Biography of Spider-Man, 1965

The following is a biography of Spider-Man for the year of 1965, in which Peter Parker graduated from Midtown High School and had seemingly endless romance problems with Liz Allan and Betty Brant.

Biography

Girl problems with Human Torch and the Beetle

As he slung his webs through the city, Spider-Man was disheartened to learn that people around town viewed him as a menace—to add to this, his rival the Human Torch was more popular than ever. One day, Peter witnessed a girl get bumped into on the street and drop the parcels she had just gotten while out shopping. Peter helped her gather them up, but after she left he noticed that she had dropped her wallet. He saw that her name was Doris Evans, and took her wallet to her home. The two enjoyed a pleasant chat, and Peter left. Later, Torch confronted Peter while he was out with Betty Brant. Betty stormed off upon hearing that Peter had been with another girl, and Peter shot back at Johnny. The two separated, and Peter decided to make Johnny even more jealous by hitting on Doris as Spider-Man. Arriving back at Doris's home, Spider-Man was shocked to find the Beetle outside of it: a foe of the Torch's from last year. The two fought into the house, and the Beetle grabbed Doris and flew away with her. As Spider-Man gave chase, he himself was soon pursued by the Human Torch, who assumed that Spider-Man had taken Doris. But Spider-Man was able to flee long enough to catch up with the Beetle and show Torch what was really going on. The two heroes confronted Beetle on the roof of a condemned building, and were able to overpower him before long. Johnny and Doris remained unconvinced that Spider-Man hadn't had something to do with Doris's kidnapping, and the frustrated webslinger fled before any more fighting could occur.

The Circus of Crime returns

One day, Spider-Man tracked down the Ringmaster and his group of followers known as the Circus of Crime hiding out in a hotel. He intimidated the Ringmaster and warned him to stay out of trouble—in doing so, he planted a tracking device on Ringmaster's top hat just in case. The next day, Peter and Betty Brant went to an art exhibit sponsored by J. Jonah Jameson. Suddenly, a man came riding in on a unicycle juggling balls: Peter recognized him as the Clown from the Circus of Crime. Clown distracted the crowd and kept them at bay while the others—Princess Python, the Human Cannonball, and the Great Gambonnos—made away with a number of paintings. In the process, the Cannonball used his thick metallic helmet to knock Jameson unconscious. While he was taken to the hospital, Peter escorted a shaken Betty home, then sprung into action as Spider-Man. He tracked down the Ringmaster, and found him leaving a police station. He trailed him and learned that Ringmaster had been ousted from the Circus, and planned to steal the loot from his erstwhile companions and then turn them in to the police. Spider-Man grabbed Ringmaster's hat and used it to hypnotize him into telling him where he supposed Clown and the others were hiding out. The confused Ringmaster told him the location of the hideout he'd used when he'd led the Circus, a warehouse filled with circus supplies, and Spider-Man made haste for that location. There he was able to defeat much of the Circus in combat, including Princess Python's huge pet snake. Clown escaped with the paintings in the confusion, but was cut off by a returning Ringmaster. Ringmaster in turn was trailed by the police, and they took in the entirety of the Circus. Spider-Man snapped a few pictures and took them in to Jameson after he'd made a full recovery.

Green Goblin's criminal takeover

While out walking the streets one day, Peter picked up a copy of the Daily Bugle and learned that the Green Goblin had strangely attacked a local crime boss, Lucky Lobo. To learn more, Peter went to the Bugle offices, where he saw a letter on Betty's desk from her ex-boyfriend Ned Leeds in Europe. He also witnessed Jameson rehiring Frederick Foswell, the reporter-turned-mobster known as the Big Man. He asked Jameson about the hire, and Jonah claimed unconvincingly that he did it out of the goodness of his heart. Peter talked to Betty, but didn't ask directly about the letter: he took her failure to mention it as a sign that she may be hiding something. Later, Spider-Man followed a group of speeding police cars to a raid one of Lobo's businesses. He spotted a car trying to escape the scene, and went to stop it, but the Goblin arrived first to do so himself. Spider-Man followed Goblin looking for answers, and arrived at Lobo's hideout. Goblin lured Spider-Man inside and started a fight with Lucky and his men before fleeing to allow Spider-Man to handle them. Spider-Man indeed defeated them and questioned Lobo as to what Goblin was up to. Lucky told him that Goblin was trying to take down his enterprise so that he could take over his mob instead. The police arrived soon after to clean up, and Spider-Man chased after Goblin once more. The two fought, but Goblin was able to use his glider to flee Spider-Man's grasp. Peter soon learned that Goblin had somehow ratted Lobo to Foswell, who took the information to Jameson, who notified the police. Peter speculated that Foswell and Goblin were cooperating with malicious intent, but for now Foswell simply looked to be a judicious reporter. Peter returned home, overwhelmed with an unexplained sense of dread.

