Spider-Man gazes upon a billboard for popular mayoral
candidate Richard Raleigh, when suddenly a 10-foot-tall Man-Monster smashes
through it! Spidey saves the two painters working on the billboard and tackles
the brute but finds his attacks largely ineffective. Spidey finally knocks the
Man-Monster to another roof and needs to save the two painters once more,
allowing his mysterious foe to escape. Realizing he’s almost out of web fluid,
Pete decides to trek home as himself and on the way, he’s stopped by Harry and
Mary Jane. Mary Jane in particular shows a lot of support for Raleigh as mayor
and tells Pete about a dance-in being held for him the following night. Pete
then heads to the Daily Bugle to pester J. Jonah Jameson about the money owed
him for his most recent photos. Jameson relents and gets a call about the news
of the 10-foot-tall brute that’s after Raleigh, whom Peter decides he needs to
learn more about.
Just then, Richard Raleigh himself delivers an
impassioned televised speech about not backing down from the threats the
underworld are lobbing at him, promising to do all he can to make New York a
safer city. However, once the cameras are off him, Raleigh reveals to the
readers that he plans to use his popularity to get elected mayor and increase
his own political power, for nefarious purposes! The next day, Peter picks Gwen
up to take her to the dance being held for Raleigh. While dancing at the party,
Pete’s spider-sense suddenly starts to go off and he notices cracks appearing
along the ceiling. He feeds Gwen an excuse and takes out the lights so he can
deal with the problem without being seen, not having enough time to switch to
his Spidey costume. Pete webs up the light fixtures that are about to fall,
narrowly avoiding getting seen by the crowd below, and makes it back to Gwen
and MJ, who just assume he was trying to get pictures of Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, Raleigh is informed that his sabotage of
his own party didn’t work, due to Spider-Man’s interference. Raleigh was
planning to use the disaster to convince the masses that he’s being targeted by
the criminal underworld. He decides Spider-Man must be dealt with and descends
into a secret lab where a scientist named Thaxton has been working on the very
Man-Monster that’s been attacking Raleigh publicly, revealing it too is under
Raleigh’s control! Thaxton gives Raleigh a device that brings the brute under
his direct control, to use as he sees fit. Elsewhere, at their club, Jameson
talks with Captain Stacy about Raleigh. While Jameson is obviously all for
Raleigh, Captain Stacy has his suspicions and deems to look into Raleigh,
feeling he’s a little too perfect.
Not long after, Spidey heads out to look for the
monster, but ends up running across a hold-up at a Raleigh fundraiser. Spidey
easily takes care of the mooks and decides to pay Aunt May a visit, where he
learns that she and Anna Watson are just as enthralled with Raleigh as everyone
else. Meanwhile, Jameson heads off for an interview with Raleigh, but Captain
Stacy elects to stay behind and pore over the records he found on Raleigh and
his past. During the interview, Jameson lets it slip to Raleigh that Captain
Stacy his dug up information on him, and Raleigh decides that their time-table
must be moved up. Raleigh commands the Man-Monster to track down Stacy and kill
him, to prevent the truth about him from being uncovered! Meanwhile, Peter
compares notes with Captain Stacy, both of them feeling off about Raleigh (for
good reason).
Peter heads out with Gwen but they don’t make it far
before the Man-Monster arrives to silence Captain Stacy. Peter slips away from
Gwen and switches to Spider-Man, saving Captain Stacy in the nick of time!
Spidey goads the Man-Monster into following him and has a realization when the
monster reacts to a picture of Raleigh. Spidey then leads the monster back to
Raleigh’s townhouse, where Raleigh overloads the circuit controlling the
monster. The Man-Monster retaliates, collapsing the ceiling and killing both
Raleigh and Thaxton. Spidey tries to deal with the Man-Monster, while Jameson
and Robbie head over after hearing of the altercation. Spidey manages to hit
the implant near the monster’s brain that was controlling him, putting him down
for the count. Spidey escapes just as Jameson and the police arrive, who find
the dead Raleigh. Jameson heralds Raleigh as a hero and promises to let the
world know what a good man he was, unjustly killed by Spider-Man!