Begins with :
Web of Spider-Man # 31 : Written by John Marc DeMatteis and Drawn by Mike Zeck After the honeymoon, Peter and Mary Jane would begin moving arrangements into a luxurious apartment in Manhattan, but that's the moment that Kraven chooses to extract revenge on the Wall Crawler. Kraven's plan was simple; to kill him. Well not exactly, he wanted to torture the hero psychologically. He hunted Spidey down one night, and he took his gun and shot him. But he didn't use bullets, he used a very powerful tranqualizer that would cause Peter to be "dead" for a long time. So Kraven had a tombstone and a funeral made for the hero (coincidentally in the same cementary where Ben, Ned and Gwen are buried). From there, Kraven took on the mantle of Spider-Man and ruining his reputation by beating criminals to a complete pulp (even doing so in front of Mary Jane). At that time, the villain named Vermin (who Captain America barely beat) was kidnapping innocents and taking them into the sewer to eat them. Spider-Kraven thought that he would make up for all his loses to Spidey if he defeats and captures Vermin. He does so, but at that time, two weeks later, Peter awakens from the drugs and heads out to find Kraven. When he does, Kraven forces the hero to fight Vermin to a fight till the death. But before death could happen, Vermin escapes into the city. Spidey left to go get him back. Spidey swore that he'd come back to Kraven. But that wouldn't happen. Kraven, having a huge amount of pride, thought he had just reached his goal and he decided to take a gun, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Spidey would then fight Vermin till dawn, and he defeated the creature. Spidey would find the day's new Daily Bugle headline read that Kraven had "killed" Spider-Man and that it was Kraven who had beaten all those criminals badly, but more importantly, Kraven was dead. Peter didn't have much time to rest because the Sin Eatre was released from prison. Not only that, but the same exact time Electro wanted revenge of Spidey. So two villains at the same time, except, Spidey had beaten the Sin Eater so badly that he nearly crippled him. The Sin-Eater was hated by the public and in the end, he couldn't fight his own demons and he held a child hostage, and when he let the kid go, the police killed him. Electro manged to humiliate Spider-Man on live television. In the end, Spidey defeated him, but was only a few minutes late to save the Sin-Eater's life. Then Peter's life would turn upside down ... One night, Spidey returned home (wearing his black costume) to find Mary Jane shivering with fear. Apparently, someone resembling Spider-Man gave her a warning. Peter consoled her and went off to find out the culprit. What he found was Venom. Knowing that the symbiote was immune to sonic noise and fire, Spidey borrowed a sonic gun from the Fantastic Four to defeat Venom and send the villain away to the Vault. Once back home, Mary Jane forced Peter to give up wearing the black costume, and Peter agreed never to wear it again.Peter's supporting cast also had it's own problems. A face from Robbie's past arrives in New York City. Lonnie Lincoln (or as he is better known to the crime world as Tombstone) decides to pay his old High School friend a visit. Robbie could have showed the authorities that Tombstone was guilty of several crimes, so Tombstone decided to break Robbie's back. Spidey managed to stop the villain and take him to prison. During Tombstone's trial, Robbie could have pointed him out in court and prevented the crime, but decided not to. The judge would later find both Tombstone guilty and Robbie was found guilty for not reporting the crime in the first place. The two went to prison. Meanwhile, Betty had been going through a tremendous amount of stress and combined with the death of her husband, she would begin to lose her sanity. She'd eventually join a cult, but Spidey and Flash would save her and deprogram her. One day, JJJ would have a huge surprise for Peter; JJJ sold all of Peter's Spider-Man pictures to a publishing company and they made a picture book about it. Peter was forced to go around the country to promote it, and he gained some fame doing so.
