My first encounter with the Spider was the Eclipse Comics re-imagining from the early 90s, done by Tim Truman. In the back was the comment that he and his foes had depopulated the island of Manhattan at least twice in the series. It wasn't until a few years ago that I actually read enough of the stories to see the truth of this.

On a related note, you might check out "Ghosts of Manhattan" by George Mann. Pretty good pulp story.

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."