Marvel Tales #167

This 1984 reprint issue of Marvel Tales wears its subject's identity proudly, with Steve Ditko's cover art filling the yellow field with a giant close-up of Spider-Man's masked face, surrounded by a swarm of smaller Spidey figures tumbling and leaping in every direction — a playful hall-of-mirrors effect that captures the wall-crawler's kinetic energy perfectly. A full-figure Spider-Man stands confidently to the right, grounding the composition with a calm authority that contrasts nicely with the chaos surrounding his own enormous visage. Inside, the story title promises a team-up with Doctor Strange, making this a solid showcase of the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko creative partnership that defined so much of Marvel's early imagination.