When he returned from the tour, Peter found out that a rich businessman named Jonathan Ceasar was living in the same building as the couple. Not only that but, he had a crush on Mary Jane. One that was so big that he even kidnapped her. Ceasar hired the villains known as Styx and Stone to hold off Spidey, but they failed and the young couple were reuinited. Ceasar was sent off to prison. Good news came when Mary Jane's big break arrived. She was offered to play a role on the soap opera called Secret Hospital to which she accepted. There would be an Evolutionary War between the High Evolutionary and the heroes of Earth. The High Evolutionary would force a woman from Spidey's past to return from hiding; the clone of Gwen Stacy! Spidey would find her running away from the High Evolutionary's robots. The villain would want to see her because she had something different in her DNA. The villain would take Spidey and Gwen to his hiding place. There, he would find out that "Gwen" was not a clone but a woman (named Joyce Delaney) who had the same features as Gwen who's DNA was altered to resemble Gwen. Not only that, but Spidey's clone was really Anthony Serba. In the end, the Gwen clone left and lived her own life. A big problem would arise in New York City. Inferno would happen when the Goblin Queen (Madeleyne Prior, the wife of Cyclops) confronts demon Nas'rith and demands that her son be returned to her. This caused some huge war on Earth to which affected New York more than any other city in the world. In the Spidey world, Harry Osborn was forced to don the Green Goblin costume once again (as a good guy) in order to protect his family from the Hobgoblin. Spidey interfered in the fight and the two defeated the villain. Harry went back home and didn't become the Goblin again ... for a while. Spidey then went to the Daily Bugle, and found everyone fighting for their lives agains goblins. JJJ and Spidey found themselves side by side against the monsters. They saved the building. Meanwhile, a disappointed Hobgoblin (because he lost to a simple non-powered human) met the demon Nas'rith and he demanded that the demon give him superhuman powers. Nas'rith gave him powers, but not only that, he transformed him into a demon. Also during Inferno, Betty and Flash decide not continue on with their relationship and to remain friends. After the whole Inferno mess, Peter finds a diary belonging to Miles Warren that states exactly what the High Evolutionary said. So we are left to suppose that someone went in contact with a DNA virus named the Carrion virus and became that villain. By this time, Peter had returned to ESU as a sort of intern to some professors. One of his classmates was a guy named Malcom McBride. He was jealous of Peter and he followed him to Warren's closed down lab. There he found a liquid, which he examined. It was the Carrion virus and he became the second Carrion. He even believed he was Warren, but Spidey defeated him by outsmarting him. From prison, Ceasar, using his power, forced Peter and Mary Jane to be evicted from their home on Christmas Eve. They would eventually move into May's house in Forrest Hills. The Black Cat returns from Europe in hope to rekindle something with Peter, but when she goes to Peter's old apartment, she finds Venom, who had just escaped the Vault. Venom mentions to her that Peter is married. That news shocked the Cat, and it caused her to get beaten badly by the villain. Venom would be defeated once again by Spider-Man. Back to Robbie, he was later pardonned and let go out of prison. He was immediately rehired by the Bugle. Then JJJ would be kidnapped by the Chameleon while taking JJJ's place as editor of the paper and turn them even more anti-Spidey. The Chameleon would hire Nick Katzenburg as a photographer because Nick only took pictures of Spidey when he was doing something wrong. Spidey then caught on of the Chameleon and saved JJJ. In Bugle business, due to the damages suffered during Inferno, JJJ sold the Bugle to Thomas Fireheart for a large profit. Fireheart turned the paper from anti-Spidey to a pro-Spidey paper. Fireheart then sold the paper back to JJJ for one cent. It turns out that he was chosen to protect the Earth from a force that he has yet to meet. He received the powers of Captain Universe. This happened just as "Acts of Vengeance" was starting. In that story, each villains of each major hero would "swap" their foes with another villain (i.e. Magneto would fight Spider-Man, Mandarin fights the X-Men, Ultron fights Draedevil, etc ...). Spidey would wind up fighting Magneto, Trapster, Doctor Doom, Gravitron, Goliath, Borthers Grimm, Titania, Dragon Man and even the Hulk. He defeated them all. X-Foe Sebastien Shaw would create a Tri-Sentinel. Spidey's normal cosmic powers couldn't defeat it, so he had to use all of his powers to beat it. When he blew it up, Spidey lost his cosmic powers. With Peter and Mary Jane reunited, Peter receives a shock when Flash introduces to them to his new girlfriend; Felicia Hardy. As it turned out, Felicia didn't love Flash, but what she wanted to do was make him love her and then, she'd dump her coldly, thus hurting Peter's close friend. In the end, Felicia would end up by herself falling for the former football star. Nathan Lubensky had gotten very close to May, and he proposed to her, to which she would accept. Venom would return once more, and would fail once more. It would appear that the symbiote died. This time, Eddie Brock would be sent to a simple prison. Just as that was unfolding, Doctor Octopus would begin ways to reform the Sinister Six. Instead of Kraven, they would replace him with the Hobgoblin, and to make