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Cover: Sal Buscema

The Spectacular Spider-Man #178

Name: The Spectacular Spider-Man #178
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Jul 1991 · Marvel · 1.00 USD; 1.25 CAD; 0.60 GBP

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“Up From the Depths”

★ 1st appearance — Dr. Ashley Kafka

About this Issue

Spectacular Spider-Man #178 marks the debut of Dr. Ashley Kafka — psychiatrist, founder of the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, and one of the most consequential supporting characters introduced in the Spider-Man line during the 1990s. The issue simultaneously opens 'The Child Within,' J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema's first arc together on the title, which placed psychological trauma, cycles of abuse, and the fear of inherited darkness at the center of a mainstream superhero comic in a way few books of the era attempted. It set Harry Osborn — haunted by hallucinatory commands from his dead father Norman — on a collision course that would culminate in his death two years later in issue #200, making this issue the genesis of one of Marvel's most emotionally rigorous long-form character studies. The arc also cemented Ravencroft as the Spider-Man universe's primary institution for criminally insane supervillains, a setting that has recurred continuously in Marvel comics, animation, and film ever since.

writer J. M. DeMatteis · artist, inker Sal Buscema · colorist Bob Sharen · letterer Rick Parker · cover Sal Buscema

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VF) $8

CGC 9.8 · 19 in census $95

CGC 9.6 · 20 in census $29

CGC 9.4 · 16 in census $23*

CGC 9.2 · 1 in census $21

CGC 9.0 · 2 in census $20

CGC 8.5 · 3 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 none in existence

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 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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CGC 9.6 ▾ $75.99–$129 2 listings

CGC 9.6 $75.99 CGC 9.6 · Newsstand $129

Raw — NM ▾ $5.95–$32.99 7 listings

NM $5.95 NM $8.34 NM $9.99 NM $9.99 NM $14.95 NM $19.99 NM $32.99

Raw — NM- ▾ $10–$14.99 3 listings

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Raw — VF ▾ $4.55–$17 5 listings

VF · Newsstand $4.55 VF $6.99 VF $7 VF $9.89 VF $17

Raw — VERY FINE $13.61 1 listing Raw — F/VF $3.5 1 listing Raw — FN $39 1 listing Raw — VG $4.19 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $2.5–$37.5 34 listings

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History

J.M. DeMatteis took over as regular writer on Spectacular Spider-Man with this issue in mid-1991, reuniting him with Sal Buscema — who had already been the title's primary artist for several years — under editor Danny Fingeroth, whom DeMatteis later described as giving him tremendous creative latitude while attending closely to every story detail. DeMatteis deliberately reconnected his new run to his own 1987 'Kraven's Last Hunt' crossover, even retaining Rick Parker as letterer as a deliberate continuity callback, while pushing the book in a more psychologically intense direction than the title had previously sustained. The character of Dr. Kafka was directly inspired by a real person: DeMatteis modeled her on therapeutic hypnotist Frayda Kafka, a detail corroborated across multiple sources including a 2014 Vanity Fair interview with Frayda Kafka herself. The entire DeMatteis-Buscema run from this issue through #200 was collected in a Marvel omnibus released in 2025, decades after fan demand first surfaced.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Dr. Ashley Kafka, psychiatrist and founder/director of the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane — a character inspired by real-life therapeutic hypnotist Frayda Kafka.
Part 1 of the six-part 'The Child Within' arc (issues #178–184, July 1991–January 1992), which also serves as the opening chapter of J.M. DeMatteis's extended run on the series (#178–200).
Written by J.M. DeMatteis; pencils, inks, and cover by Sal Buscema; colored by Bob Sharen; lettered by Rick Parker; edited by Danny Fingeroth; editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco.
The story runs two parallel psychological tracks: Spider-Man grappling with PTSD-like trauma from his 'Kraven's Last Hunt' ordeal as he hunts Vermin, and Harry Osborn beginning to be consumed by hallucinations of his dead father Norman commanding him toward violence.
This issue directly seeds Harry Osborn's full return as the Green Goblin, a trajectory that DeMatteis and Buscema carried through to Harry's death in Spectacular Spider-Man #200 (1993).
Dr. Kafka went on to become a significant Marvel character in her own right, appearing across animation (Fox Kids' Spider-Man animated series; The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series), film (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, 2014), and eventually transforming into the villain Queen Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 5 #88 (2022).
The issue was reprinted in Marvel Tales: Ravencroft #1 (March 2020) and is included in the Spectacular Spider-Man by DeMatteis and S. Buscema Omnibus (Marvel, 2025).
DeMatteis reconnected this run to his own 'Kraven's Last Hunt' (1987) by retaining letterer Rick Parker — who lettered that earlier arc — as a deliberate creative throughline.