Spider-Man comics were fine until artist Todd McFarlane took over the main series, Amazing Spider-Man in 1988/89. I have looked through.
Check for yourselves. I know it's "childish", but it leaves an imprint and a normalcy of that hand gesture at a very young age.
Amazing Spider-Man #298 was this artists first book with the character, look before that issue (297, 296, 295..) and then after it (299, 300, 301, etc)
Todd Mcfarlane also created "Spawn" a normal guy that made a deal with satan to get his life back.