Spider-Man : Chapter One # 1 : Written and Drawn by John Byrne
(Note : Chapter One is not an actual in-continuity book like to Amazing Spider-Man)
Several months have passed since Spider-Man had quit. Peter Parker now lives with Mary Jane Watson Parker and May Reilly Parker in a luxurious apartment in Manhattan. Peter still has his job as a photographer at the Bugle, Mary Jane is a model, Anna Watson lives at May's house in Forrest Hills, Flash Thompson has lost his job at the Bugle and Robbie Robertson is back at the Bugle as Editor-In-Chief. Everything else is the same...for now.
Meanwhile, Norman Osborn, along with aide Donald Menken, is secretly plotting against Spider-Man. This time it will be his ultimate revenge. But while getting better from the "madness" he received during the Gathering of the Five, Norman unexpectidly falls in love with his nurse Kolina Frederickson. This would be the first time he falls in love since he lost Emily many years ago. So much so, that he invites her to move in with him in his New York mansion after a few weeks as his personal nurse.
Spider-Man's disappearance attracts the curiosity of fellow heroes like the Human Torch, Daredevil and Captain America. They all wonder "Where is Spider-Man?" That's a question that J. Jonah Jameson is asking himself and all of his workers. Reporter Betty Brant hears about the Scorpion who is tearing up New York. She asks Peter if he wants to come along, but Peter declines the invitation. A short time later, Peter is showing up for his job interview at the Tri Corp Research Foundation. Peter meets the team he will be working with if he gets the job of course. During this the Scorpion bursts in. Using a bio-tracking device, we find out that the Scorpion is looking for someone. That someone is Peter Parker. Then, Spider-Man comes out of nowhere. Obviously, Peter is confused. The Scorpion defeats the new Spidey, but is beat himself by Peter, who uses his brains to beat the villain. The boss, dr. Twaki, saw all of this and was so impressed by Peter's actions that he gave him a job at the corporation.
As Mary Jane returns to New York from a modeling job, Presendential candidate Senator Stewart Ward arrives also to the Big Apple. Out of nowhere, a new face named The Ranger attcks the Senator. Peter wonders what he should do, but then Spider-Man arrives. As Spider-Man have defeated the Ranger, Peter wonders if he made the right decision.
A villain named Shadrac goes to Osborn Industries asking for Norman Osborn. The new Spider-Man quickly intervenes and is easily beaten by the villain. Peter takes the new (unconscious) Spidey to the top of a rooftop and takes off her mask and puts it on him. The new Spidey is Martha Franklin, who received Power from the Gathering of Five. Martha awakens and sees her hero, Spidey, return to action once and for all. Peter has regret for breaking his promise to MJ, but he must go fight Shadrac, who is none other than a dying Override who received Death during the GoF. A man named Dolman tells this to the dying man. Dolman is a person who owned one of the pieces in the GoF, but had it stolen from him by Osborn. Dolman found out that he has a link with the piece, and with that he can control Shadrac to get his piece back. The controlled Shadrac tries to find Morris Maxwell the pawn shop owner from the GoF. We find out that Maxwell received Knowledge. Causing a disturbance, Shadrac brings in the attention of Spidey. The end result is that Shadrac and Dolman merged together and on the loose after their loss at the hands of Spidey.
On Valentine's Day, Senator Ward gets in touch with the Wizard in order to setup a kidnapping of himself. This would lead to an increase in Ward's popularity. So the Wizard decides he wants the Trapster and the Sandman on the job, so the Wizard extracts the Sandman's original villain persona in order to destroy Sandman's reformed hero personality. The Wizard then has the Trapster tell Sandman that they have a job to do together; kidnap Ward, but Sandman does not know that they are working for the Wizard, or that this is Ward's plan. When Trapster attempts the kidnapping too early, Sandman is angry and his reputation is ruined, so now he feels that he must kill the only witness; Ward. But before they can do so, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four stops the kidnapping. After a bried fight, the villains escape.
The vampire named Hunger hits New York and causes some trouble. JJJ assigns Betty and Peter on the story. On the villain's trail, Peter gets knocked out and Betty is kidnapped. JJJ is then accosted by Senator Ward. He convinces JJJ to drop the story on Hunger. At the hospital, as JJJ tells Peter to drop the story, Flash storms the room and asks Peter why didn't he do something to help Betty. Peter wants to help his friend, but MJ prevents him to do so. Later, Peter becomes Spidey and with the help of X-man Marrow, they save Betty, but the vampire gets away. Once again, we later find out that the good Senator released Hunger in New York and he wants his men to put him back into his possesion.
