Chapter 1
The girl and the spiderPeter Parker lived next door to Mary Jane Watson (MJ).
They went to the same school. Peter liked MJ a lot, but henever told her. She already had a boyfriend. His name wasFlash. He was good-looking and he was the school’s top
football player.
One day their class went to the Columbia Genetic
Research Institute*. Peter was late. He ran behind the bus,
then at last it stopped. He was red and hot and everyone
laughed at him. As Peter walked down the bus, Flash put
his foot out. Peter crashed to the floor. Everyone laughedlouder.
The bus arrived at the Institute. Harry Osborn wasn’t on
the bus. He arrived in a big car – a Rolls Royce – with hisfather and a driver.
Harry was new to the school and he wasn’t good atscience. Peter was fantastic at science and he often helped
Harry. They were good friends.
‘Peter, this is my father,’ said Harry.
‘Ah, the great scientist!’ said Norman Osborn. ‘I’m ascientist too. Your mother and father must be happy!’ saidMr Osborn.
‘I live with Uncle Ben and Aunt May,’ said Peter. ‘Yes,
they are happy.’‘Hey, you two!’ called the teacher, ‘Let’s go!’A woman took the class to see some spiders.
* A science school – part of Columbia University
6‘There are 32,000 different spiders in the world,’ shesaid, ‘… and these. These fifteen spiders are special. We
took the best bits from three different spiders and put
them together.’‘There are only fourteen,’ said MJ.
‘Oh,’ said the woman. ‘Maybe someone is doing somework on Number 15.’
Peter took some photos of MJ with the spiders for theschool newspaper.

‘Ow! What was that?’ he thought. The back of hishand was red. And there on the floor was … a spider. Thespider! Spider Number 15.
‘Parker, let’s go!’ said the teacher.

Chapter 2
The special gas
Norman Osborn arrived at OsCorp*. Important buyers
were there that day. First they looked at Osborn’s newglider. The glider worked beautifully. But the buyers* Mr Osborn’s big scientific workplace7

didn’t want the glider. They asked questions about
OsCorp’s special gas.
‘It makes you very, very strong,’ said Dr Stromm,Osborn’s top scientist. ‘But it can also make you very
angry and crazy,’ he said. ‘We need more tests.’‘The gas must be ready in two weeks,’ said the buyers.
‘We need it then.’Soon there was green gas everywhere in the room.
Osborn tried to shout. Stromm stopped the gas. But it was
too late – Osborn was dead!
Stromm ran into the room. Suddenly Osborn’s eyesopened. He was a different man now. His body was verystrong. And he was very angry. He took Stromm in hishands. In seconds, Stromm was dead.

Norman Osborn and Dr Stromm were at OsCorp latethat evening.
‘I’m going to test the gas. It must work.’‘No, Mr Osborn,’ said Stromm. ‘The gas isn’t ready yet.
Give me two more weeks.’‘Two weeks is too late,’ said Osborn. ‘Just start it when
I’m ready.’
Osborn went into a special room. Stromm closed thedoors after him and started the gas.

Peter had a terrible night. When he woke up, hethought, ‘Am I dead?’ Slowly he started to move.
‘No!’ he said, ‘I feel fantastic!’ His body was beautiful
and very strong. He looked across the room. ‘I can see
much better, too.’ This was a new Peter Parker.

Later that day Peter was in the lunch-room at school. MJ
sat with Flash a few tables behind Peter.
‘My hands feel different,’ Peter thought. He looked
closer at his right hand. Suddenly, a line of spider-webbing
shot from his hand across the room. It shot onto some foodon the next table. Peter watched the food fly across theroom. It hit Flash! He turned and saw Peter. ‘Parker!’Peter ran out of the lunch-room but Flash followed him.
Peter turned. Flash tried to hit him, but Peter moved tooquickly. Flash tried again and again to hit Peter. Then Peter
hit Flash. And he hit him right across the room!

Peter ran out of the school. He went down a street
between two tall buildings. He wanted to test his newbody. He went up a wall. He went higher and higher. At
the top he looked down at the road with its little cars.
Then he ran and jumped from building to building.
89‘Whoohoo!’ he shouted.
He stopped on one building.
‘Now,’ he thought, ‘I’m going to try this spider-webbing.’
He put his hands in front of him and looked at thebuilding opposite. At first nothing happened. Then longlines of strong webbing shot from his hands.
He took a line of the webbing and jumped. ‘Woohoo!
Now I can fly!’Peter came home late that night. He heard shouts from
MJ’s house. He went into the garden. MJ’s back door
opened. MJ walked into her garden and saw Peter.
‘Did you hear that?’ she asked.
‘No … er … well, I heard something.’‘You can always hear us, right?’ Then she smiled. ‘So,school finishes soon. What’s next for you?’‘I want to live in Manhattan. I want to be a
photographer. What about you?’‘Yeah, I’m going to live in the city, too. I want a job onBroadway*.’* A famous street in New York. You can see lots of plays and music shows here.
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