In Amazing Spider-Man #15 and Peter Parker Spider-Man #15, Peter leaves for Latveria in search of Mary Jane after receiving an anonymous call that informed him that she was being held captive in Doctor Doom's castle. The call is revealed to be a hoax and Peter does not find her there. More determined than ever, Peter returns to New York City and continues his search.

In Amazing Spider-Man #16, Peter finds out that Mary Jane's manager has disappeared and has cleaned out all of her accounts, thus leaving Peter and his Aunt in debt. May ends up crashing at Anna Watson's place until things get better and Peter moves into a very dilapidated apartment building.

In Peter Parker Spider-Man #17, Peter gets evicted from his apartment building because he has neglected to pay rent. As a result, he ends up having to live in the street.

In Amazing Spider-Man #18, the Green Goblin attacks Liz Osborn. Peter, as Spider-Man, saves her but he notices that this Goblin is handling the glider clumsily, so he comes to the conclusion that it isn't Norman Osborn, nor Harry, his son, since the latter died in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. Later that night, as he sleeps in an alley, someone steals his backpack containing his costume and web-shooters.

In Peter Parker Spider-Man #18, Peter, as Spider-Man, apprehends this new Green Goblin, who is revealed to be a genetic construct created by Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin. This new goblin ends up dissolving into nothingness – a secondary effect of being exposed to the Goblin Formula WITHOUT a stabilizing agent – but just before he dies, he informs Peter that Norman Osborn is coming back. The "thief", who stole Peter's backpack, tries the costume on and experiments with the web-shooters. He then sells everything to none other than J. Jonah Jameson. Peter also moves in with Randy Robertson and Aunt May receives a box for Peter from the airline company that caused Mary Jane's death.

ACT 1: Peter is in his bedroom, dangling from the ceiling in his web, sowing himself a new costume and building new web-shooters, when Randy knocks on the door. Randy tells Peter – through the door – that he has a few friends over that are dying to meet him. Peter does not answer right away since he is too busy putting all his stuff away so that Randy doesn't see what he was doing. Randy, who is getting impatient, comes in the room. Peter, who has had enough time to hide everything in the closet, is lying underneath the covers, reading a book and listening to music. When he sees Randy, he pretends he hadn't heard him knock on the door and asks him what he wants. Randy tells him to come out of his bedroom and hang with some of his friends. Peter tells him he'll be out in a minute and then reminds himself to buy a lock for his bedroom door so as to prevent this from happening again.

ACT 2: A few minutes later, Peter comes out of this bedroom. Randy introduces him to a bunch of supermodels who used to work with Mary Jane, and to Shea Tinker, a computer hacker that I'm sure we will see again. Shea is busy downloading some stuff from the Internet so he has the phone line tied up. Peter suddenly remembers that he needs to call Aunt May to tell her that he won't be able to make it to dinner but Randy doesn't want to ask Shea to sign off in the middle of a download. Peter replies that he'll just call her from a pay phone. Just as he is about to exit the apartment, Randy runs after him and asks him if he would do him a favour. Peter says yes so Randy asks him if he could put in a good word for him with Glory Grant, whom he seems to be enamoured with, ever since seeing her at the Daily Bugle a few weeks ago. Peter agrees as long as Randy picks up next month's electric bill. At that moment, in Forest Hills, Queens, May is trying over and over again to reach Peter but the phone line is busy. She wants to let him know that a box was delivered to her place for him from the airline company with whom Mary Jane was flying when her plane exploded in mid-air. Anna Watson, Mary Jane's aunt, who is there with May, tells May that they should just open the box and find out whether or not Mary Jane is really dead or not. May firmly replies that they won't open the box without Peter. Speaking of Peter, we find him putting on his Spider-Man costume and taking off into the night on a web-line.

ACT 3: Meanwhile, at Randy's and Peter's apartment, Robbie Robertson shows up looking for Peter. Robbie explains to Randy that Aunt May has been trying to reach Peter all night but the phone line has been busy. He goes on explaining that she is worried sick about him, worried about what she has to tell him. Randy replies that Peter took off earlier but did not say where he was going. Having heard enough, Robbie takes off, telling Randy that it's all going to hit the fan out in Queens and that he’s going to see if he can help. Randy takes off after his dad, wanting to help too. Elsewhere, a carjacking is taking place. The driver of the car is extracted from his vehicle and thrown into the path of an approaching bus. The bus swerves to avoid running over the driver but as it does, it flips over and is just about to crush the driver of the car when it suddenly stops in mid-air. As the driver of the car looks up, he sees Spider-Man holding the bus in place, preventing it from falling over. Spidey yells at the driver of the car to get out of the way because he doesn't know how long he can hold it up like that. The driver escapes from underneath the bus and immediately starts running away. Spidey grabs him and asks him where he is going. The man replies that his daughter Jessie is still in the car and that he must get to her, as she is the only thing he's got left since his wife just died. He adds that he hasn't even told her yet that her mother is dead, because he didn't think she would be able to handle it, that she would accept the truth. Feeling his pain, Spidey web-slings after the stolen car.

ACT 4: Meanwhile in Queens, friends and family are gathering at the Parker-Watson residence to lend their support. Jill and Arthur Stacy's family have been friends of the Parker's ever since Peter's ill-fated romance with Jill's cousin and Arthur's niece Gwen Stacy. Glory Grant, Betty Brant, Ben Urich, the Robertson family, Jonah and Marla Jameson; all gathered to help May Parker when Peter does arrive home, to help her and him deal with the contents of the box delivered from the airline company. In the meantime, elsewhere, Spidey has caught up to the stolen car. Using a few well-placed web-lines, he manages to stop the car dead in his tracks and extract the two miscreants right out of the car through the sunroof. The father, who somehow made its way there, appears and pulls his daughter Jessie out of the car and to safety. Spidey carries the two thieves in a nearby dark alley, crushes their guns with his bare hands, and webs them up several feet from the ground. Down below, the father ends up telling his daughter about her mother passing away, while Spidey watches from above.

ACT 5: Some time later, Peter arrives at the Parker-Watson residence and is greeted at the door by the above-mentioned people. At first, he thinks it's some kind of surprise party but May intervenes and tells him that he's received a package from the airline company. Peter replies that MJ and him will be talking plenty to the airline through their lawyers after she gets back. Ben Urich and Betty Brant get involve in the conversation and tell Peter to listen to his aunt. Peter retaliates that none of them understands what he is going through. Even when Arthur Stacy tries to reason with him, Peter lashes out at him and gets madder by the minute. On cue, Mary Jane's sister, Gayle, her two sons, and her niece, Chrissie (last seen years ago in issues of Spectacular Spider-Man) show up at the house. Peter retorts that he's glad they're all there since he wants everyone to hear what he has to say. He goes on explaining that Mary Jane is not dead and that she will be back. He then walks away and into the kitchen. Aunt May follows him in, pulling the box behind her. She tells him that she understands exactly how he feels and that she remembers him denying the death of his parents all those years ago, exactly how he is now denying that Mary Jane is dead. She goes on explaining that he needs to open the box and accept what is inside the box. Peter replies that he can't open the box, that MJ can't be dead. May replies that they will open it together and that she is always there for him. They pull the lid of the box up together and look inside it. Then they shut it back down and Peter says "I'm going to miss her, Aunt May." May replies: "We all will, Peter".