Rory, feeling responsible for Salinger's breakdown and crimes, tried to help the Defenders arrest Salinger, by persuading him that he could join them as a superhero. However, Salinger had decided the Defenders were "fools" after their failure to capture another supervillain; he sought to kill Lunatik, and burned down their headquarters and was captured by the Defenders, but escaped in a road accident. Salinger reappeared, studying at Empire State University, where teaching assistant Peter Parker (Spider-Man) befriended him, then stopped him in the midst of another killing spree. When a homeless witness suggested that only a fool would fight Spider-Man, Salinger attempted to shoot himself, but was stopped, arrested, found criminally insane and institutionalized for good at the Central Indiana State Mental Institution in Weldon Creek, Indiana. He appeared briefly as a mental patient, where he was questioned by Captain America concerning a possible connection with the vigilante known as Scourge of the Underworld.