Begins with :
Amazing Fantasy # 15 : Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko Lonely orphaned teenager Peter Parker goes to a science fair at MidTown High School. There was a radiation demonstration taking place, but when a spider is infected by the radiation and bites the schoolboy, it changes his life forever. That spider gives Peter the proportionate strength, speed and agility of a spider, as well the abilty to stick to most surfaces throught the contact with his hands and feet. He also posseses the an intuitive "spdier sense" which warns him of incoming danger. Using his newfound powers, Peter becomes a major TV star. With all the fame going to his head, Peter becomes an egomaniac. One night in while leaving a TV studio, he ignores the plea of a cop to stop a burglar. A few days later, the burglar goes over to the Parker house because he had found out (in jail) that their house had some large amount of money hidden somewhere. Once there, a burglar (Mr. Carradine) meets Peter's uncle Ben and his aunt May. Ben gets murdered by the burglar and he dies in his wife's hands. Peter, who was out of the house at the time, returns home and is told that Ben has been murdered. Peter goes off to put on his Spidey costume, but unknowingly to him, he doesn't notice Mary Jane Watson (the niece of May's best friend and neighbor, Anna Watson) who is next door and just saw him leave. Spidey manages to capture the killer who turns out to be the burglar Spidey refused to capture. With that Spider-Man remembered his uncle's words "With great power must come great responsibility" and the new hero vowed never to let another innocent person be hurt because of his inactivity. With Ben gone, May have lost all means to support herself and Peter. Hoping to make money, Peter decides to return to the entertainment business. When he goes to see Maxie Schiffman, Maxie wouldn't represent him anymore because the Bugle has been bashing him, and Spidey's reputation has gone down. In hopes of making money, the teenager tries to join the Fantastic Four, but the super-hero team turns him down and the hero leaves furiously. That would be the first meeting between Spidey and the Human Torch, Johnny Storm, two heores who would distrust each other at first (because they were so alike), but they would become the best of friends later on. From there, Spidey would fight the Chameleon (Dmitri Smerdyakov), the Vulture (Adrian Toomes) and the Tinkerer (with actors in alien costumes - one of them being Quentin Beck, later known Mysterio) and he'd defeat them by using his mind and strength. Still having not solved his financial problems, Peter gets the idea of taking pictures of Spider-Man fighting super-villains and selling them to newspapers, such as the Daily Bugle. Peter heads off to the Bugle, there he meets for the first time its editor, the hard headed anti-vigilante J. Jonah Jameson. Peter agreed to sell the photos to JJJ if he didn't have his name printed on the paper and that JJJ would never ask how he manages to get such great pictures of the hero. But before his super-hero career could kick into high gear, it would appear that it would end very quickly. JJJ would tell Peter Parker to go get pictures of a scientist named Otto Octavius. When Spidey went to check out the scientist Octavius, now named Doctor Octopus, quickly disposed and humliated the hero. Spidey was acting irrational and overconfident, which eventually led to his downfall. Peter was so embarrased that he quit being a hero. A few days later, the Human Torch would be speaking at Midtown High. Peter goes and it seems to him that Johnny Storm is directly talking to Peter. This gives Peter his confidence back and goes back to fight Doc Ock. This time he defeats the man with 6 arms. From there Spidey would fight a bunch of new super-villains like Doctor Doom (Victor Von Doom), Mysterio (Quentin Beck), Sandman (William Baker/Flint Marko), Electro (Maxwell Dillon), Kraven (Sergei Kravinov) and the Lizard (Curt Connors). At school, Peter's been having his own problems. Football star Eugene "Flash" Thompson has been bullying the troubled teen for several months because his girlfriend Liz Allan would develop a crush on Peter. At work, Peter would fall in love with J.J.J's personal secretary Betty Brant. Peter and Betty would go out together, and she'd be jealous of Liz whenever she spends time with Peter. The couple would have a brief relationship, but it would end badly for them. When Betty's brother Bennett gets shot during Spidey-Ock fight, Betty blames Spider-Man for the death of her brother. So Peter, who was ready to tell her about his double life, backs off and breaks off the relationship. Betty would proceed to see Bugle reproter Ned Leeds. Peter didn't have much time to dwell on his first failed relationship, because Spider-Man's life was about to get much worse as he was getting ready to meet his greatest foe for the first time, the Green Goblin.Hoping to gain noteriety in the underworld, the Green Goblin has handpicked Spider-Man to eliminate. Along with the Enforcers (Fancy Dan, Montana and the Ox) the Goblin had come up with a plan to get rid of the hero. He made Spidey believe that the Goblin was shooting a movie in the west coast and he wanted the hero to be the star. Once there, Spidey discovered it was all a hoax and the villains managed to bring Spidey to a cave where they would find the incredible Hulk. After a brief fight with the Hulk, the Green Goblin would escape, but the Enforcers would be put in prison. The Goblin would fail, but he has gathered information on Spidey's powers which would help him come up with new gadgets to help him defeat the hero. He would remain at large, but his identity would remain a mystery ... for now.
