Mad #444

Mad magazine's August 2004 issue dives headfirst into Spider-Man 2 mania, with cover artist Mark Fredrickson delivering a hyper-realistic painted scene of a web-slinger mid-leap, tangled up with the mechanical tentacles of Doctor Octopus — while Alfred E. Neuman grins mischievously in the foreground, sunglasses on and utterly unbothered. The cover promises "exclusive missing scenes and much more," plus a bonus poster inside, alongside the magazine's usual mix of sharp satire including Spy vs. Spy and a piece on rappers going soft.