PREVIOUSLY: After revealing his secret identity to the United States Government per the Superhuman Registration Act, Peter Parker found himself at odds with Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, and his registration agenda. The decision to leave Stark's side made Peter a fugitive, forcing him into hiding in a sleazy motel with his wife, Mary Jane and his Aunt May.

Returning to said motel one evening, after the conclusion of the super hero civil war, Peter was met by an attempt on his life. He acted quickly enough to save himself and Mary Jane from harm, but the bullet meant for him instead struck Aunt May. Frantic to save May's life, Peter rushed her to the hospital. Not knowing how else to help her, he resolved to do the only thing he could: hunt down the men responsible. Little did he know, though, that the trail leading to the shooter would also lead right to the man who took out the hit.

Somewhere in a dark alley, a man is getting robbed at gunpoint by a thief wearing a Spider-Man mask for disguise. Fast-forward a few hours later, as a newscaster reports on the latest mugging of the wall-crawler wannabe. The reporter indicates that the "Spider-Mugger" continues to elude police, as well as the new female licensed hero known as Jackpot, who deems the muggings as isolated. The newscaster is interrupted by none other than J. Jonah Jameson, who is a guest on the news show. Jameson calls the whole thing "hogwash" and claims that the mugger was inspired by that "no-good wall-crawling criminal Spider-Man". The newscaster points out that Spider-Man hasn’t been seen or heard from in months, outside of one brief sighting. Jameson ignores her and goes on explaining that Spider-Man is everywhere: "his mask alone", Jameson explains, "has outsold the masks of the last two presidents and all those movie slasher guys combined. For years, I warned the public that Spider-Man was a menace. Well, guess what? He's worse! He's a movement! He's merchandise!" The newscaster brings up the fact that Spider-Man has been profitable for the Daily Bugle for years and questions Jonah on the rumors that circulation has hit an all-time low, since Spidey's disappearance. A gruff-looking Jameson, replies "No comment" so the reporter drops the issue. She then turns back to the viewers and mentions that the next news segment will feature a panel of experts that are going to try and figure out Spidey's whereabouts.

Forest Hills, Queens, the home of Peter Parker and his beloved Aunt May. It is early morning; Peter is lying in bed sleeping. Aunt May enters his bedroom and awakens Peter, telling him that he needs to get out of bed and find himself a job. She comments that, though she does not mind him crashing in his whole room, it doesn't mean he has to use it all the time. With that said, she informs him that she is pulling double shift later that night at her volunteer job, so he’ll have to fend for himself.

A half-hour later, Peter is on his way toward Manhattan Island. He stops to pick up a Daily Bugle newspaper at a corner newsstand. The owner, a friend of Peter's apparently, tells Peter to take all of the newspapers, as he's been unable to sell any of them, since his pictures of Spider-Man are no longer published. The owner adds that Jameson must be losing a lot of money. Peter points out that Jameson probably has tons of money tucked away in his socks, so he shouldn't worry about him too much. He then leaves to catch his subway ride. As Peter skims the classified sections of the paper, wondering if he'll ever be able to find a job, he gets a phone call from Betty Brant, who has good news for him. It turns out that she's found him a place to live in his budget range; however, the landlord requires the first month’s rent by the following day. Peter responds that he should be able to make the first month but desperately needs a new job if he intends to make the following months.

So the job-hunting begins. Peter's first interview is for a high school science teacher position. Unfortunately, his bad reputation of not showing up for class at his previous teaching position, due to his being Spider-Man, has a negative impression on the interviewer and he consequently remains jobless. On to the next interview, for the position of photographer for a reputable magazine, where the interviewer tells Peter that he has the worst technique he's ever seen: "It's like you left your camera on a ledge and walked off or something". Peter does not fare any better at the next interview either. The job, a Lab Assistant position for an R&D firm, would be ideal for Peter but the interviewer is curious as to why Peter did not publish any work or obtain any real experience in the field. Peter can only reply that he was doing "this and that". As he mentions that, a mural of Spider-Man fighting various members of his rogue's gallery is shown in the background.

A short time later, Peter sits atop a large stone gargoyle, several stories above ground level, pondering about what the future has in store for him. He always thought that, by not being Spider-Man, he would only have to be responsible for himself, but that has proven to be as difficult as when he used to be both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Just then, he receives a phone call from Harry Osborn who invites him to join Lily and he for a night out at Mulberry Club. Peter accepts the invite. Harry and Lily ask Carlie Cooper to join them, but Carlie politely refuses, claiming that she needs to study her forensic odontology. Harry and Lily, however, want let her miss out on a night out on the town and forcefully haul her out of the apartment.

