An Independent article on Spiderman

An Independent article on Spiderman

GENRE – CULT

www.EBTM.com

Spiderman is probably the most popular character within the Marvel universe, as of 2007 there have been three feature films created with plans for more due to the character’s overwhelming popularity. He first appeared in 1962 as a feature in the comic book series Amazing Fantasy, which originally began as Amazing Adventures. In August 1962, issue #15 was released featuring the very first appearance of the much-loved hero. Featured alongside stories such as "Man in the Mummy Case!" and "There Are Martians Among Us!" Spiderman was originally designed a one shot experiment which was almost never published at all. Due to the fact that the Amazing Fantasy series was about to be cancelled, Spiderman was given the go ahead and subsequently became one of the most popular characters in superhero history.

Since its conception the story of Spiderman has become very well known throughout the world; the Story of a young nerd named Peter Parker who was bitten by a radioactively charged spider whilst watching a science experiment which gave him superhuman powers comparable to the abilities such as incredible strength, the ability to climb walls and a “spider sense” that would alert him whenever danger was near. Contrary to the theme outlined in the first Spider-Man film, Peter Parker did not have the ability to shoot webs from his self in the comic book series, instead he devised a system that would enable him to shoot and spin webs using technological means. After discovering his abilities Peter Parker began a wrestling career under the name “The Human Spider”; he won an incredible fight with a man much larger than himself which earned him a cash prize, however when the time came to cash in he was given a figure significantly less than what was promised. Disgruntled by what had happened, he allowed a thieve to run passed him with stolen money and did nothing to stop him, which subsequently led to the murder of his Uncle Ben, whom had raised Peter with his wife, Aunt May, since he was a little boy and took him in after his parents died in a plane crash.

Upset and outraged by the murder of his uncle, Peter went to track down the killer, adorned in a costume he had created himself, and found the man hiding in an abandoned warehouse. After a thorough beating of the murderer Peter became shocked to discover that the man who had killed his uncle was in fact the same thief whom he had allowed to escape. Distraught and guilt ridden, Peter Parker took on the life of a super hero, tackling criminals, thugs and master villains; always remembering what his Uncle had tried to teach him:

“With great power there must also come great responsibility.”

After his appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 (which incidentally is now worth somewhere around $30,000 dollars retail!) Spiderman was given his own comic book series “The Amazing Spiderman” in 1963 which continued until 1995 with a total of 441 issues, # 441 being sold as the “Final Chapter” however alternate Spiderman series are still in production. The early issues are worth an incredible fortune, #1 having a value of over $30,000 retail alone! Nobody would have even contemplated that Spiderman would become as popular as he did; my father claims that he actually had the first issue in his possession when he was a little boy but traded it for other comics he hadn’t read. Spiderman crossed genres with a seemingly endless line of comic book series including the Spectacular Spiderman, the Astonishing Spiderman, the Sensational Spider-Man, the adventures of Spiderman, Spider-Man's Tangled Web, Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man to name just a few. He has also had a number of TV series, the first of which started in the 60’s and gave us the infamous theme tune:

“Spiderman, Spiderman, he can do what a spider can.”

There was a notoriously terrible live action Spiderman show created in the 70’s, which has since been marketed as the early Spiderman movies. This show featured very little of Spiderman at all and was instead based around the life of Peter Parker. The few scenes which did include Spiderman dressed in costume where incredibly budget; with tacky special effects, terrible choreography and a costume that made Spiderman appear as if he where retarded. The web in which Spiderman uses to swing from city to city and capture his enemies was replaced with what appeared to be a thick piece of rope painted white. In the 80’s another cartoon series was created along with a spin off series entitled “Spiderman and his Amazing Friends” in which Spiderman would fight alongside characters such as the incredible Hulk. In the 90’s another Spiderman series was created which was the most elaborate series featuring villains such as Doctor Octopus, The Lizard, Electro, Venom and Carnage, this series had a counterpart, The X-Men, created by the same company. The X-Men actually featured in some episodes of the Spiderman series. Another spin off series was created entitled “Spiderman Unlimited” in which only 13 episodes where created where Spiderman gets pulled into an alternate dimension, and another 13 episode series was created for MTV entitled “Spiderman – The New Animated Series”.

Over the years Spiderman’s popularity grew, from numerous comic book series to various different television shows, not a single generation of children have escaped the phenomenon known as Spiderman since he was first introduced in 1962. Fans of the comic book series where treated to a seemingly endless line of stories ranging from the early series, featuring super villains such the Sandman, Dr Octopus, The Hobgoblin, The Green Goblin and The Kingpin etc to the later series which became progressively darker as the series progressed. New themes and stories where created over the years to keep fans interested and the series just seemed to keep getting better and better as the years progressed. The writers of the series kept fans entertained with action packed stories, unexpected twists and emotionally charged dramas; there where highs including the marriage of Peter Parker to Mary Jane and incredible lows such as the deaths of Gwen Stacy and Aunt May. Later on the series became incredibly sinister with the introduction of Venom, whose goal in life was to crush Spiderman’s skull however he eventually turned to the good side, and his psychotic offspring Carnage, who was a serial killer named Cletus Cassidy. The Carnage saga became notoriously gruesome featuring graphic examples of gruesome killings and led to a highly successful computer game series entitled “Maximum Carnage”. Different Spiderman costumes where introduced throughout the series, one of which was an all black costume which came about when a symbiotic life form fused with Spiderman, which later on fused with Eddie Brock to become Venom. Another costume design was introduced when a clone of Spiderman, created by Gwen Stacy’s father, was introduced to the series. A number of Spiderman clones where created and in one episode it turned out that Spiderman himself was a clone who had killed the real Spiderman, believing him to be the clone.

These series has been phenomenally successful with an absolutely massive following all over the planet. Almost every piece of merchandise imaginable has been created around the series including an unbelievable amount of toys and action figures, coffee mugs and key rings, sweets and snacks, stickers and trading cards, costumes, posters, computer games and clothes ranging from socks, shoes, trousers, baseball caps, t-shirts, sweaters, gloves and even Spiderman underpants!

Due to the advent of CGI technology the creators of Spiderman where finally able to release a Spiderman Feature film in 2002, which enabled them to accurately portray all the action packed fun from the comic book series onto the big screen. The film starred Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco and has since spawned two sequels with plans for further films. Spiderman is a part of pop culture history; he has been around for over 40 years and will be around for a very long time to come. Our grandparents remember him, we’ll always remember him and our grandchildren will probably remember him; long live Spidey!