Marvel Spider-Man

When Doctor Octopus is released from jail for good behavior, Spider-Man knows something must be up. He can't believe the eight-armed menace is going straight, despite Doc Ock's vow to focus on traditional science rather than on the world-destroying kind. But with Hydra crashing Ock's first day as a free man and S.H.I.E.L.D. sniffing around Doc's new lab, Peter Parker decides it's time to dig deeper.

It's only after taking a job as Octavius's assistant that Parker learns the secret that is driving Ock's research, and the reason why every agency in town is after it. With Ock caught between Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D., battling for his technology, Spider-Man leaps to help his old nemesis-only to see public sentiment swing against him. Now on the outs with both the good guys and the bad, Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus must learn the value of keeping their friends close, and their enemies closer.

Marvel fans will be thrilled from the beginning to the end of this action-packed adventure from Marvel.com writer Jim Beard.

About the Author

Jim Beard became a published writer when he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. Since that time, he's written official Star Wars and Ghostbusters comic stories, and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history.

His prose work includes Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone, which he coedited and contributed a story to; X-Files: Secret Agendas; Gotham City 14 Miles, a book of essays about the 1960s Batman television series; Sgt. Janus, Spirit-Breaker, a collection of pulp ghost stories featuring an Edwardian occult detective; Monster Earth, a shared-world giant monster anthology; and Captain Action-Riddle of the Glowing Men, the first pulp prose novel based on the classic 1960s action figure.

Jim also currently provides regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website.