During all this time, aunt May wanted to set up a blind date between Peter and her best friend's niece, Mary Jane, despite the fact that Peter was dating Betty at the time. Thinking that she's ugly, Peter declines to make a date. Later, Mj would call off dates by using excuses by stating she was sick or otherwise. Peter and MJ would regret doing so, but Peter was getting ready for another big event in his life to occur; college. Peter, Flash and Liz graduate from high school. That same threesome would all wind up going to Empire State University where they would meet Gwen Stay, Harry Osborn (the son of the industrialist Norman Osborn) and Professor Miles Warren. But it would seem that Spidey wouldn't live to see Gwen, Harry and MJ, not if the Master Planner had his way. Due to a blood transfusion gone wrong, aunt May is dying. Peter gave his aunt blood, but Peter's radioactive blood didn't mix well with May's. He went to doctor Curt Connors (a.k.a. the Lizard) for help. Curt had a cure but he was missing one ingredient. One ingredient that was in the possesion of the Master Planner (or Doctor Octopus). Spidey finds Ock in his secret underwater base. There, the ceiling's iron supports collapse. With the missing ingredient within his grasp, the hero is trapped beneath tons of fallen steal. Things got worse, the ceiling's cracking and the river's slowly seeping in. But Spidey's love for May causes him to overpower the steel and go on to save his aunt's life. After that battle Spidey met the threat of Mendel Stromm the Robot Master. Stromm had just been released from jail and wanted to get back at his former employer and friend Norman Osborn, but Spidey saved the day and Stromm ended up by dying. Spidey saved the day, but he was getting ready for the biggest threat to his civilian identity he has seen.The Goblin develops a gas which negates Spider-Man's spider sense. With that, the Goblin discovers Spider-Man's true civilian identity. He was humuliated that he had lost many times to a mere teenager, but he was shocked at his true identity. He captures the hero and he takes him to his hideout where the Goblin takes off his mask and reveals his own ID to Peter. The Goblin was the father of one of his closest friends, Norman Osborn !! The Goblin tells his origin; Norman had his partner Stromm arrested, and while looking through Stromm's stuff, Norman found a formula that would give him great strength and intelligence. He took the formula and became the Green Goblin ! After that. the two fought until an explosion caused Norman to turn into an amnesiac. He would forget that he ever was the Green Goblin, and that Peter is Spider-Man, thus eliminating the last few years of his life from his brain. Spidey burnt Norman's GG costume so the public would never find out his sceret and so Norman and Harry can live a normal life together. This would be the last we'd see of the Goblin for the meantime.
Peter finally meets Mary Jane for the first time and falls for the beauty of this party girl. But instead of falling for MJ, he would pursue Gwen Stacy. Peter and Gwen would go out for a long time. MJ would want to go out with Peter, but instead settles for Harry (a relationship which wouldn't last). Flash would be forced to go to Vietnam to fight in the war. During the Peter-Gwen relationship, Spidey was having his own problems. Wealthy industrialist Wilson Fisk had been rumored to have been a crimelord who controled merely every activity in New York City. Fisk was rumored to be the Kingpin of Crime. Whenever a super-hero like Spider-Man or Daredevil foiled a bank robbery, Fisk would be affected. In order to stop that, the Kingpin would hire people to do his drity work. While meeting the Kingpin for the first time, Peter decided to quit being Spider-Man once and for all, but in the end, Peter comes to his senses and dons the costume once again. When helping May clean out the attic, Peter discovers a newspaper. The paper claims that Richard and Mary Parker were international spies who had betrayed U.S. secrets and were killed in a plane crash over Europe. Peter confronts May about this, and May tells Peter that she never showed showed him this because she never believed it. May also says that Ben wanted to speak with someone in Algeria who could have cleared their name, but that never happened. So Peter went on a plane to Algeria. There he met the Red Skull. The Skull admitted to framing them. As the Skull's headquarters are on fire, in also melts up Richard's ID card, to which reveals a U.S. intelligence ID underneath. Peter returns to America with the proof that his parents died defending their country, never betraying it, thus clearing his good name. Peter meets for the first time Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson (the new publisher of the Daily Bugle) and Captain George Stacy of the police force, who will become valuable allies in the future. During a fight between Spidey and Doc Ock, Ock manages to knock a wall down. That wall is going to fall on a helpless child, but George Stacy manges to save the child. But the result of saving that life, George gets crushed by the rubble. Spider-Man goes to his side and George says his final words to the hero "Peter, always look after Gwen" which means that George always knew about Peter's dual identity. With the propaganda running in the Daily Bugle claiming that Spider-Man killed the respected police captain, Gwen believed it and hated Spider-Man. Not only that, but Peter, who was trying to defend the Wall-Crawler, was