PREVIOUSLY: Joe Robbie Robertson is found guilty of misprision of felony and sentenced to three years in prison at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately for Robbie, his troubles are far from over when he finds out that Tombstone, whom he helped put in jail, is assigned to the same cellblock. Fortunately for Robbie, a humongous black man named Bruiser comes to his rescue during a particular incident with Tombstone, and the two become good friends. However, Tombstone ends up killing Bruiser during a brutal fight.

Tombstone and a very reluctant Robbie escape from prison in Spectacular Spider-Man #155 by tricking Spider-Man into coming over to the penitentiary and using him as a hostage after drugging him with a virus very similar to that used by the fake Jonah Jameson in Spectacular Spider-Man #153. But as Tombstone and Robbie fly off in a waiting helicopter, they run into some trouble by the name of Spider-Man, who has fought off the virus. The end result of their altercation is Robbie pushing himself and Tombstone out of the moving chopper to save Spider-Man's life, and the two of them disappearing in the forest down below.

A few minutes later, Mary Jane arrives at her and Peter's apartment where she finds Peter in the shower. Peter apologizes for making such a mess of the apartment but Mary Jane is not mad at him. In fact, she is just very glad that he's still alive. Peter, on the other hand, is pretty embarrassed that a guy with paste and grease beat him and also pretty humiliated to lose to such a loser. MJ tells Peter to give himself a break because to her, all that counts is that he's still alive. As Peter hugs MJ, he can't help but wonder why the Trapster attacked him in the first place. He has a bad feeling that something pretty strange is going on.

Meanwhile at the Midtown Office of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of crime, the Kingpin is in a rather bad mood. Standing in his office is a man who came in without any introduction or invitation and is telling him that he mismanaged his campaigns against Spider-Man and Daredevil. The man has also taken the authority to offer his services as a "Power Broker" between him and others in a similar situation. Fisk asks him two questions: what is a Power Broker and why should he let him leave his office alive. The man replies that rather than answering his questions with an explanation, he prefers providing a demonstration of what his employers propose. Having said that, his index finger on his left hand starts to glow and pointing it at a nearby wall, some kind of teleporting door take shapes. The man asks the Kingpin to step through and join the other core members of their enterprise. As he steps through the door, he finds himself in a round chamber with a large round table sitting in the middle surrounded by five chairs, three of which are occupied by the other "core leaders": The Wizard, Dr. Doom, and Magneto. On a television screen hung from the ceiling, The Trapster informs them that he killed Spider-Man. Dr. Doom is astounded and tells the others that it appears their theory was correct: "by trading enemies, we have found a sure path to vengeance against our long-term foes". The Wizard concurs and adds that: "over the years, in battle after battle, our personal enemies have learned our strategies and techniques". Magneto adds to that thought: "They know how to counter our attacks almost instinctively. But, by switching foes, we regain the advantage of surprise. Vengeance is ours by proxy." The Kingpin refuses to believe that the Trapster managed to kill Spider-Man where he failed so many times and demands to see the body. Insulted, the Trapster tells Fisk that he'll get him his proof and that he cannot wait to see him try to defeat the Human Torch. The Trapster then disappears off the screen. The Wizard turns to Fisk and explains that there are certain quid pro quos involved in these acts of vengeance. Fisk immediately understands what he means: a death for a death, an enemy for an enemy.

Meanwhile at the Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, we find Robbie Robertson, one-time editor in chief of the Daily Bugle, about to attend an appeal for his sentence of misprision of felony – an appeal complicated by his recent, unwilling, participation in a prison breakout organized by his life-long enemy, Tombstone. In attendance at the appeal are Randy Robertson and his wife Amanda, Martha Robertson, Robbie's wife, J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie's employer and long-time friend, Nick Katzenberg, Daily Bugle photographer, and Cynthia Bernhammer, Robbie's lawyer. While Martha is given a few minutes to talk to Robbie, Randy asks Mrs. Bernhammer what he odds are for his dad's appeal. She replies that, before the prison breakout, his odds were excellent but now she is not sure where he stands. At that moment, Nick Katzenberg takes his camera out and readies himself to take a shot of Mrs. Bernhammer: "Hold that pose beautiful. This'll go great with a headline: 'Lawyer declares client's case hopeless!'" Mrs. Bernhammer turns to Nick and tells him to take that camera out of her face before she squashes him like a bug. Taken aback, Nick apologizes. Shaking Robbie's hand, Jameson tells him that they'll continue to do everything they can, no matter what it takes or how long it takes. Robbie tells Jonah that he is grateful for the Daily Bugle's financial support. Randy intervenes and informs his dad that Jonah doesn't own the Bugle anymore and that he is funding Mrs. Bernhammer personally. Taken aback by Jonah's amazing generosity, Robbie does not know what to say. Jonah tells Robbie that thanks to Thomas Fireheart he is a rich man and can afford Cynthia's legal fee. Standing nearby, Cynthia tells Jonah that right now they could use a miracle more than money. Suddenly, a very articulated black man, who had been standing nearby, tells them that perhaps he can provide that miracle. The man introduces himself as Stuart McPhee, brother to Lemuel McPhee, a.k.a. Bruiser, whom Robbie befriended in prison before he was killed. Robbie asks him how he can help. Stuart replies that he is an adviser to the White House for Domestic Affairs and that there is a slim change that he can get Robbie a presidential pardon.

