We’re back with Spider-Man falling to his death, as he so often does. Turns out, he just makes a big web net and bounces right back up.
He finds out he’s emptied his webshooters saving himself, and refills them while recapping last issue in case we missed it. Then he switches to Peter Parker and goes to check out the lab Vulture attacked Christine in. She’s not there, of course.
Peter thinks that weirdo reminds him of Uncle Ben for some unfathomable reason, bumps into Flash & MJ for 2 seconds and then heads to the Registration Office, where the secretary just lets him go browse the student files with no supervision or anything.
Peter heads over to The Daily Bugle to look for more information in their archives, but JJJ is furious Peter didn’t get any pictures of The Vulture while he was being involved in a car accident, so he leaves. But as Spider-Man swings away, he tells us he was able to learn something: The Vulture is still in jail. So who’s this dude? That’s what Spidey wants to know, so he swings by to bother an informant…
Spidey gets a tip that this Vulture has been hanging out on the waterfront, and goes to investigate as Peter Parker. Soon enough, he’s found an unconscious dock worker covered in claw marks.
Vulture dumps Peter in the water, but he’s saved almost immediately by some fishermen. He catches a cab back to MJ’s place, where he bumps into the janitor and asks him about the murdered girl. He says she and her roommate shared clothes so much it was hard to tell which was which. Peter think’s he’s about got it all figured out as he heads up to MJ’s apartment…
As soon as they’re in Pete’s cab, though, The Vulture appears, causing the driver to crash into a building. Peter hops out and does his thing as The Vulture once against grabs up MJ and flies off, but Spider-Man’s right on his tail soon enough.
Aaaaalright. That’s more than a little weird. Vulture flies off, and Spidey puts MJ back in the cab. Remember the oft-used trope that his web is too strong for him to break it? Neither did Gerry Conway, I guess. The driver hauls off, and Spider-Man heads back to the lab Vulture broke into last issue.
Uuuuuuuh what? So that creepy dude is The Vulture? He somehow turned himself into a vulture-man with his aforementioned interest in “bio-mutation,” it turns out. Doesn’t really explain how he would’ve gotten his hands on Adrian Toomes’ flying rig, though. In the midst of battle, Spidey produces a small vial…
With The Vulture(?) out, Spidey explains what he thinks happened to Christine and us. He figures it started with the bio-mutation project…
That’s… a lot. Goodness. I dunno about stepping into a techno-closet and making the Vulture’s wingsuit part of his body… temporarily, no less… but I guess the mystery is solved. This was a weird couple issues. A mystery like this is unusual for Spidey comics. Spidey writers sure were eager to get anyone but Adrian Toomes in The Vulture suit, huh? In the letter column, we’re finally talking about ASM 123 now. The Great Gwen Stacy Hysteria of 1973 has subsided. Mostly.