Meanwhile, May discovers that Peter and MJ might be in financial trouble, she offers to help, but MJ does not take her up on the offer. Then, she receives a phone call and she immediately hangs it up. Later she is terrified by another phone call. Instead of picking it up this time, she furiously disconnects the phoneline in terror.
While awaiting a phone call from Peter at home, Flash Thompson is payed a visit by someone or something. Later, when we next see Flash, he is wandering through the streets and recognizes no one. Later, we find out that Mysterio (who had contacted cancer right before he commited suicide) had kidnapped Flash, JJJ, Marla, Robbie, MJ and May in an attempt to find out Spider-Man's secret identity. Mysterio manages to control Flash's mind and help him create his version of his perfect world. In Flash's world, Peter manages to escape and convince to Flash that everything is fake. So once Flash breaks off the mind control, everyone else is released. Mysterio, sensing that his plan has failed, leaves and swears to get revenge on Spider-Man. But before escaping, Mysterio tells Flash that his life is pathetic and he devotes it all to Spidey. This enrages Flash and he tells everyone off by saying that he doesn't need them anymore, even his long time hero Spider-Man.
Peter and MJ were planning to go on a second honeymoon on a tropical island, but due to an adventure with Hunger and Blade, Peter misses his flight, and it angers his wife even more.Later on after a night of webslinging, Peter goes home hoping to patch things up with MJ over the phone, but what he gets is a phone call from the mysterous stranger who has been harassing MJ. Peter assumes that it is Eddie Brock who had just escapen from prison.
The Chameleon returns but it is short lived. The Chameleon, who knows of Peter's double life, speaks to Peter atop of the Brooklyn Bridge, but when Dmitri mentions that he loves Peter, Peter begins laughing, and much to his surprise, Dmitri decides to jump off the bridge and supposedly kill himself.
Just as May tells Peter about the disturbing phone calls for MJ, Jill tells Peter that MJ is due back at NY, despite the weather, soon enough. Thinking that Eddie Brock is behind the phone calls, Peter hunts an amnesiac Brock down. What Spidey finds out is that the symbiote has found Brock and bonded with him thus turning into Venom once more (but he still doesn't remember that Peter is Spider-Man). The villain decieds to find his "son" Carnage and "merge together with him in order to be one". Venom manages to take his son back with him and leaves Kasady in pain. Venom hunts down J. Jonah Jameson in hopes of getting revenge. Venom suceeds in the kidnapping, but Spidey saves the day. Just as Venom is about to finish Spidey off, Kasady's symbiote affects the other symbiote and Venom decides to finish them off later.
On the other side of the world, MJ receives a phone call from the mysterious caller who has tracked her down. MJ then decides to go tell Peter about the calls once and for all and she heads off back home to confront her husband. MJ calls Peter, but her call is intercepted by the lollypop-sucking stalker who now knows which flight back to New York she is taking. The stalker now plans to kidnap her. On her flight back, MJ reads a Daily Bugle and comes to the conclusion that Peter might have returned to being Spidey again. Later, Mary Jane arrives at an empty home to find yet another disturbing message which now threatens Peter's life. Mary Jane now feels guilty for not telling Peter about the calls, but she also starts to feel bad for not allowing Peter to be Spider-Man anymore.
The stalker causes an explosion and harms many innocent by-standards. MJ takes a taxi and the driver is none other than the stalker himself. Trying to escape, there is an explosion that supposedly kills the lollypop sucking stalker. That is when Spidey arrives, but he finds an angry MJ, one who is not willing to talk to him.
When Peter forgets that Mary Jane is off to a photo shoot in Latveria, Peter turns into Spider-Man in order to race off to the airport and speak with her. Despite his speed, Peter fails to see his wife, but what he doesn't know is that an old man who is sitting next to MJ has just offered her a lollypop, and while in mid-air, the plane explodes.
Aunt May receives a phone call and a knock at the door at the same time. She reaches for the phone and goes to answer the door. She is suprised to see Arthur and Jill Stacy, but the airport tells her that the plane that Mary Jane was in, had just exploded. Arthur and Jill, who knew of the explosion, conforted May until Peter returned. Meanwhile, Peter had to stop a symbioteless and deranged Cletus Kasady who painted his whole body in red, but he was no match to Spider-Man. Peter went home from there and his whole world came crashing down once again. At first, Peter was devastated by the news, but after some thought, Peter realized that if Norman Osborn, aunt May, Doc Ock and his clone never died, then Mary Jane is still alive somehwere.
