Chapter Summaries

Doctor Octopus confronted Norman Osborn over the sabotage of his nuclear fusion experiment, but Norman argued that powerful interests were suppressing technological change and offered him a place at Oscorp. Doctor Octopus rejected the offer, abducted Norman to demand tritium, and escaped before the police arrived.

• Doctor Octopus hurled Norman Osborn against a factory wall and demanded to know why Norman had ruined his experiment.
• Norman blamed the Illuminati and energy conglomerates for suppressing fusion research, then offered Doctor Octopus Oscorp support if he changed fields.
• Doctor Octopus refused to compromise, and Norman described how advanced technology could be used to control health, society, and the emergence of mutants.
• Doctor Octopus accused Norman of endorsing a system that sacrificed others to preserve those in power, but kept him alive because he needed tritium.
• Doctor Octopus used Norman's phone to demand one pound of tritium from Harry Osborn and threatened to return Norman in pieces if they refused.
• Doctor Octopus carried Norman through the factory roof and escaped as police sirens approached.

Harry Osborn and Peter Parker waited at Osborn Mansion for news after Norman Osborn was kidnapped by Doctor Octopus. S.H.I.E.L.D. relayed Doctor Octopus’s demand for Tritium, and the chapter ended with Mary Jane comforting Harry while Peter watched.

• Harry returned to Osborn Mansion with Peter after learning that Doctor Octopus had abducted Norman.
• Phil Coulson reassured Harry that Norman was likely alive and explained that S.H.I.E.L.D. was tracking the kidnappers.
• Coulson reported that Doctor Octopus had destroyed Norman’s phone and left a message demanding one pound of Tritium.
• Harry asked whether Norman was alive and what he should do, and Coulson said the agents had found no evidence of blood or a body.
• Mary Jane arrived at the mansion, and Harry embraced her as Peter watched unhappily.

Spider-Man tracked Doctor Octopus’s mechanical-tentacle marks to the East River but found no further leads, while Doctor Octopus secretly gathered equipment and built a larger Artificial Sun generator. The chapter left Norman Osborn bound in an abandoned factory as Doctor Octopus mocked him.

• Spider-Man found claw marks on an abandoned factory roof and followed Doctor Octopus’s trail to the East River, where it disappeared.
• Spider-Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. failed to locate Doctor Octopus, while Harry Osborn stayed home and waited for contact.
• Doctor Octopus used parts Adrian Toomes had arranged to build a larger Artificial Sun generator and kept Norman Osborn imprisoned elsewhere.
• Doctor Octopus visited Norman Osborn at an abandoned riverside factory and taunted him as he sat bound to a steel support column.

Doctor Octopus held Norman Osborn hostage and demanded Tritium from Harry Osborn in exchange for his father. He left Norman tied to a skyscraper and arranged a ransom drop near the Continental Hotel, leaving the authorities concerned about the location and its dangers.

• Doctor Octopus tied Norman Osborn beneath a gargoyle on a skyscraper and challenged him to escape while threatening Harry if Norman died.
• Norman Osborn tried to reason with Doctor Octopus, then revealed a cold, calculating demeanor after Doctor Octopus left him hanging.
• Doctor Octopus called Harry Osborn and demanded that he leave the Tritium in a black backpack at a specified trash can before eight the next morning.
• Harry Osborn and Phil Coulson listened to the recording with the kidnapping task force, and Harry pressed them about the ransom location.
• Phil Coulson assured Harry that surveillance would cover the morning drop, while the task force recognized that the site was near the Continental Hotel and could provoke trouble.

S.H.I.E.L.D. and the FBI prepared to deliver the Tritium ransom and catch Norman Osborn’s kidnappers. Harry Osborn handed the FBI the valuable container, while Brock Rumlow learned how much it was worth.

• Phil Coulson reassured Harry Osborn that S.H.I.E.L.D. had planned for the ransom exchange and advised him to stay at Osborn Mansion.
• Barbara Morse arrived with an FBI operations team and explained that they would monitor the exchange and attach trackers to the Tritium and backpack.
• Harry Osborn retrieved the Tritium from his father’s safe and brought it to the operations team.
• Phil Coulson told Brock Rumlow that the pound of Tritium was worth 13.6 million Dao, leaving Brock speechless and thinking about ways to earn extra money.

