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Cover: Gil Kane & Mike Esposito

The Spectacular Spider-Man #18

Name: The Spectacular Spider-Man #18
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

May 1978 · Marvel · 0.35 USD

📊 ~52,272 copies sold its debut month

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“My Friend, My Foe!”

★ 1st appearance — Holly Gillis

About this Issue

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #18 is the concluding chapter of Bill Mantlo's two-part Champions post-mortem, a story that used the pages of a Spider-Man title to give Angel and Iceman a formal send-off from the team whose book had been cancelled, bridging two corners of the Marvel Universe in a way few single issues attempted in 1978. The issue marks the first appearance of Holly Gillis, the love interest who would remain inseparable from White Tiger (Hector Ayala) — Marvel's first Hispanic superhero — through the arc that defined his entire civilian life in the series. It also seeds a significant villain subplot: the unnamed figure breaking out of prison in the final-page cliffhanger is Lightmaster, whose revenge plot would pay off in the very next issue. Finally, Mantlo's handling of Bobby Drake here — depicting an Iceman more formidable and frightening under mind-control than he ever was when acting of his own volition — planted a question about the character's untapped potential that writers would return to for decades.

writer Mantlo · artist Buscema · inker Hunt · colorist Mary Ellen Beveridge · letterer Rosen · cover Gil Kane, Mike Esposito

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $7

CGC 9.8 · 22 in census $108

CGC 9.6 · 34 in census $44*

CGC 9.4 · 9 in census $28*

CGC 9.2 · 5 in census $20*

CGC 9.0 · 6 in census $20*

CGC 8.5 · 4 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 5 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 none in existence

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 none in existence

CGC 4.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 · 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

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 9.8 $150 1 listing CGC 9.2 $160 1 listing CGC 8.5 $65 1 listing

Raw — MINT ▾ $12.75–$20 2 listings

MINT $12.75 MINT $20

Raw — NM+ $6.33 1 listing Raw — NM- $14 1 listing Raw — VF/NM $9.99 1 listing

Raw — VERY FINE ▾ $10–$17.99 3 listings

VERY FINE $10 VERY FINE $15 VERY FINE · Signed $17.99

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Raw — FN/VF ▾ $3.25–$8.49 2 listings

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Raw — VG ▾ $2.75–$24 2 listings

VG $2.75 VG $24

Raw — PR $13.74 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $2–$15.99 14 listings

Raw / ungraded $2 Raw / ungraded $4 Raw / ungraded $4 Newsstand $4.79 Raw / ungraded $6.75 Raw / ungraded $6.99 Raw / ungraded $6.99 Raw / ungraded $7.19 Newsstand $9.99 Raw / ungraded $10 Raw / ungraded $11.99 Raw / ungraded $12 Newsstand $12.99 Raw / ungraded $15.99

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More listings for this title

FN $9.6 VF $16.5 Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol.1 #18 (1978) My FRIEND, My FOE! $9

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History

By early 1978, writer Bill Mantlo had taken over Spectacular Spider-Man from Gerry Conway and was using its pages to resolve dangling threads from The Champions, the LA-based team book that Marvel had cancelled after seventeen issues. Issues #17–18 formed a deliberate coda to that series, with Mantlo essentially writing the final Champions story inside a Spider-Man title; he had been one of the Champions writers and felt an obligation to give those characters a proper resolution. Penciller Sal Buscema, who had drawn Spectacular from its debut, was in the final stretch of his original run on the book — he departed around mid-1978 — and #18 is among his last issues on the title before a long succession of artists took over. Editor Archie Goodwin oversaw the issue under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.

Trivia · 8 facts

Title: 'My Friend, My Foe!' — Part 2 of 2; cover date May 1978, released February 21, 1978.
First appearance of Holly Gillis, the college-age girlfriend of Hector Ayala (White Tiger), who would play a central role in the White Tiger subplot through Spectacular Spider-Man #20.
Written by Bill Mantlo, pencilled by Sal Buscema, inked by Dave Hunt, with a cover by Gil Kane and editing by Archie Goodwin under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
Concludes a two-part story in which Stuart Clarke (Rampage) uses post-hypnotic suggestion to turn Iceman into an unwilling weapon against Spider-Man and Angel — a direct continuation of plot threads from the cancelled Champions series.
Ghost Rider, Black Widow, Hercules, and Darkstar all appear in flashback as former Champions members, giving the issue an unusually large cast for a Bronze Age single issue.
The final page cliffhanger features an unnamed prisoner escaping custody — confirmed by annotators to be Lightmaster, setting up his return in Spectacular Spider-Man #19–20.
A subplot at Empire State University introduces Holly Gillis meeting Hector Ayala and shows Flash Thompson and Sha Shan reconciling, advancing the civilian-life subplots Mantlo had been developing throughout his run.
The issue was later reprinted in Marvel Tales #229, which featured a Todd McFarlane cover as part of that title's mutant-reprint themed run.