This is confusing. The cover of this comic seems to say it is “The Thousand,” but for that circular logo that says “Tangled Web” in it. But this is in fact the series that will eventually become Spider-Man’s Tangled Web.
This first story is by the team behind DC’s cult classic Hitman: Garth Ennis and John McCrea. You might expect it to be creepy and offbeat. And it is.
It starts with Spider-Man fighting Rhino.
But he’s being watched by a guy in a diner. That guy turns out to be “The Thousand.” While in High School, he was one of the guys who used to pick on Peter Parker but after he saw Parker get bit by a spider and get powers, he decided to eat the spider (which was dead by the time he got to it). His body turned into a hive of spiders and he ate his own mom from the inside out, and learned that when he did that he could then occupy the skin of dead people.
After some run-ins and development of The Thousand as a character, Spider-Man ends up burning most of the hive of spiders and then a bystander steps on the last one.
Nobody ever used this villain again, unsurprisingly.
I know this kind of Spider-Man tale is not for everyone, but I’m a fan.