Barbara Morse and Nick Fury set a tritium-tracking trap for Doctor Octopus, but their surveillance failed to explain how he could take the item undetected. The chapter ended when an operative searching the trash can found an empty hole in the sidewalk.

• Barbara Morse placed the backpack containing the tracked tritium in the designated trash can after Nick Fury ordered the operation to begin.
• Barbara Morse showed Nick Fury the surveillance setup, and he warned that Doctor Octopus could retrieve the item without exposing himself.
• Nick Fury explained that the street operation was designed for ordinary suspects and that the tactical team could not safely fire among civilians.
• Nick Fury noticed that the trash can seemed to move and ordered an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. operative to inspect it.
• The operative kicked over the trash can and revealed an empty hole in the sidewalk.

After Doctor Octopus escaped with the Tritium, Nick Fury explained that Norman Osborn had already been rescued and that S.H.I.E.L.D. was keeping the ransom plan active to catch Doctor Octopus. He arranged for Spider-Man to track him and rejected a Skrull plan to replace Norman and take control of Oscorp.

• Barbara Morse realized Doctor Octopus had escaped through the sewers and sent Brock Rumlow's team to search while agents watched the exits.
• Nick Fury told Barbara that Norman Osborn had been rescued and that he had kept the ransom plan in place to capture Doctor Octopus.
• Nick Fury explained that Spider-Man had found him through Phil and agreed to help track Doctor Octopus, so he ordered the tactical team to stand by.
• Nick Fury said S.H.I.E.L.D. could locate Doctor Octopus through atmospheric radiation if he restarted the Artificial Sun experiment.
• Nick Fury revealed that the Skrulls had proposed replacing Norman Osborn to gain control of Oscorp, but he had rejected the idea.

Spider-Man tracked Doctor Octopus from Norman Osborn’s former hiding place and confronted him as he emerged from a sewer carrying Tritium. Their fight swept across rooftops and onto an elevated subway train, where three high school girls watched the battle unfold.

• Spider-Man followed two trails from the place where Norman Osborn had been found, discovering an abandoned factory and a sewer outlet.
• Doctor Octopus emerged from the sewer, and Spider-Man confronted him and demanded that he surrender to the police.
• Doctor Octopus hurled rubble at Spider-Man, and the two fought across skyscrapers to a clock tower rooftop.
• Spider-Man used the tower’s broken clock hand and webbing to knock Doctor Octopus off balance and send him falling between buildings.
• Doctor Octopus evaded Spider-Man’s webbing by swinging his mechanical tentacles, and they crashed onto an elevated subway train.
• Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus continued fighting along the train as passengers, including three high school girls, watched.

Marty Franklin, Julia Carpenter, and Anya Corazon discussed using their spider powers to help people and making costumes, but the runaway train carried them past their stop. When Spider-Man failed to slow the train from the front, Anya led the girls toward the rear to look for another way to help.

• Marty Franklin wanted to join Spider-Man's fight, but Anya Corazon warned her about being photographed and mocked as Spider Freak Girl.
• Anya suggested making web-shooters from biomimetic silk, and the girls discussed creating suits from spandex with Julia Carpenter sewing them.
• The train passed the girls' stop after Doctor Octopus destroyed the driver's cabin and left the train speeding without brakes.
• Spider-Man tried to stop the train with webs attached to nearby buildings, but the webs snapped or tore chunks from the walls.
• Anya led Marty and Julia toward the rear of the train, where she thought they might be able to help.

Anya Corazon took control of the tram from its rear driver's cabin and helped stop it just before it plunged off the track. After passengers applauded her, she left without giving her name to avoid scrutiny of her identity.

• Spider-Man fired webs at the buildings to slow the tram, while Julia Carpenter and Marty Franklin were dragged outside after trying to help stop it.
• Anya Corazon broke into the locked rear driver's cabin and overrode its controls by tampering with the wiring.
• Anya Corazon switched control to the rear cabin and applied the brakes, stopping the tram after it broke through the buffer stop and nearly tipped over the edge.
• Passengers applauded Anya Corazon and thanked her, but she refused to give her name and hurried away.

Black Super watched Spider-Man stop the runaway tram while explaining to Quicksilver why he avoided taking responsibility for every crisis. Quicksilver revealed he had joined 3F Company, and Black Super warned that the girls’ search-for-parents business could run into serious legal and personal conflicts.

