Probably the most famous story of this team’s run. So, who remembers who killed him?
Well, it started on a rooftop…
Yeah–it was Doc Octopus, who dislodged pieces of wall and nearly killed a child, who Stacy saved–at the cost of his own life.
This is a powerful death scene–easily the best Marvel had done thus far–and it had long-lasting ramifications for Spider-Man and Peter Parker. There’s a reason that the Lee-Romita era is remembered as possibly the best Spider-Man era of all time, and this a big part of that.
(Ignore the continuity problem showing Stacy crushed under bricks that fell to the sidewalk, but dying on a rooftop.)
There is a continuing story across these issues, but #90 can be read on its own as one of the best single-issue stories of all time, according to this objectively accurate list.
Actually, there’s plenty of blame for Captain Stacy’s death here to go around for everybody. Octavious only dislodged the chimney because Spider-Man slammed it into him so hard. Octavious is responsible for quite a bit of mayhem, but not this. Poor Captain Stacy died simply because he was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. I did like the touch where Captain Stacy reveals with his dying breath that he knows that Spider-Man is Parker. Nice touch. Stan Lee at the top of his form. As for the “discrepancy” of having Captain Stacy die on a rooftop instead of on the street where Spider-Man found him, well……check the cover scene where Spider-Man is carrying Stacy up the side of a ( the ) building. Seems rather self-explanatory, here. I had always assumed that cover scene was a part of the story, specifically the climax. No mistake here to me.