* 1ST APPEARANCE "BLUE BOYS"

From the rafters of a warehouse, someone is spying on a group of men offloading stolen electronics. Suddenly, the transport is interrupted by members of the Blue Boys, a gang of criminals who wear blue hoods over their heads. As a gun battle erupts, the man in the rafters starts taking photographs. Elsewhere, Spider-Man is web-slinging across the city, thinking about his recent encounter with Captain Kris Keating, and is convinced that the police officer has some kind of personal vendetta against him. The wall-crawler is getting fed up with swinging all over the city because he wants to give up his crime-fighting career, but cannot do so until he finds Flash Thompson and clears his name. Hearing gunshots, Spider-Man crashes in on the gang battle in the warehouse. He makes short work of both groups. When the battle is over, his spider-sense is still ringing. Suddenly, the Hobgoblin comes crashing through the wall. Apparently, the Blue Boys were fighting with members of the Rose's gang. The villain explains that there is a gang war going on. Spider-Man dodges the villain's finger blasts, but the stray shots strike the gang members. This reminds Spider-Man of the innocent people who were maimed when he battled the Sin-Eater. The Hobgoblin then takes the opportunity to flee the scene through a skylight.

When Spider-Man follows after the Hobgoblin somebody begins to shoot at the hero from a building across the street. Spider-Man ducks for cover until the shots stop and the police were arriving on the scene. Since he accomplished nothing in this little skirmish, Spider-Man wonders just what he was trying to do. Frazzled and unable to sleep, Spider-Man decides to take the photos taken with his automatic camera so he can try to sell the photos to the Daily Bugle. Even though Peter Parker arrives at the Bugle after midnight, the place is packed with reporters. They are all being briefed by Ben Urich on the gang war that has just started. Urich explains that this all started with the Kingpin's vendetta against the costumed hero named Daredevil. After many failed attempts to kill the masked vigilante, the Kingpin became obsessed with Daredevil's destruction. This obsession led to the Kingpin hiring the mercenary known as Nuke and in the ensuing battle, a great deal of Hell's Kitchen was destroyed. Urich sums up his briefing by explaining that the Kingpin disappeared after his failed battle of wills against Daredevil, leaving the Arranger, his second in command, in charge of his empire. However, without the Kingpin in the city, a struggle for control of New York's criminal empires had begun. The warring factions include the gangs run by the Arranger, the Rose, Silvermane, Hammerhead. The wildcard in the whole gang war is the Blue Boys, a group that Urich doesn't know much about them.

---