• Black Super told Quicksilver he was ensuring Doctor Octopus could escape Spider-Man and explained that police officers were growing dependent on Spider-Man to handle their work.
• Black Super recalled how Anya Corazon helped stop the tram and considered Spider-Man’s strength and the dangers the passengers had faced.
• Quicksilver told Black Super he had joined 3F Company as an investigator to help Skye and Lorna find the biological parents of people seeking assistance.
• Black Super warned Quicksilver that searches could violate the privacy of protected or anonymous parents and lead to lawsuits.
• Quicksilver said he would work with the girls to watch over them, while Black Super advised him to protect them without preventing them from learning from mistakes.

Henry and Alexei tracked Doctor Octopus’s new Artificial Sun experiment and discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. was preparing to capture him. To give the experiment time to ignite, Henry asked Alexei to intercept the agents, and Alexei invited the others to join in a nonlethal contest.

• Alexei told Quicksilver that he had spotted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents but had not found the defected Black Widow he was seeking.
• Henry and Alexei reviewed surveillance footage and concluded that S.H.I.E.L.D. had come to capture Doctor Octopus, whose new Artificial Sun generator stood in an abandoned shipyard.
• Henry explained that he had located the shipyard by calculating the generator’s power needs and considering possible experimental sites.
• Henry asked Alexei to delay S.H.I.E.L.D. so Doctor Octopus could ignite the Artificial Sun, and said he had nonlethal weapons ready.
• Alexei invited the others to help intercept the agents for a friendly shooting contest, and Henry’s remark about the elite agents only heightened their interest.

Henry and Alexei discussed how to keep their planned attack on S.H.I.E.L.D. from exposing their group, and Alexei offered to draw attention as Red Guardian. Henry began designing a new Red Guardian suit, leaving Alexei choosing among sketches and discussing whether it should include a shield.

• Alexei argued that the group's superior equipment would make an attack on S.H.I.E.L.D. easy, while Quicksilver asked to join and was challenged to wear a Duck Type suit.
• Gilgamesh provoked Quicksilver into considering a shooting contest, and the group debated rules and point values for taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents.
• Alexei asked Henry to make him a Red Guardian suit so he could draw S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention and give the group more room to maneuver.
• Alexei explained that he was ready to confront S.H.I.E.L.D. and hoped to meet the defected Black Widow, so Henry agreed to discuss the suit's design.
• Henry sketched several Red Guardian suits, and Alexei admired them before Henry asked whether he was used to carrying a shield.

Henry and his allies prepared to ambush S.H.I.E.L.D. agents approaching Doctor Octopus's Artificial Sun experiment. Alexei assigned the team their positions and weapons, and they settled in to wait for the agents.

• Henry considered why Spider-Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. were pursuing Doctor Octopus, then assessed his team's lineup.
• Alexei outfitted the Ursa Major Mecha with his upgraded Red Guardian suit and a True Adamantium shield while the others donned their mechas or armor.
• Alexei explained that the team would ambush S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents with tranquilizer darts before intercepting anyone who escaped the initial attack.
• The team spread out to their assigned positions, with the Bonnie Mech taking the highest position to provide sniper support and electronic warfare.
• The team waited for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents while chatting over the comms channel.

S.H.I.E.L.D. learned from Spider-Man that Doctor Octopus was hiding at an abandoned Hudson River shipyard and assembled an assault force. As the agents prepared to move in, an unseen attack struck one of them.

• Nick Fury told Barbara Morse that a concerned citizen had located Doctor Octopus at an abandoned shipyard on the Hudson River.
• Barbara Morse ordered the field agents to converge on the shipyard and brought Maria Hill, Jasper Sitwell, and heavy equipment along.
• Jasper Sitwell revealed in his thoughts that he was secretly assessing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents for Hydra recruitment.
• S.H.I.E.L.D.'s convoy reached the shipyard, where agents prepared their weapons and gear while worrying about how to defeat Doctor Octopus.
• A faint whistle sounded, and an agent collapsed stiffly, leaving the assembled agents in eerie silence.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were ambushed by Black Super and his team, who subdued most of them with tranquilizer and electric-shock rounds. The attackers paused after Cathy Weber arrived with a warning about flying boards and a threat to the Artificial Sun experiment.

