The Amazing Spider-Man #196
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIn "Requiem!", Peter Parker faces a devastating personal loss as he grapples with Aunt May's death, left to wonder what led to it and how he’ll carry on. With his faith in the press shaken, he walks away from his job at the Daily Bugle, leaving behind the world that’s long vilified him. Written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Al Milgrom, Frank Giacoia, and Jim Mooney, with cover by Keith Pollard, this pivotal issue captures Spider-Man at his most vulnerable.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 16 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
CGC 9.6 ▾ $59.99–$99.99 2 listings
Raw — MINT ▾ $24.99–$45 3 listings
Raw — NM ▾ $14.99–$30 4 listings
Raw — VF+ ▾ $13.74–$27.99 5 listings
Raw — VF ▾ $10–$24.69 6 listings
Raw — VERY FINE ▾ $15–$17 2 listings
Raw — FN ▾ $6.23–$14.99 5 listings
Raw — VG+ ▾ $4.99–$6.99 2 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $4.99–$300 38 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Debra Whitman, created by Marv Wolfman and Al Milgrom; she is an ESU secretary who becomes a love interest for Peter Parker and one of the first characters to independently deduce that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
- The issue's title is 'Requiem!' — written by Marv Wolfman (who also edited the issue), with pencil layouts by Al Milgrom, inks by Frank Giacoia and Jim Mooney, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by John Costanza, and a cover by Keith Pollard (pencils) and Al Milgrom (inks).
- Aunt May's death in this issue is a deliberate ruse engineered by Mysterio, who is posing as nursing home physician Dr. Ludwig Rinehart (an alias Mysterio previously used in Amazing Spider-Man #24); the full scheme involves Mysterio, the Burglar who killed Uncle Ben, and a hidden treasure allegedly concealed in the Parker home — all resolved in Amazing Spider-Man #200.
- The Kingpin makes a cameo appearance at the end of the issue, revealed as the shadowy employer who has sent henchmen Boris Korpse and Bruno Grainger to capture Spider-Man, leading directly into the following issue (#197).
- Joe Robertson quits his position as city editor at the Daily Bugle in this issue, walking out over J. Jonah Jameson's increasingly irrational anti–Spider-Man bias — a subplot with roots in Jameson's grief over his son John's disappearance (ASM #190) and, as later revealed, a mind-affecting device implanted by Jonas Harrow.
- Jim Shooter is credited as Editor-in-Chief on this issue, with Wolfman simultaneously filling the writer and editor roles on the title itself.
- The issue is collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 19, which reprints Amazing Spider-Man #193–202 along with related annuals from the same Wolfman run.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Amazing Spider-Man #196-197 (1979), The Spectacular Spider-Man Weekly / Spider-Man Comic #352 (1979), Die Spinne #43 (1981), Edderkoppen #4/1981 (1981), Spindelmannen #4/1981 (1981), Strange #150 (1982), El Hombre Araña / El Asombroso Hombre Araña #192 (1983), The Essential Spider-Man #9 (2009), Spider-Man: Return of the Burglar #[nn] (2012), Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #19 (2017), Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection #11 (2024), The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus #6 (2024), De spectaculaire Spider-Man [De spektakulaire Spiderman] #8, Edderkoppen #21, Hämähäkkimies #2/1982, Homem-Aranha #8, Il Settimanale de L'Uomo Ragno #22, Il Settimanale de L'Uomo Ragno #24, Σπάιντερ Μαν [Spider-Man] #108
Key issues in The Amazing Spider-Man
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.