Marvel Comics Spider-Man

Two subway repairmen are attacked by an oversized lizard and one of them is kidnapped. The Daily Bugle reports show mysterious disappearances throughout Manhattan and rumours of a giant lizard. Publisher J. Jonah Jameson subsequently offers a $1000 bonus to any photographer who can capture an image of the beast. Reporter Peter Parker plans to claim the reward in order to help pay off some of his Aunt May large debts. Peter makes his way to interview his science professor, Dr. Curt Connors, a scientist who works with reptiles. Whilst paying him a visit, he and fellow science student Debra Whitman witness the Lizard exiting their teacher's lavatory.

The crime lord known as the Kingpin bribes Norman Osborn, head of Oscorp, to destroy Spider-Man. Norman hires Spencer Smythe, a master of robotics, to create Spider-Slayer robots in order to confront the wall-crawler, in exchange for providing Spencer with enough funds to purchase his son Alistair a hover-wheelchair. Furthermore, Daily Bugle reporter Eddie Brock hopes to capture images of Spider-Man's defeat in an attempt to impress his boss, J. Jonah Jameson.

The Kingpin offers to provide Alistair with the funds he requires to build more of Spencer's Spider-Slayer robots, claiming that Spider-Man is responsible for the death of his father. Alistair successfully rebuilds the Black Widow and creates another, larger robot, which he names "the Tarantula". After the two Spider-Slayers capture Spider-Man, Alistair uses him to lure J. Jonah Jameson, whom he also considers responsible for Spencer's death, to his lair.

When Peter arrives for a date with Felicia, she is kidnapped by corrupt scientist Doctor Octopus, in order to force her mother to provide him with ransom money in which she promised to fund his experiments. Peter then recalls meeting Octavius when his Uncle Ben took him to science camp when he was ten-years-old. When offended by J. Jonah Jameson, Doc Ock insists that he deliver the ransom money, however double crosses him and holds Jonah as a second hostage, demanding twice the ransom. Furthermore, Peter is unable to persuade the scientist to release them even after delivering the money. Spider-Man, however, defeats him and he is imprisoned.

J. Jonah Jameson leads many others to believe that the wall crawler is a criminal when Spider-Man apparently raiding a museum. Peter thus decides to search for clues to prove that these robberies were caused by a Spider-Man imposter. For example, the webs 'Spider-Man' used did not dissolve after an hour, like Spider-man's web usually does. He teams up with Detective Lt. Terry Lee in search for clues. Peter finds web left from the scene of the crime, and suggests to Terry that the webbing is fake as Spider-Man's would have dissolved by that time.

Mac Gargan, a small-time crook who is down on his luck, strikes a deal with J. Jonah Jameson to eliminate Spider-Man. Gargan is taken to the lab of Dr. Farley Stillwell, where he is transformed into the supervillain Scorpion. This was inspired by the fact that scorpions are natural predators of spiders. Spider-Man meets the Scorpion in battle but is unable to elude him. However, just as Jameson orders the Scorpion to unmask Spider-Man, Gargan realizes that the publisher has turned him into a monster. He continues to mutate and starts losing more and more of his humanity. In a fury, he kidnaps Jameson.