The Amazing Spider-Man #309
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Amazing Spider-Man #309 is the debut issue of mercenary duo Styx and Stone, two of the more conceptually distinctive villains created during the celebrated Michelinie–McFarlane era on the title. Beyond the new characters, the issue serves as the climax of the multi-part Jonathan Caesar kidnapping arc, and it stands out for letting Mary Jane Watson-Parker engineer her own rescue rather than simply waiting for Spider-Man to save her — a conscious push against the damsel-in-distress formula that was routine for the genre at the time. Produced during a bi-weekly publication schedule in the summer of 1988, it showcases Todd McFarlane's artwork at a point where his now-recognizable style — dynamic compositions, expressive anatomy, horror-inflected character designs — was visibly crystallizing. The issue anchors an era that fundamentally reshaped how Spider-Man would be drawn by virtually every artist who followed.
In "Styx and Stone," Spider-Man is driven to the edge as he races to find his missing wife, caught in a deadly game orchestrated by the sinister Jonathon Caesar. With Styx and Stone closing in, Mary Jane’s sudden escape becomes a crucial lifeline in a fight that pushes Spider-Man to his limits. Written by David Michelinie and brought to life with bold, dynamic art by Todd McFarlane—both interior and on the cover—this 1988 issue delivers high-stakes tension and emotional weight in a standout chapter of the Web-Slinger’s saga.
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The issue was written by David Michelinie with art (pencils and inks) by Todd McFarlane — the same creative partnership that had already delivered the landmark first full Venom appearance in #300 just nine issues earlier. It was published on July 26, 1988, with a November 1988 cover date, edited by Jim Salicrup under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco. The story was produced as part of a demanding bi-weekly summer publishing schedule, making it roughly McFarlane's twelfth issue on the series since he began with #298. Both Styx and Stone are credited as co-creations of Michelinie and McFarlane, with the characters' contrasting visual profiles — Styx's gaunt, horror-movie physique versus Stone's bulky tech-laden exosuit — clearly tailored to McFarlane's appetite for drawing monsters alongside mechanical hardware.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Styx (Jacob Eichorn), a terminally ill man transformed by an experimental cancer compound into a being whose bare touch instantly kills organic matter.
- First appearance and origin of Stone (Gerald Stone), an engineer who built a custom exosuit with shoulder-mounted dual-cannon weapons systems — gas pellets, chains, adhesive gel, a blinding strobe burst, and a heat-generating 'nova beam' — to pursue a life of crime.
- Written by David Michelinie; penciled and inked by Todd McFarlane; colored by Bob Sharen; lettered by Rick Parker; edited by Jim Salicrup.
- Published July 26, 1988 (cover date: November 1988); produced during a bi-weekly summer schedule that McFarlane maintained across his entire run beginning with issue #298.
- Concludes the three-issue Jonathan Caesar kidnapping arc (issues #307–309): Caesar, the obsessive millionaire owner of the Parkers' apartment building Bedford Towers, hired Styx and Stone to intercept Spider-Man while Mary Jane was held in a secret room directly below their own condo.
- Mary Jane escapes captivity through her own resourcefulness — knocking Caesar unconscious with a lamp, electrocuting his leather-soled bodyguards, seizing a gun, and then driving Styx and Stone away from a near-fatal encounter in Central Park — subverting the standard kidnapped-spouse storyline.
- Styx and Stone went on to reappear in notable subsequent issues, including Amazing Spider-Man #332–333 (1990), where Styx's death-touch was used against Venom's symbiote, temporarily separating it from Eddie Brock.
- The Caesar arc had lasting continuity consequences: Caesar was convicted and, despite imprisonment, used his business influence to have the Parkers evicted from Bedford Towers, forcing them to move (first briefly to Aunt May's house in #314, then to a SoHo apartment owned by Harry Osborn).
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Reprinted in El Hombre Araña / El Asombroso Hombre Araña #456 (1989), Strange #242 (1990), The Amazing Spider-Man #9/1991 (1991), Edderkoppen #9/1991 (1991), L'Uomo Ragno #98 (1992), Spindelmannen #8/1991 (2001), Spider-Man Legends #[nn] (2003), Os Maiores Clássicos do Homem-Aranha #6 (2008), Spider-Man / Mary Jane: ... You Just Hit the Jackpot #[nn] (2009), Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie & Todd McFarlane Omnibus #[nn] (2011), Marvel Omnibus : Spider-Man par McFarlane #[nn] (2012), Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection #18 (2018), Die Spinne #172, Edderkoppen #84, Hämähäkkimies #8/1991, Marvel Superhelden #39, Örümcek Adam #112, Σπάιντερ Μαν [Spider-Man] #494, Spiderman #204
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