The phony psychiatrist

One day, Spider-Man attempted to get photos of himself apprehending some burglars, setting up the camera on a wall in an attempt to sell the photos to Jameson, as he had done many times before. But his plan was foiled by Foswell walking past, apparently by pure chance: Foswell would know that "Peter Parker" wasn't present, making it impossible for him to sell the photos to Jameson. Peter went to the Bugle offices to speak with Betty, where he saw another letter, this time addressed from her to Ned. When asked, she explained that he was lonely in Europe and needed a friend. Peter was unfairly jealous at his girlfriend's correspondence, and angry at himself for feeling that way. Meanwhile, Jameson started a new initiative whereby his reporters would get quotes from people on the street about how much they hate Spider-Man—rather than simply printing Jameson's own frequent comments on the matter. Later that day, Peter was approached by Liz Allan, who asked him for help on her science homework. He happily agreed, much to Flash Thompson's angry annoyance.

The next day, Peter read in the Bugle that a psychiatrist named Ludwig Rinehart claimed that Spider-Man was mentally ill and on the verge of a dangerous breakdown. Peter went to Rinehart's office as Spider-Man, but on the way he was assaulted by vivid images of Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, and Vulture. He was disturbed by how realistic they seemed, and grew increasingly concerned by Rinehart's supposition that he might be losing his grasp of reality. He arrived at Rinehart's home office, where the psychiatrist seemed eager to help the increasingly hysterical hero. Spider-Man continued to have visions of his enemies, and even sometimes saw things upside-down. As Spider-Man relaxed and Rinehart tried to pry closer into his personal life, J. Jonah Jameson of all people burst into the room, decrying Rinehart as a fraud. Flash Thompson also came running in, angry with Jameson for printing attacks against Spider-Man. Spider-Man got hold of Rinehart and found that his face was actually a sophisticated prosthetic: pulling it off, he found the face of Mysterio below. Mysterio had used his advanced effects equipment to make Spider-Man think he was hallucinating when in fact the images really were there. His goal, naturally, was to reveal Spider-Man's identity at last. With that, Spider-Man brought Mysterio to justice. Jameson was beside himself knowing that he had unwittingly foiled an attempt to bring Spider-Man down for good, while Flash was overjoyed that he had gotten to see his hero in action.

Smythe and Jameson's wild ride

Peter began to spend regular evenings with Liz, who was grateful for his help with her homework—and secretly more grateful to spend time with him personally. One day, he made some photos for the Bugle in which Spider-Man used his spider-beam to bring a cop over to some car thieves in the act. Jameson was initially disinterested in the photos, but Parker was able to sell them by presenting them with an anti-Spider-Man angle—an approach that annoyed Betty in turn. Soon after, a man named Spencer Smythe arrived at the office touting to Jameson a robot that was "guaranteed" to defeat Spider-Man. Jameson was defensive toward this offer after his Rinehart mistake, while Parker was less than impressed by Smythe's stocky machine. He believed that it would be easy to defeat, and that doing so would be a good way to get one up on Jameson. Parker played up Jameson's ego to convince him to entertain Smythe's offer: he drew more and more of Betty's ire, but didn't seem to notice. Peter acted as the subject for Smythe's machine, which was capable of detecting spiders and restraining them with powerful metal coils. To Smythe's surprise, it targeted Peter himself rather than the spider he held in a glass bowl, but Smythe thought this anomaly was just a bug. Jameson agreed to rent the device, which he would be able to control remotely. As the two went into Jonah's office, Betty chewed Peter out for jeopardizing the hero who had helped save his Aunt May from the Sinister Six. Peter realized how foolish he'd been, especially having realized that he may have underestimated Smythe's robot.

