My original plans for Year Two of Spidey were rather radical. I was going to have him replaced by Ricochet while spending the entire year undercover in the Sinister Six. It was a story idea I had come up with a while back and decided to use. However, someone who saw the plot outlines hated it, and as I started to look through a little more, I decided I wasn't wild about it either...it wasn't a Spider-Man story, and it was dangerously close to the kind of inane "event" story that had given us the "Clone Saga." So I modified it and came up with a sketchier, but better, story. As with New Warriors, it's probably good that these never got written. My enthusiasm for the series had been pretty well drained by the time I gave up.

#144 (September Year Three) – "Two Faces" This entire issue is made up of two stories, intercutting with one another. The Bestial Brigade attacks the Daily Bugle, intent on killing anyone who knows the truth about the Hobgoblin. It's up to Johnny Gallo and the Human Torch (called by Spidey last issue) to stop them. Hobgoblin takes Betty Brant hostage, floating high over the city and demanding that Spidey and Torch leave or he'll drop her. Meanwhile, Spidey and Sable attack the Six at their new base, an abandoned power plant in upstate New York. Spidey sees the Spot and mocks him again, resulting in him getting angry and attacking instead of helping them flee. Spidey and Sable do their best against the Six, but Beetle announces that he is a freelance intelligence agent, and he'd like to invite the Six to work with him. Back at the Bugle, the Torch and Gallo leave, trying to figure out what to do. Flash Thompson jumps out the window and onto the goblin glider (high above the street), distracting Hobgoblin long enough for Gallo and Torch to rescue both of them and then take on the Brigade. Back at the power plant, Millovich (Beetle) uses his element of surprise to knock out Spidey. Sable escapes (partly because Millovich still has feelings and owes her debts and lets her go, telling the others he killed her while chasing her) and Spidey is captured. Back at the Bugle, the Brigade realizes they're losing the fight and that the Fantastic Four and/or Avengers are probably on the way, so they flee. Gallo tries to pretend he's the real Spidey, but Johnny knew all along because Spidey told him. His last line to Gallo. "Johnny? Good name." Back at the warehouse, they have chained up Spidey and they unmask him!

#145 (October Year Three) – Mary Jane takes May with her to the Bugle to work on her column. Once there, she finds some very interesting things going on...the Hobgoblin story broke that morning, repair crews are fixing the building after last night's brawl, and Spider-Man is there. When she goes to talk to him, she nearly gives away his secret identity before realizing it isn't Peter under the mask. She finds out that the real Spidey went to take on the Sinister Six. Flash gets a job writing a column for NOW magazine when Joy stops by looking for Peter.

#146 (November Year Three) –Johnny Gallo adopts the mantle of Ricochet. Joy tells Peter she hired someone else as Photo Editor at NOW, partly because they needed one and partly because his lack of interest betrays his true interest in other things, and she encourages him to chase those other things. Peter comes to the decision that he will begin seriously seeking scientific work.

#147 (December Year Three) – Flash's column refuting Jameson's accusations over the years is the talk of the town. Peter, flush with the excitement of finally seeking a science job, tells off Jameson over his Spidey treatment over the years and is told not to come back to the Daily Bugle. The Parker house burns down.

#148 (January Year Four) - Spidey and Ricochet take on Tombstone. Mary Jane and Peter have to figure out where they'll live on only her salary while Peter tries to find a new job, having burned his bridges at the Bugle and NOW. Mary Jane is angry at Peter because he was out being Spider-Man when he could have saved the house, and it also cost him the job at NOW and the Bugle. 

#149 (February Year Four)– Spidey goes to the Vault with Tombstone, Commandment and Hunter after stopping Commandment's robbery (in Vault #15). Spidey joins the VST, thinking of recent trouble, monetary and otherwise, he and Mary Jane have been having.

#150 – (March Year Four) Spidey talks to Mary Jane about the decision to work at the Vault, just for a little while. She talks to her editor about writing her column from Colorado and is told no, which means she has to stay in New York, with Liz Osborn (who has been putting her up.) Story about Ricochet's forays into solo heroism?

#151 – (April Year Four) Liz makes a job offer to Peter to work at Osborn, and he leaps at the chance, flying back this issue. 

#152 – (May Year Four) Closure issue. Peter and Johnny Storm meet for coffee and talk about what's going on in Spidey's life. Some of the story here will be them talking about these developments, some will be actual cutaways. Flash Thompson is writing his new column and seems to be getting along very well, flirting and all, with Joy Mercado. Betty Brant and Ben Urich are chasing their next story. Peter is working for Osborn Chemical (and in one of the bits of story that isn't talked about between the two, we get the sense of lurking danger since Kingpin owns the company now). Mary Jane and Liz Osborn are hunting for a new house or apartment for Peter, Mary and May. Ricochet is acting as a solo hero now. Millovich reports in to his shadowy superiors and is congratulated on procuring the Beetle armor. Jameson is railing at his photographers, telling them that "none of you are fit to polish Parker's camera lenses! I miss that kid."