Spotlight: Amazing Spider-Man #36 - The 9/11 Tribute Issue

September 11, 2001... a day that will live on as one of true bewilderment and sadness. It's been 8 years since that attack in New York City, and one cannot forget those devastating images of the Twin Towers shown in CNN, which continue to burn inside the minds and hearts of those overcome by grief and loss. Utter shock and disbelief fell upon my face, and like millions of viewers around the world, I saw the unthinkable happen. It was just too much to take in... and certainly not one for the faint of heart.

After that, it seemed like many were compelled to respond... to evoke what they felt inside. Tributes were given, songs were sung, and many tried to muster up the courage to shout back and say how they felt. Every kind of visual medium, from television to the internet, had something to say about 9/11 that echoed the stories of those who were greatly affected by this event. Needless to say, it even reached the world of comics. Many books and graphic novels were published at the time that showed many famous artists and writers responding to the tragedy at hand, and out of all of them, I can think of no other tribute issue that's as gripping and emotional as Amazing Spider-Man #36, which is also known as the "black cover" issue.


Written by J. Michael Straczynski and illustrated by John Romita Jr., the black issue covers what you'd expect, Spider-Man's reaction to the attack on the World Trade Center. Like everyone else, he is wracked with emotion and grief over the incident, feeling helpless that he couldn't do anything to prevent such a terrible incident from happening. It's from this point that we get into his head, his thoughts full of concern and guilt. He does his best to help out with the rescue efforts, with other heroes and NYC's finest working through the debris to find any survivors. It's a very moving issue, one that deliberately throws all the fancy heroics out of the window and instead displaying pure human emotion at work, with everyone united under one great cause to help each other in the wake of this tragedy.


After all these years, I still remember this issue whenever the anniversary of 9/11 comes in. Call it nostalgia if you will, but I can't think of any fitting tribute other than this one, because to me, it's a clear and visible reminder of how people truly felt 8 years ago. With that, I'll end this entry with a youtube tribute video I found, which focuses on the issue itself: