PREVIOUSLY: Having recently encountered and defeated Doctor Octopus, who had taken in hostage his wife Mary Jane and J. Jonah Jameson's wife, Marla, Peter/Spider-Man tries to return to a semblance of a normal life. After all, he who roams the skies in spandex night after night does not really live a normal life.

REVIEW: Lower Manhattan on a brisk spring day. As Spider-Man, Peter Parker is making his way to the scene of an interview when he comes across a lady collapsing in the middle of the street in broad daylight. Spidey swings down and catches the woman before she hits the pavement. Checking her stats, Spidey notes that she is breathing steadily but that she is burning up with a fever and still unconscious. Dropping her off at a nearby hospital, Peter/Spidey heads over to the Forrester Building.

Seconds later, Peter/Spidey finds himself outside near the rooftop. Webbing his automatic camera to a nearby wall, he starts looking around, trying to figure out exactly what is going on. Not far from there, Forrester's men are firing their weapons at a green-eyed yellow-skinned woman surrounded by some kind of greenish aura who's flying around the Forrester building. The woman, who introduces herself as Corona shoots back at the gunmen and neutralizes their weapon within seconds. She then makes her way inside the building. As she walks through the halls of the building, she is suddenly attacked by two of Forrester's henchmen, who spray some kind of energy-retardant foam all over her. As she falls down to her knees, one of the men clobbers her with the butt of his rifle and grabs her in a chokehold. Just then, Dr. Forrester arrives, followed closely by Joy Mercado, who immediately asks him who that woman is. Forrester replies that she is no longer human to which Corona replies that he will pay for that indignity. The henchman holding her pulls on her hair and tells her to show some respect. Just then, Spidey shows up, grabs the man by the collar and lifts him off the ground, telling him to cool down. At that moment, Corona gets her wind back, flares up and heads towards the laboratory. Forrester yells at his men to take off after her, as she must not be allowed access to the lab. But Corona is way too fast and she makes her way in and out of the laboratory in seconds. As she comes out of the lab, she is carrying Cedric's laptop computer, which contains all the working notes on all of his experiments. After having taunted them, she takes off right through the ceiling. Spidey yells at her to hold on but she doesn’t listen. Wanting to know more about this mysterious woman, Spidey takes off after her.

Within seconds, he's caught up to her so he yells at her to slow down so they can talk about what is going on. Corona acquiesces to his demand and lands on a nearby rooftop. As the two get to talk, it is revealed that Corona is in fact Cedric's sister, Dagney, and we are treated to a flashback sequence explaining what happened to her. Corona tells Spidey that the first thing he needs to understand about her brother is that he is utterly ruthless and will allow nothing to prevent him from pursuing his scientific theories. He regards safety regulations as government intrusion on scientific freedom, and as such, he ignores them and when he is caught, he simply pays whatever fines are levied and he continues his work. And if that doesn't work and he can't get the charges dismissed, he enlists the help of some very powerful friends. Corona/Dagney goes on explaining that she was his partner, until he needed a human subject for one of his experiments. She explains that she knew he'd simply abduct some vagrant so she tried to stop him, which made her dangerous to him. This resulted in her being abducted by her own brother and subjected to both chemical and radiation treatments inside a large containment tank. She goes on explaining that Cedric’s experiment worked and she became that which stands before him (i.e. Spidey), a being glowing with power, which is why Cedric dubbed her Corona. Dagney/Corona continues explaining that when she was transformed into Corona, she was confused and disoriented and fled without thinking. She adds that she has been in hiding ever since and explains that Cedric's did not intend to create a super-being, which is why he wants her back, so he can test and analyze her for years, and then destroy. Now shedding tears, Dagney/Corona tells Spidey that she wants to be herself again and that she hopes that his notes will show her how to rid herself of that curse. Spidey tries to comfort her and tells her that being super-powered is not so bad and that she could be doing a lot of good with her powers while searching for a cure. On those words, Corona turns to face Spidey and tells him that she does not want to hear another speech about using her powers for the common good, because that's the garbage she's been hearing since she was a little girl. She adds that the one thing about which she agrees with her brother is that power gives one privilege, not responsibility. As she continues ranting, she suddenly feels a sharp pain in her chest. Spidey asks what's wrong but Corona takes off flying and replies that she is all right and bids him goodbye. As he watches her fly off, he hopes that she'll find what she's looking for and that her brother will end up in jail for what he did to her. As he ponders about that, he realizes that he may have a way to help that happen.