Later, Flash challenged Peter to a fight after school. Peter had no intention of cooperating, and was even more on edge given that Smythe's robot would be out and about looking for him any moment. Peter fled from school at the closing bell: he ran from Flash and his cronies, and ran from the robot as well, once it came into view. It transmitted Jonah's face and voice from its own "face," creating a bizarre pursuer of Spider-Man. Peter slipped onto a rooftop and hastily got into his Spider-Man costume, but Jameson's robot trailed close behind, effortlessly climbing up the wall with its remarkably adaptable limbs. Spider-Man confronted the robot head-on in a crowded street, prepared to humiliate Jameson once and for all. But his webs proved to be useless, simply sliding off the slick metal, and he continued running away. As the two ran over rooftops across the city, Spider-Man grew increasingly tired and realized he wasn't going to make any progress that way. He finally stood his ground to fight, win or lose. The robot quickly wrapped its coils around Spider-Man's body, and even his incredible strength couldn't pry them off. He was pulled flush up against the robot, apparently trapped. Jameson and Smythe realized that they would have to go to the robot to retrieve Spider-Man themselves rather than risk it coming back to them and letting him escape. Thus, the video screen switched off, leaving Spider-Man time to think before they arrived. He located the robot's power source in its chest plate, pulled it off with his suctioned hands, and deactivated it. He slipped out of the coils, but changed into his street clothes and left behind his costume, puppet-like, in order to pull one last gag on Jameson. When he and Smythe arrived, Jonah pulled the mask off the Spider-Man costume to find it empty. Observing from high above, Peter took a few photos to remember his triumph. Returning home, Peter was surprised to learn that May had had Mary Jane Watson over, intending to finally introduce the two. Even more of a shock, May had found Peter's spare Spider-Man costume. She believed his story that it was a prank disguise, but she was so worried that it would get him into trouble anyway that she confiscated it, leaving Peter without a costume for the time being.

Green Goblin and Crime Master's power struggle

That night, Peter looked all over the house, save for May's room (where she was sleeping), but couldn't find it anywhere. Not wanting to press the issue too hard, he instead wondered if he could retrieve the decoy suit he'd left for Jameson. He went to the Bugle offices, where Betty remained cross with him for siding against Spider-Man. She was also angry that Peter was apparently seeing Liz Allan, and a girl she'd seen at his home: Mary Jane Watson. Peter told her truthfully that he'd never met Mary Jane, but Meanwhile, Frederick Foswell was working on a developing story involving the Green Goblin and someone called the Crime Master, who were supposed accomplices. In truth, this already uneasy partnership had recently collapsed, and each was trying to outdo the other in becoming New York's top crime lord. Parker still didn't trust Foswell, and he planted a small tracker inside his hatband so that he could tail him when the time came. Arriving at school that day, Peter was accosted once again by Flash Thompson and his lackeys. Peter had finally had enough, and lunged at them. Liz saw this happen and stormed off, furious that the usually level-headed Peter had apparently become aggressive like Flash. Even worse, the principal saw it happen, and Peter was called into his office. Peter was upset with himself for losing his cool: he didn't blame Flash or anyone else for what he had done, and took all of the blame himself. With that, Principal Davis let Parker off with a stern talking to.

Later that day, in a remarkable stroke of luck, Peter spotted a Spider-Man outfit in a costume shop and bought it. It didn't fit exactly right, but he made it snug enough by mending it with his webs. He suited up and decided to follow Foswell's tracking signal. It led to an apartment window, inside of which Spider-Man found Foswell's hat, but no Foswell. Moments later, Peter's spider sense alerted him to a gunshot aimed at him, allowing him to narrowly dodge out the way. Spider-Man leapt through the window, and a masked man—the Crime Master—continued shooting at him as he fled. Spider-Man counted the shots in Crime Master's gun and attacked him when he ran out, but the criminal sprayed him with a blast of strange gas. Spider-Man's breathing and reflexes were greatly compromised, allowing Crime Master to get away while he caught his breath. With a moment to think, Spider-Man suspected that the Crime Master might have been Foswell himself. He checked the Bugle for a potential lead, but Foswell wasn't there. While he was there, Spider-Man looked around in Jameson's office for his costume, but it wasn't there. Jameson came in, uncharacteristically restrained after his most recent humiliation. He told Spider-Man that Spencer Smythe had his suit. Returning to Foswell's apartment, Spider-Man found a calendar showing a map of the city, with a particular pier on the west side circled. When he arrived at the area, Spider-Man was ambushed by the Green Goblin, who knocked him out with his glider and stun bomb. Luckily, the webbing that Spider-Man had applied to his makeshift costume prevented Goblin from removing his mask. Nonetheless, he brought Spider-Man's unconscious body to the meeting, dumping him at Crime Master's feet in front of a large crowd of mobsters and declaring himself New York's true crime lord.

