Begins with :
Amazing Spider-Man # 201 : Written by Marv Wolfman and Drawn by Keith Pollard Spider-Man gains a powerful and valuable ally in the psychic Casandra Webb, a.k.a. Madame Web. Additionally, Spidey would meet for the first time Roderick Kingsley, a rich and arrogant fashion designer who has a lot of power in New York. Spidey would be instantly annoyed by his presence in more ways than one, in the future. When the Vulture decided to retire from crime, he went to a retirement home all depressed. Feeling very old, he had no desire to live until Nathan Lubensky, a crippled old man who is friends with May, told him that he shouldn't feel old and all that kind of stuff. The Vulture then decided that it was his time to return and defeat the hero. He failed again. Spider-Man would mistakenly cause laborer Morrie Bench to transform into the villain known as Hydro-Man. But a when Hydro-Man is merged with the Sandman, the Sandman gains a new personality, one who wishes to be a reformed hero. Then Spidey would think that he'd be attacked from a long thought dead foe in Mendel Stromm, but it was a robot that looked like Stromm. Upon hearing of a Stromm robot, Norman Osborn wondered if Stromm had taken the formula. He decided to dig up the bodyand found an almost lifeless body of Stromm's. Osborn promised to give him a new body if he joined his "team". Stromm relunctantly accepted. With Stromm's technological knowledge, he made Scriers more mysterious. When Black Tom Cassidy wanted to kidnap Madame Web, he sent his old ally the Juggernaut to go get her. Forseeing that Juggy would threaten her life, Madame Web called Spider-Man to protect herself from the monster. After tearing apart a several neigborhoods of NYC, Spidey barely managed to defeat the behemoth, but Madame Web was left nearly lifeless when the Juggernaut destroyed her life support chair. Madame Web would slip in and out of comas for the next few years. On a regular night, four crooks are escaping the police. Spidey swoops down from the sky onto the top of the crook's car. He stops the car. He bags three out of the four. The fourth one goes down the sewer and runs away. Spidey thinks that three out of four is not too bad and he let's him go. That fourth criminal found another secret Green Goblin hide-out. That crook sold the location of the hide-out to Roderick Kingsley. Kingsley changed the design of the costume and became the Hobgoblin. After a very breif fight where a battered Hobby escape, he wondered how could an ordinary business man like Norman Osborn could take that kind of punishment, so he came to the conclusion that Osborn must have had some sort of super powers. And that would begin his search for the Goblin serum. In Peter's life, he decides to quit his studies at ESU due to lack of time. This would cause a major rift between Peter and his aunt. They wouldn't communicate with each other for months. But in the end, they'd reunite and become even better friends. Mary Jane would also return to New York after a brief absense. Betty would try to set them up, but it wouldn't work, mostly because MJ is still unwilling to settle down with one man. When the two were in battle, Spidey would really treat her, most of the time, as a child. During that time, Harry Osborn decided to elope with Elizabeth Allan, mostly because she helped him out during his troubled times. After they were married, Harry and Liz announce that Liz is pregnant. Another wedding took place around, this time it was JJJ marrying scientist Dr. Marla Madison. At the Bugle, Peter gains some competition at the Daily Bugle when JJJ hires photographer Lance Bannon. Spidey would encounter the Black Cat once more, but when she gets nearly gets killed when caught in the crossfire of a Spidey/Doc Ock confrontation, cat burglar Felicia Hardy sees the light and denounces her criminal ways and starts to become romantically attached to the man who saved her life. Spider-Man. Spidey, would be interested in Felicia, but the Black Cat would only love Spider-Man, and not have any feelings towards Peter Parker. The Hobgoblin decides it is time to make his return. This time he hires a petty thug of the name Lefty Donovan. Lefty's job was to steal all the stuff he could from any Osborn corporation. Hobgoblin got the notes for the Goblin formula. He used Lefty as a guiny pig and gave him the forumula. It worked and he fought Spidey much better than Hobby did, but before he was going to reveal the identity of his employer, Hobby killed him. Hobby was satisfied with the result and took the formula for himself. He had taken just enough so he wouldn't go mad like Norman had. From then on, Hobgoblin had more success in battles against Spidey than he did in his initial fights. The Hobgoblin has an all new plan. In order to get money, he decides to blackmail all of New York's richest and most powerful people by telling all of their most deepest and dirtiest secret. Everyone from Harry Osborn (who's head of Osborn Industries), Roderick Kingsley (really Roderrick's brother Daniel), Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. the Kingpin) and J. Jonah Jameson. Spidey would foil this scheme and the two would fight all the way to the Hudson river. Spidey never found a body, but he did find a mask, and he thought it to be foolish to think that the villain had truly perished. The villain survived. What the Hobgoblin quickly found out was that Ned Leeds was following him. The villain managed to capture Leeds and brain-wash him with a machine. Now the Hobgoblin would use Leeds as a double for him.Meanwhile, Spidey and the Cat had many differences and many problems concerning her decision to help Spidey out as a super-hero. When she almost gets killed again, Spidey decides to stop seeing her because of her lack of super-powers. Hearing a rumor about the Kingpin having a ay to give normal people super-powers, the Black Cat went to see Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin agreed to giving her powers and hightened abilites, but what the Cat didn't know wasthat Fisk gave her a power that could destory her relationship with Spider-Man.
