The Gathering Of Five Part 3 of 5. Continued from Amazing Spider-Man #440. Continued in Spectacular Spider-Man #262.

Things are beginning to heat up regarding the impending gathering of five ceremony last we left off in Amazing Spider-Man #440. We now have three participants that include Norman Osborn, a pawn shop owner named Maxwell, and Greg Herd, better known as the villain Override. Part three brings back a character that was long thought to be forgotten in the Spider-Verse. The character is Madame Web, who was last seen way back in Amazing Spider-Man #239. She won't be the same Madame Web we all got to know after the gathering of five ceremony takes place though. In fact, many lives will be forever changed after the infamous ceremony.

"Web Of Despair" begins with Peter Parker working late at night in the offices of the Daily Bugle, and he has a guest bring him something to eat: His wife Mary Jane. Norman Osborn, who is current owner of the Daily Bugle, overhears the two talk. When MJ leaves, Osborn sticks it to Peter that things are not working out for him in his life. Peter is not in the mood for mind games, but Osborn is intent on telling him a story anyway. Norman asks Peter to imagine an ordinary package being delivered, and as the box is opened, a puff of air is released. The participant who opened the box begins to feel a tingling sensation over his body, and begins to itch all over. Unfortunately it is an itch that he will never have a chance to scratch, for his body begins to be reduced to nothingness. Then soon an air conditioning duct carrying the same scent is turned on, killing everyone in the office in under a minute. Nice huh? Anyway, Osborn states that if such a thing was real, it would be a weapon of immense power to launch against one's enemies. Peter realizes that Norman was really threatening him more than making him think. Peter has to restrain himself at going after Norman physically, and leaves the building.

Elsewhere, we re-introduced to Madame Web, who is on a life support system due to her aging body. She has a precognitive flash where Norman Osborn appears before her and introduces himself as a friend. He asks Madame Web to come with him, promising the spring of youth once again. Madame Web asks how this could be possible, and Norman tells her by joining the gathering of five, but he also asks here to find him the missing "piece". A short time later, Peter enters the office of J. Jonah Jameson, where Jameson tells Peter of a recent news story where 50 people died in a biological research facility. They all melted, similar to how Osborn earlier described his "story". They are both interrupted by Osborn, who wants no part of the story in the Bugle. Jameson has been doing some research concerning the matter, and found out a connection between the research facility and an Osborn Industries subsidiary. Osborn asks Jameson to "think about his family", and Jameson lets the story go after the subtle threat. Peter is enraged at what he just heard and quickly changes into Spider-Man.

While swinging around the city, he comes across a mugging, but before he can do anything about it, Madame Web contacts him with an image of her head in the night sky. Madame Web asks him for help, while Spider-Man falls on the two muggers knocking them out. Back at the Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson takes out a gun from his desk, and plans on using it to stop the menace known as Norman Osborn. Meanwhile, Alison Mongrain and Joe Robertson, who left looking for Peter Parker at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #440, are in an apartment on the lower east side. Mongrain is attacked by an unnamed demonic looking creep until Joe breaks a chair over his head knocking him out. The creep was there to send a message to Alison for betraying Osborn and that she will never get to see Peter Parker. Back to Spider-Man and Madame Web, where Madame tells Spidey that she has been in a coma for a long time now and has suffered short-term memory loss. She communicates through ESP that she has witnessed her own death through precognitive flashes, but she has learned through her dreams that there is something that may help her, and this is where she wants Spider-Man to help her. He agrees as long as it is not illegal.

Madame Web has one of her precognitive flashes where at the Daily Bugle, Jameson finally gets enough nerve to put the gun to the head of Norman Osborn. Spider-Man then brings her one of the fragments of rocks necessary for the gathering of five. How he did this, the reader is not told. Back at the real Daily Bugle, Jameson enters Osborn's office with the intent to shoot him, but instead he listens to Osborn talking about how his time with the Scriers gave him all the information needed to acquire all of the pieces necessary for the gathering of five. Jameson then leaves his office, obviously a little gun-shy. Back to Spider-Man, as he swings around town again, after leaving Madame Web. He discovers that some sort of prehistoric dinosaur has appeared right in the middle of the streets below, and just as he prepares for it, J. Jonah Jameson makes another attempt on the life of Norman Osborn. Then the Wesley Snipes Blade makes another appearance, but it's ad again. Ok now, Spider-Man webs up the dinosaur for the police, and they decide to call the A.S.P.C.A. to take care of it! Jameson at the same time, makes his move, but he just can't go through with killing Osborn. He doesn't have what it takes to pull the trigger and Osborn knows it. Osborn knocks the gun out of Jameson's hands, then points it at him, saying that he should put him out of his misery. Just at that point, Spider-Man comes crashing through the window and webs up the gun, saving Jameson. Spider-Man offers to help up the fallen Jameson, but Jameson rudely declines, not wanting anything from Spider-Man.

Later that night, Madame Web delivers the third piece of the rock fragment needed for the gathering of five. Just as she hands the fragment over to Osborn, she has another precognitive flash: Death, Destruction, a Genetic Bomb, the world dead, another Wesley Snipes Blade movie ad! None of it any good, except maybe for the movie ad, and Madame Web asks herself: "What have I done?". What she has done will be told out in part four of The Gathering Of Five in Spectacular Spider-Man #262, the second to last last issue of that title's long run.