Since his debut in 1962, Spider-Man has been one of the most popular superheroes in the
world, and he's also one of the most well-known.
But with countless Spider-Man stories built around some pretty confusing plot points,
it’s easy to get mixed up.
Let us have the great responsibility of clearing up a lot of incorrect things people believe
about Spider-Man.
Stan Lee's most enduring classics?
Of all the original Marvel Universe titles, The Amazing Spider-Man is the one most strongly
identified with Stan "The Man" Lee.
Even though he’d be a part of all of Marvel’s early string of hits, including the Avengers,
the X-Men, the Hulk, and more, Spidey was the character he stuck with the longest, scripting
the first 100 issues and then staying on sporadically for another few years after.
"You know, I guess one person can make a difference.
'Nuff said."
If, however, you think Stan's the only one responsible for the thrills of those early
adventures, you're mistaken.
Most fans are aware that Lee pioneered the "Marvel Style" of writing, in which he'd collaborate
with an artist on a loose plot, then add in the dialogue after everything else was done.
What's a little less well-known, however, is that his relationship with artist and Spider-Man’s
co-creator Steve Ditko was one of the first to deteriorate.
According to Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, the latter chunk of Ditko's 38-issue run,
including the legendary story that gave the world the iconic image of Spider-Man fighting
his way out from under a massive heap of rubble, was produced without Ditko and Lee speaking
to each other at all.
Of course, that doesn't mean Lee wasn't a necessary ingredient for Spider-Man's early
success.
The fact that he stayed with the character for almost seven years after Ditko's departure
and kept on producing some of the best years of Spider-Man is a testament to how important
he was to the character, and how well he got along with Ditko's replacement, Jazzy John
Romita.
The Spectacularly Singular Peter Parker?
The one thing about Spider-Man that's always been true is that underneath that mask, it's
always Peter Parker.
Just an average, everyday scientific super-genius with problems just like ours.
You know, like juggling our long-term relationships to supermodels while making a living off selfies.
That’s why it’s always been Peter… except for all those times it's someone else.
While Peter Parker has certainly been the main man in the mask as Spider-Man since Spidey's
debut in 1962, he's definitely not the only one.
For a while in the '90s, Spider-Man was instead Ben Reilly, a clone of Peter made by a villain
called the Jackal.
Right around the time Peter temporarily lost his powers, Reilly was tricked into thinking
he was the genuine article.
He dyed his hair blonde, got a job at a coffee shop, and took over the role with a new costume
for the entirety of 1996 before eventually dissolving into a pile of dust.
More recently, Peter found his own consciousness overwritten by Doctor Octopus, who took over
his life as the Superior Spider-Man.
Beyond just variations on Peter Parker's body, and enough alternate universe versions that
they have their own special team, there's an entirely different Spider-Man in the Marvel
Universe: Miles Morales, who stepped into the spotlight in 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse,
a movie based entirely on teaching us that anyone could be Spider-Man if they never give
up, including Gwen Stacy, Nic Cage, and… a talking pig.
"It can get weirder!"
Organic web-shooters?
One of the most intense arguments you could overhear in a comic book store back when the
first Spider-Man movie came out concerned whether Spider-Man's web-shooters were mechanical
or an organic byproduct of his spider-powers.
Going by the comics, though, it doesn’t matter what side of the argument you’re
on, you’re wrong either way.
When Sam Raimi's film hit theaters, one of the few notable changes that it made to Spider-Man's
origin story came with the addition of organic web-shooters.
This proved to be so controversial that when the next movies were announced in 2010, the
decision to use the comics’ mechanical web-shooters literally made headlines.
After all, he’d never had organic web-shooters in the comics.
Or at least, he didn't have them in the comics before those movies came out.
After their success, a 2005 storyline called "The Other" ended with Peter being eaten by
a giant spider and emerging with organic webs.
Those didn't last either; they inexplicably disappeared with the back-to-basics approach
of the "Brand New Day" story two years later, but other Marvel Universe spider-characters
retained them.
In fact, Cindy Moon, a classmate of Peter's who was bitten by the same radioactive spider,
is so capable of spinning her own webs that her superheroic codename became "Silk."
Who killed Gwen Stacy?
One of the defining tragedies of Spider-Man's life was the death of Gwen Stacy.
In the '60s, she was the love of Peter Parker's life, forming a complicated love triangle
with Mary Jane Watson, and providing the backbone of the soap opera that underscored his Spidey
superheroics.
In Amazing Spider-Man #121, the Green Goblin kidnapped her and used her as bait to lure
Spider-Man into a battle at the top of the George Washington Bridge, and while the story
title wasn't revealed until the last page, “The Night Gwen Stacy Died" lived up to
its name.
The Goblin is definitely to blame for Gwen's murder, he's the one who took her to the top
of the bridge and the one who threw her off, all in an effort to torture Spider-Man.
If, however, you really want to get technical about things, he's not the one responsible
for what literally killed her.
That sad honor goes to Spider-Man himself.
It's easy to miss, but the real tragedy can be seen in the issue.
When Spider-Man tried to save Gwen by snagging her leg with a web line as she plunged toward
the Hudson River, the sudden stop proved to be the fatal moment.
A small "snap!" sound effect next to Gwen shows it was a broken neck from Peter's attempt
at saving her that actually ended Gwen's life.
Nobody dies?
Spider-Man doesn't kill.