Sandman return to a life of crime, Ock held Sandman's friends hostage. This time, before Ock had recreuted the Vulture, he killed Nathan, after a random act of violence. Sandman "played possum" and he betrayed his team. He also helped Spider-Man defeat the villains. During the same time, Mary Jane was told by an officer Goldman that Jonathan Ceasar had been released from prison. Ceasar then went to attempt to kidnap her one more time, but he was shot dead by Goldman. Later, MJ would find out that Goldman wasn't an actual cop, but just a crazed fan. Goldman would be imprisoned. Another former Spider-Man villain, the Molten Man, would become a good guy. The reformed Mark Raxton (Liz Allan's stepbrother) couldn't find a job, so he went to Harry Osborn (the head of Osborn industries) and he gave Raxton a job. Just as that was happening, Harry was trying to right his father's wrongs; he wanted to become the Green Goblin again, but as a hero. Spidey would convince Harry to quit playing super-hero and spend more time with Liz and Norman. Harry agreed. Once again, Harry quit being the Green Goblin. While in prison, the symbiote found Eddie Brock in his cell along with mass-murderer Cletus Kassidy. The symbiote took Brock and left. But there was still a part of a the symbiote's "son" left, Kassidy looked at it and must have been merged with it. Venom would then come up with a new plan to kill Spidey. The two fought all the way to a secluded island where Spidey fooled Venom that he had killed the wall-crawler. Knowing that Venom wouldn't hurt anyone else, Peter left the island and climbed aboard a boat and he watched Venom "retire" on that deserted paradise. The Hobgoblin, ever since gaining his "demon" side, has been in pain in many occasions. One night, his demon side separated from him and went "free". It was now called itself Demogoblin. In the supporting cast's lives, Betty Brant "graduates" from the Bugle and becomes an investigative reporter. Mary Jane, suffering from tremendous amounts of stress, begins to smoke cigarettes. Felicia and Flash continue their relationship. Nick Katzenberg continues to pest Peter, and a printing error almost causes the Parkers to get killed by a criminal group. And, Harry was just beginning to go through one of the worst periods of his life.The hypnosis that Harry received years ago was starting to wear off. He started to receive visions from his late father. "He" told Harry to act tough to his son or not to betray your family. But more importantly to get vengeance on the man who killed him. Harry started to be more agressive around his wife and child, but he would calm down. At the same time, Vermin searches for his own meaning in life. He has followed by his young self and tries to find a sort of forgiveness from his own parents. Ever since Kraven's Final Hunt, Vermin has been in the care of doctor Ashley Kafka at the Ravencroft institute and she has been helping him become "normal", but then he escaped. Meantime, Harry been slowly been turning into the Goblin. Then after Spider-Man had confronted Vermin, the Goblin attacked and he took his friend through a psychological and emotional roller coaster ride. He almost drove Peter mad. After Spidey had finally defeated Vermin (who was taken back to Ravencroft), the Goblin returned and fought the hero. The two breifly fought, but it ended when Peter asked Harry to kill him. With Peter and "Norman" pleading him to kill Peter, but Harry could not do it. Harry left frustrated. Peter had beaten his friend, but he did not choose to take him down ... yet.
Meanwhile, Spidey met a new foe, Carnage. When Eddie Brock escaped from prison with help of the symbiote, it's "child" bonded with cell-mate Cletus Kassidy. Spider-Man quickly found out that Carnage was much more dangerous and cold blooded than Venom. Not only that, but Spidey figured that he couldn't beat Carnage by himself, so he and the Human Torch went to go fetch Venom from the island. Together, Spidey and Venom created an uneasy alliance, but they both had a common goal; protect the innocent. The two managed to defeat Carnage, but Spidey tricked Venom and he too was captured and put into the Vault. Just as they put Carnage and Venom in the Vault, the Vulture finds out that he dying from a terminal disease. Adrian Toomes wanted to right some of his wrongs. One of which was killing the man who helped him continue on in life, Nathan Lubensky. Thus, he went on to pay a visit to aunt May. May immediately shunned him off, and called Peter for protection. When the Vulture returned, Peter was ready to see what was the problem. The Vulture, sensing a problem, took Peter hostage. He asked Peter to make May forgive him for killing her fiancé. Peter managed to escape and turn into Spider-Man and defeat the villain. Spidey then took the Vulture to May and forced him to apologize to her. May then verbally lambasted him and she kissed Spider-Man on the cheek for saving Peter and capturing the villain. The next day, May visited Toomes in prison and she apologized for lambasting him. She was only angry at him for what he did to Nathan and what he might have done to Peter. When she was leaving the prison, she met Harry Osborn. Harry gave her a present that she is supposed to give to Peter. Later, Harry Osborn tried his own "perfected" Goblin formula. He instantly gained the strength that of his father. When Peter received the present it was a "goblin-in-a-box". Harry had finally snapped. He became the Green Goblin once more and he even took his wife, son and brother-in-law hostage. Liz was going through tremendous amounts of stress and she too was very troubled. Spidey intervened and managed to