SPIDER-MAN

Saturday, October 31, 2026Earth-616 canonThe Amazing Spider-Man #248 (1984)

Today's Fact

Checked against independent sources — the issues are cited below.

SPIDER-MAN TOOK HIS MASK OFF FOR ONE FAN — A DYING NINE-YEAR-OLD NAMED TIM HARRISON!
The Featured Fact

The backup story in The Amazing Spider-Man #248 (1984), “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man” by Roger Stern and Ron Frenz, sends Spider-Man on no mission at all: he slips into the bedroom of Timothy “Tim” Harrison, a nine-year-old who has assembled scrapbooks of clippings, kinescopes of early television appearances, and even bullets kept from a foiled crime.

Tim demands proof, gets lifted overhead while still in his bed, and trades stories with his hero for hours. When he asks the one forbidden question, Peter hesitates — then removes his mask, gives his real name, and retells the night his own carelessness let Uncle Ben's killer slip past him. Tim's admiration survives the confession completely intact.

Only after Peter swings away does the framing Daily Bugle column by Jacob Conover deliver the blow the reader was never braced for: Tim is a patient at the Slocum Brewer Cancer Clinic, living with leukemia, and his doctors give him only a few more weeks. His single wish had been to meet his hero in person.

Why It's Obscure

No villain is punched in the famous half of this issue. A boy collects clippings, a hero keeps a promise, and that is the whole plot.

1984
A backup outshines the lead — The Thunderball fight opens Amazing Spider-Man #248, yet Stern's short second story is the one Wizard later ranked among the ten greatest Spider-Man tales ever printed.
The collection
Retractions included — Tim's archive holds every article he can find on Spider-Man, including a full album of the Daily Bugle's printed retractions, fandom thorough enough to embarrass the paper itself.
The unmasking
A secret with an expiry he chose — Asked who he really is, Peter answers honestly and Tim swears himself to secrecy, becoming one of the very few people alive in 1984 who knew the name behind the mask.
1991
A brother remembers — Danny Fingeroth and Ron Garney's “A Spider-Man Carol” in the 1991 Marvel Holiday Special records Tim's death through his brother Joey, closing the story Marvel left open seven years earlier.

Sources

Every claim above checks out against at least two of these independent sources.

Bullpen Bulletins

  1. The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man — WikipediaThe reference entry for the story: Amazing Spider-Man #248 (1984), Roger Stern and Ron Frenz, Tim Harrison's collection, the unmasking, and the leukemia reveal in Conover's closing column.
  2. A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments — Day 5, CBRCBR's account of the backup story: the visit, Tim's questions about Spider-Man's guilt, the unmasking, and the final column revealing he has only weeks to live.