When teenage nerd Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider, he gains a weird selection
of arachnid powers and spends the rest of his days balancing vigilante crimefighting
against leading a normal life.
Except it's never really been that simple for our friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man,
and his history has so many twists and turns that it's not easy to keep track of his tangled
web.
A true original?
In 1954, Halloween costume manufacturer Ben Cooper Inc. began selling a "Spider Man" outfit.
The kid-sized duds were little more than a yellow ensemble covered with drawings of webs,
and the words "Spider Man" written across the forehead, giving the overall impression
of, well, a poorly-dressed idiot who'd recently escaped from a basement or something.
Years later, Marvel's Spider-Man made his debut in 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15, the final
issue of a doomed anthology series.
While Cooper's earlier Spider Man may seem like a huge coincidence, the case is complicated
by rumors that Jack Kirby, the original artist for Spider-Man, before Steve Ditko took over,
was working for Ben Cooper at the time.
Comics site Newsarama explored the case and got a terse reply from Ditko...and silence
from Marvel, which definitely sets our spider-senses tingling.
Spider origins redux
Artist Jack Kirby had his hands in the creation of just about every major comic character
you've ever heard of.
While the first appearance of Spider-Man was written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko,
Lee originally had Kirby draw the first five pages of Spidey's debut.
The pages didn't hit the mark and were scrapped.
For the final version, Lee's original plot and Kirby's costume designs were changed,
and Kirby ultimately only drew the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15.
Unfortunately, this didn't stop Kirby's heirs from trying to claim payment for Marvel's
use of Spider-Man in 2009.
Even Lee, Kirby's everlasting partner in mighty Marvel creativity, denied the Kirby family's
claim.
According to Deadline, the suit was settled on undisclosed terms in 2014, which is even
more suspicious than Norman Osborn's crazy cornrows.
20 Ingram Street
Over the course of 1989's Amazing Spider-Man #316 and 317, readers were shown two halves
of a change-of-address form filled out by Peter Parker, and only curious readers who
assembled them saw that the Parkers were now living at 20 Ingram Street in Forest Hills,
NY.
Whether or not this was an Easter egg planted by writer David Michelinie or artist Todd
McFarlane is unknown, but as of 1974, there really was a family named Parker at that address,
who soon began receiving mail addressed to the fictional Peter.
When the New York Times explained the story in 2002, they also discovered that 19 Ingram
Street was home to a family named Osborne—just one letter off from Spider-Man's arch-nemesis,
Norman Osborn.
Back in black
When he's not wearing his red-and-blue duds, Spider-Man is known for wearing a stealthy
and slimming black, which he found in an alien vending machine during 1984's Secret Wars
mini-series and decided to slap on his body.
What readers might not know is that the black costume wasn't an original idea from Marvel,
but one sent in by a fan for a contest in 1982.
While Randy Schueller's costume idea apparently involved underarm webbing, which didn't make
it into this sketch, and a red logo, the similarities to the official Black suit remain.
Schueller was paid for his idea: $220 dollars, which would be about $550 today.
Schueller's other ideas would later be incorporated into additional Spidey costume ideas: unstable
molecules and thought control were both used by Spidey's Future Foundation and Iron Spider
costumes respectively, but Schueller was never given any actual credit, according to his
own post on Comic Book Resources.
Center of the web
Comics fans might not think about it much, but Spider-Man is the absolute center of the
Marvel multiverse.
Even though heroes like Captain America and Iron Man get top billing, there are more versions
of Spider-Man across the multiverse than any other hero, and any time we visit another
reality, Spider-Man is so iconic and consistent that he's always there, and generally used
as a compass to differentiate the different planes of existence.
While the main Marvel continuity, Earth-616, has its own fair share of Spideys, there are
literally hundreds of alternates, including Spider-Ham of Earth-8311, the flaming skull-headed
Ghost Spider of Earth-11638… and a whole lot of dead Spider-Men, since Peter seems
to get caught in the ol' bug zapper of life pretty often.
The cruelest revenge
Spider-Man has probably had the roughest life of any superhero; he doesn't have Batman's
wealth, and he doesn't have Superman's strength, but he accomplishes pretty much the same heroic
stuff.
