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John Romita Senior took the artistic chores on Amazing Spider-Man right in time for one of the most dramatic Spider-Man stories ever...Amazing Spider-Man #39 & 40...It was to feature the identity of the Green Goblin and boy did it have surprises in it!...GG turned out to be Peter's friend Harry Osborn's Father, Norman Osborn and they both learned each other's identities which they still know to this day...Stan Lee of course was still the Writer, but on the inside were the illustrations of a man whose career began in 1949 with his 1st Romance story...He did many Romance stories in addition to Westerns & even 1950's Captain America...He went over to DC comics for 7 years until he got his 1st Superhero job at Marvel: Daredevil #12...4 issues later, DD had a guest star: Spider-Man!...Romita was a more "classic" artist who can make anyone in comics look beautiful...He gave Spidey his first mature classic looks and Peter Parker quickly became a much more handsome and less nerdy teenager.

John Romita was to stay on Amazing Spider-Man for almost 7 years and his legacy can only be compared to that of Steve Ditko's...Spider-Man himself continued to strive in meeting new characters...After the great Green Goblin story, Spidey went on to go up against the Rhino for the 1st time then finally meet, face to face, his Aunt May's friends Niece, Mary-Jane Watson...He begun his 1st Major love interest in Gwen Stacy as she became his 1st full time girlfriend...on the re-match front, Spidey again met up with the Lizard, Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Chameleon,  and Electro...Debuts still weren't in short order in this title as we see the introduction of The Shocker, The Kingpin, The Prowler, Schemer, Silvermane, & The Kangaroo...An excellent 4-part story then followed in Amazing Spider-Man #53-56 which involved Doctor Octopus, then it was guest star time as Spidey "Teamed-Up" with such heroes as The X-Men (X-Men #35), Ka-Zar (Amazing Spider-Man #57), The Inhuman, Medusa (Amazing Spider-Man #62), Quicksilver (Amazing Spider-Man #71), & The Human Torch (Amazing Spider-Man #77).

On the media front, Spider-Man soon was becoming one of the hottest and best selling Comic titles...He began showing up on toys, T-shirts, Marvel Comic advertisements, and most importantly, a new cartoon show...This cartoon series was a huge success that spawned the much adored title theme song...In this time Spider-Man also crossed over into other titles such as X-Men (#35), Silver Surfer (#14), Daredevil (#16, 17, & 27), Captain America (#137 & 138), and others...It was becoming quickly apparent that Spider-Man was becoming, or already was Marvel's Flagship character...Pretty good for a "Throw-Away" character featured in a last issue of a soon to be cancelled title!

This was a fun time for Spider-Man, but the fun was soon to end...The era for Spider-Man to be GREAT was soon to come as Stan Lee & John Romita, and some help from other creators such as John Buscema (Amazing Spider-Man #77 & 78), Gil Kane, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway were to take Spider-Man on the ride of his life, not to mention millions of readers throughout the years...Beginning with Amazing Spider-Man #88, Arguably the greatest era in Spider-Man was to begin culminating in the absolute most dramatic single issue in Spider-Man's history, #121...But many events took place in that span, including Death's of close ones, A major Drug themed story arc that the Comics Code did not approve, and the introduction of even more characters!...This period should have a single page devoted to this era because of its importance in the History of Spider-Man

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