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according to an anecdote told by stan lee in virtually every interview he's ever given
about spider-man the genesis of the hero began when he saw an insect crawling up a wall while
brainstorming ideas and figured that a hero who could stick to walls would be kind of cool in
reality though the origins of everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood spider-man is a little less
cut and dry for starters stanley himself admitted in his own autobiography excelsior the amazing
life of stan lee that the seeing an insect crawl up a wall story is one that he's told so often to
so many people that he can't remember if it's true or something he came up with as it made a
pretty good story to tell the public this explains why the story as consistently as lee has tried
over the years has slight variations depending on when and to whom it was being told for example in
some versions lee saw the insect usually a fly while he sat in his office in 1962 and in others
he saw it while literally pitching the hero to his boss and in others it was something he remembered
as being cool from many years earlier when asked about why he came up with such an obscure power
for a hero in another case lee explained that the decision was made partly out of frustration that
he thought that it pretty much done everything else at that point in his own words the big
thing with superheroes is you have to try to do something different i thought what
superpower could i give him i already had done somebody who was very strong i did a woman who
could turn invisible i did a guy who could fly i was thinking what's left the hero's referenced
by lee in that quote for non-comic fans who inexplicably decided to view this video are the
incredible hulk the invisible woman and the human torch the latter two heroes are best known for
being founding members of marvel's first family the fantastic four co-created by lee and first
introduced in 1961 while the form was introduced in may of 1962 and was also co-created by lee
again according to another popular anecdote by lee before settling on spider-man lee came up with
and rejected several other insect-themed names including natman insect man and mosquito man again
this story has been told so many times that there exist multiple variations but they all
say essentially the same thing that lee came up with the name spider-man while brainstorming
and felt that it just fit which isn't really the whole story either you see lee also stated that he
was a huge fan of the spider a fictional character hailing from the pulp magazines of the 1930s
that this character directly influenced the creation of spider-man in the vein of similar
pulp heroes like the shadow and the green hornet the spider was a wealthy man who adopted an alter
ego to wage a one-man war on crime often brutally killing criminals and branding their corpses with
a spider-shaped mark to serve as a warning to others hence the name the spider save
for the use of the spider imagery the spider and spider-man share virtually nothing else in common
making it fairly obvious that the only facet of the spider-man character the spider-influenced
was his name that said according to lee he came up with the name spider-man independently but
was convinced that it was the right name when he recalled the name of the spider's comic the spider
master of men and how dramatic it found it as a child as a slight tangent spider-man co-creator
steve ditko claimed that lee was a big fan of the dc hero hawkman and has mentioned that he feels
that this likely influenced the name spider-man in some way whatever the case although lee liked
the name his publisher to whom he had to pitch the character martin goodman hated it reportedly
telling him people hate spiders another aspect of the character goodman took issue with was lee's
insistence that he'd be a teenager reportedly tellingly that teenagers can only be sidekicks
lee took particular exception to this as he felt a younger comic character would ultimately
be more relatable to teenagers a rapidly expanding audience for the medium at the time
on a side note lee made the conscious decision to buck the trend of referring to a teenage superhero
with the suffix boy opting to call his hero spider-man to show that he was just as capable
as any other hero they also claimed that goodman disagreed with him about the idea of spider-man
struggling with typical teenage issues like girls homework and bullies alongside being a
hero telling him he can't have personal problems if he's supposed to be a superhero don't you know
who a superhero is again lee felt that a hero with personal problems and vulnerabilities would
make for a more interesting and ultimately more relatable character for young fans and he refused
to back down goodman eventually relented and gave me permission to write a story for the
character that was to be published in an issue of a comic series produced by marvel called amazing
adult fantasy which in modern times with the internet having ruined us all would definitely
not feature a teenage superhero in any event as it turns out the only reason goodman agreed
to let lee put spiderman into the comic was because it was quite literally on the verge
of being canned with the issue featuring spiderman slated to be his last undeterredly with the help
of artist steve ditko fleshed out the concept and design of the character exactly how much
influence ditko had on the designer backstory of spider-man has been the subject of much
controversy and debate over the years that said it's largely agreed that ditko came up with most
every aspect of spider-man's costume including the bold for the time decision to have him wear a mask
that covered his entire face ditko had an extended essay about his involvement with the creation of
spider-man explained that he did this to cover spider-man's obviously boyish face and add a
layer of mystery to the character the decision has been widely lauded as brilliant for helping
define the character as well as making it easier for children of all ethnicities and backgrounds to
relate to the superhero in addition to this ditko is also said to have expanded upon lee's original
idea of a teenager getting bitten by a spider though to what extent is not clear we do know that
before it was decided that spider-man's powers were apparently going to be caused by the bite of
a radioactive spider it was lee's idea to have him get his powers from a magic ring an idea that was
quickly dropped according to ditko because of how similar the idea was to how the powers for
the archie comics hero the fly worked said idea was apparently partially pitched by another famed
comic artist called jack kirby who himself has claimed to have had some input in spider-man's
creation again how much influence kirby had on the character and the backstory it's not clear
though ditko has said that kirby's involvement was limited to five unused pencil pages of an
unfinished story that said these five pages did contain elements that did eventually become a
part of spider-man canon for example details such as his real name peter parker and the fact
that he lived with his aunt and uncle kirby also drafted a version of spider-man's costume that was
immediately rejected by lee because it was essentially identical to the one worn by captain
america at the time in the end kirby's involvement with spider-man's debut was limited to the cover
which was colored by ditko although as mentioned the character of spider-man was essentially being
sent to die in a failing comic book that was slated to be canned after the issue he appeared
in the story was written as if the series was set to continue at the final pages of the comic
noting that the spider-man will continue to appear every month on top of this for spider-man's debut
the comics title has changed from amazing adult fantasy to simply amazing fantasy to double down
on lee's assertion that the character would resonate with a younger audience and we can
only assume help further solidify the fact that his web shooter was totally family friendly
and lee was right because although amazing fantasy was cancelled when marvel looked at sales figures
a few months after its august 1962 release they realized that the issue had sold more copies than
nearly any other comic that ever released up to that point with the popularity of the character
now apparent marvel began arranging for spider-man to get his own series which began publication
in march the following year starting with the amazing spider-man number one
today spidey is one of marvel's most profitable and recognizable heroes being consistently ranked
alongside the likes of superman and batman as one of the best fictional characters ever created
which isn't bad for a character nobody thought would be popular originally debuting in a comic
that was slated to hit the dustbin of history directly after publication bonus facts an often
overlooked aspect of spider-man's name unless you're a real stickler for grammar is that unlike
virtually every other superhero his name contains a hyphen being written as spider-hyphen man in
most official media since his first appearance in 1962. according to lee this was to differentiate
spider-man from superman when the comic was on newsstands to ensure that the names were as
different as possible from the very beginning lee even insisted that spider-man's name be written
across two lines of the cover of amazing fantasy number 15 the comic featuring his first appearance
and now for another bonus fact the line with great power comes great responsibility was first
featured in a side panel of spider-man's first story and wasn't originally actually uttered or
spoken by any character so i really hope you found today's video interesting if you did
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