Amazing Spider-Man #201
Man-Hunt!
Spider-Man is web-slinging through the city when his attention is turned toward a man being thrown out a window. Catching him and bringing him back into the building he was thrown from, he finds that the Punisher is there shooting up a bunch of criminals. Setting up his camera, Spider-Man gets involved and is relieved that the Punisher is only using mercy bullets and hasn't actually killed anyone yet. After the carnage, Spider-Man asks the Punisher what he's up to and the Punisher informs him that he intends to kill the drug dealer Lorenzo Jacobi. When Spider-Man tries to talk him out of using lethal force, the Punisher guns him down with mercy bullets and flees the scene.
Later, changing back to Peter Parker, Spidey develops his photos for the Daily Globe and then goes to visit his Aunt May. There he is visited by Joe Robertson, who tells Peter about J. Jonah Jameson's nervous breakdown. Later Marla Madison and Joe try to visit Jameson in the hospital, but this only agitates the increasingly irrational Jameson and they have to leave. Later in a session with his psychiatrist, Jameson reveals that when he was bound to Spider-Man he had the opportunity to take off the wall-crawler's mask but panicked when he saw a police officer and fled the scene. When Jameson sees Spider-Man in the window (who went to see if he was somehow responsible for Jameson's breakdown) Jameson flips out again. Spider-Man leaves before being seen by anyone else and concludes that he is not responsible for Jameson's current mental state.
Going to the Daily Globe, Peter is assigned to cover Lorenzo Jacobi's trial at the municipal courthouse with April Maye, who is less than ecstatic to be paired with Parker.
Elsewhere, the Punisher prepares his hit on Jacobi for revenge against a friend that died at his hands. The Punisher takes note of the Daily Globe's headline story about his and Spider-Man's attack on Jacobi's men and wonders how Peter Parker got the photographs and believes that there may be a connection between Jacobi and Parker. While elsewhere in the city, while in a cab to the courthouse with April, Peter spies Mary Jane on the street and has the cab stop briefly so they can chat. When April butts into the conversation with her criticisms of Peter, his professionalism, and choice in female company, she ends up in a match of words with Mary Jane, which Peter gracefully walks away from and jumps back into the cab for his assignment, much to April's chagrin.
As the Punisher investigates Parker's apartment (finding a spider-tracer inside), Peter takes photos of Jacobi being taken into police custody. He is met by a very disgruntled April Maye, but when armed goons arrive and spring Jacobi, it's Peter's spider-sense that saves her from being fatally gunned down by the crooks. Jacobi gets away, and Peter slips away to change into Spider-Man and go after him.
Chasing after the crooks, Spider-Man manages to get into their armored car by ripping the roof off of the truck. However, after a scuffle with the gunsels inside, he finds that he is outnumbered and retreats, and almost gets run over by the Punisher's battle van. Swinging after them, Spider-Man has to make an abrupt stop when he runs out of tall buildings to attach web-lines to and smashes into a couple's apartment. The Punisher meanwhile is stopped when the escaping criminals throw a grenade at his battle van, causing it to drive off the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Punisher just barely manages to escape with his life.
Peter later returns to the Daily Globe to turn in his photographs and has a heated argument with April Maye over his role as a photographer and leaves, prompting editor Barney Buskin to report the incident to his boss K.J. Clayton. Returning home, Peter is shocked to find the Punisher there waiting for him demanding to know his connection to Jacobi.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Punisher, Lorenzo Jacobi, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Mary Jane Watson, Marla Madison, Barney Bushkin, April Maye
Continuity Notes
J. Jonah Jameson has been in the hospital since having a nervous breakdown in Amazing Spider-Man #198. He relates to the psychiatrist how he flubbed an opportunity to unmask Spider-Man. He is referring to the events of Amazing Spider-Man #192.
