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, or 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.

In Peter Parker Spider-Man #19 and #20, Peter finally comes to terms with the recent death of his wife Mary Jane when he opens the box received from the airline company.

ACT 1: Tuesday the Twenty-Seventh, sometime around breakfast. Peter and Randy are going through their fridge looking for something to eat. Well, Peter is anyways. Randy's side of the fridge is packed with food, whereas Peter's side contains a bottle of ketchup, a bottle of barbecue sauce and a moulded piece of cheese. Both move into the living room where Randy asks Peter if he is going to join him and his friends down at the club that night. Peter replies that he doesn't know if he is ready yet as he constantly thinks about Mary Jane and doesn't seem to be able to put her out of his mind. Randy retorts that hanging out with him and his friends might make him feel better but Peter replies that he has too much stuff he needs to sort out in his mind. He adds that there is this one thing he always meant to do when Mary Jane was there but he kept putting it off; he thinks that now may be the right time to do it. What he intends to do is not revealed…yet.

ACT 2: Early afternoon, around lunchtime. Peter has switched to his Spider-Man costume and is out on patrol. He comes across two old people, a man and his wife, who are being mugged by two thieves. He drops in on the two thieves and after exchanging some very brief pleasantries with them and dodging a few bullets from their part, he easily defeats them and webs them up. He then approaches the old couple to see if they are okay but the old lady whacks him in the head with her purse and yells at him to stay away from them. Insulted, Spidey web-slings away, once again under appreciated.

ACT 3: Late afternoon, lunchtime number two, the Parker's residence, Forest Hills Queens. Peter and May are reminiscing about the practical jokes that Uncle Ben used to play on them to skip out of doing his chores. May seems to be really happy that Peter is finding the time to have lunch with her and that they're able to talk about Ben. Peter puts a record on and May and him start dancing all over the living room. Once they're done, Peter tells her that Uncle Ben was right about her having two left feet and being the worst dancer in the universe. May is stunned at first but soon rolls up her dishcloth and gives him a "spankee".

ACT 4: Late afternoon, somewhere around quitting time. A burglary is taking place at a nearby bank. Spidey drops in to find a bunch of angry mimes hidden behind a mime-mobile and shooting at the surrounding cops. In a matter of minutes, he apprehends all of them and delivers them to the police without so much of a complaint from them.

ACT 5: Early evening, dinnertime. Spider-Man meets with Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch and talks about his life problems with him. He also asks him for advice about the thing that he's been meaning to do for his wife, which he put off and that he now wants to do. Johnny replies that he should go ahead and do it.

ACT 6: Bedtime. Way past, as a matter of fact. Peter is sitting in the dark on a box, sweating profusely, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, the voice of an announcer is heard and he, the announcer, introduces Peter as the next act on Open Mike Night at the Comedy Box, a local comedy club. Peter slowly makes his way onstage and begins his routine. One failed joke into his routine, he realizes that he needs newer material. The end.