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Cover: John Romita

The Amazing Spider-Man #87

Name: The Amazing Spider-Man #87
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 1970 · Marvel · 0.15 USD

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“Unmasked at Last!”

About this Issue

The story titled 'Unmasked at Last!' stages one of the most dramatically charged voluntary identity revelations in Spider-Man's Silver Age run: a fever-delirious Peter Parker walks into Gwen Stacy's birthday party holding his mask in his hand and announces to his closest friends that he is Spider-Man — the first time the unmasking originates from Peter's own choice rather than a villain's force. The issue is equally notable for the ingenious narrative reset that follows, with Peter recruiting the Prowler (Hobie Brown) to impersonate Spider-Man and restore the status quo, a device that hardwired the Prowler into the mythology of Spider-Man's secret identity. The story also creates a quiet continuity wrinkle that later writers had to grapple with: Mary Jane Watson behaves as though Peter's revelation is news to her, sitting awkwardly against the eventual retcon establishing that she had always known he was Spider-Man. Taken together, the issue crystallises the central dramatic tension that would drive the title for decades — the unbearable cost of keeping the secret versus the catastrophic risk of letting it go.

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

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $54

CGC 9.8 · 18 in census $2,867

CGC 9.6 · 47 in census $826

CGC 9.4 · 93 in census $409

CGC 9.2 · 80 in census $248

CGC 9.0 · 105 in census $212

CGC 8.5 · 121 in census $145

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CGC 8.0 · 101 in census $145

CGC 7.5 · 73 in census $98

CGC 7.0 · 85 in census $93

CGC 6.5 · 43 in census $86

CGC 6.0 · 36 in census $80

CGC 5.5 · 30 in census $80

CGC 5.0 · 33 in census $80*

CGC 4.5 · 23 in census $65*

CGC 4.0 · 13 in census $65*

CGC 3.5 · 13 in census $52

CGC 3.0 · 5 in census $49*

CGC 2.5 · 2 in census $37*

CGC 2.0 none in existence

CGC 1.5 none in existence

CGC 1.0 none in existence

CGC 0.5 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

The issue was written by Stan Lee, who was simultaneously serving as Marvel's editor-in-chief, and the interior art was produced through the layered collaborative system Lee and John Romita Sr. had developed: Romita provided layouts, while Jim Mooney — a veteran DC artist who had just joined Marvel in 1968 after a 22-year tenure best known for drawing Supergirl — supplied finished pencils and inks over those layouts, describing his own role on the title as 'finalising it over John's layouts.' The cover, one of Romita's most striking of the era, gathered Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Captain Stacy in a single composition — the assembled Romita-era cast at what fans have noted was effectively the last time that complete constellation appeared together on a cover.

Trivia · 8 facts

Story title: 'Unmasked at Last!' — cover-dated August 1970, with a release date of May 1970.
Written by Stan Lee; pencil layouts by John Romita Sr.; finishes and inks by Jim Mooney; lettering by Sam Rosen; cover by John Romita Sr.
Peter Parker, delirious from a severe flu he mistakes for permanent power loss, voluntarily removes his mask at Gwen Stacy's birthday party and reveals his identity to Gwen, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Captain George Stacy.
Hobie Brown / the Prowler makes a significant return appearance (first introduced in ASM #78), recruited by Peter to don the Spider-Man costume and prove to witnesses that Peter and Spider-Man are two separate people.
Harry Osborn explicitly references the earlier unmasking at the hands of Doctor Octopus in ASM #12 (1964), which had been dismissed as a stunt — grounding this issue within the series' own continuity.
The issue introduces an early and notable tension with the later retcon (established by writer Roger Stern) that Mary Jane had always known Peter was Spider-Man; her behavior in this issue suggests genuine surprise.
Cover features Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Captain Stacy together — documented as the last time that full grouping of Romita-era supporting characters appeared together on an ASM cover.
The story was reprinted in Marvel Tales #68 (June 1976) and also appeared in Spider-Man Comics Weekly (Marvel UK) #111–112 (March–April 1975), The Essential Spider-Man Vol. 4, and The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 3 (2017).