The Spectacular Spider-Man #260

Part 2 of "Goblins at the Gate" arrives in style with this August 1998 issue, and the cover by John Romita sets the tension beautifully — Spider-Man lunges toward the viewer through a burst of explosive light and crumbling brick, while a pair of monstrous goblin faces loom ominously at the edges of the destruction. The sense of Spider-Man caught literally in the middle — between forces larger than himself — is conveyed with real kinetic energy. With Roger Stern and Glenn Greenberg co-writing and Luke Ross on interior art, this is a chapter that clearly has no intention of letting up.