Meanwhile, in Chinatown, in an abandoned building below Canal Street, a meeting is taking place between crooked detective Willowby and three felons who work for someone named Mister Negative. It so happens that Willowby has illegally taken some kind of briefcase out of the precinct's evidence room and will hand it over to the men in exchange for money that their boss apparently promised to whomever could acquire him said briefcase. One of the men grabs hold of the briefcase and tells Willowby that they will take it to their boss and cash in on the reward. He, on the other hand, will receive nothing. With that said, the three men start to walk away. Furious, Willowby yells in protest at the men. As the three men prepare to leave the building, their boss, Mr. Negative, appears and tells his men that their actions (just then and there) have cast him in a bad light. As such, they shall be punished. Having said that, he brandishes his sword, which emits some kind of electrical current, and he decimates (off-panel thankfully) his three henchmen, to the utter horror of the crooked detective. Terrified, Willowby tells Mr. Negative that he won't tell anybody about what he just saw and begs to be let go. Surprisingly, Mr. Negative responds that he insists that he tell everyone he knows what he saw, because as Mr. Negative points out, "a man is only as good as his reputation". He then hands over a wad of cash to Willowby, who races out of the building, like a chicken whose neck was just severed. Mr. Negative opens the (much wanted) briefcase, revealing that it contains some kind of stone tablet with hieroglyphs on it. He makes the remark that he now needs to find an expert in foreign languages.

The flashback to earlier that day ends. The girl that was kissing Peter at the beginning of the book doesn't even know Peter, nor does Peter know her. When he finally manages to break free from her loose lips, Peter comments that she has a very interesting way of introducing herself. The girl, whose name is revealed to be Mia Flores, tells Peter to remember her name. Peter lies through his teeth and says that he will and proceeds to hightail it out of there, and joins Harry and Co. at a nearby table. Lily smartly asks who the girl was and Peter replies that he has no idea who that was. Lily comments that Peter should have gone for it, as she was hot and could have been a model. Harry jumps in and points out that Peter has sworn off models and almost married one, once upon a time. Peter adds that he is too young to get married anyways and the only "Mrs. Parker" is his dear old Aunt May. With that said, Peter turns to Harry and indicates that he lost track of many times Harry got married since he’s been in Europe. Harry cleverly remarks that no one can really remember and proceeds to sarcastically ask Lily if she wants to marry him. Lily laughs off his proposition, claiming to want to enjoy being his girlfriend first. Meanwhile, feeling left out of the conversation, and unnoticed by her so-called friends, Carlie is seen slipping away from the table. Peter asks Harry and Lily how the two of them met. Harry replies that they met through Lily's father, Bill Hollister, for whom Harry started a million dollar exploratory committee to see if he should enter the mayoral race. Peter is astounded and cannot believe he and Harry live on the same planet. While Peter is worrying about making next month's rent for his new place, Harry is spending millions of dollars on exploratory committees. Harry replies that, as Peter's best friend, all Peter has to do is ask, and he will help him. Having said that, he takes a wad of cash out of his wallet and asks Peter if that'll cover next month's rent. Peter reluctantly takes the cash but tells Harry that he has every intention of paying him back with the money Jonah Jameson owes him for pictures the Daily Bugle are reprinting. Just then, Harry alerts Peter that Mia has spotted him and is headed their way. Peter immediately rushes toward the men's room, Mia right behind him. However, when Mia enters the men's room, Peter is nowhere to be found, as if he just disappeared out of thin air. Her thoughts reveal that Mia is only interested in Peter because she wants to be part of the Osborn clique. In fact, she hopes that Harry will dump Lily, so she'll be in a position to trade up.

It turns out that Peter has escaped from the men's room via a window. He lands in an alley behind the club where he runs right into Carlie Cooper. Carlie apologizes for leaving without saying goodbye and Peter not-so-cleverly admits that he did not noticed she had left. Carlie responds that she has become used to it, since she grew up with Lily and any girl next to her is practically invisible. Peter replies that she could never be invisible and goes on to say something else but before he can finish his sentence, his spider-sense suddenly warns him of impending danger. Just then, the infamous Spider-Mugger appears, gun in hand, instructing them to give up their money. Peter cannot believe it. Carlie, a crime scene unit officer with the NYPD, steps between Peter and the mugger and tries to talk the thief out of it. The mugger couldn't care less and reiterates his demands, or else. Peter could easily stop him using his spider-powers, but it would mean revealing his secret identity. He has no choice but to play along and hands over his wallet. As he does so, the thief notices Peter's web-shooter and assumes it is a watch, which he takes from Peter as well. The mugger then takes off. Peter wants to run after him but Carlie gets in his way. Peter nonetheless manages to snag the thief with one of his spider-tracer (unbeknownst to Carlie), in the hopes of finding him later. Turning to Carlie, Peter tells her he has to try to get a picture of the thief for the Daily Bugle. As he runs away, Carlie calls him an idiot.

