Giant-Size Spider-Man #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeGiant-Size Spider-Man #4 earns its key-issue status on two distinct fronts. The lead story, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Ross Andru — the same creative team that introduced the Punisher just a year earlier in Amazing Spider-Man #129 — delivers the first appearance of arms-dealer Moses Magnum, an Ethiopian weapons manufacturer who would go on to threaten the X-Men, Luke Cage, and others across decades of Marvel storytelling. The issue also marks the debut of the Punisher's Battle Van, a vehicle that became as inseparable from Frank Castle's mythology as his skull insignia. As one of the earliest team-up stories between Spider-Man and the Punisher after their hostile introduction, the issue also does meaningful character work: it dramatizes the fundamental moral tension between a hero who won't compromise and a vigilante who absolutely will, laying groundwork the two characters would revisit repeatedly.
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The issue was produced during the tail end of Gerry Conway's celebrated run on Amazing Spider-Man (issues #111–149), with Ross Andru on pencils and Mike Esposito on inks — the same core team responsible for defining mid-1970s Spider-Man. It was published under editor Len Wein and editor-in-chief Marv Wolfman as part of Marvel's short-lived Giant-Size format initiative, which ran from 1974 to 1975 and paired new, longer lead stories with classic Silver Age reprints. The backup story — a Spider-Man and Doctor Strange adventure featuring Xandu and the Wand of Watoomb — was itself a reprint, originally published in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 (1965) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and previously reprinted in Doctor Strange #179 (1969).
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Moses Magnum, Ethiopian arms manufacturer and CEO of the Deterrence Research Corporation, created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru.
- First appearance of the Punisher's Battle Van, a heavily armed mobile base that became a signature element of Frank Castle's arsenal.
- First appearance of the Deterrence Research Corporation (D.R.C.), the shadowy weapons firm whose illegal biochemical gas drives the plot.
- Moses Magnum is presumed dead at the story's end — exposed to his own toxic gas — but is later revealed to have survived, returning in Power Man Annual #1.
- The lead story is titled 'To Sow the Seeds of Death's Day!' written by Gerry Conway, penciled by Ross Andru, inked by Mike Esposito, with a cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.
- The issue's backup feature reprints the Spider-Man/Doctor Strange team-up against Xandu (using the Wand of Watoomb), originally from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 (September 1965) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
- The lead story has been collected in Essential Punisher Vol. 1 (2006), Punisher: Back to the War Omnibus (2017), and Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up Vol. 4 (2018), among other editions.
- Published with a cover date of April 1975, under editor-in-chief Marv Wolfman and series editor Len Wein, as part of Marvel's Giant-Size format line (1974–1975).
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Doctor Strange #179 (1969)
Reprinted in Comic Reader #114 (1975), Spider-Man Annual #1977 (1976), Mundi Comics Super Héroes Presenta #37 (1976), Spécial Strange #3 (1976), Marvel Tales #212 (1988), Marvel Tales #213 (1988), Essential Punisher #1 (2004), Punisher: Back to the War Omnibus #[nn] (2017), Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up #4 (2018), Punisher : l'intégrale #1974-1981 (2021), Giant-Size Marvel Omnibus #[nn] (2025), El Sorprendente Hombre Araña #45, L'Uomo Ragno [Collana Super-Eroi] #173, L'Uomo Ragno Gigante #61, Spider-Man Summer Special #1979
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