PREVIOUSLY: In Kraven's Last Hunt, by J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck, in which Kraven the Hunter commits suicide, the creature known as Vermin is captured by Spider-Man and sent to the Ravencroft Institute where Dr. Ashley Kafka begins working hard to try and cure him, as he used to be a human before the infamous Baron Zemo turned him into a half-rat half-human creature.

In the last few issue of Spectacular Spider-Man, Harry Osborn began hearing voices in his head. He seemed to recognize the voice but his reaction told us that whoever was speaking to him should not have been able to (it is assumed that this person should be dead). So who was the person behind the voice?

In Spectacular Spider-Man #178, Vermin escapes from Ravencroft. While hiding in the sewers, he comes across a young boy who begs him to take him home. Vermin and the boy make their way to the boy's home, which also happens to be Vermin's home. What is the connection between the young boy and Vermin?

In Spectacular Spider-Man #179, Vermin enters his home but when attempting to climb in bed with his father, the latter manages to grab a gun and shoots him in the shoulder. Vermin flees the scene, leaving the young boy behind.

Spider-Man pays another visit to Dr. Kafka (at Ravencroft) who reveals to him that Vermin was sexually molested by his father as a child. While there, Vermin shows up begging Dr. Kafka to help him. But Vermin picks up Spidey's scent and tries to take off. Spidey intercepts him and beats him to an inch of his life before Dr. Kafka begs him to stop. She then tries to reason with Vermin but the latter bites her and orders his rats to attack her while he flees. Luckily, Spidey rescues her.

Also in this issue, Harry Osborn continues hallucinating the ghost of his deceased father, Norman Osborn, which causes him to have bouts of insanity. At issue's end, Norman's ghost appears to Harry, the Green Goblin costume in hand, and tells him that his time has come.

In Spectacular Spider-Man #180, Harry Osborn finally falls prey to the hallucinations of his dead father and takes over (again) the mantle of the Green Goblin. He attacks Peter/Spider-Man while the latter returns home from patrol and manages to render him unconscious. As the issue concludes, Harry pulls Peter's Spider-Man mask off and informs him that the war must not be settled between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man but between Harry Osborn and Peter Parker.

Edward's mother is at home lying in bed, looking at a family photo album. She comes across a picture of Edward sitting on Santa Claus' laps. She seems deeply affected.

Meanwhile, at the Ravencroft Institute, Dr. Kafka is looking at Edward/Vermin's file and is distressed when she comes across a picture of Vermin hiding in a corner of his cell.

Meanwhile in an abandoned warehouse, Harry Osborn stands above Peter Parker, as he lies unconscious on the ground, still drugged from his earlier encounter with Harry, which led him here. As Peter slowly regains consciousness, Harry apologizes for attacking him and taking him prisoner. He then goes on explaining that he did what he did because he feels that every time he finds a little peace inside himself and starts to believe that his father, Norman, was a good man, he sees Peter in his face reminding him that his father was the Green Goblin and that he committed unspeakable crimes. As he asks Peter why he won't let him forget that his father was a criminal, Harry grabs him in a chokehold and punches him several times. Peter falls to the ground, still dazed and confused, incoherently trying to reason with Harry. Harry continues explaining how it must have been an accident that Gwen (Stacy) died and that, even if it wasn't, it did not give Peter the right to kill his father. Slowly putting the Goblin mask on, Harry tells Peter that he's had to live all these years with all these bottled-up emotions that are now resurfacing, which is why Harry Osborn has to go away and the Goblin has to come back. Having said that, Harry grabs hold of a small pumpkin and pulls the top off of it. The pumpkin immediately begins releasing some kind of gas. Within seconds, Peter has lost consciousness.

When Peter awakens, he finds himself at the mercy of an hallucination. In it, he is in a cemetery surrounded by tall tombstones, one of which bears the following inscription: "Here lies Spider-Man, slain by the Hunter". Seeing this, Peter freaks out and attempts to run away but the ground beneath his feet won't allow him to. Suddenly, a hand grabs the back of his costume and pulls him towards parts unknown. The hand then sets him down on the ground. When Spidey turns around to face the possessor of the hand, he comes face-to-face with a larger-than-life Kraven the Hunter, whose skull is half-gone, the result of having blown his brains out in the Kraven's Last Hunt mini-series. Kraven torments Spidey for not doing a thing to stop him from committing the greatest sin of all (i.e. killing himself) and begins laughing hysterically. Recognizing the real voice behind Kraven's laughter, Spidey realizes that this Kraven is an impostor. Just then, the fake Kraven reveals himself as being the Green Goblin (i.e. Harry) in disguise. The Goblin strangely grows in proportion before our eyes, all the while mocking Spidey. He then takes flight and grabs Spidey by the top of his head. He carries him to the grave of Nathan Lubinsky, then to the grave of Ned Leeds, then finally to the grave of his own father, Norman Osborn.

Continuing from the first paragraph, which showed video footage of Vermin freaking out in his cell – the result of him finding out that Dr. Kafka was unavailable – Ravencroft security guards and nurses enter his cell to try and sedate him. But it does not bode well for them, as Vermin flips out and murders them all, one after the other.

Back at the cemetery, the giant Green Goblin drops Spidey in the middle of a ring of tombstones all bearing the names of someone that died as a direct and indirect result of Peter's actions. As Spidey runs towards his Uncle Ben's tombstone and kneels down in front of it, the Goblin gives him a hard time about how he constantly torments himself about what he could have done to prevent bad things from happening to the people he loves. The Goblin goes on explaining that the root of the problem started with his mother and father and as he says that, the ghostly figures of Richard and Mary Parker emerge from the shadows and move towards Peter/Spidey, who is now represented as a child Spider-Man. They are about to touch him when Peter/Spidey emerges out of his hallucinatory state inside the warehouse in which he was in earlier and starts screaming at the top of his lungs, while Harry Osborn/the Green Goblin watches on. Peter/Spidey goes on a blind rampage inside the warehouse, demolishing everything in sight. Standing nearby, Harry/the Green Goblin realizes that something is wrong with Peter so he takes off his mask and draws near Peter to try and calm him down. But in his blind rage, Peter grabs hold of Harry and throws him into a wall, knocking him out. Peter/Spidey, sans mask, then makes his way out of the warehouse and takes off into the night, dazed and confused, blaming himself for the death of his parents.

Edward Whelan's (a.k.a. Vermin) father is lying in bed, looking at a picture of himself with Edward sitting on his lap, when a large rat suddenly falls right on top of the picture. Frightened but quick, he throws the picture (and the rat) to the ground, where it shatters (the picture, not the rat). Just then, Vermin shows up in the room, holding his mother by her hair, and tells his father that he's come back to kill him.

To be continued.