Peter almost changes into his Spider-Man costume but the headline of an old Daily Bugle newspaper lying on the ground causes him to change his mind and remain in his civilian clothing. Peter doesn't want the Bugle to reap the benefit of Spider-Man going back into action, so he takes his shoes off and runs after the Spider-Mugger. Peter leaps from rooftop to rooftop and then crashes through the boarded up window of an abandoned building. As he does so, he loses his shoes, unbeknownst to him. He crashes through a few more obstacles and finally catches up to the now-unmasked crook in an alley. Unfazed and undaunted, the thief dashes for a nearby emergency shelter to try and get lost in the crowd of homeless people, evidently unaware that a spider-tracer is stuck to his shirt. Peter follows him in and runs into none other than Aunt May, who coincidently happens to be volunteering at that specific shelter. Aunt May asks what happened to him, as he is shoeless and looking disheveled. Just then, the guy who runs the shelter, Martin Li shows up and asks Aunt May if everything is all right. Aunt May awkwardly introduces Peter to him and Mr. Li – seeing the way Peter is dressed – thinks he is homeless and assumes Aunt May volunteered at the shelter to try and find Peter. Peter assures Mr. Li that he's not homeless and that he was simply mugged. Speaking of the mugger, he makes it out of the shelter through the fire exit and jumps in the back of a passing cab. Back inside, Mr. Li apologizes to Peter for wrongly jumping to conclusions and offers to give him some shoes. As Peter tries some of the donated shoes, Mr. Li talks about Aunt May's extraordinary contribution to the shelter. Peter feels kind of guilty for moaning and complaining about his life when his aunt is helping people that have it worse than him. Peter rejoins his aunt, who suggests he go back home and get some rest. Peter replies that he will, as soon as he's done with his next stop: the Daily Bugle.

J. Jonah Jameson is in the thick of a heated phone conversation with one of the member of the Daily Bugle's board of directors, when Peter arrives in the newsroom. From the sound of Jameson’s phone conversation, there is apparently something big going on. Peter approaches Betty Brant, Jonah's secretary and his friend, and asks for the check the Bugle owes him, if he wants to snag the apartment she found for him earlier. Betty explains to Peter that all payments have been suspended as a result of Jameson requiring all the capital he can get to stop a buyout of the Daily Bugle. Peter is not happy about the whole situation and enters Jameson's office. Joe Robbie Robertson, Jonah's right-hand man, tells Peter that it is not the best time for him to be there. Peter doesn’t care. He tells Jonah that he needs to get paid and that Jonah owes him a lot of money. Angry, Jonah calls Peter an ingrate and a good-for-nothing vulture that comes to pick at him when wolves are at his door. If it weren't for Jonah, Peter would be nothing. Absolutely infuriated by Jonah's comments, Peter starts to verbally tear Jonah apart. First, Peter tells Jonah that he's put his neck on the line many times while Jonah sat on his bony old butt. He risked his life more than once to get those pictures and they made Jonah millions. And what did he get in return? Nothing but the scraps. Peter does not back down and tells Jonah that he owes him and should know that. If it weren't for his pictures spicing up the Daily Bugle, it would have folded years ago; everything that is happening right now (the whole buyout thing) is the perfect proof of that. Which is why Jonah owes Peter; because Peter made Jonah. Veins popping out of his forehead, a growling sound emanating from his throat, Jonah stands up from his chair and goes to yell at Peter but he is suddenly hit with really bad chest pains and he falls to the ground, clutching his chest above the heart.

To be continued.

This issue also features a spread drawn by John Romita Jr. and written by Bob Gale, which explains Spider-Man’s new status quo.

There are also three short stories in this issue (previews of upcoming issues). The first one focuses on the new super-powered heroine known as Jackpot as she attempts to stop the hijacking of a transport truck by a villain known as Menace. The second one focuses on Aunt May's volunteer work at the homeless shelter and her meeting with a man simply known as Freak, who will encounter Spider-Man over the next few months. Finally, the third one shows a discussion between Harry Osborn and Bill Hollister, father of Harry’s girlfriend, Lily Hollister.