Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #076 (1983)

“At Death’s Door!”

Rating: 5/5

Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Al Milgrom

All the goons start coming after Spider-Man. Spider-Man goes to deal with them. Black Cat sees one of Doc Ock’s disembodied mechanical arms going after the activator for the bomb. She picks up the activator and smashes it. Octopus gets mad and he commands his disembodied arms to restrain her against a wall. A bunch of his goons then fire a bunch of bullets and an arrow into her. Spider-Man gets angrier than ever and just annihilates them. Then he rips the mechanical arms apart, webs them all up and throws them into the river outside.

With the Black Cat dying, he quickly takes her to the nearest hospital. Things are tense as they operate on her and cut her open to massage her non-beating heart back to life. Then, a nurse tells Spider-Man to go get some rest because he’s been there all night. He remembers a really important test he has to take at school and swings off to take it. He shows up just in time, takes the test in the midst of all his worry, then leaves immediately. When he gets to the hospital, Captain Jean DeWolff is there with amnesty papers for Black Cat. Black Cat is alive, but still in critical condition.

Doctor Octopus has his arms surgically put back onto his body as he vows to tear Spider-Man and Black Cat limb from limb.