(playful piano music) (power down tone)
- That famous phrase,
"With great power, comes great responsibility,"
is cemented into the Spiderman mythos.
it was first written in Amazing Fantasy #15,
which was also the first appearance
of Spiderman himself,
but it often gets attributed to the wrong person.
Sorry, Uncle Ben.
(upbeat music)
Welcome to a Tie-In video, I am Scott,
and earlier this week we talked about
whether great power really does demand great responsibility.
But I want to discuss the origin of that phrase.
While Peter Parker's Uncle Ben often gets credit for it,
it actually wasn't spoken until after he was already dead.
In fact, it wasn't even spoken at all when it first debuted.
Instead, it was written by the unnamed narrator of the story
and was even a bit longer.
Originally it was, "With great power,
"there must also come great responsibility."
That original Spiderman story from 1962
was not the first place a similar quote has been written.
Franklin D. Roosevelt penned a speech
the night before he died in 1945 that read quote,
"Today we have learned in the agony of war
"that great power involves great responsibility."
In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt had a slightly different
but similar statement in regards
to him not wanting to seek a third term as president.
Quote, "I believe in power,
"but I believe that responsibility should go with power."
Two years before that, Winston Churchill gave a speech
that outright said quote,
"Where there is great power,
"there is a great responsibility."
We can trace similar quotes
throughout history for centuries, but historians are unsure
who the original author of the quote was.
It's often attributed to Voltaire,
a writer and philosopher of the 18th century,
but that link has yet to be confirmed as true.
The earliest written example of this quote
we've been able to find
is from an anonymous writer
in 1793 during the French Revolution.
We know this wasn't Voltaire,
because he had died 15 years prior.
Nonetheless, the quote, when translated to English,
reads quote, "They must consider that great responsibility
"follows inseparably from great power."
I think that actually fits better with
the original Spiderman quote of,
"With great power there must also come great responsibility"
but yeah.
There is also a somewhat similar phrase from the Bible
that people like to point out.
It's from Luke 12:48 which reads,
"From everyone who has been given much,
"much will be demanded.
"And from the one who has been entrusted with much,
"much more will be asked."
And I see how that's kind of the same general idea,
but I don't know if I could confidently say
that that's the origin of the phrase.
Still, I thought it was at least worth a mention.
Many powerful people echoed this sentiment
throughout history, but I'd wager that today people
still instinctually think of Spiderman when they hear it.
They might even specifically think of Uncle Ben,
and that raises a question.
When was Uncle Ben first attributed with the quote
if it wasn't that way in the original Spiderman Comics?
As many years passed after Spiderman's debut,
that lesson about power and responsibility
was still talked in the form of a caption box.
The first comic book appearance I could find
of Uncle Ben specifically saying it
was in Amazing Spiderman #274 from 1986.
That's 24 years after Spidey's first issue.
However, the Uncle Ben in this story
was kind of a hallucination,
plus it isn't clear whether that phrase
is something that Ben used to say while he was alive,
or just a lesson that Peter learned after his death.
A short while later, in Spiderman versus Wolverine #1,
Peter does specifically state
that the phrase is something that Uncle Ben used to say.
And that's probably the earliest indication we have
of that being the case.
However, there is an instance outside of the comics
where Peter specifically states that the famous phrase
is something that Uncle Ben used to say.
It was from a 1972 Amazing Spiderman Rockomic
entitled "From Beyond the Grave."
Essentially it was an album of songs about the web slinger
that are all tied together by an acted out story
where King Pin kidnaps Aunt May.
It's crazy.
It's awesome.
It's available to listen to right now for free.
I'll put a link in the description.
20 minutes into the story, we get this little excerpt.
- [Voiceover] What was it Uncle Ben used to tell me?
I remember.
He used to say, "Petey, never forget.
"The stronger the man, the heavier the load.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
- I know what you're thinking.
And yes, that is Odo from Deep Space Nine.
And there you have it.
A brief history of that classic saying,
"With great power comes great responsibility."
But I want to know what you guys think.
Do you feel the line is more powerful
when delivered by Uncle Ben
as opposed to a simple caption box?
Or do you like the idea of Spiderman
learning about it intuitively
instead of being told it outright?
Let's talk about it all in the comments below.
And before you go, did you know that we have a podcast
simply titled the NerdSync Podcast
that comes out every single Monday
about comics, and movies,
and interviews, and trivia.
About those things.
So why not go check it out
by clicking the card up there
if you want to listen to more of me talking each week.
Than more of you than you already do
by watching these videos.
Or if you want more Spiderman videos,
click right there for one that we put out on Wednesday
about whether or not
great power does demand great responsibility.
So it's kind of topical.
You might say it ties in, get it.
And if this is your first time
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Once again, I'm Scott.
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram,
and I will see you guys on Monday
for another episode of the NerdSync Podcast.
See ya.