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Cover: John Romita

The Amazing Spider-Man #84

Name: The Amazing Spider-Man #84
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

May 1970 · Marvel · 0.15 USD

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“The Kingpin Strikes Back!”

About this Issue

Amazing Spider-Man #84 is the pivotal middle chapter of Stan Lee and John Romita Sr.'s three-part Kingpin/Schemer saga (#83–85, April–June 1970), a tightly constructed crime-family thriller that represented the creative pinnacle of their Kingpin storytelling before the character temporarily exited the Spider-Man books entirely. The issue builds relentless dramatic pressure toward the trilogy's climax by planting the seed of Vanessa Fisk's recognition of the Schemer — a visual hint whose payoff in #85 would deliver one of the era's most memorable villain-origin twists, revealing the Schemer to be Richard Fisk, the Kingpin's own son. The arc as a whole deepened the Kingpin from a generic crime boss into a figure of genuine human tragedy, a dimension that later made him Frank Miller's ideal antagonist in Daredevil; issue #84 is the emotional fulcrum on which that transformation turns. It also marks the de facto close of the Lee–Romita Spider-Man era's central villain arc, after which the Kingpin would not meaningfully appear in the title for years.

In "The Kingpin Strikes Back!", Peter Parker faces a tough choice when a $5,000 reward tempts him to capture the elusive Schemer—only to find the criminal's escape more slippery than expected. With Spider-Man hot on his trail, the chase leads to the Kingpin's mansion, where a tense confrontation unfolds, and the sudden disappearance of both Schemer and Vanessa throws everything into question. Written by Stan Lee and brought to life by John Romita's dynamic pencils and John Buscema's detailed inks, this 1970 classic delivers a gripping mystery with a twist that redefines the stakes—cover by John Romita.

writer Stan Lee · artist John Romita · artist John Buscema · inker Jim Mooney · letterer Sam Rosen · cover John Romita

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (Fine) $63

CGC 9.8 · 23 in census $2,543

CGC 9.6 · 47 in census $564

CGC 9.4 · 109 in census $388

CGC 9.2 · 104 in census $194

CGC 9.0 · 113 in census $194

CGC 8.5 · 102 in census $163

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CGC 8.0 · 84 in census $114

CGC 7.5 · 74 in census $114

CGC 7.0 · 68 in census $113

CGC 6.5 · 57 in census $85

CGC 6.0 · 36 in census $77

CGC 5.5 · 27 in census $68

CGC 5.0 · 26 in census $68*

CGC 4.5 · 21 in census $59

CGC 4.0 · 14 in census $59*

CGC 3.5 · 7 in census $53*

CGC 3.0 · 4 in census $47*

CGC 2.5 · 3 in census $35*

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History

The issue was scripted by Stan Lee and carries a cover by John Romita Sr., but the interior art reflects the complex collaborative production that defined the series in late 1969–1970: Romita provided layouts or breakdowns, John Buscema contributed fuller pencils over those, and Jim Mooney finished and inked the pages — an arrangement that contemporary commentators note was unusual enough that Romita's precise contribution to the interior is difficult to parse decades later. Lee came to rely on Romita's co-plotting input so heavily under the Marvel Method that Romita continued shaping stories even when other pencillers executed them; for this trilogy Romita's involvement extended to the covers for all three parts while Buscema and Mooney handled most of the interior drawing. The arc arrived immediately after a brief editorial experiment with standalone stories (issues #80–82), to which Lee and Romita returned to the multi-part format they clearly preferred, opening with the Schemer's debut in #83 and building to the bombshell revelation Lee had been 'planning for weeks,' as the issue's own house copy teased readers.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date May 1970; on-sale February 1970; published by Marvel Comics as part of the original Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1 series (1963).
Written by Stan Lee; interior pencils by John Romita Sr. (breakdowns/layouts) and John Buscema (fuller pencils); inks by Jim Mooney; lettering by Sam Rosen; cover pencils and inks by John Romita Sr.
Second appearance of the Schemer (debuted in ASM #83) and second appearance of Vanessa Fisk (first full appearance in ASM #83; silhouetted cameo in #70); the Schemer is also the masked Richard Fisk, the Kingpin's son, though that identity is not yet revealed here.
The story is the second chapter of a three-part arc (#83–85) that constitutes the Lee–Romita team's concluding Kingpin storyline; the resolution in ASM #85 reveals the Schemer as Richard Fisk and sends Wilson Fisk into a catatonic state, effectively removing him from Spider-Man's books until ASM #164 (1977).
Story title: 'The Kingpin Strikes Back!' — the issue ends on a deliberate cliffhanger as both the Schemer and Vanessa Fisk vanish, with a house-ad tease promising readers 'the surprise of the month' in the following issue.
Key supporting characters appearing include Gwen Stacy and Captain George Stacy, whose subplot about Peter Parker's connection to Spider-Man continues to simmer, with Gwen probing inconsistencies from the accident in ASM #83.
The issue has been reprinted in Marvel Tales #65 (March 1976); Spider-Man Comics Weekly (Marvel UK) #105–106 (February 1975); Essential Spider-Man Vol. 4; The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 3 (2017); and the Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection Vol. 5 — 'The Secret of the Petrified Tablet' (2019).
Stan Lee's intent for the Kingpin throughout this period, as he stated, was to build in a contradictory humanity — a man capable of ordering violence who was also a devoted husband — and this issue gives that quality its most dramatic expression as Vanessa steps between Wilson and the Schemer.