66 Reasons Why the ’80s Was An Awesome Time To Be a Spider-Man Fan
1. Amazing Spider-Man #200 (cover-dated January 1980), featuring the tale of “The Spider Versus the Burglar” (spoiler: it went down slightly differently than the Sam Raimi version).
2. That one time Hydro-Man and Sandman got stuck together and turned into a giant, mindless mud monster.
3. No bloody clones.
4. “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
5. Madame Web.
6. That time the Chameleon impersonated Jameson and kept him tied to his bed in his own home.
7. The Sinister Syndicate.
8. Spidey showing up as a guest-star everywhere, even in that one early issue from The Transformers series, which never featured anything else from the official Marvel Universe ever again.
9. Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14, featuring Denny O’Neil and Frank Miller pitting Spider-Man and Doctor Strange against Doctor Doom, a fantastical tale never to be surpassed in its awesomeness…
10. …until Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15, which saw the same creative team tackle a tale of Spider-Man and the Punisher against Doc Ock. Bliss.
11. Cloak and Dagger.
12. That story where they brought back “Crusher” Hogan, the wrestler that Peter Parker went up against when he first got his spider-powers, and Spidey showed what a good guy he was by making Hogan look like a hero in front of some kids, even though Hogan lied about training a young Spider-Man in the manly art of fisticuffs.
13. Mary Jane getting a backstory of family dysfunction that made her out to be more than just another pretty face.
14. Betty Brant and the Cult of Love.
15. Digest-sized collections of classic John Romita stories from the ’60s.
16. The Hobgoblin saga.
17. The mystery of the Rose.
18. “Gang Wars.”
19. Peter drops out of school, breaking his Aunt May’s heart.
20. That one storyline in Spectacular Spider-Man that was a take on the Bernie Goetz subway shooting and ended with a gang of punks taking May’s boarding house residents hostage.
21. Spider-Man vs. Wolverine.
22. “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man.”
23. Marvel Team-Up issues featuring team-ups that made no damn sense but were as fun as hell.
24. “Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!”
25. “With This Gun… I Thee Kill!”
26. Bambi, Candi and Randi, the fashion-model neighbors whose rooftop sunbathing sessions caused no end of trouble for Peter’s secret identity (and, ahem, also introduced certain young readers to the joys of the female form)
27. Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe
28. “Amid the chaos, there comes a costume — !”
29. That Amazing Spider-Man annual featuring the wedding of J. Jonah Jameson and Stan Lee’s first writing credit on a Spider-Man story in decades.
30. “The Death of Jean DeWolff.”
31. Electro’s feelings of inadequacy.
32. “Mary Jane’s niece is an anorexic! Mary Jane is smoking to deal with the stress of her career!” (and other assorted Afterschool Special plotlines…)
33. Chance.
34. Humbug.
35. Slyde.
36. “Kraven’s Last Hunt”
37. That one time the Beyonder turned an entire office building into gold.
38. The story where Spider-Man was hot on the trail of someone and ended up way out in the suburbs and realized he was totally out of his depth away from the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Trust me, it was hilarious.
39. The Smithville Thunderbolt.
40. Roger Stern.
41. Mike Zeck.
42. John Romita, Jr.
43. Ron Frenz.
44. ….and yes, even Todd McFarlane on his better days.
45. The joy of seeing a No. 1 Spider-Man issue in a time when first issues didn’t come out every Wednesday like so many pieces of confetti thrown from a parade float.
46. Parallel Lives.
47. Hooky.
48. Marvel Tales reprints of the classic Lee/Ditko/Romita stories from the ’60s.
49. “When a Cobra Comes a-Calling…”
50. Showdowns with alien symbiotes at the top of church bell towers.
51. Tombstone.
52. Spider-Man beating the bejeezus out of a former herald of Galactus… and winning.
53. That one time Jameson hired X-Factor to capture Spider-Man.
54. That story where someone thinks Mary Jane is Spider-Man and the cover shows her revealing Spidey’s costume underneath her clothes. “This is a job for…”
55. The creepy rich guy who stalked Mary Jane and tried to have Peter killed because he fell in love with her soap opera character.
56. One-off issues featuring battles with goofy villains who always brought out the best wisecracks in our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
57. “Acts of Vengeance.”
58. Venom before Marvel overexposed that interesting idea right into the ground.
59. Silver Sable. Yowza.
60. “What if… Spider-Man Had Never Become a Crimefighter?”
61. “What if… Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben Had Lived?”
62. The one Amazing Spider-Man issue that was just a series of daydreams by members of the supporting cast, with Jameson’s daydreams of besting Spider-Man underlining his integrity as a journalist.
63. Marvel Treasury Edition #28, also known as “the one where Superman and Spider-Man team up to battle Doctor Doom and the Parasite.”
64. The White Rabbit.
65. “The Fabulous Frog-Man!”
66. That insane PSA comic where Spider-Man and Power Pack teamed up to battle sexual abuse.
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