Spider-Man and Cletus Kasady (without his symbiote) somehow make their way to the Negative Zone where the original Dusk is still battling Blastaar. The heroes defeat the villains, but not until Cletus finds a new symbiote and the two of them are returned home.
Peter finds out that MJ's agent has taken all her cash from her bank accounts. May is now forced to go back to their home in Forrest Hills for lodging, Peter on the other hand, decides to live in an apartment in a poor neighborhood. In hope to get money to pay off debts, Peter goes to Tri-Corp to work full-time and to talk with Dr. Twaki about his job. Twaki fires Peter for failure to not show up for work. Peter then goes to the Bugle and sell some pictures of Spider-Man, but JJJ declines the offer.
After a new Sinister Six was reformed to take down Doc Ock, the team led by Mysterio betrayed new member Venom a few minutes after he had joined. Now Venom is looking for revenge on the Sinister Six, he starts to take them out one by one. He starts off with the Sandman, and 'eats' a part of the bad guy's body. Sandman discovers that with a part of his body missing, he will die. Spidey saves Sandman from further harm, but Venom escapes to attempt to kill Electro and Kraven next. Electro gets seriously injured while Kraven loses his battle to Venom.
On a routine night, Spider-Man encounters a bunch of Scriers attempting to kidnap Normie Osborn. The Scriers are leaded by their new boss (his name is not revealed). On his way to tackle the villain, Spider-Man runs into what it appears to be Harry Osborn. It isn't the real Harry, it is a holographic version of Harry that the boss was going to use to kidnap Normie. But the hologram had Harry's feelings and did not want to help kidnap his own 'son', so he will help Spidey save him. Harry leads Spidey to the villain and proceeds to defeat the boss. But the villain has an opportunity to kill Normie (which would hurt Norman Osborn tremendously) and takes it, but a someone from the shadows breaks his neck, and Spidey and Normie leave in peace, with Spider-Man wondering who the mystery man truly was.
Liz Osborn gets attacked by the 5th Green Goblin from Spider-Hunt. Spidey makes the save. After a fight, Spider-Man comes to the conclusion that this is not Norman, since he has trouble controling the glider. Spidey soundly defeats him a second time and takes off his mask to reveal that the Goblin was a clone of some sort that could alter its appearance, but the Goblin formula has destroyed his body and is disintegrating in front of Peter's eyes. Before he leaves, the Goblin warns Peter that 'the original is coming back'.
At the Bugle, Randy Robertson returns to see his dad. We discover that he divorced his wife while in California. Since they both have trouble keeping apartments, Peter and Randy decide to live together as roomates. Back at Forrest Hills, two men from an airline arrives at May's door to tell her that they have been looking for Peter for weeks and that they have something for him; in a form of a package. When Peter sees it, he finally realizes that he was in denial, and he accepts MJ's death.
When Eddie Brock tries to pay a visit to his ex-wife Ann Weying with the hopes of reuniting, Eddie sees Spider-Man and decides to kill him for Ann's sake. Ann is terrified ever since she bonded with the symbiote and she hasn't been the same since. Meanwhile, Spidey finds himself near Ann. Trying to protect her, Venom sneak-attacks Spidey, but after a scuffle, Venom hears Ann scream and as he runs off to find her, he discovers that she comitted suicide by jumping off of her apartment building. This enrages Eddie to no end and wants revenge on the Wall-Crawler.
Senator Ward's plan of almost 20 years comes into fruition when he and the alien race known as the Z'Nox plan to take over Earth and try to infect its population with a virus. Spider-Man and the Ranger are contacted by the virus and by touch, Peter unknowingly infects May, Randy and Glory, who infect everybody they touch, and so on. While inilftrating the U.N. and in search for Arthur, Spidey and the Ranger hope to get the vial which contains the virus' antitode. Ultimately, the Ranger gives his life to make sure that the Senator never survives.
Happier than ever, Norman finds out that Mary Jane has died in the plane crash and uses this opportunity to get rid of Spider-Man. So he recreated his Goblin gas that negates Peter's spider sense and also inserts a mind-controlling poison into Peter's toothpaste. Meanwhile, the Green Goblin reappears and attacks the city. Every time that happens, Peter mysteriously wakes up, more tired that before, without realizing where exactly he is. But as we later find out, it has truly been Peter who has been attacking the city. When Norman's love Kolina gets injured in an explosion meant for Spider-Man, Norman blames Spidey even more, or does he?
