In the recent New Avengers series, several hundred super-powered criminals escaped from The Raft (i.e. a prison for super powered criminals), although some were stopped by Spider-Man and the likes of Daredevil, Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman (i.e. Jessica Drew), Iron Man and the Sentry, a new super hero with amazing (but deadly) abilities. In the aftermath of the prison breakout, Captain America asked Spider-Man and the others to join the New Avengers. At first resilient to join them, Spider-Man finally accepted his proposition.

In Amazing Spider-Man #519, Peter, Mary Jane and Aunt May move into Stark Tower to live with the New Avengers. Aunt May immediately hits it off with Captain America (a.k.a. Steve Rogers) and Jarvis, the Avengers butler, and MJ falls in love with her new pad and is excited to finally be living in Peter's world. Peter however, seems reluctant to live in Stark Tower and hopes that this is only a temporary solution to their current situation, not a permanent one. To make matters worse for Peter, Wolverine seems to take a predictable liking to MJ.

The second part of Amazing Spider-Man #519 deals with the criminal syndicate known as Hydra who are planning to take over the world using some evil duplicates of the Avengers.

In Amazing Spider-Man #520, the New Avengers end up fighting these evil duplicates and somewhat lose when Spidey reveals that the fights were meant to distract them, as part of a larger evil scheme to smuggle bombs into the country. This is where this issue picks up.

ACT 1: After a quick recap of last issue, the story quickly shifts to Peter Parker, who is trying to convince Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, that Hydra staged last issue’s attacks as part of a greater scheme to smuggle something into the country. Cap refuses to believe Peter, his main reason being that he does not like the idea that Hydra of old might be back. Still, he tells Peter to continue his search to try and find the truth. Using Tony Stark's computer database, which pretty much comprises every intelligence network in the world, Peter starts gathering information. First, he discovers that several S.H.I.E.L.D agents who were tailing Hydra members from the inside have been reported as missing over the last few weeks. Then he discovers that a group of men, who had been running Hydra for the past few years, have also gone missing. As he ponders about what might have happened to all these people, he remembers something that Cap said to him earlier, about how some of the original Hydra members shared Nazi ideals and traditions. Recalling this, another possibility comes to mind for Peter. He remembers that when Adolf Hitler rose to fame, he did so on the backs of a bunch of brown-shirted thugs, called the SA, who were mainly interested in beating and intimidating people, and using crimes to increase the power and bank accounts of the big guys. But as soon as Hitler had what he needed, he got rid of the SA and replaced them with the SS, who were true believers when it came to the big picture. Putting two and two together, Peter realizes that perhaps that's what happened with Hydra. Wanting to investigate more but knowing that he promised Mary Jane, his wife, that he'd showed up to her play, Peter takes off to go and meet her.

ACT 2: A few minutes later, we find ourselves at the theatre where MJ's play finally premieres. With the play over, the story moves to the after party where MJ is having a blast with Peter when some sleazy tabloid photographer, named Vincent Chambliss, shows up and starts taking pictures of the two of them. MJ gives him hell and turns her attention back to Peter; whose spider-sense suddenly kicks in. Nearby, a man in a white blazer is being watched by another man in a brown jacket. MJ tells Peter that the man in the white blazer is Edgar Lascombe, the head of a pharmaceutical company who enjoys off-Broadway plays and even finances some of them. As Lascombe leaves the party, the other man follows him outside. Sensing that something might be wrong, Peter – leaving MJ to her element – takes off after the two men. But, as he reaches the theatre's front doors, two cars are seen departing the scene; the second car staying at a reasonable distance from the first one, probably so as to remain unseen. Peter switches to his Spider-Man costume and follows the two vehicles.

