SPIDEY: MY FIRST MARVEL ICON.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

This tagline was made famous by none other than Marvel’s Uncle Ben. These were literally the final words shared by him and his nephew, Peter Parker.

Peter heedlessly ignores the chance to stop a fleeing burglar. His nonchalance cynically catches up with him when the same thief later robs and (accidently) kills Uncle Ben.

Spiderman hunts down Uncle Ben's killer.

If only Peter had been smart enough to stop the burglar/thief when he had the chance, his uncle would’ve been alive. He then subdues the killer with his abilities and only then realises the importance of the famous saying of Uncle Ben’s; that with great power there must also come great responsibility. This gave rise to the wall crawling, web slinging teenage totem-- Spiderman. A perfect head-start to the world of the human spider.

Sam Raimi’s Spidey Trilogy shows Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire, possessing organic web shooting abilities. That was disturbing. Comic fanatics went berserk since the comics show Peter developing a device exclusively for web shooting, which would operate by the slight pressure of a finger after having fastened it to each of his arms. The concept is logically sound.

Peter tests his Web Shooting devices.

 Coupled with dynamic flexibility and core strength, Peter also gets abilities to which he refers as his “spider sense” that alert him to danger; enabling him to detect the frequencies of obstacles thrown at him or to navigate electrical impulses in dark rooms, etc.

In comics, wavy lines around his head is used to represent his spider sense. Sometimes the tingling senses are shown by a symbolic half-mask appearing on his face.

Peter senses electrical impulses using his Spider Sense.

VILLIANS

Spidey v/s The Sinister Six.

Spiderman’s perpetual villains include Dr.Otto Octavius, the Sandman, Kraven the Hunter, The Vulture, Electro and Mysterio. Together they call themselves The Sinister Six--- a group they formed to take down Spiderman. Some of the vital rivals of Spidey include the Venom and the Carnage. 

Spiderman…A Hero or A Menace?

 

J. Jonah Jameson.

J. Jonah Jameson is the editor-in-chief of New York’s Daily Bugle. Spiderman having attracted the attention of the media, Jameson tries to destroy Spidey’s reputation by trying to unmask the spider vigilante. Here’s one of the main reasons why he despises Spidey.

Jameson’s son, John Jameson, was set on a journey to outer space; his mission was to orbit the moon. On his way back to earth, disaster struck; a small section of the space shuttle started to malfunction. Even the essential guidance unit couldn’t do anything about it. So Spiderman tries to counter the press by rescuing John from danger. Jameson, instead of acknowledging the fact that Spiderman saved his son’s life, accuses the hero, in front of the press, of manipulating the situation to his own benefit.

Throughout the Spiderman series, JJ tries to learn the truth behind the vigilante’s mask. And fails to do so every time. As the story proceeds towards the end, JJ finally admits that he envies him, that he wants the wall crawling web slinger prosecuted. He realises that Spiderman risks his life day after day with only one goal in mind—a safe city. Why else would a millionaire, civic leader, editor in chief try to tear down the heroic icon of New York City? So all that remains for JJ to do is to bring him down. Pure jealousy. 

Stan’s Web-Slinging Journey

Stan the Man

Well, Stan Lee does know how to cook up a good story line. The reason why I got in to the “Comic Crazed Culture” is because of this comic icon.  A piece of brilliance, truly. I mean (unaware of DC doing equally well), who would’ve thought of creating a character, in the 1960s, who can spin webs and wall crawl; a human spider?  Stan Lee did, and continues to do so even today. Long story short, its imagination at its best. In alliance with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirkby, both world famous comic book artists and writers, Stan Lee created The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Thor, The X-Men and many more fictional characters that rocked the world of comic books. 

The interesting part is that he insists on giving all his characters first and last names that start with the same letter; for instance “Peter Parker”, “J. Jonah Jameson”,  “Bruce Banner”, “Reed Richards”, “Sue Storm”, “Otto Octavius”, etc. Very few may have recognized the use of such alliterations in his names.

When Stan put forward his idea of Spiderman to his publisher, this is what he got as a response:

“First of all, people hate spiders, so you can’t call a book Spider-Man. Secondly he can’t be a teenager—teenagers can only be sidekicks. And third, he can’t have personal problems if he’s supposed to be a superhero—don’t you know who a superhero is?”

Stan really wanted this idea of his to do wonders. So he hired an artist to sketch the icon in to the Amazing Fantasy Series, which later became a huge hit. This is what the publisher had to say after:

“That’s okay, we’re friendly, and everything is fine. Marvel now has the best writers available, they have the finest artists … they just can’t do a bad comic book, and they certainly cannot do a bad movie.”

Stan Lee and Spiderman.

Stan’s response to Spiderman’s success?

“I never thought that Spider-Man would become the world wide icon that he is. I just hoped the books would sell and I'd keep my job.”

Spiderman is the reason I chose to read comics. He is an inspiration to all the comic fanatics. I hope Stan continues to make us fans MARVEL at his magic.