The Spectacular Spider-Man #137

Spider-Man's black-suited era gets a dramatic church setting in this April 1988 issue, as the cover — penciled and inked by Sal Buscema — depicts a fierce mid-air clash between the symbiote-clad wall-crawler and the red-costumed Tarantula, candlesticks and lit candles scattering below them while a stained-glass image of a Christ figure watches silently from behind. The tagline "The Return of the Tarantula" makes the stakes plain, and the sacred surroundings give the confrontation an unexpectedly solemn atmosphere. Gerry Conway scripts the story with interior art by Sal Buscema, and the small inset corner box — showing Peter Parker in civvies with the black suit beneath his shirt — is a nice reminder of just how much that alien costume had taken hold in 1988.