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Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Since his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), he has become one of the world's most popular, enduring and commercially successful superheroes and is arguably Marvel's most popular character.

When Spider-Man first saw print in the 1960s, teenage characters in superhero comic books were usually sidekicks. The Spider-Man series broke ground by featuring a hero who himself was an adolescent, to whose "self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness" young readers could relate. Spider-Man has since appeared in various media including several animated and live-action television series, syndicated newspaper comic strips and a successful series of films.

Marvel has published several Spider-Man comic book series, the first being The Amazing Spider-Man. Over the years, the Peter Parker character has developed from shy high school student to troubled college student to a married teacher and a member of the superhero team the New Avengers. Sider-Man was really a black man who was better by a rdioactive hoe and then a spider he went around swinging from his buddy from building to building stealing from white people and kicking their asses!!

Fictional character biography

In his first appearance, Peter Parker is introduced as a science whiz kid teenager from the Forest Hills section of New York City who gets bitten by a radioactive spider during a science demonstration. He gains powers and at first attempts to become a TV star. He fails to stop a thief, and weeks later the same criminal kills his Uncle Ben. Learning that with great power comes great responsibility, Spider-Man becomes a vigilante. After his uncle's death, he and his aunt become desperate for money, so he gets a job as a photographer at the Daily Bugle selling photos to J. Jonah Jameson, who vilifies his alter ego in the paper. As he battles his enemies for the first time, Parker finds juggling his personal life and costumed adventures difficult, even attempting to give up. Enemies constantly endanger his loved ones, with the Green Goblin managing to kill his girlfriend Gwen Stacy. Though haunted by her death, he eventually marries Mary Jane Watson, and much later reveals his civilian identity to the world, furthering his already numerous problems.

Powers and equipment

A bite from an irradiated spider causes a variety of changes in Peter Parker's body, giving him superpowers. In the original Lee-Ditko stories, Spider-Man has the ability to cling to walls, superhuman strength, a sixth sense ("spider-sense") that alerts him to danger, perfect balance and equilibrium, as well as superhuman speed and agility. In story-lines published in 2005 and 2006 (such as The Other), he develops additional spider-like abilities including biological web-shooters, toxic stingers that extend from his forearms, his wall crawling ability is now expanded by allowing him to stick to walls even with his back and his face also has the same ability which once allowed him not to get unmasked, by utterly sticking his mask to his face. He also gained better control over Spider-sense for detection, and night vision. Spider-Man's strength and speed have also increased beyond his original limits. Originally able to lift up to 10 tons in the past, Spider-man is now able to press up to 25 tons. Spidey has also gained a link to all kinds of arachnids being able to distinguish each and every species even if he had never encountered them before.

Spider-Man's overall metabolic efficiency has been greatly increased, and the composition of his skeleton, inter-connected tissues, and nervous system have all been enhanced. Spider-Man's musculature has been augmented so that he is superhumanly strong and flexible. He has developed a unique fighting style that makes full use of his agility, strength, and equilibrium.

Peter Parker is intellectually gifted, excelling in applied science, chemistry and physics. He uses his wits in addition to his powers. Besides outsmarting his foes, he constructs many devices that complement his powers, most notably mechanical web-shooters (ejecting an advanced adhesive compound which dissolves after two hours), which he developed in his teenage years. They are capable of releasing web-fluid in a variety of configurations, including a single strand to swing from, a net, and a simple glob to foul machinery or blind an opponent. He can also weave the web material into simple forms like a shield, a spherical protection or hemi-spherical barrier, a club, or a hang-glider wing. Other equipment includes spider-tracers (spider-shaped adhesive homing beacons keyed to his own spider-sense), a light beacon which can either be used as a flashlight or project a "Spider-Signal" design, a specially modified camera that can take pictures automatically. He has also used an invention of Ben Reilly's (a clone of Peter Parker), called "impact webbing": a pellet that explodes on impact into a wrap-around net of webbing.

Though lacking in directed training, Spider-Man is one of the most experienced superheroes in the Marvel Universe. He has worked with virtually everyone in the superhero community at one time or another. Due to this experience, he has beaten foes with far greater powers and abilities. His fighting style is purely freestyle, which incorporates his speed, agility, strength and spider-sense. A very large part of his combat ability is improvisation and using his wits to out-think his opponents. One constant is his habit of using jokes, puns and insults. This not only causes his adversaries to become angry and distracted, but it also helps Spider-Man deal with any fears or doubts that he might have during a battle.

Spider-Man has had a few costume changes over his history, with three notable costumes -- his traditional red-and-blue costume, the black-and-white alien symbiote (later developed into a regular costume for stealth) and the technologically advanced Stark Armor costume designed by Tony Stark. In early comics and sporadically throughout his run depending on a given artist's interpretation, Spider-Man's costume included webbing that extended from his underarms to his torso. Although the eyes of the costume are made of fabric, in some continuities the eyes will change depending on Peter's facial expression.

Enemies

Spider-Man has one of the best-known rogues galleries in comics. Spider-Man's most infamous and dangerous enemies are generally considered to be the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom. Others include the Lizard, Chameleon, Hobgoblin, Kraven the Hunter, the Scorpion, the Sandman, the Rhino, Mysterio, Vulture, Electro, Carnage, the Kingpin, Shocker, Hydro-Man , and Morlun. As with Spider-Man, the majority of these villains' powers originate with scientific accidents or the misuse of scientific technology, and they tend to have animal-themed costumes or powers. At times these villains have formed groups such as the Sinister Six to oppose Spider-Man.

