Spider-Man

fictional character in Marvel Comics

Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in the Marvel Comics. He is one of the most well-known superheroes in the Marvel Universe. The character was created by the writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962. He was an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben as an ordinary teenager. He would deal with the normal struggles of being young as well as the struggles of being a costumed crime fighter. His powers were superhuman strength, speed, agility, the ability to cling to almost every surface and the ability to shoot spider-webs using a device that he invented, which he calls "web-shooters." He reacts to danger quickly with his "spider-sense," enabling him to combat many foes.

Spider-Man
Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceAmazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962)
Created byStan Lee
Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter egoPeter Benjamin Parker
SpeciesHuman mutate
Place of originQueens, New York City
Team affiliations
Partnerships
Notable aliasesSpidey, Ricochet,[1] Dusk,[2] Prodigy,[3] Hornet,[4] Ben Reilly,[5]
Scarlet Spider,[6] and Captain Universe[7]
Abilities
  • Superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, agility, coordination, and balance
  • Ability to cling to solid surfaces
  • Accelerated healing
  • Genius level intellect
  • Proficient scientist and engineer
  • Precognitive spider-sense ability
  • Utilizing wrist-mounted web-shooters
  • Master martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant

Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, when teenagers in superhero comic books were usually only sidekick to the protagonist. The series featured Peter Parker, a high school student who frequently suffered rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness. Most young readers could easily relate to this.[8]: 210  Unlike some teen heroes, such as Bucky and Robin, Spider-Man never had any adult mentors like Captain America and Iron Man to teach him to be a superhero. He had to learn for himself that "with great power comes great responsibility" – a quote that he would cherish from his late Uncle Ben.

Over the years, Marvel has used Spider-Man in a lot of different comic books. In some of them Peter Parker is a nerdy high school student. In others he’s a college student or high school teacher. He’s also been a photographer.

Spider-Man also has one of the most notable rogues galleries in comics including The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Venom, Electro, The Lizard, The Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, The Chameleon, Mysterio , Carnage, Shocker, Scorpion, The Rhino,The Hobgoblin, Hydro-Man, Black Cat, The Punisher, Morbius, Molten-Man and Mr Negative to name a few.[9]

Spider-Man is a very popular superhero. He has appeared in cartoons and movies. He has been played by actors Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, among others. Live-action movies include Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

Outfit

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Spider-Man wears a red and blue costume. There is a drawing of a web on the suit's red parts.

Fictional character biography

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In Peter Parker's first appearance, he is introduced as an orphaned teenager who loves science and lives with his aunt and uncle in New York City. He constantly gets bullied by Eugene "Flash" Thompson, who calls him "Puny Parker" and humiliates him daily. One day, he is bitten by a radioactive spider. This gives him powers that turn him into Spider-Man.

As Spider-Man, he then becomes famous for wrestling on TV. One day at a studio, he refuses to stop a thief. He then learns that his Uncle Ben has been murdered and as Spider-Man, he tries to find the killer. When he does, he finds out that the killer is the thief that he didn’t stop. Learning that with great power comes great responsibility, Spider-Man becomes a vigilante. Peter and his aunt need money, so Peter gets a job as a photographer at the Daily Bugle selling photos to J. Jonah Jameson, who hates Spider-Man.

Peter graduates from high school and goes to college where he meets Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy. Peter also finds out that Harry has a drug problem. Harry's father turns out to be a supervillain, The Green Goblin.

Peter attempted to retire his life as Spider-Man in the "Spider-Man No More" Arc, however due to a rise in crime and witnessing an old man being beaten by several violent criminals(Which reminds him of Uncle Ben), he ultimately decided to return to being Spider-Man

Powers, Abilities and Equipment

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Thanks to the Spider Bite, Peter Parker's physiology was enhanced. Spider-Man has superhuman strength, Spider-Man possesses superhuman strength with the ability to lift up to 10 tons. He was shown to easily swing a 3-ton wrecking ball using steel chains. Spider-Man's physical strength is sufficient enough to enable him to lift and throw objects as heavy as a big rig semi-truck with ease. He must also pull his punches and kicks unless fighting someone of similar or greater physical durability. Otherwise, his blows would prove fatal to a normal human being. He has demonstrated that he is strong enough to knock out people with normal durability with as little as a tap to the head. As such, he rarely lets himself use all of his strength - after Doctor Octopus had taken over Spider-Man's body, he easily punched off the Scorpion's (a foe normally regarded as physically tougher than Spider-Man) jaw as he hadn't known of Spider-Man's true strength. Spider-Man's physical strength also extends into his legs, enabling him to be able to jump to a height of several stories in a single bound. Spider-Man demonstrated this when he leaped over thirty feet vertically into the air when he first leaped out of the way of an oncoming car; it should also be noted that when he first discovered his powers as a teenager, they had not developed to that of his prime.

