History Of Spider Man

History Of Spider Man

Spiderman is the quintessential Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962. The character was conceived with super strength and agility and the ability to cling to most surfaces, shoot spider webs and react to danger quickly, with his “spider-sense”. Spider Man was showcased as an orphan, a teenage high school student whose “self-obsessions with rejections, inadequacy and loneliness” was identified by young readers. The first and longest lasting of all the Spiderman series was ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. Today, Spiderman has become one of the most important and most popular characters of the Marvel universe. Read through the following lines to know more interesting and amazing information on the history and origin of Spider Man.

Interesting & Amazing Information On Origin & Background Of Spider-Man

In 1962, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee came up with the idea to cast a new superhero. Soon after was born the character of Spiderman. Lee was inspired when he saw a spider climbing up a wall and ended up creating this character. He has even cited the same in his autobiography. After getting the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman, for the character that he had in mind, Lee approached artist Jack Kirby to flesh it out. The character of Spiderman was portrayed as an orphaned boy, living with an old couple. He finds a magic ring, which grants him super-human powers. Steve Ditko was roped in to develop some pages of the character. Eventually, in the later years, the idea of the magic ring was replaced by a teenager being bitten by a spider and hence, developing powers. Till date, all Spiderman series are based on this concept.

The first issue of Spiderman, named ‘Amazing Fantasy’, was introduced in 1962. It, eventually, turned up to be Marvel’s highest-selling comics. Soon, in 1963, a solo series followed, titled ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. This became Marvel’s top-selling series and the character became a cultural icon. Ditko was replaced by John Romita, Sr. in July 1966, who then provided pencil drawings of the character over the next several years. In 1971, Lee published an anti-drug message in the top-selling ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, showcasing a story that depicted the negative effects of drug use. A second monthly series was published in 1972, titled ‘Marvel Team-Up’, where Spider-Man was paired with other superheroes and villains.

Spiderman’s second solo series, titled ‘The Spectacular Spiderman’, was released in 1976 and the third series, called ‘Web of Spider-Man’, was launched in 1985. In 1990, the fourth monthly title was drawn and written by popular artist Todd McFarlane, who designed a different cover to the series, with the interiors remaining the same. At a time, at least two different Spider-Man series were released in the market. The origin of Spiderman was revamped in 1998 by writer-artist John Byrne, in the miniseries ‘Spider-Man: Chapter One’. Since then, Spiderman has regularly appeared in ‘New Avengers’, ‘Spider-Man Family’, ‘the Amazing Spider-Girl’, ‘Ultimate Spiderman’, ‘Spiderman Loves Mary Jane’, ‘Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man’ and ‘Marvel Adventures: The Avengers’.

Apart from comics, Spider-Man has also appeared in cartoons, movies, coloring books, novels, records and children’s books. He has been featured in various animated series on television, like ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, ‘Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends’, ‘Spider-Man: The Animated Series’, ‘Spider-Man Unlimited’, ‘Spider-Man: The New Animated Series’ and ‘The Spectacular Spider-Man’. The first Spiderman movie was released on May 3, 2002 and it was followed by two sequels, in 2004 and 2007. The fourth sequel ‘Spider-Man 4’ is scheduled to hit the theaters in 2011. Right from the time of his inception and till date, Spiderman has remained one of the favorite superheroes, not only amongst kids, but the adults as well.