Since Menken thinks he is the heir apparent to the Osborn legacy, he continuously sucks up to Norman, but he goes to far when he tries to convince Norman to kill Kolina, for she knows that Norman is the Green Goblin. What Menken or anybody else doesn't know is that Osborn has already chosen an heir. One that is worthy to don the Goblin suit; Spider-Man.
Norman kidnaps Peter and holds him hostage at his manor for several days where the villains hides Peter from the light, making him afraid of it and make him learn to embrace the darkness. Spider-Man eventually breaks free with Norman escaping once more, but not before Norman has his final say; Peter, at one moment, wanted to embrace the darkness.
When Mad Jack returns with Mysterio, Spider-Man and Daredevil see fit to solve the mystery of Mysterio. With the help of Mysterio's ex-girlfriend Betsy and her boyfriend/husband Joe, Spidey and DD manage to escape a virtrual reality world where everything is perfect and discover the person behind the jack-o'lantern; Maguire Beck, a cousin of Quentin Beck (the original Mysterio). She was obssesed with making everybody pay for mistreating her fellow family member and she implied that she 'became' Mysterio ever since his death. She was apprehended by the heroes, but they wonder what happened to Danny Berkhart, the second Mysterio who disappeared from many years ago.
When the city's electrical problems are at an all-time high, Spidey finds that a computer controlled Mendel Stromm is at the root of the problem. Stromm, who's body has been disected by a supercomputer of his own creation has taken over his mind, pleads Spidey for help in the form of killing him without letting Stromm unwillingly kill millions of New Yorkers. Spidey wrestles with this decision until he, along with the aid of hacker friend Shea, creates a program that not only solve the electrical problem, but will 'hibernate' Stromm in a sort of cyberspace until Spidey attempts to free Mendel.
Peter finds out that a mutant with the powers to absorb other people's memory was the Stalker and still has Mary Jane in his possesion. The stalker touched Spider-Man and fell in love with the hero's wife. He proceeded to try to make her his own wife by killing Peter and replacing him. He draws the hero out to his hide-out and he manages to lose to Spider-Man. Mary Jane, who has been in a closed space for months, is finally freed as she and Peter Parker are reunited once again. But their happiness is ruined when Mary Jane realizes that she simply cannot act like the past few months did not happen, so she and Peter decide to 'take a break' as MJ heads off to California to find herself.
As Peter begins a new life, living alone without Mary Jane, Peter decides to visit his old high school, which is now run-down and nowhere near the same as Peter remembers it. This is when he decides to become a science teacher for Mid-Town High. But at the same time, Peter meets an old man who knows everything about him. His name is Ezekiel and he has the same powers as Spider-Man does. He brings up an important point; did the spider that gave Peter his powers die because of the radiation or did the radiation give the spider the ability to give powers? Ezekiel offers help to the hero, but he declines the offer.
Morlun easily manages to track down the Web-Head, and he gives the hero a pummeling for almost two consecutive nights. A battered and bruised Spider-Man goes to Ezekiel for help, but it is too late for that. Ezekiel agrees to help fight the villain, but after a fight with Morlun, Ezekiel disappears and it is Spider-Man and Morlun alone once again. Spidey comes to the conclusion that Morlun thinks that Spidey is "pure" when it comes to his powers, but he is obviously wrong, so he injects himself with radioactivity and when Morlun comes into contact with him, he slowly dies. So after almost 3 nights of fighting a powerfully strong villain, Peter decides to go to rest, but aunt May enters his apartment only to find him half-wearing his Spider-Man costume.
After a brief confrontation with her, Peter tells her the story of everything that has gone on in his life, from the bite up until now. May is now more than ever, proud of her nephew and has begun to make sure that the world knows that Spider-Man is an upstanding citizen who deserves as much respect as heroes like Captain America.
While a country apart, Mary Jane and Peter miss each other, but when MJ comes to NYC to see Peter, Spider-Man gets in the way of their relationship once again. This time MJ is furious of this latest happening and it forces Peter to go to California with May in an attempt to make their marriage work once and for all.
Meanwhile, Norman Osborn begins plotting of whole new ways to torture his arch-nemesis. He approaches Flash Thompson once again, but this time he forces him to get drunk and puts him behind the wheel of a car which crashes into Mid-Town High. Flash is put into a coma, to which Peter vows vengeance on his most hated of foes. At the same time, the Goblin releases a video tape in which he explains that Spider-Man killed Gwen Stacy, and not him. This of course, gets under Spidey's skin even further. Norman fails to beat Spidey and is talked into submission.
Peter and Mary Jane get back together again.
