Amazing Spider-Man #128
The Vulture Hangs High
Spider-Man has been dropped from a lethal height by the Vulture, it takes all of his skill and all of his web-fluid in order to make a giant spider-web for him to bounce off of and save himself from the fall. Changing back to Peter Parker, Spidey decides to check out the ESU bio-lab which the Vulture was attacking when he tried to stop him. There he only finds professor Clifton Shallot, who Peter recognizes as the man studying organic mutation at the university until the funding was cut last semester. He decides to find out who the girl the Vulture was attacking, and checking out ESU's records learns that it's a student named Christine Murrow. He realizes that the Vulture's first murder victim was a dead ringer for Christine without glasses and realizes her death was due to mistaken identity.
Checking the morgue files at the Bugle leads Peter to learn that Adrian Toomes (the original Vulture) is still in prison and wonders who is posing as him. After being chewed out by Jameson for not getting pictures of the Vulture's attack on ESU, Peter decides to check out one of his stoolies as Spider-Man to learn where the new Vulture has been since. The stoolie's information takes him to a shipping yard, where Peter is attacked by the Vulture and dumped into the harbor.
Peter survives the episode and realizes that Mary Jane is still at risk and takes a cab to make her go report the attack to the police. Mary Jane agrees this time, but wants to go alone, Peter refuses and takes her into the cab. They are attacked by the Vulture, who causes the cab to crash, stunning everyone on board. The Vulture takes Mary Jane again, and Peter (reviving quickly) changes into Spider-Man and goes after her.
Spider-Man saves Mary Jane again and fights off the Vulture who flees. Spider-Man having deduced the Vulture's true identity takes Mary Jane back to the cab and ensures that the cabby will rush her to the police. Spider-Man then goes back to the ESU bio lab where he confronts Christine Murrow. When the Vulture attacks, Spider-Man defeats him with the mutation reversing serum he created with Curt Connors. The Vulture reverts to his true form, that of Clifton Shallot. Spider-Man reveals to Christine that he deduced Shallot as being the Vulture after the Vulture said a similar phrase that Shallot said to him earlier that day. He then tells her that he figured out how Shallot pulled everything off: When the funding for his research was cut, he took the Vulture's costume he acquired and his mutation device to make himself appear like the Vulture. He then admonishes Christine, who knew of the whole plot for not reporting Shallot to the authorities out of fear, telling her that the murder of an innocent girl could have been avoided if she reported Shallot to the police, to begin with.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Vulture, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Ned Leeds, Christine Murrow
Continuity Notes
Peter recalls how he Aunt May and Uncle Ben adopted him. Parker's biological parents were secret agents that were killed while on a mission. His Aunt and Uncle adopted him shortly thereafter, as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5.
Spider-Man discovers that Adrian Tooms, the original Vulture, is still currently in jail. Chronologically, this would be after his defeat in Spider-Man/Human Torch #2.