• Black Super's team used infrared-equipped armor to knock down S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, while Barbara Morse, Brock Rumlow, and Clint Barton escaped and took cover.
• Clint Barton spotted a possible enemy position and moved to circle behind it as Barbara Morse and Brock Rumlow drew fire.
• Cathy Weber arrived in her red armored suit atop a Machine Horse, and her system link alerted Black Super's team to her presence.
• Cathy Weber told Black Super that the team could finish its current task early and warned them about someone who had interfered with Doctor Octopus's experiment.
• Cathy Weber reported seeing many flying boards, leading Black Super to suspect that Green Goblin had turned Goblin Gliders into remote-controlled drones.

Black Super explained why Norman Osborn might sabotage Doctor Octopus’s second Artificial Sun experiment and told the mechas to search for a remotely controlled Goblin Glider. Cathy Weber arrived on Storm Rises Again, whose transformation prompted the team to joke about getting their own Machine Horses, while Cathy quietly scrutinized Black Super.

• Black Super connected Cathy’s visions to Norman Osborn’s possible role in the first Artificial Sun disaster and identified the Goblin Glider as the likely threat to the next experiment.
• Black Super reasoned that Norman Osborn could benefit Oscorp by making Doctor Octopus’s experiment fail catastrophically and boosting the company’s stock-price narrative.
• Cathy Weber rode Storm Rises Again to Black Super, and the Machine Horse transformed into a floating platform with a high-backed seat.
• Quicksilver, Cassandra, and Alexei asked Henry for their own mechanical mounts, and Black Super promised to make everyone a Machine Horse with Gold Ship artificial intelligence.
• Cathy gave Black Super a subtle, thoughtful look, but he did not notice.

Black Super assigned his allies positions to prepare for a possible attack by the Green Goblin's gliders while Alexei Shostakov donned his new Red Guardian armor and lured Hawkeye into an encounter. The chapter ended with Hawkeye recognizing Alexei as the bear-like man emerging from the dust.

• Black Super ordered Alexei Shostakov to handle S.H.I.E.L.D. and directed the others to take ambush positions, while Henry arranged for Dog Squad Saint Bernard to bring weapons and ammunition.
• Cathy Weber chose to stay nearby so she could speak with Spider-Man and intervene if needed, while Black Super remained near Doctor Octopus's Artificial Sun as a safeguard.
• Alexei Shostakov put on his new Red Guardian suit and Adamantium shield, then sent the Ursa Major Mecha into the air under optical camouflage to pressure the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
• Alexei hid in the shadows and deliberately drew Hawkeye toward his position with the promise of an ambush.
• Hawkeye followed traces to the enemy position, fired an explosive arrow, and recognized the shield-bearing man who emerged as Red Guardian Alexei Shostakov.

Red Guardian confronted Hawkeye during a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation and demanded a meeting with the Black Widow he said Hawkeye had turned in Budapest. Nick Fury decided to send her to meet Alexei and investigate who was backing him, while Red Guardian left the meeting details to her.

• Red Guardian told Hawkeye he wanted to question the Black Widow and used the hidden firepower supporting him as leverage with S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Hawkeye questioned Alexei about disrupting the operation, while S.H.I.E.L.D. agents debated whether to capture him, recruit him, or keep their distance.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. executives pressured Nick Fury to decide whether the Black Widow should reveal herself to Alexei.
• Nick Fury ordered the Black Widow to meet Red Guardian and learn who stood behind him, and she agreed.
• Hawkeye told Red Guardian that the Black Widow would meet him, and Alexei disappeared into the darkness.

Spider-Man attacked Doctor Octopus during the second Artificial Sun experiment, but severing the device’s cables made the unstable sun expand again. Henry absorbed it into his right eye, bringing his damaged eyes and powers back under control as Spider-Man was drawn into the Web of Life by Madame Web.

• Spider-Man fought Doctor Octopus and electrocuted him, then tore out the Artificial Sun’s power cables, causing its containment shield to fail and the sun to expand.
• Madame Web used Astral Projection to knock Spider-Man’s soul from his body and take him into the Web of Life.
• Henry approached the expanding Artificial Sun while the armored fighters engaged Green Goblin’s remote-controlled gliders, and absorbed the sun into his right eye.
• The conflicting powers in Henry’s eyes fell into balance, restoring his abilities to a controllable state and easing his sense of impending danger.