But the very worst thing that ever happened to Spider-Man was being cheated on by his
girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, with his arch-nemesis, Norman Osborn, a.k.a.
the Green Goblin.
While this was never spoken of during Gwen's life, the 1999 storyline "Sins Past" revealed
the ultimate betrayal: Gwen had kept her terrible goblin babies secret, and because of their
unique DNA, they aged rapidly and came after Peter Parker, because that's what goblins
do.
Everyone—Peter Parker and comic readers included—hated the whole thing.
Spider-Magic
Everyone knows that Spider-Man's powers are purely scientific in nature, because being
bit by a radioactive animal automatically transfers its powers to you.
That's just basic biology.
Except in 2001, the arrival of a character named Ezekiel revealed that Spidey's superhuman
abilities were actually kinda magic, and that fateful radioactive spider bit Peter Parker
on purpose, because of cosmic mystical machinations.
It's a bit like the midichlorians of the Marvel Universe, but it also kinda explains why most
of Spidey's bad guys are animal-themed.
Deal with the Devil
The apex of weird Spider-Man storylines is Peter Parker's deal with the devil, Mephisto.
In exchange for the survival of his dear, decrepit, nearly-deceased-anyway Aunt May,
Spidey would give up his marriage and future kids with Mary Jane, forcing him straight
back into the friend zone.
Spidey's reason for taking this deal?
Peter's Aunt May was hovering between life and death because she'd been put in danger
after he revealed his secret identity during Civil War, and he'd come to the sensible conclusion
that taking off his mask in front of the world had been a big mistake.
In return for Peter sacrificing his life with Mary Jane, Mephisto made the world forget
he was Spider-Man, thus protecting his loved ones from the line of supervillain fire.
Crossover madness
Spidey is a guy who gets around in some pretty weird places.
In 1978, Peter and Mary Jane attend a taping of Saturday Night Live, and a mix-up between
villain Silver Samurai and John Belushi's samurai character causes an issue-long ruckus
featuring the entire 1978 SNL cast.
In 1993, Marvel had the rights to publish a comic series based on Ren & Stimpy, so Spider-Man
ended up battling Powdered Toast Man in those pages—and getting one-punched through a
wall by the bread-headed hero.
And in 2009, Spider-Man rescues none other than Barack Obama from the Chameleon, who
decides to impersonate the president-elect moments before the inauguration.
And that's truly only the tip of the weird-berg.
So many spiders
At one point in Marvel's history, Spider-Man was so popular that he starred in four books
at once, making it nearly impossible to keep track of his adventures, or even take a nap.
All of it came to a head when Norman Osborn framed Spider-Man for murder, forcing Parker
to drop his heroic persona and take on a different heroic mantle…or four.
As Hornet and Prodigy, Peter continued his heroics, and as Dusk and Ricochet, he was
able to infiltrate New York's criminal underworld to find the real murderer.
Spidey was able to drop his alternate identities, but they were later taken up by a group called
the Slingers, who were quickly beaten by the New Warriors in a game of basketball and pretty
much never seen again.
Mary Jane is not my lover
At some point during the 1990s, pop star Michael Jackson made moves to try and purchase Marvel
Comics, only because he wanted to play a heroic character when it came time to make some Marvel
movies.
It was revealed in 2011 that Jackson petitioned X-Men's producers for the role of Professor
X, for reasons that are now a complete mystery to all humanity, but Stan Lee's recollection
was different.
In their personal conversations, Jackson revealed to Lee that he really wanted to play Spider-Man,
though Tobey Maguire eventually got the role, probably saving the Marvel movie universe
as we know it.
Trailer trashed
Speaking of the original 2002 Spider-Man, the film's original theatrical trailer had
to be completely pulled and scrapped after the events of 9/11, due to the fact that the
entire thing hinged upon a helicopter being caught on a web between the Twin Towers.
Since the terrorist attacks happened after much of filming was completed, but before
the film's theatrical release, the Towers were cut from a handful of scenes.
The replacement trailer featured Spider-Man perching on an American flag instead.
Spandex sadness
Spider-Man's many portrayers have all had very different reactions to the tights.
