This is where this issue picks up.

REVIEW: Daily Bugle photographer Lance Bannon arrives on the scene of the explosion but firefighters will not let him get closer to the club. He doesn't have to get any closer because, just then, Spider-Man shows up to save the life of a young girl trapped inside her apartment, surrounded by smoke. Bannon is ecstatic to have been able to take a picture of Spidey in action and even more ecstatic about the prospect of getting a bonus from J. Jonah Jameson. As Spidey gently and safely lowers the young girl to the street below, something else catches his attention at street level: Tombstone about to pounce on another man (Flash Thompson, but Spidey does not know that...yet).

Flash tries his best to stop Tombstone but to no avail. Tombstone punches Flash in the stomach, then in the face, then prepares to deliver the deathblow. Thankfully (for Flash's sake), Spidey is finally descending upon them and tells Tombstone to calm down. Enraged, Tombstone throws Flash at Spidey, who catches him, then he jumps in the ambulance and drives off. Spidey tries to snag the ambulance with a spider-tracer but the extra weight of Flash on his shoulder prevents him from doing so. It is just then that Spidey realizes that the man he just saved is none other than Flash, who – struggling to remain conscious – tells Spidey to "go get him".

The next morning at the Parker apartment, Mary Jane wakes up to find Peter sitting on the edge of the bed, looking depressed. She asks what happened and he explains what happened the night before with Tombstone and Flash. She tells him not to feel guilty over it since he probably saved Flash's life. Peter replies that he doesn't feel guilty so much as he doesn't want to lose another one of his friends (he recently lost Harry Osborn in Spectacular Spider-Man #200). Just then, Felicia Hardy, as Black Cat comes down the skylight and gets mad at Peter for not calling her the night before to tell her that Flash had been hurt (Felicia is dating Flash); she forces Peter to reveal that Tombstone was behind the brutal beating and takes off as quickly as she came in. This altercation turns out to be a revelation to MJ who suddenly realizes that Felicia honestly loved Flash and that she did not use Flash as an excuse to stay close to Peter. Peter comments that she is reading too much into this, just as the doorbell rings. Liz-Allen Osborn enters the apartment and, wasting no time on small talk, cuts right to the chase and tells Peter and MJ that she is moving to Montana with Little Normie and that she has sold the apartment building, therefore they have thirty days to move out. Peter and MJ are pretty much left speechless.

The council of gangs is reunited and meeting with Tombstone about the rejection of his recent application to join the council. One of the members tells Tombstone that, just because he opened a seat on the council by taking out Hammerhead doesn't mean he immediately gets that seat. Tombstone replies that the seat is his and that he wants it. He explains that once you sit on the council, you become a crimelord among crimelords. He adds that nobody deserves the action more than him. Having said that, he grabs hold of a nearby gun and crushes it in his hand. Having had enough, one of the members stands up, bangs his fist on the table and tells Tombstone that he doesn't have the guts, the brains or the diplomacy necessary to be a member of the council. Offended but keeping his cool, Tombstone asks the member to identify himself; the member reveals himself to be none other than Nick Kaska. Kaska tells Tombstone that threats will not give him a place on the council but that proof will. Having said that, Kaska tells Tombstone that if he kills Spider-Man, he'll get a seat on the council. Unfazed, Tombstone replies that he is not asking to join the council, he is taking, but if they really want Spider-Man dead, then he is okay with it and will take care of it. He leaves the boardroom and his thoughts reveal to us that once Spider-Man is dead, he will take care of Kaska and the others one by one. Back in the boardroom, Kaska revels in the fact that Tombstone has no chance against Spider-Man, who has defeated him every time they've encountered each other before.

Later that morning at the Daily Bugle offices, Peter shows up to get his photo assignment. He runs into an ecstatic J. Jonah Jameson who shows him a photo, taken by Lance Bannon, of Spider-Man allegedly destroying a building near the site of the explosion (at the Kaska Club); of course, we all know that wasn't the case – Spidey was actually saving a little girl but the angle of the picture doesn't show that. Jameson tells Peter what his plans are for the picture, which obviously includes an anti-Spider-Man editorial. Furious, Peter storms out of the newsroom. Just then, Robbie Robertson shows up and asks Jonah if he told Peter about Nick Katzenberg trying to reach him. Jameson doesn’t seem to like Nick anymore and, storming back to his office, tells Robbie that the Bugle is not an answering service.

Peter has switched to his Spider-Man costume and is web-slinging across the City when he notices the Black Cat swinging nearby; he decides to follow her to mend the fences. Meanwhile, in an abandoned warehouse (what a cliché!), Tombstone and his henchmen are gearing up to take down Spider-Man, whom they have been tracking, apparently. Suddenly, the Black Cat comes crashing their party and attacks them. She manages to take out two of Tombstone's henchmen and is even able to scratch Tombstone in the face before he knocks her out with one heck of a solid punch. Tombstone prepares to tear her apart when Spidey shows up and tackles him. Tombstone gets back on his feet and tries to shoot him but Spidey dodges the bullets, thanks to his trusty spider-sense. Tombstone's henchmen, wanting to help their boss out, start shooting at the two of them, knowing full well that nothing can hurt him. Distracted by their weapons firing, Spidey cannot avoid being grabbed in the face by Tombstone. Spidey struggles to break free from Tombstone's powerful grip so he resolves to throw the two of them through the wall and plummeting into the river, where the two of them sink to the bottom. Tombstone's henchmen watch on, wondering when they will resurface. Finally, one of them resurfaces: Tombstone; and he's holding Spidey's mask.

To be continued.

WRITER: STEVEN GRANT
PENCILS: WALTER MCDANIEL
INKS: SAM DELAROSA
COLORS: MICHAEL HIGGINS
LETTERS: MICHAEL HIGGINS
EDITOR: MARK POWERS
GROUP EDITOR: DANNY FINGEROTH
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: TOM DEFALCO

REVIEW: J. Jonah Jameson is so happy with Lance Bannon for those pictures of Spider-Man that he wants to take him out to lunch. Jameson is so ecstatic that he invites Joy Mercado, Gloria Grant and Robbie Robertson to tag along. They head over to a burger joint. When the time comes to pay the bill, Jameson runs into some problems with the waitress but when Gloria Grant accidentally reveals that they work for the Daily Bugle, the waitress is so excited that she tells everybody in the restaurant that they (Jonah, Robbie, Joy, Gloria and Lance) work for the Daily Bugle. Hearing that, the other patrons come over and start asking them questions that do not sit well with Jameson, as most of them think the Daily Bugle is a joke. Totally furious, Jameson storms out of the restaurant, leaving the others to cover for the bill.

Twelve hours later, Robbie Robertson lies in bed when he receives a phone call from Marla Jameson, Jonah's wife, telling him that Jonah hasn't come back home yet. Robbie explains what happened earlier at the restaurant, which makes Marla realize that something terrible is going to happen, as the paper is more important to Jonah than his own child.

To be continued.