The first issue (cover-dated July 1968) featured a painted, color cover by men's adventure-magazine artist Harry Rosenbaum, in acrylic paint on illustration board, over layouts by The Amazing Spider-Man artist John Romita Sr.[3] The 52-page black-and-white Spider-Man story, "Lo, This Monster!

The feature story was reprinted in color, with some small alterations and bridging material by Gerry Conway, in The Amazing Spider-Man #116–118 (Jan.–March 1973) as "Suddenly...the Smasher!

A next-issue box at the end promoted the planned contents of the unrealized issue #3, "The Mystery of the TV Terror".

The notion was we'd focus more on the supporting characters and Peter's social life, but before we could really develop that I left Marvel again, not long after that.

After Buscema's departure, a succession of artists (including Mike Zeck, Jim Mooney, Ed Hannigan, Marie Severin and Greg LaRocque) penciled the series for approximately five years.

During this era of Spectacular, the stories focused more on Parker's campus life as an undergraduate student/teacher's assistant at Empire State University and giving more attention to his colleagues than to the more long-running supporting characters in Amazing.

Mantlo's second run introduced the superhero duo Cloak and Dagger, created by Mantlo and Hannigan in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982),[16] and included a story arc which took place from issues #73–79 (Dec. 1982 – June 1983), in which Doctor Octopus and the Owl competed for control of the New York underworld, Octopus almost destroys New York with a nuclear device and the Black Cat is critically injured.

[17] Issue #86 (January 1984) was part of the "Assistant Editors Month" event and featured a story drawn by Fred Hembeck.

Jim Owsley, then-editor of the Spider-Man books, disapproved of this approach and had Milgrom replaced as writer by newcomer Peter David in 1985.

David and artist Rich Buckler, said Owsley, had the series "focusing on stories with a serious, 'grown-up' tone and more complex themes".

DeMatteis and artists Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod crossed over into Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #131 and 132.

[24] David, in a 2005 interview, believed, "I was fired off Spider-Man because it was felt at the upper editorial level that a novice comic-book writer shouldn't be handling the adventures of Marvel's flagship character".

"[26] His 1988–1991 run on Spectacular included such story arcs as the "Lobo Brothers Gang War",[27] and the conflict between Daily Bugle editor Joe Robertson and his former friend, the albino criminal Tombstone.

He used his joint duty as Web of Spider-Man writer to tie together storylines in the two separate titles and strengthen the continuity between them.

[28] Throughout their run, Conway and Buscema collaborated using the Marvel method, occasionally working out details of the plot over the phone.

As written by DeMatteis, Harry sank further into insanity and gained the same super-strength possessed by his father, battling Spider-Man again in #189 (June 1992), before being killed in #200 (May 1993).

[29] In an undated 2000s interview, DeMatteis said, "I really loved the two years on Spectacular Spider-Man that I wrote with Sal Buscema drawing.

Steven Grant had a brief run before the book was set adrift with a succession of fill-in issues which ran through late 1994, when former Amazing Spider-Man writer Tom DeFalco took over.

By this time, all the Spider-books were being affected by the controversial "Clone Saga" that culminated with Spectacular Spider-Man #226 (July 1995), and Fingeroth convinced DeFalco that the series needed a regular writer to help guide the crossover story.

"[28] Luke Ross succeeded Sal Buscema as the artist and remained until the series ended, but there was no regular writer for the last half-year with Glenn Greenberg, Roger Stern, John Byrne and Howard Mackie all contributing during this time.

Her kiss caused him to slowly mutate into a giant spider who metamorphosed into human form with enhanced strength and agility, along with organic webbing and a psychic link with insects and arachnids.

The series' original creative team had Chip Zdarsky as writer, with Adam Kubert providing the artwork.