imprison the Goblin in the Vault right in front of his son Normie. From then on, Normie would hold on to a Spider-Man doll and beat it. Peter's life would be turned upside down when two strangers would appear at May's door. They would claim to be Richard and Mary Parker, the long thought dead parents of Peter ! The parents claimed that the Red Skull faked their deaths and they were working in a concentration camp for all this time. Even though May doubted their true identities from the start, she let them live in her house. After a brief period of doubt, Peter let them into his and his family's life. Meanwhile, Liz payed a visit to her husband at the Vault. There, Liz told Harry about the return of Peter's parents and Harry completly snapped. He said it was unfair that Peter's parents are able to return and not his own. When Venom would return, he would kidnap Richard and Mary, but he would not harm them. He'd just hold them to get the attention of his enemy. Spidey would then enlist the aid of Brock's ex-wife Ann. The two villains would fight, but when Spidey would save Ann's life, Brock would make a pact with Spidey that if he left New York and stop harming the Parkers, Spider-Man would not follow him. Spdier-Man reluctantly accepts this offer and still second guesses that decision for a long time to come. Brock would leave for San Francisco, but would it last?One day, when Peter returns home from a hard day of crime-fighting, he finds that the Vault has let Harry go. Peter, frustrated, wants Mary Jane to go into hiding, in fear for her life. Mary Jane declines and goes out for a walk. She then runs into the Green Goblin who takes her off to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Thinking that he's gonna kill her, she demands to "get it over with" and die already. Harry admits that he never wanted to kill her. He still loves her and that he only wants to talk to her. He returns her home and he is greeted by a punch from Peter. Harry shrugs it off and leaves. For the next few days, he stalks Peter, but doesn't really threaten them. Harry then decides to create a Norman Osborn Foundation to "help make New York a better place to live". But what he really wanted to do was get all of New York's powerful men in the building of the Foundation, and then blow them up for betraying his father. On the eve of the explosion, Mary Jane went out to visit Harry and Normie at the Foundation. She tried to make him stop stalking Peter, but he didn't want to stop. Spidey then came and the two fought. The Goblin drugged Spidey and started the countdown for the explosion. Harry then remembered that MJ and Normie were in the building. Spidey told Harry to save them, which he did do. Outside with Harry and Normie, Mary Jane asked Harry if he's going to let her husband die. Harry then, in the end, saved the life of his best friend. But in the process, the Goblin formula that he had taken wasn't as perfected as the one his father took, and Harry died from it in front of his son and his ex-girlfriend.
When he found out that his son had died, he decided to excute his plan to action. Norman Osborn heard about famous psychologist Judas Traveller. He knew that he was truly someone who was insane, but a person who had tons of power. So he had Scrier follow Traveller around and become his confidant, thus making Traveller a powerful ally. There was a funeral for Harry, but there wouldn' be much grieving time for Peter, mostly because Carnage would escape from Ravencroft institute. Just before he'd escape, he'd free the villainess named Shriek. The couple would go on to a mass-mudering spree and they would be joined by the Spider-Doppelganger. Venom would be heading back to New York once he heard about Carnage's escape. The trio would end up by massacaring Venom. Once again, Spidey and Venom would be together against the foes. Spidey enlisted the aid of heroes like Black Cat, Cloak & Dagger, Captain America, Iron Fist and others. But the bad guy side would grow bigger as they would add Morbius, Carrion and Demogoblin. In the end, the good guys would prevail. On the anniversary of Ben's death, Spidey is forced to stop a burglar (à la the way he did with the burglar who killed Ben) and also stops the Hobgoblin from a crime. After that, Peter, having all the confidence in his parents, decide to tell them about his double life. When he does, Richard and Mary have to tell that information to their "superior". Meanwhile, May is growing ever more suspiscious about them, and warns Peter about it. Also, the dying Vulture hopes to be rejuvinated with the aid of a machine. He briefly does when he "steals" Peter's youth, thus leaving Peter old, but that effect didn't last for too long and Peter regained his youth. Peter would then track him down and find the Chameleon, but he also finds his parents are there too !! He finds out that they really aren't his parents, but some sort of robots who possesed artificial life. This was the Chameleon's plan to find Spidey's identity (because he thought that Peter knew who Spider-Man was, and he'd confide it in his parents). Then, they were supposed to tell the Chameleon, who would find a way to stop Spidey. "Richard" was ready to tell the secret, but Spidey intervened to try to put a stop to it and defeated his "father". "Mary" helped stop the Vulture, but he managed to steal her artificial life and she died. In the midst of the fight, the Chameleon got away. Spidey then vowed vengeance on the Chameleon for making him believe that his parents had truly returned. Thus begins the darkening of Spider-Man. Ends with : Amazing Spider-Man # 388 : Written by David Michelinie and Drawn by Mark Bagley