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We know how strong Spider-Man is, thanks to that time a freight-train like piece of metal almost crushed him. But what about something a little bigger? For example, perhaps a New York City skyscraper? Look no farther than Spider-Man 98. This is the last issue of the series, and the previous section of the story was in Spectacular Spider-Man 263, also the last in its series. So I guess they were cleaning house at Marvel Comics perhaps? Because it was the last issue, everyone knew that something awesome had to happen. Lo and behold we watch as Spider-Man lifts a building. Wow.
Let’s be fair though. When I say that Spider-man lifts a building, I don’t mean from the center. He is simply holding up one support beam… of The Daily Bugle. Yeah, he’s literally holding up the newspaper company that was weighing him down metaphorically. A bomb from The Green Goblin causes the damage and Spider-Man happened to hop over fast enough to stop it from collapsing. Daily Bugle boss J Jonah Jameson is trash-talking him as police drag him away for his own safety. He has a good reason to be mad though. Green Goblin were just destroying that building not too long ago. While the building is crushing Spider-Man he decides that, for Mary Jane, he must succeed. Suddenly he has a burst of strength and Spider-Man lifts the building up. Then he holds it one-handed while pulling a collapsed steel beam toward him with his web-shooter. He wedges the beam into place and then manages to use web fluid to prevent the entire building from falling. No seriously, web fluid to hold up the entire thing. By the way, did I mention that he had a cracked rib before doing all this?
The story arch is called The Final Chapter. As usual Aunt May’s life was in danger but Reed Richards (from the Fantastic Four) manages to save her life. If you decide to pick up (Affiliate Link) Spider-Man 98 you can see that in the end of the story Mary Jane announces that she is going back into modeling. Parker then burns his costume in a barrel, signifying how he is quitting being Spider-Man. Artist John Romita Jr and his questionable art style sets off all alarms here. Eyeballs look like flat footballs. Some men have full lips. But readers seem to prefer his technique, so who am I to argue? What do you think about Spider-Man lifting a building? Stupid? Ridiculous? Plausible? Leave a comment.