The omnipotent being known as Beyonder decided to have fun and grab some of Earths main heroes and villains. He'd put them together and fight each other. Spidey was chosen to be one of the heroes. After one battle, Spidey's costume was almost destroyed, so when he saw Thor come out of a room with a brand new cape, Thor had told him that he got it from one machine in one of the rooms. Spidey used one of the machines and a black ball came out of it which attached itself to the hero. That would be called the black costume. The heroes would manage to defeat the villains and they would be sent back to Earth. The costume was very strange for Peter; whatever Spidey would think of, the costume would act on it. Spidey would later find out, with help from Fantastic Four member Reed Richards, that the costume itself was alive. There was a brand new crime boss named the Rose in town, and seeing that his business was in jeopardy, he would hire bounty hunter the Puma (a.k.a. a rich businessman named Thomas Fireheart) to eliminate Spidey. The Puma would manged to injure the hero and Spidey would barely escape his grasp. Puma having the power of hightened scent, was able to find Peter at his apartment with Mary Jane. Peter, sensing danger, pushed MJ out the other side of the door as he turned into Spidey and fought the Puma (who would later on be called off the 'hit' on Spidey since the Kingpin ordered the Rose to cancel it) outside the building. After that battle, MJ had broken inside the apartment and she didn't see anyone. When Peter came back, MJ shocked him with a revelation; she had known for a long time that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. That would lead to Mary Jane finally opened up to Peter on her past and why she declined the proposal a year earlier. Since MJ didn't want to be like her mother and sister, so she decided to put that behind her and have an actual meaninful relationship with someone she loves, Peter. To compensate the loss of the symbiote, the Black Cat made Spidey a non-living black costume for her lover, which he would wear from now on. Meanwhile, the Hobgoblin had just formed an alliance with the Rose's criminal organization, but they're motives are both the same; use the other to get what you want, and then get rid of him. Wanting to have more knowledge on the original Green Goblin, he held MJ and Liz hostage and ordered Harry to give him more of Norman's notes. The timing was wrong as Liz started to go into labour during a fire that broke out. With the help of Spider-Man, Harry rescued Liz and MJ, and the Hobgoblin had escaped once again. During that same time, the FF headquarters, the alien symbiote had escaped in search of it's former host. There was great joy when Liz gave birth to a baby boy that they named Norman Osborn. All was right with the world for that moment. Spidey and the Cat decided it was time to take down the Kingpin, but they failed. What they found out was that all of Spidey's recent bad luck was due to the Cat. When the Kingpin gave the Cat powers, he also gave her bad luck powers to whoever she loved the most whenever they were around together. After learning that, Spidey and the Black Cat went separate ways once and for all. This led to Peter seeing Mary Jane full-time, who would get a job as a model at Kingsley International. Peter disliked that idea since he never trusted Roderick Kingsley. In his entire history, Spider-Man never went one on one with a just plain whacko. The Sin-Eater was a man who was killing highly respected people from judge (who was the mentor of Matt Murdock) to Captain of the police force Jean DeWolff. This caused Spidey to snap and to get vengeance on the villain. Due to Spidey's carelessness, the Sin Eater was shooting towards Spidey. The hero jumped, but instead the villain had killed another man. Daredevil wanted to help, but Spidey didn't let him. Spidey had nearly killed the Sin-Eater, but Daredevil stopped him, and the two fought for a while until Spidey went back to their senses. After the villain had went to jail, Peter and Matt formed a friendship that still lasts to this day.Betty Brant was involved in this event, and was almost killed. The fact that she almost died, brought her closer to Flash Thompson, whom she was flirtign with for several months. Betty would start cheating on Ned, by going out with Flash, who he himself was cheating on his long-time girlfriend Sha-Shan. At that very same time, respectable news reporter Eddie Brock from another newspaper, wrote an article about the identity of the Sin-Eater, but when Spidey caught the villain, it was not the man Brock thought it was. He was humiliated and got fired from his job. One night, the symbiote found it's way to Peter'a