Moving right along, we find ourselves at Empire State University where Peter Parker is helping Professor Max Lubisch with one of his physics experiments. Lubisch appears very excited. On the other hand, Peter is afraid that the professor's experiment might overload the university power lines and blow the whole Con-Edison power grid for lower Manhattan. Fearing a catastrophe, Peter asks him if he had the engineering department check the specifications for the machine he's working on. Lubisch replies that he didn't have to since he checked them himself. This does not reassure Peter at all so he asks him what he meant by "tap into unknown energy source", which is what he said to Professor Swann when he asked to borrow Peter to assist him in on this experiment. Lubisch replies that he built many machines back in his homeland and only a few ever malfunctioned. On cue, his machine starts working and locks into an extra-dimensional energy source, just as he had predicted. Peter is not so sure that it is working properly because he can tell that it is overloading the university electrical system. He knows it is not out of control yet but has a bad feeling that it will be soon, judging by the way static electricity is building up around the room they're in. Suddenly, Peter's spider-sense warns him that the machine is about to blow. He flings across the room and pushes professor Lubisch to safety but as he does so, the machine blows up and unknown energies flow right through his body. Lubisch lies unconscious on the ground while Peter, who has absorbed most of the blast, starts feeling weird, his stomach tingling and his mouth tasking like acid and metal. Suddenly, his spider-sense kicks in like he's never felt it so intensely before. He looks out the window and pinpoints the source of danger. Outside, power lines are shorting out, threatening students on the campus squad. Leaving Lubisch – he has started to regain consciousness – Peter switches to his Spider-Man costume and makes his way outside.

The broken power lines are flipping around like hungry eels, students running off in all directions. All of a sudden, one of the power lines goes to strike Spidey. His spider-sense warns him of the danger but for some strange reason he instinctively catches the live power lines with his hands and it shortens out. Looking out the window from his laboratory, Lubisch is flabbergasted. So are the students who, seconds ago, were fleeing the scene. And so is Spidey, who tells himself that he should be dead. The students surround him, asking how he did that. Spidey is so overwhelmed about what just happened that he freaks out and swings off. As he comes to rest on a nearby rooftop, he tries to figure out what just happened down there. Suddenly, his spider-sense kicks in, warning him of danger. He turns around and all he sees is a small fly but it's buzzing so loud and everything around him seems to be so loud. He can hear a small spider crossing a windowpane two blocks from there, leaves rustling in a flower pot, a girl humming to herself and water dripping in a sink in the chemistry lab. Freaked out, Spidey realizes that he must concentrate and try and filter out the noise before it overwhelms him. All of a sudden, he starts hearing the voice of the Trapster, who is miles away at the seaport where they last encountered each other. Putting aside the fact that his senses have been sharpened by his exposure to Professor Lubich's machine's unknown energies, Spidey makes his way to the docks to confront the Trapster. When he gets there, he finds him at the edge of the docks where he is dredging the river to find Spidey's body (to prove to the Kingpin that he did kill Spider-Man). The Trapster is surprised that Spidey is still alive but doesn't waste any time and he clicks on a button located on his utility belt. The button activates the launch of a heat-seeking missile hidden in a van parked near the docks and which is locked onto Spidey's body temperarute signature. The Trapster runs off to safety while Spidey's life flashes before his eyes. Amazingly however, Spidey shoots webbing at the missile and the webbing somehow transforms into a giant webbing-hand that crushes the missile. People in the South Street Seaport Restaurant above – the same one where Peter was supposed to meet Mary Jane in the first act – are flabbergasted; they had no idea Spider-Man's web could do that. The Trapster had no idea either and shoots a bunch of glue balls at Spidey who zaps them into oblivion using beams coming out of his fingertips. The Trapster refuses to believe that Spidey can "do that" and switches his glue-shooters on to full blast to try and take him down. Spidey retaliates by zapping the glue away. He then takes aim at the Trapster's chest and he zaps all the paste pellets that the Trapster carried on this suit. Covered in glue and grease, the Trapster falls to the ground. Spidey approaches him and asks him who hired him to attack him. The Trapster replies that he will soon find out and that one of them will get him. He adds that he was only the second. As people rush out of the restaurant to catch a glimpse of Spidey, Spidey can’t help but wonder what the Trapster meant by that.

To be continued in the pages of Web of Spider-Man #59.