Spider-Man, suffering from a cold after his Canadian adventure, stumbles across a robbery of meteor rocks at the Museum of Natural History. Melted glass and charred footprints mark the scene. Retreating from the investigating policemen, who naturally think he’s involved, he changes into Peter Parker and runs into his old High School classmate Liz Allan. Meanwhile, Mark Raxton throws his hotel concierge out of his room for snooping. She retaliates by calling the Daily Bugle about him. Peter brings the troubled Liz to Mary Jane’s nearby apartment where she passes out from exhaustion. Ned Leeds follows up the concierge’s tip, arriving just as the building explodes. Racing in to help, Ned encounters Raxton, who appears to be burning. At the Bugle, Robbie assigns Peter to join Ned. He arrives as Spidey to find Ned unconscious. Raxton attacks; his evolving molten skin-coating driving his body heat to 300 degrees. They battle until Raxton accidentally falls from the building. Landing on a fire hydrant, he uses the resulting steam to cover his escape. Spidey takes Ned to a nearby hospital, where he’s admitted with radiation poisoning, contracted from Raxton’s stolen meteors. Also exposed, Peter collapses in the hospital’s hall.