Spider-Man | Creators, Stories, & Films - Britannica

Origins and development in the comics

Spider-Man was a radical departure from the established conventions of the comic-book superhero: he was a teenage character who was not relegated to sidekick status beside an older, more-experienced hero. In addition to enhanced speed and strength, Parker also possessed a precognitive “spider sense” that alerted him to approaching dangers. Using his inborn scientific talents, Parker synthesized a unique adhesive “web fluid” and built a pair of wrist-mounted web-shooters that enabled him to shape the webbing into various useful forms. He also designed and sewed the web-festooned red-and-blue costume that quickly became Spider-Man’s most visible trademark.

However, Marvel publisher Martin Goodman was not initially receptive to the idea of a teen hero taking center stage, nor did he want to accept Spider-Man’s neuroses, romantic deficiencies, and chronic concerns about money. Goodman also thought that the audience would be repelled by the character’s spider motif. Fortunately, Lee’s instincts prevailed. Spider-Man’s debut in Amazing Fantasy was an immediate and resounding success.

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From the beginning, Spider-Man’s behavior deviated significantly from the prevailing superheroic norms. Instead of selflessly dedicating his superhuman gifts to crime fighting or the general betterment of humankind, the newly empowered Spider-Man cashes in on his talents by becoming a television celebrity. After his first performance before the cameras, he refuses to stop a robber from stealing the television station’s studio box-office receipts. Spider-Man’s world abruptly collapses a few days later when a burglar murders his uncle, Ben Parker, leaving Peter’s Aunt May—now his only surviving guardian—a widow. The grief-stricken Spider-Man tracks down Uncle Ben’s killer, only to make the horrible discovery that the murderer is the very same robber he had allowed to escape from the television studio. Spider-Man’s origin story closes with a somber narration that permanently sets the series’ moral tone:

And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility!

Spider-Man’s debut soon led to an ongoing comic series that began with The Amazing Spider-Man (abbreviated ASM), vol. 1, no. 1, in March 1963. The eponymous character immediately became integral to the ever-burgeoning “Marvel universe” as well, interacting (and sometimes exchanging blows) with such mainstays as the Fantastic Four, that group’s Human Torch (another teen hero), Daredevil, and the Incredible Hulk. “Spidey” also quickly developed a colorful, soap-opera-worthy supporting cast, including the rabidly anti-vigilante Daily Bugle newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, girlfriend Gwen Stacy (to be replaced later by Mary Jane Watson, following Stacy’s untimely death), and a roster of costumed adversaries such as Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Green Goblin, and Kraven the Hunter.

Parker is beset by chronic personal and financial difficulties from the outset, such as having to earn enough money to pay the medical bills of his ailing Aunt May; she had been poised at death’s door virtually from the beginning of ASM and even experienced “fake deaths” on two notable occasions. For many years, Peter Parker earned the money he needed to keep his aunt alive by selling photos of himself in action as Spider-Man (taken surreptitiously with an automatic camera, usually webbed to a wall) to his unsuspecting newsprint nemesis, Jameson. Although Parker’s earnings are barely sufficient to make ends meet, he generally approaches life—and crime fighting—with an upbeat attitude and a sly sense of humor that often manifests as wisecracks delivered in the midst of battle.

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Spider-Man became a fast-expanding franchise, unable to be contained between the covers of a single monthly publication. Spidey’s frequent crossovers with other Marvel characters led to a bimonthly title dedicated to this idea, Marvel Team-Up, which began in March 1972 and ran for 150 issues. The debut issue teamed Spider-Man with the Human Torch, and the series eventually paired him with nearly every high-profile character in the Marvel universe (the series was replaced by the Web of Spider-Man monthly series, which started in April 1985).