In Amazing Spider-Man #2 (443), after realizing that no one but him could stop the creature known as Shadrac (a.k.a. Greg Herd, a.k.a. Override), Peter made the fateful decision of reassuming the responsibility of being Spider-Man. This came after Mattie Franklin, who was granted the gift of power during the Gathering of Five ceremony, failed to perform as well as the real Spider-man when she adopted his identity when he decided to call it quits.

In Amazing Spider-Man #5 (446) a new Spider-Woman was introduced. Although her origin remained unknown to us, her purpose was revealed: to drain Mattie Franklin's energy. In Peter Parker: Spider-Man Volume 2 #5, Spider-Man tangled with the evil Spider-Woman in order to protect Mattie Franklin. Again the origin of this new Spider-Woman was not revealed.

In Amazing Spider-Man #6 (447), the identity of the evil Spider-Woman was revealed: she is the product of an experiment carried out by none other than Doctor Octopus, who masterminded the attacks on all the other Spider-Women and on Spider-Man. Spider-Man does confront Doc Ock in this issue but both foe parted ways when Doc Ock's underground base is destroyed. It is a known fact that the evil Spider-Woman is still alive but her whereabouts remain unknown to the reader.

In Amazing Spider-Man #9 (450) to #11 (452), an obsessed fan begins stalking Mary Jane. Only in Peter Parker Spider-Man #11 does Mary Jane reveal to Peter that someone is stalking her. In turn, he reveals that his alter ego, Spider-Man, has come out of retirement, so to speak.

In Amazing Spider-Man #12 (453) and Peter Parker Spider-Man #12, the Sinister Six are reformed by the Sandman to take down Doctor Octopus and Senator Steward Ward. The mastermind behind all of this is revealed to be the Wizard. At the end of PPSM #12, Senator Ward transforms into some sort of super-powered being; to what end, is not revealed. In that same issue, Mary Jane closely encounters her stalker when he ambushes her in a cab rigged with a bomb. Using mace, she blinds her stalker and leaps out of the car, which blows up, apparently killing its occupant. Spider-Man turns up but it is too late. Mary Jane is very angry at him.

Finally, in Amazing Spider-Man #13, Mary Jane takes off from JFK airport en route to a photo shoot. However, the plane never makes it to its final destination. It explodes in mid-air. It should be noted, however, that the old man sitting next to Mary Jane in the airplane might actually have been the stalker in disguise, since both man seemed to have a penchant for lollipops. Could it simply be a coincidence? Let's find out.

ACT 1: The death of Mary Jane comes as a shock to everybody. Mattie Franklin, a.k.a. the newest lady to bear the name of Spider-Woman, is visiting her aunt and uncle Marla and J. Jonah Jameson when she reads about the tragedy in the headlines of the Daily Bugle newspaper. She immediately storms out of their apartment, switches to her Spider-Woman apparel and makes her way towards the penthouse apartment of Peter Parker, whom she is quite upset about, although she is not entirely sure why. When Mattie reaches Peter's apartment building, media vultures are surrounding it, trying to get an exclusive interview with Peter. She flies up to his patio and enters the penthouse through the patio door. Aunt May catches her sneaking in and demands to know who she is. Peter comes to Mattie's rescue and tells Aunt May that it is all right for Mattie to be there. Mattie tells Peter that she is deeply sorry for what happened, and that she knows how it feels to lose someone you really love. At that same moment, outside of the apartment, on the roof of a nearby building, the evil Spider-Woman gloats that she has found what she had been looking for.

ACT 2: Peter, May and Mattie are just about to sit down at the kitchen table to have pancakes when the evil Spider-Woman (will be known as the evil SW from now on) crashes through the window and attacks Peter. Mattie flies in and helps Peter out. Peter seizes that opportunity and he grabs Aunt May and shoves her in the study out of harm's way. He jams the door using his spider-strength and goes back to help out Mattie. The two Spider-Women are going at it pretty heavily but the evil SW gets the upper hand and temporarily knocks out Mattie, who drops to the floor. Peter asks the evil SW what she wants. As she jumps at his throat, she reveals that she wants the same thing she wanted the last time she met him...his life. At that exact moment, Mattie, who has regain consciousness, realizes that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one and the same. Wasting no time, Mattie jumps back into the middle of the fierce battle between Peter and the evil Spider-Woman and with a single punch she sends the evil SW flying out of the apartment through the broken window, and off of the building onto the roof of another building. She flies down after the evil SW to pursue the fight. Peter suits up, yells at Aunt May that he is going to go find a locksmith to open the door of the study and webslings away in search of Mattie and the evil SW.

ACT 3: As Spider-Man web-slings down to where Mattie and the evil SW are battling each other, he reiterates the events that have come to pass with regards to Mattie and the evil Spider-Woman. A recap of the Gathering of Five ceremony is provided: the five participants to the ceremony, Mattie Franklin, Madame Web, Morris Maxwell, Greg Herd (a.k.a. Override) and Norman Osborn were respectively granted Unlimited Power, Immortality, Infinite Knowledge, Death, and Madness. Almost at the same time that the ceremony was going on, Doctor Octopus was using his scientific skills to transform Charlotte Witter into his very own Spider-Woman. That Spider-Woman had some kind of siphoning power and she sucked the power out of Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman, and did the same to Julia Carpenter, the second woman to use the name. When last the evil Spider-Woman encountered Mattie Franklin, she also sucked the power out of her for a while but the mystical nature of Mattie’s power allowed her (i.e. Mattie) to take them back. As a result, the evil SW was left completely powerless and was even helped by Madame Web who turned out to be her grandmother. Spider-Man swoops down and grabs Mattie. He puts her down on a nearby rooftop and tells her to left him handle this. She is angry and races after him. They simultaneously continue battling the evil SW.

ACT 4: Meanwhile, Madame Web, who seems to have aged since her last appearance in the Amazing Spider-Man series, with Jessica Drew (the first Spider-Woman) at her side, realize that Jessica is not the only one who has started to regain some of her spider powers, so too has her granddaughter (Charlotte Witter, the evil SW), although only partially restored. She starts to wonder why the evil Spider-Woman is attracted to Spider-Man. The reader is left as confused as Madame Web.

ACT 5: The battle rages on between Spider-Man and the two Spider-Women. Mattie realizes that Spider-Man is trying to avoid eye contact with the evil SW since she has some kind of hypnotic power over him, so she starts pummeling her as hard as she can, without thinking. The evil Spider-Woman falls to the ground but manages to throw a solid punch at Mattie, who is sent flying into a brick wall that collapses on her. While Spider-Man pulls the debris off of Mattie, the evil SW flees the scene, vowing to finish them off some other time. Spider-Man begins administering mouth-to-mouth to Mattie, who slowly wakes up and begins kissing him. To be continued in Spider-Woman #9, which I unfortunately do not review as I did not collect that particular title. Obviously, Spider-Man does not end up with Mattie Franklin.