apartment where Peter accidently put that on instead of the non-organic one that the Cat made. Peter was reluctantly being controlled by the symbiote and it brough him to the top of a church where Peter was being left for dead, but the symbiote saved Peter's life by dragging him to safety. When Peter was safe, the symbiote, due to the sonic boom of the church bell, evaporated into thin air. Peter thought that this would be the last he'd see of the symbiote, but he'd be wrong. That very same day, Eddie Brock, who wanted revenge from Spider-Man, went to that very same church to pray to God to forgive him for comitting suicide later that night. The symbiote, sensing Brock's hatred of Spider-Man, decided to bond with Eddie and together they would later become Venom. With the symbiote, Eddie Brock gained all knowledge that the symbiote had on Peter. He knew everything about him. At this time, Roderrick Kingsley let Leeds play the role of Hobgoblin for most of the time. During this time, Ned Leeds would be acting much more agressive and irrational (due to overexposure to the Hobgoblin's brain-washing) than usual and even hurting Betty at times. One day he would confront Flash about his affair with Betty, but Flash would knock him down with a puch. Ned wanted revenger. The Hobgoblin would return yet again, this time taking a hostage at random. The unfortunate victim would be Sha-Shan, who had just broken up with Flash. Spidey would prevent another Gwen incident, but at the hospital, Flash would publically lambast the Hobgoblin by calling him a coward to the TV news reporters. The Hobgoblin would carry out a plan of revenge. What he would do is fight with Spidey and at a point of confusion, he'd replace his body with one of an unconscious Flash. The plan worked marvelously and Flash was captured and jailed. Spidey couldn't believe it that Flash was the Hobgoblin. Peter and Betty tried to prove Flash's innocence, but failed. When the Jack-O-Lantern wanted to prove that he was a big name in the underground crime scene, he chose to kidnap Flash from jail (who he thought was the Hobgoblin) and hold him hostage. When the Rose and the Hobgoblin found out about this, they weren't pleased since they had plans for Thompson. The Hobgoblin decided to attack Jack at his base. Flash managed to escape during the whole ordeal, and he weas left to wander the streets of New York all by himself. During this time, Spidey and Silver Sable were fighting the Sinister Synidicate (a group comprised of the Beetle, Hydro-Man, Boomerang, Speed Demon and the Rhino). During that fight, the heroes were able to win mostly due to the part of the Sandman's newly reformed self. Sable offered Snadman to join her organization called the Wild Pack, which the new hero accepted. Back to the other fight, the Hobgoblin defeated Jack, but Jack swore vengeance on him. Also, the Black Cat was in the middle of infiltrating a crime ring when Spidey ordered Doctor Strange to take away Cat's bad luck powers, this caused the Cat to be seriously injured. In a preview of what was yet to come, Peter was waiting for the train and someone pushed him on to the tracks, but Peter's spidey sense did not react at all. Later, he would be crawling on the wall of a building, and someone would grab his leg and cause him to fall. Once again, his spidey sense did not warn him. This troubled Peter for a while. He would later find out that Venom was behind all this.In New York City, a major Gang War is taking place. With the Kingpin out of town, and with crimelords such as Hammerhead and Silvermane wanting to take over as kingpin of crime, New York is in some serious trouble. Jack O'Lantern had just been named a new acquisition from the Kingpin's camp (even thought he was hired by the Arranger, not Fisk) and he has been used as an enforcer to try to eliminate other crime heads. The Hobgoblin had been growing much more tired of Jack's escapades and wants to eliminate that villain by himself. Meanwhile, we find out that the Rose is really Richard Fisk, the son of the Kingpin and that he doesn't really has the stomach that his father has (i.e. he killed a man, and he felt really bad about it). When the Kingpin returned to New York, he fired Jack. He blamed Hobby for losing his job. During this time, Flash went into hiding at Betty's apartment, but when Ned found out, he got pretty angry. The Hobgoblin (Ned Leeds, not Kingsley) not only betrayed the Rose to the Kingpin in exchange for some information, but he attacked Flash at Betty's apartment, then Betty herself entered through the door just as the Goblin was taking off his mask to reveal his identity to Flash. Betty screamed and fainted. This would be the last she'd ever see of her husband.