dumped by Gwen. Distrought, Gwen went to England to live with her uncle Arthur and his two children Paul and Jill. A depressed Peter decides to go to England to win her heart back. Due to terrorists, Peter is forced to don the Spider-Man costume and stop them. After stopping them Peter realizes that if Gwen finds out that Spider-Man was in England and so was Peter, she might put two and two together, so Peter decides to go back to New York. Waiting back home was his deadliest foe. Peter came back to New York depressed and without the woman he loves. Harry offered Peter to go visit his father who might give Peter a job at Osborn Industries. Peter reluctantly accepts and does indeed get a job from his villain. During this time Mary Jane had pursued a career as an actress and got a part in a play. She invited Peter, Harry and Norman to see one of the plays at a theater owned by Norman Osborn. Also Mary Jane had her eye very closely on the single Peter. At the play, Norman thought something was familiar about the theater, then when he entered a room, his memories came back and he became the Green Goblin. With that knowledge he also remembered that Spider-Man was Peter Parker. He decided to attack. Meanwhile, Harry, feeling pretty low after MJ dumped him, decides to take LSD. This would cause him to get very sick. He would be forced to go to the hospital. Spidey manges to defeat his enemy when he forces the Goblin to go vist Harry at the hospital. The Goblin doesn't know what happened to his only son, so his normal mind takes over and he is knocked unconscious. When Norman wakes up, he doesn't remember a thing and goes to aid his son. Peter decides to quit from his job with Osborn, due to fear that Norman may remember his memories again. Gwen decides to return to New York and go back to Peter. Their relationship continues to flourish for the time being.At college, Peter and Gwen are forced to give some strands of hair to professor Miles Warren for an experiment. This would lead to much confusion later on.
With Gwen back in his life, Peter decides to find a way to that will make him lose his powers so he can quit being Spider-Man and marry Gwen. He thinks he finds a cure, but when he takes it, he grows another 4 more arms. Spidey manages to find a way that reverses the "cure" and he is back to normal. It's a happy reunion when Flash returns from Vietnam, but he returns with hios girlfriend Sha-Shan. Happiness is in the air, but they will all soon face one of the worst days of their entire lives. After fighting the Hulk in Montreal, Peter returns to New York, with a flu, and finds out that Harry has just suffered from LSD withdrawl. Mary Jane and Gwen decide to visit their friend, but Norman Osborn blames them for his condition, so he kicks them out. A discouraged Gwen decides to go to Peter's apartment, but she finds no one there. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn finds out that his stocks are falling and that he is losing a lot of money. That along with his son's condition causes him to snap his fragile mind. He begins to remember his past ... as the Green Goblin. He heads off to find Peter at his apartment but instead finds Gwen. Peter finds out that he took her atop of the Brooklyn Bridge. Once there, Spidey and the Goblin fight around the unconscious Gwen, but when the Goblin's glider knocks Gwen's body off of the bridge, Spidey spins his web to catch, which he does, but the impact snaps her neck and she dies. The Goblin manages to escape, but Spidey is too blinded in rage to continue. Trying to find Norman, Peter (not Spidey) goes to Norman's house hoping to ding him, but instead finds a crazed Harry. Harry pleads for Peter to stay, but fails. With the help of Robbie's information, Spidey finds the Goblin at one of his wharehouses. The Goblin had earlier made a gas which neutralizes Spidey's spider senses, so he had a plan to kill Peter, but it didn't go too well. Spidey started to really beat up on the businessman and he had him cornered, but the Goblin, using his remote control, attempted to make his Glider impale the hero, but at that moment, Spidey's spider sense returned and the glider impaled the villain. Spidey was still so touched by Gwen's death that he just left the Goblin's death body on the floor. By the time that Spidey left, a mysterious figure appeared. That mystery would be solved within the next few years, but the damage had been done, Peter was hurt in all ways, but if one good thing came out of that, it was MJ. She was waiting for Peter at the apartment and she wanted to say that she was sorry for her death. Frustrated, Peter insulted her, but instead of leaving, MJ stayed to console her friend, thus starting a new era in their relationship. But Osborn did not die. In fact the Goblin formula gave him a super-healing power. He woke up in the morgue, escaped and replaced his body with someone else's who looked like him. He was planning his revenge against Peter, but when he went to one of his bases, he saw his son Harry trying to get his own revenge against Peter. So he decided to let his son "be a man for once" and leave the US and form a business overseas in Europe. There Norman discovered a cult called Scrier. That cult worshipped a cosmic being that had existed many centuries ago. Norman eliminated the leader and took over. With the Scriers, he'd form a criminal empire which would help him spy on Spider-Man and his son Harry. Ends with : Amazing Spider-Man # 122 : Written by Gerry Conway and Drawn by Gil Kane