The Spectacular Spider-Man #36

Name: The Spectacular Spider-Man #36
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Nov 1979 · Marvel · 0.40 USD

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“Enter: Swarm!”

★ 1st appearance — Steve Hopkins

About this Issue

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #36 marks the first time Swarm — the uniquely bizarre Marvel villain whose body is entirely composed of bees animated by the consciousness of former Nazi scientist Fritz von Meyer — crossed paths with Spider-Man, establishing the character as a recurring Spider-Man antagonist after his original debut against the Champions. The issue also introduces Debra Whitman to the Spectacular Spider-Man title as a colleague of Peter Parker's at Empire State University, though her precise debut is contested across sources. Scripted during Bill Mantlo's defining run on the series, the issue exemplifies the editorial pivot that had been made around issue #34 to focus Spectacular specifically on Peter's campus life and its newly-introduced cast of supporting characters, differentiating it from Amazing Spider-Man. Though Swarm is sometimes treated as a campy villain, the story's core concept — a mass-organism with Nazi-era human intelligence at its core — carries a genuinely unsettling pulp-horror energy that kept the character viable for decades of Spider-Man continuity.

writer Bill Mantlo · artist Jim Mooney · inker Mike Esposito · colorist Ben Sean · letterer Jim Novak · cover Ed Hannigan, Pablo Marcos

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

CGC 9.8 · 27 in census $129

CGC 9.6 · 5 in census $57*

CGC 9.4 · 9 in census $36

CGC 9.2 · 3 in census $23*

CGC 9.0 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 8.5 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 none in existence

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 none in existence

CGC 4.0 · 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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History

Bill Mantlo had taken over as the primary writer of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man starting with issue #9, and by 1979 was deep into his first run on the title, which lasted until May 1980. Around issue #34, Marvel's editorial team had formalized a division-of-labor arrangement among its three Spider-Man books, assigning Spectacular the task of exploring Peter Parker's college life and newly-introduced supporting characters rather than the longer-running cast featured in Amazing. Swarm himself was a Mantlo co-creation from two years earlier — originating in Champions #14–15 (1977) alongside artist John Byrne — meaning Mantlo was essentially revisiting and transplanting his own villain into the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel universe. Interior art was handled by penciler Jim Mooney and inker Mike Esposito, while the cover carries an Ed Hannigan credit per Marvel's own records, though some secondary market listings attribute it to Mike Zeck.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover-dated November 1979; released as part of Bill Mantlo's first ongoing run on Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (issues #9 through approximately #42).
Story title: 'Enter: Swarm!' — Spider-Man's first direct confrontation with Swarm (Fritz von Meyer), a villain whose body is composed entirely of bees animated by his human consciousness.
Swarm was created by Bill Mantlo and John Byrne, first appearing in The Champions #14 (July 1977); this issue brings him into Spider-Man's rogues' gallery for the first time.
The issue features an early appearance of Debra Whitman — a secretary in ESU's biophysics department and eventual love interest for Peter Parker — in the Spectacular title; her confirmed first appearance is The Amazing Spider-Man #196 (September 1979), just two months prior.
The story's premise involves Dr. Sloan bringing Swarm's skeleton to the Empire State University entomology lab for study, where a surviving bee inside the skull resurrects the villain on campus.
Interior credits: Writer — Bill Mantlo; Penciler — Jim Mooney; Inker — Mike Esposito; Colorist — Ben Sean; Letterer — Jim Novak. Cover artist credited as Ed Hannigan per Marvel's official records.
Dr. Curt Connors (the Lizard) makes a cameo appearance during the issue's campus scenes.
Spider-Man ultimately defeats Swarm by incorporating insect repellent into his web fluid — a solution that underscores Peter Parker's scientific ingenuity as a plot device, a hallmark of Mantlo's campus-focused era on the title.