Spider Man first appeared in the final issue of the comic anthology Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962, written by Stan Lee with art by Steve Ditko. At the time, Marvel publisher Martin Goodman charged Stan Lee to follow up his and Jack Kirby’s successful Fantastic Four series with yet another superhero comic, and following his wife’s urging him to do something different, Lee opted to center his next story around a teenaged protagonist. This was particularly remarkable as adolescents in comics had only ever been sidekicks up to this point, but here, Lee wanted to introduce a conflicted character whom the reader could relate to in spite of his being a superhero. Although Goodman resisted the proposal at first, he eventually assented and allowed the hero to grace the cover and the eleven-page story to appear in the final issue of the series.
Spider Man appeared in 1962 and soon after became a featured character in the Marvel series of comics. Contemporary heroes like Spider Man and Superman emerged within a culture looking for up-to-date characters and stories that wrestled with the challenges of modern life. (LES BREAULT/Alamy Stock Photo)
Although Lee initially offered Jack Kirby the job, the designs did not fit the vision Lee had for the character. Lee turned to the conservative Steve Ditko to submit his designs for the character, and a match was found. Ditko then took on more of the plotting responsibilities while Lee provided basic plot descriptions—what would later be referred to as the “Marvel Method” in its minimalist approach to writing—and the series took off. Little did Goodman, Lee, or Ditko realize the success they had stumbled upon.
Like many superheroes who preceded him, Spider Man possessed remarkable powers along with a colorful costume. In his civilian life, Peter Parker was initially a high school social outcast who could never catch a break. He lived at home with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. After a bite from a radioactive spider, Peter Parker found himself imbued with the proportional strength, speed, and agility of an arachnid combined with the ability to scale any surface. Moreover, the young teen quickly discovered he possessed a sort of precognitive ability to sense danger—what would become known as his “Spidey Sense.” Peter Parker was also a budding scientist, which enabled him to create his famous webslingers and the web fluid he used to swing through the streets of New York and tie up the criminals he caught. Unlike many superheroes before him, however, Spider Man refused to stop a robbery, which led to the murder of his uncle. This taught Peter the hallmark lesson that has come to define the very core of Spider Man over the decades: “With great power there must also come great responsibility!” (Lee and Ditko 1962, 11). This lesson from the tragedy of Uncle Ben’s death would leave an indelible mark on Parker that would continually keep him from shirking his responsibilities as a hero and would inform his growth as a character more than any other event in the character’s history.
In fact, it is Spider Man’s continued struggle and more often than not, failure, to be understood, successful, and able to find happiness in life that often endeared him to readers. His attempts to do good were rebuffed and met with hostility by J. Jonah Jameson in the pages of the Daily Bugle newspaper, and even his aunt would remark to Peter about the menacing presence of Spider Man. Bullies like Flash Thompson would harass “Puny” Peter Parker in school, all the while leading the rallying charge behind him when he donned the red and blue Spider Man costume. Parker’s love life was regularly falling apart, and it would even lead to the death of his long-time love, Gwen Stacy, in June 1973 at the hands of the Green Goblin. Yet it was in placing their hero before seemingly impossible odds that Lee, Ditko, and later John Romita, Sr., would create opportunities for their hero to demonstrate his humanity and true heroism through overcoming these challenges.
In later years, Spider Man would continue to cement his place as one of the most significant superheroes of the genre. In May 1971, Stan Lee was encouraged by the Nixon administration to incorporate an antidrug message into one of Marvel’s series. Lee wrote “Green Goblin Reborn” as a three-part story arc in Amazing Spider-Man #96–98. The monumental issue showed people, including Norman Osborn’s son and Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn, becoming addicted to pills. This was especially significant because it represented the first time that a mainstream comic book had been published without the approval and seal of the Comics Code Authority.
Not long after Gwen Stacy’s death, Peter slowly began to build a relationship with Mary Jane Watson, whom he would later marry in the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Spider Man’s rogue gallery would continue to grow and develop. It was the introduction of the black Symbiote suit he would acquire during Marvel’s first-ever comic book event series, Secret Wars, in issue #8 from May 1984 that proved especially momentous. This plot element would later emerge under the direction of David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane in the form of Venom shortly after Parker’s rejection of the malevolent alien entity. McFarlane’s popularity exploded while working on Amazing Spider-Man, and he was then given free rein to write and perform all artistic duties on a new series, Spider-Man, which was released in 1990 and broke all sales records of the time with more than three million issues sold. Even as comics publishing saw its sales drop off during the 1990s and 2000s, Spider Man continued to be an in-demand character. In 2001 the character spearheaded the Ultimate publishing line at Marvel Comics. The ongoing Ultimate Spider-Man was a perennial fan favorite, and it made headlines in 2011 when that universe’s Peter Parker was killed and replaced by Miles Morales—a young boy of African American and Hispanic heritage. Not surprisingly, this made headlines not only for the bold move to better represent previously marginalized persons of color, but also for the sheer quality of the stories emerging from the series. However, Spider Man’s success is measured not only by the continued sales of the Spider Man comics but also through the increasing demand for the webslinger in other forms of entertainment.
Spider Man’s popularity would quickly go on to transcend the four-colored pages of comics and gain ground on both the small and large screens across the United States and in homes throughout the world. Only five years after his debut in 1962, Spider Man received the first of many animated treatments. In fact, not a decade would go by without at least one or more Spider Man cartoon series being aired into the second decade of the 2000s. Spider Man could also be found on the silver screen. In 2002 Sam Raimi released the first of his three Spider-Man films through Sony Pictures, which drew both critical and mass acclaim, and sequels followed in 2004 and 2007 respectively. Director Marc Webb released the first of his newly rebooted Spider Man movies with The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 followed by yet another sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. These films all drew hundreds of millions of dollars, each reaffirming the popularity of Marvel’s popular superhero. The wall-crawling hero even made his Broadway debut in late 2010 with Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which eventually concluded its run early in 2014 as the most expensive Broadway production.
As his popularity continues to spread to toys, video games, and other aspects of popular culture, it is hard to ignore the success of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s unorthodox conceptualization of what superheroes could be in their amazing Spider Man.
Forrest C. Helvie
See also Batman; DC Comics; Kirby, Jack; Lee, Stan; Marvel Comics; Superman
Further Reading
Costello, Matthew J. 2009. Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America. New York: Continuum.
Johnson, Jeffrey K. 2012. Super-History: Comic Book Superheroes and American Society, 1938 to the Present. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Lee, Stan, and Steve Ditko. 1962. Amazing Fantasy #15. Marvel Comics: New York.
Peaslee, Robert Moses, and Robert G. Weiner. 2012. Web-Spinning Heroics: Critical Essays on the History and Meaning of Spider-Man. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.