The criminals were naturally impressed by Goblin's conquest, and chose him as their leader over Crime Master. They chained him up, but Spider-Man soon awoke and began to fight back. Even restrained, his superior strength, agility, and awareness gave him a fighting chance against the large group of criminals. Luckily, the police soon arrived, tipped off by an informant in attendance. Though the gangsters had a significant numbers advantage, Spider-Man and three police officers overpowered them before long. Spider-Man set up his camera in the rafters, hoping to make some money off of the photos. Goblin fled on his glider, as did Crime Master on foot. Spider-Man chased after the latter into the sewers while police backup arrived and they apprehended the criminals. Unfortunately, Crime Master kept him at bay using powerful nerve gas in a narrow pipe, and managed to escape. Spider-Man returned to Frederick Foswell's apartment for a potential lead, and found that his hat was no longer there. Foswell also had a secret compartment in his closet, which Spider-Man speculated was the perfect place to hide a costume.

He went to the Daily Bugle to warn Jameson that Foswell was either the Green Goblin or the Crime Master, but Jameson naturally blew him off. Foswell himself walked in at that moment, and denied Spider-Man's accusations. Right then, a shooting occurred on a rooftop across the street, and Foswell knew that it was the Crime Master being shot by police. Indeed, the cops had tracked down Crime Master and tried to arrest him, but he had resisted, forcing their hand. An officer came to the Bugle to personally thank Foswell, who explained what had happened. His past as the Big Man gave Foswell plenty of information to help the police track down the man he believed to be the Crime Master, a mobster known as Nick "Lucky" Lewis. Spider-Man apologized to Foswell, and Foswell told him that there were no hard feelings—but Spider-Man still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about him. Spider-Man returned to the pier to retrieve his camera as his costume began to reach its breaking point. He lost his balance, falling in the water and causing the costume to shrink. After retrieving his camera, he found a safe place and dashed the costume aside for good, changing into his Peter Parker clothes. Peter realized that he didn't always have to sell his photos to Jameson, and went to Barney Bushkin at the Daily Globe instead. However, Bushkin proved to be altogether too nosy and interested in Peter's techniques, so he decided to return to Jameson for any future jobs. That night, Peter returned home and found that May was away. He took the opportunity to search for his costume, but still couldn't find it in May's room. With no other recourse, he decided to sew a new costume. May arrived sooner than expected however, having gone for a walk after her weekly get-together with Mrs. Watson was canceled. Peter realized that she was lonely, and treated her to a nice evening at the movies.

Peter graduates from high school

With the Crime Master case resolved, Peter went to the home-laboratory of Spencer Smythe to see about finally retrieving his Spider-Man costume. Smythe was friendly and welcoming, and gave Peter plenty of opportunity to covertly exchange his ill-fitting store-bought costume for the tailor-made original, which Smythe was planning to study. As Peter made the switch, another man, Mark Raxton, suddenly entered the lab and began arguing with Smythe. Raxton had worked with Smythe to develop the formula for a liquid metal alloy, although Smythe had in fact been the mental and financial force behind its creation. Raxton was now threatening to take the alloy they'd made and sell it. Smythe objected to Raxton stealing his work, and the two fought. Peter tried to interfere, but he was grabbed by Smythe's repaired anti-spider robot. Raxton spilled the liquid metal on himself, and it began to cover and bond with his skin. Terrified, he ran out of the building. Peter managed to use his concealed web-shooter to turn off the robot and escape his bonds before Smythe could see and figure out his identity. He left and suited up to try to track Raxton down.

