them, Spidey tries to
interrogate one of the guards, but Mary Jane wanders back at that moment,
having heard to commotion. MJ is grabbed to be used as a human shield but Spidey
expertly jams the guard’s gun with his webbing. Spidey rescues MJ and she
flirts with Spidey a little bit before Spidey orders her to get to safety.
Retreating further into the club, Spidey finds the Brainwasher’s men about to
use their equipment on Captain Stacy. At that moment, the Brainwasher himself
arrives and grabs Spidey, revealing himself to have been the Kingpin all along,
to Spidey’s shock and chagrin! To be continued!