It's one of the absolute rules of the character, and unlike other heroes, he's lived up to
it, too, in over 50 years of comics, Spider-Man has never actually killed anyone himself.
Except for the one time he did.
It happened in the pages of Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, a 1987 one-shot by Christopher
Priest and Mark Bright that pulled Spidey into a dark world of international espionage.
The conflict between the two title characters is largely built around a spy codenamed Charlemagne
who is described as Wolverine's best friend from his days as a government operative.
In this story, Charlie wants Wolverine to kill her so she won't be apprehended and spend
the rest of her life being tortured in a gulag.
When Spider-Man stumbles into this situation, all he knows is Wolverine is trying to kill
someone.
In the fight that ensues, Spidey unleashes his full strength on the X-Man, "hitting him
with blows that would wreck cars."
Sadly, Charlie takes advantage of the brutal conflict, tricking Spider-Man into hitting
her instead of Wolverine, using him to commit suicide.
Peter was understandably traumatized by the event, and while he and Wolverine have made
peace in the years since, it was a source of bitterness between them for a long time.
The Daily Bugle's freelance photographer
The iconic image of Peter Parker is of a young man struggling to make ends meet by working
as a freelance photographer, selling snapshots of his own superheroic exploits to the Daily
Bugle to satisfy J. Jonah Jameson's demand for pictures of Spider-Man.
If that's your only concept of what Spidey does when he's not out fighting crime, however,
it's time for an update.
The truth is, while Peter worked for the Bugle for decades in a lot of classic stories, he
hasn't actually been a freelance photographer for most of this century.
Starting in 2001, Pete returned to his old stomping grounds of Midtown High as a science
teacher, but that proved to be a pretty short-lived career choice.
In the years since, he’s had a couple of science-related jobs, working for a think
tank called Horizon Labs where he reverse-engineered his crime-fighting gadgets into consumer goods.
He even founded his own multinational corporation called Parker Industries, although technically,
it was Otto Octavius who founded that company while he was in Peter's body, and Peter had
to destroy it to keep it from being taken over by Nazis.
Comics are complicated.
Til death (or devil) do they part
One of the more controversial moments in Spider-Man's comics history involved a deal with the devil.
Like, the literal devil.
Not just this guy.
"Finish it!"
"From evil!"
After Peter revealed his identity during the events of Civil War, his family was targeted
by bad guys who nearly killed Aunt May, which was a good reminder of why he had the whole
secret identity thing to begin with.
Unfortunately for the Parker family, that sort of reveal isn't the kind of thing you
can undo… unless you're willing to make an infernal bargain with Mephisto.
Which is exactly what happened.
Rather than selling their souls, however, Peter and then-wife Mary Jane Watson sold
their marriage, effectively erasing their years of wedded bliss from Marvel Comics continuity
as though it had never happened.
In the Spider-Man comics, Peter and MJ were both freed up to pursue new relationships,
but don't let that fool you into thinking the marriage is completely gone.
In order to go along with the comic book storyline, the Spider-Man newspaper strip did away with
the marriage as well.
Readers reacted so poorly, however, that in the strip that ran on May 24, 2009, the elimination
of the marriage was revealed to have been a dream.
Ever since, Newspaper Spidey has remained happily married… or at least as happy as
anyone can be when they spend most of their time getting knocked unconscious right next
to Dilbert.
The spectacular Spider Parents
Everyone knows that Peter Parker was orphaned at a young age and raised by Aunt May and
Uncle Ben.
Considering that his surrogate parents were about as wholesome and salt-of-the-earth as
people could be, it stands to reason that Richard and Mary Parker were cut from the
same cloth.
Just average, ordinary folks, right?
Wrong.
In 1968, it was revealed that when the Parker Parents died, they were under a cloud of suspicion
as traitors to their country.
The truth, however, was that they were spies working for S.H.I.E.L.D., who had infiltrated
the Red Skull's criminal organization before being killed, without ever getting the chance
to clear their names.
Yes: In case you missed that, Spider-Man's parents were spies who were murdered by Captain
America's arch-nemesis.
If that's not weird enough, they later turned up alive, only to be revealed even later to
be robot duplicates.
That's not the end of the Parker family's secrets, though.
It turns out that in addition to the parents he never knew, Spidey also had a long-lost
older sister, Teresa, who was herself a S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent.
After a team-up in which it was revealed that her memories of the Parkers were falsely implanted
by Mephisto, it turned out that was also a ruse.
She was, in fact, Peter's actual sister after all, and even pitched in to help him fight
bad guys using her spy skills.
With great power comes great dialogue
If you've ever read any Spider-Man comic, or seen him in a movie, or a cartoon, or encountered
the character pretty much anywhere, then you've almost certainly seen the motto that guides
his life: "with great power comes great responsibility."
As we all know, this was the definitive lesson that Uncle Ben taught his nephew before he
died …
"And remember…
With great power comes great responsibility."
...except Ben Parker never actually said those words.
In Amazing Fantasy #15, Spidey's often-referenced motto is never spoken out loud by any character,
not even Uncle Ben.
Instead, it only appears in a caption at the end of the story as a moral lesson imparted
by… well, Stan Lee.
Spidey himself doesn't even say until 25 years later in 1987.
As time went on, though, the phrase became more and more identified with Ben, largely
because it would be really weird for Spider-Man to solemnly vow to accept the lesson that
was imparted to him through narration by the guy who wrote his comics.
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