Bad Men On Campus

At an abandoned warehouse along the Manhattan waterfront, Crime-Master meets with the Green Goblin. With the fall of Lucky Lobo, there is a power vacuum in the criminal underworld and the pair have met to discuss a truce.[1] Crime-Master only agrees to align himself with the Green Goblin if the villain will reveal his true identity. The Green Goblin obliges and reveals himself to be none other than Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson. This makes sense to Crime-Master since Jameson always publishes anti-Spider-Man editorials. This is all a ruse as, once Crime-Master has left, the Goblin removes his phony Jameson disguise, as he is really Norman Osborn.[2]

The next day, Peter Parker is on campus at Empire State University as part of Midtown High's week-long visit to the colleges around the city. He is there with his teacher Raymond Warren, his Aunt May, and her friend Anna Watson. Raymond has offered to show Peter around, leaving Anna and May to look around on their own. Anna has come to look into Empire State University's theater program, something that Mary Jane could not attend because she has a modeling audition. Meanwhile, both Peter and May share equal concerns about attending a school close to home and how much further education is going to cost.[3] Professor Warren assures Peter that ESU is just as good as State University and escorts him into the science building. As they enter, they are spotted by Flash Thompson who is looking around campus with Liz Allan. Flash is disappointed because he figured that he would be rid of Peter Parker once they all graduated from high school. Still, Flash figures he is going to go to school with Liz, but Liz tells him that she doesn't know where she is going to go since her grades haven't been that great.[4]

Inside the science building, Raymond introduces Peter to his brother Miles, who is a professor at Empire State University. Miles is looking forward to teaching Peter after how adept Parker is with science. However, when Peter expresses his concerns about being able to afford to go to college, Miles tells Peter not to worry as that scholarships exist for that very purpose. It's then that Miles is briefly distracted when he catches a glimpse of a young woman walking past the window. This young woman is Gwen Stacy, who bumps into her classmate Harry Osborn, who is glad to see that Gwen is considering going to Empire State University.[5] Harry tells her that his father, Norman Osborn, is an ESU alumnus and is dedicating a new test chamber to the science department and offers to take her to the unveiling. While at the engineering center, Raymond Warren is showing Peter a new experimental seismic ray that ESU has been developing with Atwell Petroleum and the Brand Corporation. He takes Peter down to the exhibition hall where the device is going to be demonstrated in the new testing chamber. As they approach the opening ceremony, Peter recognizes the familiar voice of his employer, J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson has been invited to open the dedication and is in another one of his long-winded speeches. Standing behind him is Norman Osborn, who is glad that everyone is distracted by Jonah's speech, allowing his partner the Crime-Master to carry out the next phase of their current plan.

From the back of the room, Peter notices a number of men passing by in coveralls and recognizes some of them as criminals he has captured as Spider-Man. Suspecting something is going down, Peter slips into a nearby washroom to change into Spider-Man. In the nearby lab, the men in coveralls are attempting to steal the seismic ray, an operation that is overseen by the Crime-Master from a mobile van. Unfortunately for them, the theft is interrupted by the arrival of Spider-Man. When one of the crooks tries to blast Spider-Man with the device, the wall-crawler dodges out of the way. The blast ends up blasting open the wall, revealing them all to the people in the auditorium on the other side. While everyone is distracted by Spider-Man's battle, Norman Osborn takes the opportunity to incapacitate J. Jonah Jameson so he can maintain his deception to the Crime-Master. Dragging Jonah into a storage room, Norman then summons his Goblin Glider and changes into the Green Goblin. By this point, the web-slinger has finished wrapping up the crooks, when the Green Goblin snatches the seismic weapon. Using the weapon to cave in parts of the ceiling, the Goblin forces Spider-Man to protect the panicked people as they flee the scene. While outside, Flash hears that Spider-Man is battling the Green Goblin and rushes into the building to watch the battle.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man has lured the Green Goblin into the test chamber, which begins to ramp up its test sequence, trapping them inside. As the two combatants spar, the technicians scramble to shut down the test chamber before the devices inside kill them both. At that moment, Jonah wakes up and tries to leave the storage closet. Unfortunately, Flash Thompson rushes past and slams the door back in his face, knocking the publisher out once more. In the control room, the technicians are stopped from shutting things down by the Crime-Master who forces them to activate all of the devices in the hopes of eliminating both Spider-Man and his uneasy partner. While Jonah is getting knocked out by Flash, again, Crime-Master has the technicians crank up the test chamber to full power and shoots out the control panel before making his escape. With the chamber overloading, the technician orders everyone out of the building before it explodes. Hearing this, Spider-Man manages to get ahold of the seismic device and uses it to destroy the chamber before it can explode, although this allows the Green Goblin to escape. As Spider-Man pulls himself out of the rubble, J. Jonah Jameson finally arrives and blames Spider-Man for destroying everything. Not surprised that Jonah would blame him for this, Spider-Man decides to leave.

Still monitoring the situation, the Crime-Master hears Jonah's ranting and raving and -- still thinking that Jameson is the Green Goblin -- thinks that his new partner is more unstable than he originally thought and decides that he should terminate their partnership quickly. Meanwhile, the Green Goblin returns to his hideout and decides that convincing the Crime-Master that he was really J. Jonah Jameson was a mistake as an investigation might still lead to the exposure of his true identity and decides to proceed very carefully in the future. Back at Empire State University, Flash Thompson is excited to go to Empire State University after the day's events. Overhearing this from the rooftops, Spider-Man hopes that his Aunt May wasn't around to see what happened otherwise she wouldn't allow him to attend this college, scholarship or not. Still, he figures that this is a problem for another day and swings off satisfied that whatever happens, this day proves that no matter what his future has in store for him, it will be far from dull.\

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Crime-Master, Raymond Warren, Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, J. Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, Anna Watson, Miles Warren, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn

Continuity Notes

1. Lucky Lobo was arrested in Amazing Spider-Man #23.

2. This scene is used to explain why Crime-Master was gunned down nearby the Daily Bugle offices in Amazing Spider-Man #27.

3. Peter relates to his recent visit to State University. That was in Fantastic Four #35.

4. This is alluding to the fact that Peter and his classmates will be graduating from high school in Amazing Spider-Man #23. Although both Peter and Flash will attend classes at ESU, Liz will depart from their lives for a time.

5. Warren's interest in Gwen Stacy here is alluding to his obsession that would lead to his becoming the Jackal, as detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #129-149.