Peter Parker walks down the street, feeling depressed
now that he thinks he’s lost Gwen forever. He reminisces about how he became
Spider-Man, when all his troubles began. He remembers the spider bite,
discovering his powers, and designing his costume. Finally, he remembers the
most important part, failing to stop a criminal who would later go on to kill
his Uncle Ben. He wonders how long he can keep his identity as Spider-Man a
secret from Aunt May, feeling it’s only a matter of time before he’s unmasked by
one of his many foes. Peter wanders near the Daily Bugle building and briefly
runs into Betty Brant. This, coupled with his current depression over losing
Gwen, causes him to reminisce about when things ended between him and Betty. He
tried distracting himself by selling photos to J. Jonah Jameson, which went as
poorly as it always does. Peter’s musing ends up taking him across the bridge,
and so he decides to visit Aunt May.
Meanwhile nearby, the Beetle breaks into a simple
store. He’s quickly found by the police and easily escapes them, while they
note that he left without actually stealing anything! Peter stops in on Aunt
May, who’s all in a state due to the news in the paper about the Beetle’s
recent crime spree. In typical fashion, Aunt May thinks that Peter’s the one
upset about the news and he decides to lie down, while Anna Watson chides Aunt
May on the way she coddles Peter. Aunt May decides to head out for milk against
Anna’s protests. In the next room, Peter finds himself in the midst a fitful
dream about being captured by the Beetle. He’s awoken by Mrs. Watson to to find
that his dream must have been a premonition, because Aunt May’s been captured
by the Beetle!
Peter zooms out of there and switches to Spider-Man,
getting to the scene of Beetle’s latest break-in as quick as possible. The
police shoot at Spidey as soon as he arrives, as Beetle tries to get away with
his hostage. Spidey spins a web-net under the two of them and catches Aunt May
so that they both land safely in the net. Spidey then takes after the Beetle,
dropping the two of them through a glass roof into a room with an indoor
swimming pool. After a short battle, Spidey flips Beetle into the pool, causing
him to sink due to his heavy metal wings. Spidey leaves Beetle webbed up for
the police and rushes back to Aunt May as Peter. He finds her relatively unhurt
and feels he earned at least a small win here. Though he’ll always feel guilty
about Uncle Ben, he feels he paid off just a small bit of that debt.