AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39-40 (1966): 1st John Romita

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John Romita signs on as penciler and oh my God we get two of the best issues of The Amazing Spider-Man ever.  And one of the greatest covers ever.

Green Goblin plans to publicly unmask Spider-Man, so he stealthily stalks him until he seems him change into Peter Parker.

(Why didn’t his spider-sense warn him not to change out of his costume?)

He captures Spider-man and takes him to his lab, where he reveals himself to be Normal Osborn.  He tells his origin, and also reveals some detail about his son’s upbringing.

Then Spidey gets free and captures Osborn, who is taken away to a mental hospital after seemingly having amnesia from the explosion.

Or does he…?

And here’s an interlude where he explains how he can easily change in public because of his spider-sense–but he talks about changing in phone booths, an obvious reference to the other publisher’s most famous red-and-blue garbed hero.

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