JMS takes us back, via flashback, to Peter’s High School days when one kid was picked on even more than Parker himself: Charlie Weiderman.
No, you didn’t miss anything back when you were reading Stan and Steve’s issues of Amazing Spider-Man. This is a very minor retcon of Peter Parker being the biggest wimp. Turns out, he was the second biggest.
Weiderman re-enters Peter’s life to ask his help in getting a job with Tony Stark, which Peter does and Charlie lands the job. Turns out, though, that Charlie is doing secret experiments that fuse his skin with vibranium. He’s a new version of Molten Man.
This makes him go nuts and attack the people who used to bully him.
Spider-Man has to use science to essentially turn Charlie into a living statue. But before he can do that, Charlie destroys Aunt May’s home…
This is a perfect self-contained Spider-Man story, with great characters. It’s consistent with Spider-Man’s past. Great stuff.
What else is great about it is that alongside the action parts of the story, JMS continues to develop Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship as the cutest one in comicdom.
And one of the sexiest.
They act like a real couple.