John Romita Sr. was a defining artist of Marvel Comics’ Silver Age. Taking over The Amazing Spider-Man from Steve Ditko in 1966, he introduced a more glamorous, romance-comic-inflected visual language that helped make the character a mainstream cultural icon — including the co-creation of Mary Jane Watson and the Kingpin. As Marvel’s art director from 1973, he shaped the house style for decades. His son John Romita Jr. later built a parallel career as one of the defining artists of the modern Marvel era.