ACT 3: A few minutes later, the first car pulls to the curb in some dark neighbourhood and the second car pulls up behind him. At the same time, Spidey lands alongside the wall of a nearby building, overseeing the two vehicles. Lascombe comes out of the first car while the other man, who is revealed to be a member of Hydra (he is wearing a ring bearing the Hydra symbol), slowly comes out of his vehicle, a weapon concealed underneath his jacket. Back on the wall of a nearby building, Spidey watches on. Suddenly, a cat comes into view and begins hissing at him. Spidey tries to shut it up but the cat leaps away and accidentally sends a flowerpot crashing to the ground down below in the process. The armed man is alerted of Spidey's presence and immediately starts shooting at him. Making use of his trusty spider-sense, Spidey dodges the bullet and jumps out of harm's way. The same cannot be said for the shooter; a car comes out of nowhere and runs him over, killing him instantly. Terrified, an older lady gets out of the car. Spidey web-slings down to street level and tells her that it wasn't her fault. Lascombe also appears and tells the old lady that she saved his life at the cost of his attacker's. Grabbing his cell phone, Lascombe dials 911 and calls for an ambulance, while Spidey tries to console the distraught woman.

ACT 4: A short time later, the ambulance has picked up the gunman and the lady is returning home, still hysterical about what just happened. Spidey asks Lascombe if he knows why the gunman was after him. Lascombe replies that whatever reasons the man had, they died with him. Thanking Spidey for saving his life, Lascombe shakes his hand and makes his way into his penthouse apartment, leaving Spidey to wonder why his spider-sense is still ringing like a phone off the hook.

ACT 5: Getting off the cab that carried her from the theatre, Mary Jane is accosted by photographer Vincent Chambliss as she prepares to enter Stark Tower, home of the Avengers. Vincent confronts her about why Peter ran out of the party earlier and what she is doing at Tony Stark's place at this hour of the night, all by herself. Mary Jane hesitates at first, fearing that, if she tells Vincent that she lives there with her husband, he will put two and two together and figure out that Peter is Spider-Man. In that moment of desperation, she lies to Vincent and tells him that she is there to see Tony Stark; she then makes her way inside the building.

ACT 6: Meanwhile inside Edgar Lascombe's penthouse apartment, Lascombe's butler, Robert, asks him if he requires anything else and informs him that his uniform has been laundered and pressed (It is also revealed that the man that was struck by the car and whom Spidey had assumed was following Lascombe was in fact Lascombe's bodyguard). As he says that, Lascombe has opened a secret compartment hidden behind a wall, inside which his uniform – that of a Hydra member – is hanging. Telling his butler to go to bed, Lascombe dons the costume and makes his way to a secret meeting with terrorist leaders from various countries. After exchanging brief pleasantries, Lascombe explains his plan to kill a country. He tells them that somewhere inside the complex in which the meeting is being held, a half-ton of genetically enhanced bacilli of anthrax, typhus and botulism toxins are being readied for delivery. He goes on explaining that in another secure location, a modified scud missile is being readied for use. Pressing down on a button on a nearby wall, a map of the US comes dropping down from the ceiling. Lascombe continues explaining that the large body of water they are staring at is the Ogallala aquifer, the largest natural reservoir in the world, which covers 174,000 square miles and stretches across eight states, providing water to South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. Lascombe goes on saying that in some places, the distance between the surface and the water below is several hundred feet but in other places, the water is only thirty feet deep, a distance easily punctured by the scud missile they have adapted. He goes on explaining that the genetically enhanced chemicals they've prepared, when deposited into the aquifer, will render it massively poisonous to all plant, animal, and human life. Lascombe adds that millions will perish in the first 48 hours and the entire American Midwest will become a deathbed. In turn, this will cause the nation to starve, its economy to collapse, and millions of people to flood into other states, paralysing the whole country. Having said that, Lascombe tells them that this is how you kill a country, which is exactly what's going to happen in just a few days time.

ACT 7: Meanwhile at Stark Tower, Peter returns home and finds Mary Jane in bed, sound asleep; or so it seems. MJ is in fact quite awake. A short time later, after Peter dozes off, MJ tiptoes out of the room, seemingly looking for something. But seconds after leaving the room, she is accosted by a shirtless Wolverine, who asks her if she is looking for the newspaper, which he's holding up in his hands. MJ replies that she is and, handing over the newspaper, Wolverine comments that she must have had one heck of a night the night before. As MJ picks up the newspaper, the headline reads: "Married model in love nest tryst with Tony Stark".

To be continued.