The Spectacular Spider-Man #261

Part three of "Goblins at the Gate" arrives with a cover that pulls no punches — the Hobgoblin has Spider-Man in a brutal chokehold high above a city skyline wreathed in fire and smoke, with a bat-shaped glider wheeling beneath them both. The raw menace in that grip makes it clear things have escalated sharply by this chapter of the arc, and the dynamic composition by cover artists John Romita and John Romita keeps your eye moving through every detail of the chaos below. Writers Glenn Greenberg and Roger Stern, with art by Luke Ross and inks by Al Milgrom, bring the late-'98 Spider-Man universe to a genuinely tense crossroads.