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There’s a secret homage to the ’80s Marvel Coca-Cola posters in Spectacular Spider-Man
There’s a reason Marcos Martin’s Spectacular Spider-Man splash pages feel so familiar (and might be making you thirsty)
NewsbyJoshua Lapin-Bertone, Contributing writer
Published on Mon Sep 14 2026
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One of the coolest things about Spectacular Spider-Man is those stunning Marcos Martin splash pages at the beginning of the first three issues. The first three issues of the series, which just got promoted from limited to ongoing, begin with a character biography page, bringing you up to speed on the main cast. Issue one covers Spider-Man himself, issue two covers Mr. Negative, and issue three gives readers a primer for the Punisher.
Each one is beautifully drawn, but have you noticed anything familiar about them? If you did, that’s because Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day writer Dan Slott asked Marcos Martin to use the 1980 Marvel Coca-Cola posters as inspiration. If you aren’t familiar, in 1980 Marvel Comics and Coca-Cola collaborated on three promotional posters, featuring the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man.
The Spider-Man poster was illustrated by Alex Saviuk, the Fantastic Four poster was illustrated by John Byrne, and the Hulk poster was illustrated by Sal Buscema. Each poster gave a rundown on the character’s origin, powers, and general status quo. Dan Slott fondly remembered these posters, and told Martin to use them as an example for his Spectacular Spider-Man splash pages.
“I pitched it to [Martin], and I, I don’t know if you remember these. They were back in, like, the early ’80s. Alex Saviuk had done these posters for Coca-Cola, the origins of Spider-Man, the Hulk and Fantastic Four,” Dan Slott says during an interview with CBR.
“Big main image of the hero at the end with a giant logo on it. And I wanted all of them as a kid so bad. And I was pitching it to Marcos, as we want to do something somewhere between that and those character identification file pages they did for the first ever Amazing Spider-Man vs. Superman.”
“Yes, because it’s like, here’s a case file of everything you need to know about Spider-Man on one page. So, that’s the goal of those. But Marcos just can’t let, you know, simple be simple. He’s got to go in and give it that magic touch. But that’s the way I pitched it, and then what I got were these gorgeous ones.”
Slott went on to say that Martin wasn’t available to do any splash pages for issues four and five, but now that the book has been promoted to an ongoing, he plans on bringing Martin back for more.
Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day #5 hits stores on September 23. Don’t expect a Martin page in that one, but you might be in luck come October.
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Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.
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