Spider-Man soon realized that Raxton, the Molten Man, had acquired an excess of strength and power from his new metallic skin, and had tested it on some cars in the street to damaging results. He tracked Raxton down to his apartment, where the two fought. Molten Man's slick, metal skin proved to be a deterrent for Spider-Man's webs, but Peter managed to get in close and hog tie him well enough for the police to arrive and apprehend him. Later, Peter attended his high-school graduation, and graduated from Midtown High with a science scholarship to Empire State University for achieving the highest GPA in Midtown history. Flash Thompson, for his part, was granted an athletic scholarship to ESU. Peter was ecstatic that he'd get to go to college for free, and Aunt May was overflowing with pride for her nephew's success. Mrs. Watson was also in attendance, and said that her daughter Mary Jane would also be thrilled at Peter's accomplishments. Peter confronted Liz Allan, who was also graduating, and she confessed that she had feelings for him, but that she couldn't handle being constantly cast aside in favor of Betty Brant. She wished him luck, and said goodbye. Peter took one last look at Midtown High, and left.

Team-up with Doctor Strange

While out patrolling one day, Spider-Man happened upon two large men coming out of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum through the skylight. He confronted them, and they attacked. The men proved to be incredibly strong, and didn't react to Spider-Man's attacks at all. They quickly beat him down, leaving him to wonder why they were so powerful. He covertly attached a tracker to them so that he could follow up. Following the tracker soon after, Spider-Man made his way to the hideout of a sorcerer known as Xandu. Xandu had stolen half of the magical Wand of Watoomb from Doctor Strange, complementing his own half and completing the artifact. Peter further realized that Xandu must have magically hypnotized and empowered the two men. Spider-Man attacked him, but Xandu used the Wand to send Spider-Man through a portal to another dimension. Spider-Man webbed the Wand and took it with him as he went through, much to Xandu's dismay. His two cronies followed Spider-Man through, and Peter defended himself, even though he knew they couldn't be harmed.

Meanwhile, Doctor Strange arrived at Xandu's home and engaged him in magical combat. Doctor Strange, by far Xandu's superior in pure magical ability, quickly overwhelmed the lesser sorcerer, but Xandu's hypnotized henchmen returned with Spider-Man and the Wand, which Xandu retrieved. Knowing that the Wand bolstered Xandu's power to outmatch his own, Strange fled and returned in his spirit form. Spider-Man continued to fight the men back in the local dimension, and Strange helped him to shock the men with a stray wire, snapping them back into mindfulness—and utter confusion. Spider-Man confronted Xandu directly, Strange returned to his body, and the two double-teamed the evil wizard. Xandu was thrown off-balance by their teamwork, and Strange and Spider-Man managed to restrain him and take the Wand of Watoomb. Strange used his Eye of Agamotto to drain all the magical power from the Wand, leaving it inert. He cast a memory-erasing sleep spell on Xandu, erasing all of his malicious desires. The two heroes parted, leaving Spider-Man baffled as to what exactly he had just experienced.

Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Full article: Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Spider-Man attended the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four, as did a number of other renowned heroes. Doctor Doom attempted to sabotage the wedding by using his "emotion machine" to encourage (or coerce) a veritable army of other villains to attack the Baxter Building. A battle between heroes and villains ensued, and Spider-Man interjected himself into the fight by using his webs to rescue Hawkeye of the Avengers from a safe landing on his head. In the end, Reed Richards used a device provided by Uatu to transport all of the villains back slightly in time and wipe their memories of these events. Reed and Sue Storm were thus successfully and peacefully married.

Revenge of the Scorpion

Peter went to the Daily Bugle offices one morning and overheard Jameson and Foswell discussing a cat burglar in town. Pete decided to look into it as Spider-Man, and get some valuable photos along the way. He also ran into Betty and Ned Leeds, who had returned from his European assignment, all but putting the nail in the coffin of Peter and Betty's shaky relationship. A police officer came to Jameson and told him that the Scorpion had escaped from prison, and the department was offering Jameson police protection, as Scorpion had spent much of his prison time threatening to harm him. Jonah knew that to accept protection might suggest a connection between himself and the Scorpion, so he refused, trying his best to look unconcerned. Peter knew that it was up to him to stop the Scorpion and protect Jameson. Pete took to the skies as Spider-Man, making himself easily visible to encourage a Scorpion attack. But Spider-Man soon realized that he was leaving Jameson unattended, allowing Scorpion to go straight for him if he pleased. He went straight for the Bugle and found that Scorpion had indeed cornered Jameson. The two fought, utterly ransacking the offices, while Spider-Man tried to keep Jonah, Betty, and Ned out of harm's way. They eventually fought their way out of the office, and Spider-Man managed to defeat and web up Scorpion for police retrieval. Later, at home, May had a brief dizzy spell and dropped a glass, but she brushed it off as nothing to worry about.

