Paul Mellia’s Spider-Man Darkside,
reimagined as a vintage-style comic cover. The green-lit city, black-and-white
suit and bold cover lettering give it a darker, more dramatic feel than
Spider-Man’s familiar red-and-blue look. Marvel introduced the black suit in
the Secret Wars era; it was later revealed to be an alien symbiote
associated with Venom. The image borrows that visual identity, but it doesn’t
appear to illustrate a specific scene from that story.

The “Collector’s Item Classic” banner appears to play on the
real Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics, a series that reprinted earlier
Marvel stories, including Spider-Man adventures. “Mellia Tales” and the cover
lines, “Truly it can be said… this one has it all!” and “Mellia teams up with
Spiderman,” are playful additions that put the artist into the comic-book
world.

The gallery lists Mellia’s Spiderman Darkside as a
hand-embellished archival print from his Marvel-licensed Superheroes
Collection, in an edition of 15 artist proofs.