With Ned becoming a liability and the Hobgoblin himself becoming bored with the criminal life, Hobby decided Leeds had outlived his usefulness. Letting the word out that Leeds was the Hobgoblin, Hobby sat back and waited for someone to take the bait. That someone was the Foreigner, in the pay of Jason Macendale, the man who would become the next Hobgoblin. Ned Leeds, having a lead on a major story, was sent to Germany along with Peter. What Peter and Ned didn't know was that X-Man Wolverine was involved in this story. When the duo was walking in the streets of Berlin, Logan noticed Spider-Man's scent. Peter and Ned had opposing hotel rooms. Logan thinking that Spidey wanted to interfere in his mission to help his friend Charlemagne, a person who was wanted by the KGB, FBI, CIA and a bunch of other goverment groups. Logan found Peter (by scent) and asked him to step out for a while, but during that time Ned Leeds would be attacked and murdered. When Peter came back he found Ned tied and gagged. In the end, Wolverine felt that he had to kill his friend in order to let her rest and not live her life in hiding, but Spiedy would not let that happen. So the two heroes fought a hard battle, but when Charlemagne touched Spidey's arm, Spidey, thiking it was Wolverine, puched her with all his force and killed the woman. Peter left Germany with to deaths that he felt were his fault. Once he returned to New York, everyone seemed to be devastated by Ned's death. From Betty to JJJ, everyone was saddened. When his coffin was leaving the plane, Peter saw the Hobgoblin flying in the sky. But earlier, Jason Macendale (a.k.a. Jack 'O-Lantern) had asked the Foreigner to kill the Hobgoblin. A few minutes later, the Foreigner recevied a phone call from one of his assasins and said that the Hobgoblin was indeed dead. Macendale had then assumed the mantle of the Hobgoblin. The Kingpin, who had found out about this, asked his men to "let word out on the street" that he wanted to speak to Spider-Man. Spidey found out and paid a visit to his "friend". The Kingpin had information for the hero; the identity of the first Hobgoblin. Spidey's life was turned upside down; it was Ned Leeds. This information was enclosed in a document folder, but before it could be released to the public, Macendale destroyed the only proof that he wasn't the first Hobgoblin. During the fight between Spidey and Hobby, Flash saved Spidey's life. And with the Hobgoblin seen at the same time with Flash Thompson, Flash was acquitted from the police. With the new Hobgoblin in town, he severs his ties with the Rose, just in case he doesn't know that Hobby is dead. Since Richard Fisk was friends with Leeds and was extremely sadened by his partners death. The Rose decided it was time to quit his "business", with that he had to cut off his relations with all his associates which included Roderick Kingsley and Captain Keating of the police. Fisk relunctantly surrendered himself to his father the Kingpin. During this time, with the Black Cat in Europe, Peter was growing more and more closer to Mary Jane to a point where he decided to propose to her. When he did, Mary Jane declined and the couple went to Pittsburgh due to MJ's father being in need of help. MJ helped the police arrest her own father for a crime that he commited. With that, Mary Jane was able to put one part of her past behind her and she was able to move on. So because of that, she said "yes" to Peter's proposal.With the big day nearing, both future husband and wife were having some doubts about the marriage. Peter was thinking about Gwen and whether she would "approve" of the wedding. Mary Jane was being courted by an incredibly rich man. In the end, she turned the rich man down and Peter managed to let go of his feelings of Gwen and they wed in front of their friends and family. They spent their honeymoon in Paris, but it would be quickly interrupted by Thomas Fireheart (a.k.a. the Puma). Fireheart, being forced to repay a debt to Spidey, offers Peter a job at one of his organizations while Peter can remain being Spidey. Peter reluctantly accepted his job in hopes of earning more money. Fireheart gave Peter a job to do; recapture two eggs. What Spidey didn't know was that Fireheart set him up and wanted him to fail. Spidey caught on and quit his job with Fireheart and the couple continued on with their honeymoon as they prepared to embark on the greatest journey of their lives.
Ends with : Spectacular Spider-Man Annual # 7 : Written Jim Owsley and Drawn by Alan Kuppenberg