Betty and the Burglar

While searching the city the following night, Spider-Man found a group of strangely costumed men attacking a truck delivering uranium to Stark Industries. Unfortunately, there were too many of them, and they managed to hijack the truck and escape from him without a trace. Later, Spider-Man heard that Jameson had been robbed by the Cat Burglar he and Foswell had spoken of recently, and he was offering a $1,000 dollar reward for the culprit's capture. Spider-Man took the opportunity to visit Jonah and boastfully declare that he would capture the Cat. Jameson shook his fist defiantly and demanded that Spider-Man stay out of it. The next day, Peter ran into Liz Allan on the sidewalk. The two were cordial with each other, and Liz asked if he could help her get rid of Flash Thompson: he was following her down the street trying to learn the location of her new job. Pete agreed, but as he headed Flash off, he spotted a man with a gun on a nearby rooftop, whom he assumed was the Cat Burglar. Flash tried to fight him, but Peter gave him a small but incredibly powerful tap to briefly knock him out. He quickly changed into his costume and chased after the armed man. He found that it was just an ordinary criminal, and not the Cat at all. Peter returned to the recovering Flash and lied to him about where Liz was working.

Peter called up Betty and she agreed to see him. She told him that Ned had proposed to her. Peter was taken aback, and thought about revealing his identity and proposing to her as well. She continued speaking, and voiced her distaste for the adventurous type, and her desire for calm stability. Peter realized that she would never marry Spider-Man, even though she longed to be with Peter Parker, and he stormed out. Spider-Man managed to find the Cat Burglar and trailed him, but the police ultimately captured him, saving Jameson from having to pay anyone the reward. Betty tried to get in touch with Peter repeatedly, but he finally told her that there was no point discussing their future together any further.

Attack of the Master Planner

Aunt May falls ill

One night, at a plant for atomic devices, Spider-Man interrupted a theft of several such items from a group of strangely-garbed men. He chased them onto their escape helicopter, where they were forced to jettison the devices into the ocean in waterproof coverings. Spider-Man sabotaged the helicopter as the men tried to fend him off with poison gas. He escaped safely as the helicopter crashed into the bay. Investigating the sunken wreckage, Spider-Man found that the men inside had somehow escaped as well. The next day, Peter spent several hours undergoing registration at Empire State University. He ran into Flash Thompson, learning to his dismay that Flash was matriculating alongside him. Returning home, the night before his first day at school, Peter witnessed May fainting, a consequence of a recent illness she had been withholding. Peter called their physician, Dr. Bromwell, who insisted that she be taken to the hospital for testing.

There, May regained some strength with the help of preliminary treatment. She encouraged him to rest in preparation for the first day of classes tomorrow. He struggled to sleep though, guilty that he hadn't noticed her illness and that he wasn't doing more for her. The next day, at Peter's first class, he ran into Flash speaking with two other students, Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy. Flash tried to antagonize him, but Peter's mind was occupied with thoughts of Aunt May, and he completely ignored him. Indeed, Peter unwittingly blew off other new students through the day as he called the hospital about May between classes. Afterwards, he visited May and learned from her doctor that her outlook wasn't optimistic. Overdue bills at home forced Peter to pursue photographic opportunities as Spider-Man, but New York for once was quiet and peaceful. The stresses of finance, school, and May's health began to compound, one consequence of which was being completely oblivious to romantic advances from Gwen Stacy.

Searching the city on another night, Spider-Man found a man wearing an eyepatch signaling for him. The man informed him that there was going to be a robbery at pier six that night. There, Spider-Man found the same criminals from the atomic plant attacking a ship, all while discussing their apparent leader, the absent Master Planner. They managed to escape underwater with special diving equipment shortly before the informant arrived with the police. In the excitement of fending off the assailants, Spider-Man failed to get any photographs.