Later, Peter returns to his apartment and finds Mary Jane exercising in front of the television. MJ appears exhausted and tells Peter that she's been guzzling water all day trying to burn off some of her fat. Peter replies that she has no fat to burn and as MJ starts to reply to his compliment, she passes out. A short time later at St. Vincent's hospital, MJ is lying in bed with a terrifyingly high fever. The doctor in charge of her takes Peter aside and tells him that whatever MJ has, it is widespread, as dozens of people in the Soho area have been brought in with the same raging fever, the same sudden fatigue. The doctor adds that they haven't been able to determine what has been causing it though. As Peter takes off, he knows exactly where to start looking for whatever's been causing all these people, and his wife, to be afflicted with burning fevers.

Minutes later, at the offices of the Daily Bugle, Peter meets with Ben Urich to see if he’s been able to find anything incriminating on Cedric Forrester. Unfortunately, Ben hasn't been able to find a thing, neither with the Department of Health or the Mayor's office. Just then, Joy Mercado walks in and tells Peter that she's followed up his hunch on Cedric Forrester and found out that the EPA has a file on him three inches thick but they've never been able to catch him because he has too many powerful friends. Realizing that he is getting nowhere with his investigation, Peter decides to check up on MJ and calls the hospital. He's been talking to her for a few minutes only when he looks out the window and notices a firefight going on around the Forrester Building. MJ tells him to go check it out but Peter refuses to desert her while she's sick. MJ replies that she's got doctors helping her out and that he needs to go out there and help those people. Peter reluctantly agrees and tells MJ that he'll check in as soon as he can.

Meanwhile at the Forrester Building, Cedric Forrester's gunmen are trying to take down Corona, who is flying around the building, shooting energy beams back at them. Peter, as Spider-Man, arrives on the scene and is immediately told by Corona that she's found some alarming information in Cedric’s laptop computer files, which she took earlier. She explains that Cedric knew he wouldn't get the variances he needed to install his laboratory equipment so, as usual, he didn't bother asking anyone and he hooked up directly to the City water main to supply the extra the lab needed. She goes on saying that he ran the water he used through a special purifying system of his own design but during the experiment which transformed her into Corona, the purifier overloaded and the toxic chemicals were flushed directly back into the water main, which is what has been causing the Soho fevers. She adds that Cedric's notes indicate that he's developed an antidote but he's not telling anyone for fear of being found out, so he’s buying silence and leaving all those sick people to die. Ticked off that Cedric is the one responsible for MJ lying in an hospital bed, Spidey takes out his anger on Cedric's gunmen and makes his way inside the building with the help of Corona. Spidey finds Cedric, slams him against a wall, and demands that he gives him the antidote that he's been hiding for fear of being exposed. Frightened, Cedric replies that he has no clue what he's talking about and that he's just completed, at great personal expense, enough antitoxin to serve the City's needs, and that he was just about to inform the Mayor about it being ready for delivery. Spidey is confused and doesn't know what to believe anymore, until Corona reveals to Spidey that she lied to him purposely and that she became Corona willingly and that she would have been even more powerful if it hadn't been for Cedric turning coward and aborting the procedure halfway through. She adds that the chemicals in the antidote will complete the process and fully transform her into Corona and give her power beyond imagining. Pissed, Spidey shoots a webline at her but the webbing dissolves when it comes into contact with her aura. But as Corona continues gloating about becoming powerful, she suddenly experiences a round of severe pain in her chest and slowly collapses to the ground. Spidey asks Cedric what is wrong with her to which he replies that her cells produce vast quantities of energy, which fuel her aura, but her system is under enormous strain. He goes on explaining that because she is only halfway converted, she'll undergo a biological breakdown unless she injects himself with the antidote's chemicals to stabilize the process. He adds that the results of this might lead to her death and that perhaps they should leave before she explodes and contaminates the whole place. Spidey is furious and cannot believe that Cedric would abandon his own sister to die just like that. Corona, who has slowly regained her strength, stands up and stumbles towards the containment tank containing the antidote. Spidey jumps between her and the tank and tells her that he won't let her have the antidote, because dozens of people depend on it, including his wife. Corona replies that she needs it too or else she'll explode and that may cost the lives of more than a dozen people. Spidey turns to Cedric and asks him how long it would take him to prepare another batch of the antidote. Cedric replies that he used his entire stock to prepare the antitoxin and that it would take weeks to procure the ingredients to do it all over again. Corona yells that she cannot wait any longer and warns Spidey to stand aside or face the consequences. As Spidey ponders about what to do, Corona launches herself at him. Warned by his spider-sense, Spidey leaps out of harm's way. Corona turns to face him and lashes out at him with a beam of energy. Spidey ducks and the energy beam strikes the containment unit, spilling the antidote all over the ground, and down the drain in the centre of the floor. Kneeled down, Corona is in tears. Suddenly however, her greenish glow intensifies, energy coursing off of her in waves, blinding Spidey and Cedric. When the glowing subsists, Corona has transformed into a nastier and uglier version of herself. Blaming Spider-Man for what has happened to her, she throws herself at him, screaming that he will pay for this.

To be continued.