> The Hobgoblin thread below got me thinking. Did Stern leave the book because of the impending 'Black Costume' storyline and he just didn't agree with it or feel compelled to do stories about it? It just seems odd that he would leave in the middle of a year-plus saga with Hobgoblin. Or did Shooter handpick DeFalco to cover the Black Costume story and it just happened to occur at a bad time, plot wise?
>
> Stern was still doing Avengers at the time, right? Didn't seem like his schedule was too full.

http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/features/int_stern_1006_2.html

A change in the editor of the book at the time prompted Stern to leave the title. The fact that John Romita Jr was thinking of leaving the book to concentrate on X-Men also played into it.

I wish he had stayed longer too.