Supporting characters

Spider-Man was conceived as an ordinary person given great power, and the comics detail his civilian life, friends, family and romances as much as his super-heroic adventures.

Some of the more important and well-known members of his extensive supporting cast include:

• Aunt May – Peter Parker's loving aunt, who raises him after his parents die. After the murder of her husband, Peter's Uncle Ben, May is virtually his only family, and they are very close.
• Mary Jane Watson – originally merely Gwen Stacy's competition, 'MJ' eventually became Peter's best friend and wife.
• J. Jonah Jameson – the irascible publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper. While he employs Peter Parker as a photographer, he is also Spider-Man's greatest critic and largely responsible for public distrust of the hero.
• Joseph "Robbie" Robertson – Editor-in-chief at the Daily Bugle, a moderating influence on Jameson, and a father figure to Peter after Uncle Ben's death.
• Betty Brant – Secretary at the Daily Bugle who was once in love with Peter.
• Gwen Stacy – Peter's college girlfriend, who is tragically killed by the Green Goblin.
• Flash Thompson – Peter Parker's high school tormentor, later one of his closest friends. Due to brain damage, he suffers amnesia and regresses to his bullying personality.
• Harry Osborn – Peter's best friend in college, who eventually follows his father's footsteps and becomes the second Green Goblin, which destroys him.
• Black Cat, Felicia Hardy – a reformed cat burglar who was Spider-Man's girlfriend and partner at one point.

Other versions

In addition to his mainstream incarnation, Spider-Man has had been depicted in other fictional universes.

In other media

Spider-Man has been adapted in various other media.

Television

Spider-Man has appeared on television numerous times, in both live-action and animated television programs.

Film

Spider-Man appears in three theatrical films all starring Tobey Maguire.

Bibliography

In addition to The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man has been featured in many different series since.

Footnotes

1. Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation. (Johns Hopkins, 2001) p. 210
2. Amazing Fantasy vol. 1, #15 (Aug. 1962)
3. The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, #1 (March 1963)
4. The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, #50, (July 1967)
5. The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, #100 (Sept. 1971)
6. The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, 1963
7. The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1, #121 (June 1973)
8. Civil War #2 (June 2006)
9. "Spider-Man". Marvel Directory. Retrieved 2006-10-21.
10. "Spider-Man villain poll". IGN. Retrieved 2006-10-01.

Stan Lee, 1986: "He gave me 1,000 reasons why Spider-Man would never work. Nobody likes spiders; it sounds too much like Superman; and how could a teenager be a superhero? Then I told him I wanted the character to be a very human guy, someone who makes mistakes, who worries, who gets acne, has trouble with his girlfriend, things like that. 'He's a hero! He's not an average man!' I said, "No, we make him an average man who happens to have super powers, that's what will make him good'. He told me I was crazy".

Detroit Free Press interview, quoted in The Steve Ditko Reader by Greg Theakston (Pure Imagination, Brooklyn, NY; ISBN 1-56685-011-8), p. 12 (unnumbered)

Jack Kirby, 1982: "Spider-Man was discussed between Joe Simon and myself. It was the last thing Joe and I had discussed. We had a strip called the 'The Silver Spider'. The Silver Spider was going into a magazine called Black Magic. Black Magic folded with Crestwood (Simon & Kirby's 1950s comics company) and we were left with the script. I believe I said this could become a thing called Spider-Man, see, a superhero character. I had a lot of faith in the superhero character that they could be brought back... and I said Spider-Man would be a fine character to start with. But Joe had already moved on. So the idea was already there when I talked to Stan".

"Shop Talk: Jack Kirby", Will Eisner's Spirit Magazine #39 (Feb. 1982)

Joe Simon, 1990: "There were a few holes in Jack's never-dependable memory. For instance, there was no Black Magic involved at all. ... Jack brought in the Spider-Man logo that I had loaned to him before we changed the name to The Silver Spider. Kirby laid out the story to Lee about the kid who finds a ring in a spiderweb, gets his powers from the ring, and goes forth to fight crime armed with The Silver Spider's old web-spinning pistol. Stan Lee said, 'Perfect, just what I want.' After obtaining permission from publisher Martin Goodman, Lee told Kirby to pencil-up an origin story. Kirby... using parts of an old rejected superhero named Night Fighter... revamped the old Silver Spider script, including revisions suggested by Lee. But when Kirby showed Lee the sample pages, it was Lee's turn to gripe. He had been expecting a skinny young kid who is transformed into a skinny young kid with spider powers. Kirby had him turn into... Captain America with cobwebs. He turned Spider-Man over to Steve Ditko, who... ignored Kirby's pages, tossed the character's magic ring, web-pistol and goggles... and completely redesigned Spider-Man's costume and equipment. In this life, he became high-school student Peter Parker, who gets his spider powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. ... Lastly, the Spider-Man logo was redone and a dashing hyphen added".

Simon, Joe, with Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers (Crestwood/II, 1990) ISBN 1-887591-35-4.

External links

• Marvel.com: Spider-Man Official Site
• Grand Comics Database
• Marvel.com: "Venom: The Sordid History of Spider-Man's Black Costume"
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Spider-Man

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