Civil War's Spider-Man, Tom Holland, had costumes that were designed for his stunt double, so
when he put them on, they were a bit too baggy, bumming out Holland during his first time
in the suit, according to Comic Book Movie.
Tobey Maguire was pretty uncomfortable until the costume designers put in a bathroom portal.
And despite bathroom breaks being a known problem for Spider-actors, the costume department
again forgot to include a vital flap for Andrew Garfield, who only had the addition put in
during his second outing as the character.
Still, Garfield admitted during a radio interview that was so taken by the fact that he got
to play the iconic hero that he cried when he first put on the suit.
And we thought Tobey was the Spidey who cried.
Turn off the dark
Spider-Man's films aren't the only times he's been made into a live-action hero.
In 2010, director Julie Taymor brought Spidey to Broadway in a play so fraught with problems
that it quickly became an unintentional comedy of errors, even with music by the members
of U2.
By opening day, the production had already cost $65 million, and not even Disney, who
had recently purchased Marvel, had any interest in helping out.
A disturbing number of actors and extras were injured during production due to the show's
complex stunts, and at one point, Green Goblin became stuck on a wire over the audience,
hanging there for a few minutes before the show could begin again.
Not even the Clone Saga was this embarrassing.
Spider sentai
Broadway wasn't the only place to suffer from a misguided live-action Spider-Man.
In 1978, Japanese production company Toei took note of Spidey's tight costume and likened
him to their own skin-tight Tokusatsu heroes, like Kamen Rider.
Japan's Spider-Man was given an origin not unlike DC's Green Lantern, when he's given
a fancy device and powers by an alien from the planet Spider, who he finds in a crashed
UFO called "Marveller."
In true Japan form, Spidey also gets a transforming robot, which he uses to fight against Professor
Monster.
The show ran for 41 episodes, all with Marvel's approval, and with amazing episode titles
like "Becoming Splendid: To the Murderous Machine of Transformation," and "The Onion
Silver Mask and the Boys' Detective Group."
Spider-Manimation
In 1992, Marvel and Saban had a huge hit with their X-Men animated series, so Marvel decided
to build on this success by debuting Spider-Man in 1994.
While Spidey's series was also an action-figure-spawning phenomenon, it was subject to completely absurd
censorship.
While it's reasonable to request that a kids' cartoon omit animated blood, it made less
sense to forbid even the mention of blood—even in an episode where Morbius, the Living Vampire
appears, and can no longer be called a vampire.
Other rules included no breaking glass, no punching—except in limited circumstances—and
no use of the word "sinister."
This last one is especially odd, as Spidey's main villain collective is known as the Sinister
Six, and Mr. Sinister was over on X-Men being evil on the regular.
Sorry, kids, basic English vocabulary is too rough for your little pudding brains and bloodless
bodies.
Say no to bugs
Because Spidey is pretty much an everyday, average guy, he's been used countless times
as a tool for educational purposes, from direct-to-VHS shorts about child abuse to full comic arcs
about the dangers of drugs.
When the U.S. Government approached Stan Lee to write an anti-drug story in 1971, he was
all for it, as long as it was a good story.
Strangely enough, this was during a time when the Comics Code Authority also expressly forbade
any mention of drugs whatsoever.
After the story was shot down by the Comics Code, Lee made the difficult decision to publish
it anyway.
It was so well-received that the CCA changed its own code, opening up comics to a much
wider range of educational stories.
Oh baby
Spidey's strangest foray into educational materials was definitely "The Pull of the
Prodigy," a 1976 story written by Ann Robinson for Planned Parenthood.
In an amazingly surreal plot, the alien villain called Prodigy (no relation to Spider-Man's
previously mentioned alter-alter-ego) uses the powers of alien persuasion to try to convince
teenagers to make babies...so that he'll have tons of minions to do his bidding.
Part of the Prodigy's propaganda was to straight up say that diseases weren't possible and
getting down in the backseat of a Chevy didn't really cause pregnancies.
Of course, Spidey laments how tough his life is even without a rugrat, and defeats the
Prodigy before it's too late.
If anyone was poised to lecture kids about celibacy, it was definitely nerdy Peter Parker.
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