PREVIOUSLY: Peter Parker's life over the last few issues has been a roller coaster ride. His long-time friend and mentor, Joe Robbie Robertson, had his back broken by the hitman known as Tombstone, with whom he shared a somewhat shady history. As Spider-Man, Peter defeated Tombstone and sent him to jail, and Robbie confessed to the Justice Department to having lied about murders Tombstone committed twenty years earlier because he was scared of his retribution.

Before being caught by Spider-Man, Tombstone was working for the Arranger and kidnapped Roland Rayburn, a mutant with the ability to persuade others to do his will. The Arranger experimented on Rayburn and helped him increase his powers of persuasion; he also gave him a new name: The Persuader. In turn, the Persuader kidnapped The Punisher, who was in New York tracking down Tombstone and after ten hours of persuasion, convinced him to join the Kingpin’s army. Spider-Man had joined forces with The Punisher earlier in the issue to track down Tombstone and became aware that The Punisher was nowhere to be found.

Back at the television studio, Peter Parker and Tama Janowitz are on their way out of the studio when they are accosted by Louis Baxter III, who gives them a speech about self-absorption being the key to self-promotion. He then climbs aboard his convertible and speeds off, leaving Peter and Tama standing in his dust. Tama asks Peter out to dinner and he agrees.

Three hours later in his room overlooking Mission Bay, Peter is on the phone with Mary Jane, who is back in New York City. He tells her all about his (miserable) day and that he misses her very much. After telling each other that they love each other, they hang up. Peter switches to his Spider-Man costume and takes off into the San Diego night.

After an hour of web-slinging, Spidey comes to rest atop a building overlooking Mission Bay. As he looks across the bay to the marina and ponders about Mary Jane, a huge explosion rips apart a boat anchored in the bay. At first, Spidey is resilient to go check it out since he assumes the police, firefighters and paramedics will take care of it but his sense of responsibility gets the better of him and he finds himself heading towards the marina seconds later. He web-slings down closer to the action and eavesdrop on a conversation between two policemen. One of the cops has a boomerang in his hands, which he found at the scene of the crime, and this forewarns Spidey that there might be more behind this than meets the eye. On cue, his spider-sense kicks in and after looking around to pinpoint the source (of danger), he notices a shadowy figure atop a nearby rooftop that seems to be peeking at what is happening down at the marina. Spidey swings towards the figure and just as he arrives within meters of him, the figure spots him and screams his name in shock. The figure, who is revealed to be Boomerang grabs one of his boomerang and throws it at Spidey. Spidey dodges it and laughs at Boomerang for having missed his shot. Boomerang replies that he didn't miss, which confuses Spidey. Just as Spidey flips around and grabs onto a flagpole, the boomerang, now revealed to be a razor-sharp boomerang, turns around and ends up cutting the flagpole clean, which sends Spidey falling to the ground. Boomerang uses that opportunity to flee the scene while Spidey fends off the gunfire of the San Diego police that have arrived on the scene and are suspecting Spidey of having caused the explosion. As he swings away, Spidey knows that, although he didn't want to be involved in this at first, he now is right in the middle of things.

The next morning, at the offices of the Daily Bugle in New York City, Joe "Robbie" Robertson – a walker for support – makes his triumphant return under the applause of his fellow co-workers. But minutes into his thank-you speech, two US marshals enter the office and arrest Robbie for obstruction of justice and being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Back in San Diego, Peter is busy signing copies of his book at a local bookstore when he realizes that he has a dinner date with Louis Baxter III at the Mission Bay marina. He tells the bookstore manager that he'll be back in a couple hours and takes his leave. A few minutes later, he arrives at the marina and sits across Louis. Peter tries his best to convince Louis that someone wants him dead but Louis doesn't want to hear anything about it, telling Peter that no one could possibly want to kill him. At that moment, Artie Crippen shows up and accuses Louis of bribing officials to change the racing rules, forcing him to redesign his ship at the last minute, and almost getting "The Defiant", Artie's ship, impounded at US customs. Louis brushes off the accusations and introduces Peter to Artie and vice-versa. Suddenly, Peter's spider-sense kicks him, alerting him of impending danger. He looks up to the sky and spots Boomerang flying in their direction. He dismounts his chair and tackles Louis to the ground, just as a boomerang comes crashing through the window and begins emitting a really loud noise, which causes all those in attendance to cover their ears. Then another boomerang is thrown and it strikes Artie right in the throat killing him on the spot. Visibly and genuinely broken up, Louis falls to his knees and bends over Artie, trying to revive him. Peter runs off into the marina's kitchen and switches to his Spider-Man costume, all the while thinking about the fact that a minute before Boomerang attacked them, he had believed Artie to be the one behind the assault on Louis' boat. Peter/Spider-Man then heads off outside where Boomerang is still hanging around for another shot, or is he? Police sirens are heard in the distance so Boomerang decides to take his leave but Spidey, who has swum unnoticed underwater, emerges from the water and grabs a hold of his leg. Furious, Boomerang flies upwards, hoping that Spider-Man will let go, but that doesn't work. He then violently kicks Spidey in the face but our hero holds on. He even throws a boomerang at Spidey but Spidey easily dodges it. All the while, Spidey tries to get Boomerang to come clean about who hired him. Suddenly, Boomerang activates his jet-boot, and the thrust produced by his boots hit Spidey right in the face stunning him in the process. Spidey starts free falling towards the bay below so he angles his fall and perfectly dives into the water. As he swims underwater, he is furious that he has absolutely no more idea who is behind all of this than he had ten minutes ago.

Back at the marina, Louis Baxter III is giving his statement to the police and is telling them that Boomerang was aiming at him and that he hit Crippen by mistake. He adds that Boomerang was also responsible for the attempt to destroy his yacht and concludes that someone hired Boomerang to sabotage the next day’s race. Eavesdropping from a nearby rooftop, Spidey agrees with what Baxter is saying but what he'd like to know is who is behind all of this and why. Spidey realizes that he's going to have to call Mary Jane to let her know that he won't be back in New York the next day, as planned.

That night, at a mansion somewhere in La Jolla, Boomerang receives a check for three hundred thousand dollars from the mastermind behind all of this: Louis Baxter the Third. Baxter tells Boomerang that his plan worked and that everybody believed he was the target of his attack, thus when Crippen was killed, everyone assumed he was aiming at him. Hence, Crippen is dead, Baxter's reputation is protected from his exposure and "The Champion" is ready for the next day's race. Baxter does mention however that there is only one small complication threatening on the horizon: Spider-Man. Boomerang grabs one of his boomerangs and destroys the "Webs" book sitting atop Baxter's desk. Boomerang then tells his benefactor that he will personally take care of Spider-Man for free.

To be continued.