Race for the serum

At the Bugle office, Peter ran into Betty and Ned. Ned had asked Betty to marry him, but she wished to understand where she stood with Peter first. Peter didn't want to burden her with his secret identity, and so put on a front as a callous jerk to push her away. At the hospital, Peter learned that May was suffering from radioactivity in her blood stream. He knew immediately that the cause was the transfusion he'd given her over a year prior. He returned home and panicked, desperate not to be the cause of Aunt May's death as well as Uncle Ben's. He remembered Curt Connors, a scientist from Florida he'd helped through a transformation into the malicious Lizard. Through a series of phone calls, Peter discovered that Connors was now in New York. Spider-Man pilfered May's blood sample and brought it to Connors, who was grateful to Spider-Man and vowed to help however he could. He knew of a substance called Iso-36 developed on the west coast that might help, and ordered it to arrive that day via a special jet shipment.

Substantial costs would be incurred by this process, and Peter took out a loan and pawned off some of his most valuable possessions to get the money needed. Spider-Man helped Connors prepare the laboratory. Later, they received a phone call that the Iso-36 had been stolen at the airport by the Master Planner's men. With no leads, Spider-Man grabbed Frederick Foswell out of the street and demanded that he dig up information on the Master Planner using his criminal connections. Leaving Foswell time to work, Spider-Man hastily stormed various underworld sources of his own, violently seeking information. He made little progress until his spider sense alerted him to a trap door in an alley leading to a hideout filled with the Master Planner's goons.

Fighting his way through the base, Spider-Man found the vial of Iso-36 conspicuously displayed without security. Crawling to it on the ceiling, Spider-Man was stricken by an electric shock and caught in midair by the Master Planner—Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man fought aggressively, knowing that time was of the essence to get the vial to Connors. He did serious structural damage to the building in the process, causing huge metal supports to fall on top of him, pinning him to the ground as Doctor Octopus escaped. With the vial just feet out of reach, water began to drip with increasing intensity from the ceiling: Doctor Octopus's hideout was in fact underneath the river, and its interior would soon be submerged.

A test of will

Exhausted and pinned under an enormous piece of metal, surrounded by quickly rising waters, Spider-Man called upon his last reserves of fortitude and determination to narrowly lift the obstacle off of his body. He limped from the wreckage with the Iso-36, and an injured leg, as the river water finally broke through the ceiling completely. He allowed the cascade to carry him, avoiding the barrage of debris getting swept away with him. He emerged elsewhere in an unflooded portion of the base, where a large group of Doctor Octopus's men confronted him. A horribly weakened Spider-Man desperately fought through them, wildly taking them down in a last-ditch effort to stay conscious.

Returning to the alley where he'd first entered the base, Spider-Man gingerly walked back to Dr. Connors and delivered the Iso-36. He secretly took a sample of his own blood for the sake of thoroughness. The Iso-36 worked as expected on both samples, and Spider-Man hurried to the hospital with it. He asked Connors to call ahead and use his scientific reputation to encourage Dr. Bromwell to accept the serum. He successfully handed it off to the medical staff, who estimated it would take two hours for them to sufficiently test the serum before use. In the meantime, Spider-Man took some photos at Doc Ock's headquarters of the still unconscious gang, and of himself leaving the scene of the fight. Spidey contacted Foswell and the police to hand off information about the case, including Doctor Octopus's involvement and subsequent disappearance. Doc Ock's henchmen were duly arrested.

Peter returned to the Bugle, bruised and limping, to deliver the photos for the case. His apparent dogged determination to get the photos at the expense of his own health reminded Betty of her late brother Bennett, causing her to run crying. Peter felt bad about dropping her this way, but believed it was for the best. Jameson was desperate for photos of the Master Planner's gang, and Peter negotiated enough money to pay for May's medical bills and get his things back from the pawn shop. Returning to the hospital, Peter learned that the Iso-36 was a complete success, and May was expected to recover. Waking briefly from her rest, May acknowledged Peter and smiled. Peter returned home, desperate for rest of his own after an exceptionally trying ordeal.

See also

• Biography of Spider-Man, 1964
• Biography of Spider-Man, 1966