Fester survived the explosion, but his mind was further addled by his experiences and he became a homeless alcoholic. He robbed Nathan Lubensky, but was beaten down by Spider-Man and forced to surrender to the police, who try to help Nathan. He was again defeated by Spider-Man and later teamed up with Aura and Override. When Ben Reilly was acting as Spider-Man, Norton has stolen weapons used by various criminals in order to fund his research. He even stated that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were after his work because of its importance. After Spider-Man beat Norton again - aided by Norton attempting to tie Spider-Man up with his own web-shooters, unaware that the webbing dissolved after an hour - S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived and took Norton away on board their helicarrier. When circumstances forced Spider-Man to adopt new identities, the Looter was the first foe Spider-Man fought as the Hornet when he attempted to raid the "Daily Bugle" in order to steal the ransom that Norman Osborn was offering for Spider-Man. Here he was portrayed as talking constantly to the original meteor after attaching it to a gun, despite Hornet's certainty that the rock was just a rock after giving him his strength. He was seen at an auction in which the Venom Symbiote was sold. He later attempted to steal yet another meteor, at a museum display, to grow further in power. Spider-Man defeated him once more in the museum bathroom, in front of a woman named Vanna Smith, who was obsessed with the wallcrawler.