High school student Peter Parker has been fighting crime in New York City as the masked vigilante Spider-Man for one year. Nick Fury, director of international peace-keeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D., approaches him with an offer to train with S.H.I.E.L.D. and become part of a new superhero team that is being assembled. Spider-Man at first declines the offer, but after his school, Midtown High, is attacked by the Frightful Four (a super-villain team consisting of Wizard, Thundra, Klaw, and Trapster) on behalf of Doctor Octopus, he starts to wonder if he really should have declined.