In Amazing Spider-Man #2, after realizing that no one but him could stop the creature known as Shadrac (a.k.a. Greg Herd, a.k.a. Override), Peter made the fateful decision of reassuming the responsibility of being Spider-Man. This came after Mattie Franklin, who was granted the gift of power during the Gathering of Five ceremony, failed to perform as well as the real Spider-man when she adopted his identity when he decided to call it quits. Peter's wife, Mary Jane, who is away on photo shoots regularly doesn't know that Peter is still Spider-Man, although she is slowly starting to become suspicious.

In Amazing Spider-Man #9-10, Mary Jane, who is away on a photo shoot, is still receiving phone calls from an apparent stalker/obsessed fan. Upon receiving his latest call, she rushes back to New York.

In Amazing Spider-Man #11, Peter, as Spider-Man, tries to meet MJ but is slowed down by an encounter with the Blob. Meanwhile, Mary Jane and Jill Stacy are inside a limousine, when, all of a sudden, an explosion stops the car dead in his tracks. Mary Jane is utterly terrified when she gets out of the car and sees a huge banner which bears the following message: "You belong to me!". At that moment, Spider-Man arrives, swings down to her, and takes her away, telling her that it's going to be okay.

ACT 1: The Jungles of Thailand. Ultama "Tom" Somechart is on the run from the police for having painted graffiti; a crime which is dealt with quite severely in Thailand. As he makes his way into the Jungle, he comes across an abandoned temple into which he hides from the police. While in the temple, some strange light catches his attention so he ventures deeper into the temple. He reaches the light source: a large red diamond is floating a few feet above some kind of pedestal. He begins hearing a voice, calling him closer to the diamond. As he comes into contact with the diamond, he yells: "we are one!" and the diamond explodes into a burst of light.

ACT 2: Mary Jane is furious with Peter for having reassumed his costumed identity and having lied to her about it. To a certain level, she can understand why Peter has to be Spider-Man but she does not appreciate the fact that she was lied to. Peter replies that he'll wait for her forgiveness and asks her to tell him about the stalker. She tells him all she knows and he then proceeds to drop her off at Jill Stacy's house in Queens, where Jill has been frantically waiting to find out if she was okay. While there, Jill mentions to them that her father, Arthur Stacy, was gone when she got home and his gun cabinet was empty. Peter offers head to the Daily Bugle to see if anyone there knows how to get hold of Spider-Man. Jill doesn't realize that she's just told Spider-Man (Peter Parker IS Spider-Man!!).

ACT 3: Peter heads to the Daily Bugle where all hell is breaking loose as a result of a power outage in the building. Peter's spider-sense suddenly starts buzzing so he disappears into a (unused) staircase to switch into his Spider-Man costume. Using his spider-sense, he pinpoints the source of the buzzing. As he rips open a small door, he is flabbergasted to see that a secret underground lair of hi-tech machinery exists below the Daily Bugle building. A strange individual clad in a heavy costume, whom Spider-Man assumes is the creator of those machines, is sitting in front of a very large control panel several feet below. Spidey tries to engage him in some clever super-hero banter but that doesn’t work so he decides to shoot two strains of webbing in his direction to catch his attention. However, before the webbing can even hit the individual, a scream is heard and some kind of mist redirects the webbing back towards him and he gets caught in his own webbing. The mist takes the shape of a woman named Tempest who bluntly reveals to our hero their plans, which is to somehow enslave humanity. At the same time, another villain called Carnivore emerges from the mist and slashes Spidey in the back. Our hero falls in pain to the ground below. As he struggles to get back up, he comes face to face with the Exemplar: Juggernaut, Stonecutter (i.e. the one controlling the machine), Tempest, Carnivore, Bedlam, Decay and Inferno. Outnumbered, Spider-Man flees the scene before the Exemplar are able to catch him.

ACT 4: Spidey heads over to the Avengers Mansion to get help. There, he finds Iron Man and Thor, who both have had run-ins with the Exemplars in the past few weeks. They tell Spidey to stay at the Mansion and they immediately make their way towards the Daily Bugle. He also meets an archeologist by the name of Doctor J. Vernon, who tells him that he has studied the Exemplars and has even deciphered some of their plans. Doctor Vernon decides to go along with Iron Man and Thor as they may need his help, leaving our hero to wonder why no one trusts him to carry his own weight around there. Spidey does not get discouraged and even comes up with a good idea that actually originates from his earlier encounter with the Exemplar.

ACT 5: A short time later, Spidey shows up at the Daily Bugle accompanied by the astral form of none other than Professor Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men. They make their way to the secret underground lair, where they immediately find Thor and Iron Man surrounded by the Exemplar and trying to protect Dr. Vernon. Dr. Vernon tells Iron Man and Thor to forget about him and to concentrate on preventing the Stonecutter from placing the last component within the machine structure. Overhearing this, Spidey and Professor X jump in the melee. While Professor X distracts the Juggernaut and tries to penetrate his mind using telepathy, Spidey makes his way towards the Stonecutter, helping Thor and Iron Man in the process by webbing up some of the Exemplars. Just as the Stonecutter is about to place the last piece in the machine structure, Spider-Man arrives and pulls the piece out of his hands using a webline. He tries to break the component but he is not strong enough. At that moment, the Exemplar known as Decay appears behind our hero. Quickly thinking, Spidey throws the component in Decay's direction. Decay instinctively catches the component, which starts decomposing as Decay's super power makes everything he touches decay. The component explodes sending Spider-Man flying in the air. Nearby, the Juggernaut somehow manages to pull Professor X's physical self to their current location by reaching through his astral form. Professor X falls to the ground next to the other beaten-up heroes. The villains are now all gone, having fled the scene. All that remains are Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man and Doctor Vernon. Professor X tells them that he telepathically caught a glimpse of Stonecutter’s thoughts during their battle and with the destruction of the God machine component, he immediately launched a new plan. One, which will transport them to the North Pole and use the Earth's own ley lines to make up for the missing component. Professor X adds that heaven only knows what they can do next. To find out this answer read The Juggernaut #1 issue.