Spider-Man has incredible speed and agility, Spider-Man possesses superhuman speed, making him capable of running and moving at speeds that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Spider-Man is fast enough to catch up to an accelerating car while on foot, but prefers to travel by webs. Spider-Man moves faster than the eye can follow, he has even moved so fast he appears as a blur. Spider-Man was able to easily outrun multiple goblin masquerade on goblin gliders, and outmaneuver their ranged attacks at the same time. In close combat, he was even able to dodge an all-out assault from Blur (Jeff Walters) for an extended period of time.

Spider-Man's superhuman agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Spider-Man is extraordinarily limber, and his tendons and connective tissues are twice as elastic as the average human being is despite their physical strength. He has the combined agility and acrobatic prowess of the most accomplished circus aerialists and acrobats. He can also perform any complicated sequence of gymnastic stunts such as flips, rolls, and springs. He can easily match or top any Olympic record at gymnastics apparatus such as flying rings, climbing ropes, horizontal bars, trampolines, and even comparable to the likes of Daredevil. Spider-Man's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are currently about forty times greater than those of an ordinary human. In combination with his spider-sense, the speed of his reflexes allows him to dodge almost any attack, or even gunfire, given sufficient distance. Spider-Man has even been shown in some cases, to be able to dodge gunfire using just his reflexes without his spider-sense

Spider-Man's body is physically tougher and more resistant to some types of injury than the body of a normal human. His body is more resistant to impact forces than anything else. He can withstand great impacts, such as falling from a height of several stories or being struck by an opponent with super strength. Events which would severely injure or kill a normal human, leave him with little to no discomfort. In the past, he has survived multiple blows from the likes of The Hulk, as well as surviving a point-blank missile explosion. Spider-Man's body is durable to the point where tensing his super-strong muscles while being punched in the torso by a trained heavyweight boxer caused the attacker's wrists to break. Spider-Man has stated that he must roll with punches thrown by people without similar strength or durability, in order to avoid breaking their wrists. Spider-Man is durable enough to survive getting beaten down by Colossus and Magik when they were powered up by the Phoenix Force. His arm was strong enough to block Quicksilver while the speedster was in motion, as far as stamina is concerned, the character is known for not giving up and over coming even impossible odds, holding his breath whilst weakened and being able to continuously fight despite broken bones and a broke hand, he's also been able to keep at it for days without food or sleep.

Whilst not as powerful as the healing abilities of Wolverine or Deadpool, Spider-Man does have an accelerated healing ability, he's been able to heal from broken bones in hours and even a deathly flu in a hour, he also has an enhanced immune system.

One of Spider-Man's most iconic powers is his "Spider-Sense", a precognitive danger sense warning him of potential threats, It is described as "tingling" in the back of his head, His Spider-Sense can at times often automatically allow him to automatically avoid the threat. Despite the Spider-Sense's potency, it has limits or can be bypassed, Green Goblin has developed a chemical to bypass the Spider-Sense, likewise the Venom Symbiote and it's offspring can bypass the Spider-Sense.

Spider-Man can also alter his interatomic attraction so he can attach himself to substances, he often uses it for climbing on surfaces however he has used it in other ways, such as sticking his mask to his face so Anti-Venom could not unmask him.

Peter Parker is a genius being considered one of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe, even Geniuses such as Hank Pym, Reed Richards, Tony Stark and Otto Octavius acknowledge his intellect, with Reed highlighting that Peter's college IQ scores were the same as those posted by Reed Richards at the same age. Peter was also able to hack into Stark industries systems and override Tony's control over the Iron Spider suit. He developed inventions such as his Web-Shooters and his signature web formula, and the Spider-Tracers when he was still in high school.

With his knowledge and expertise in mechanics, robotics and engineering Peter has been able to use his amazing intellect and resources at Horizon Labs to create many inventions such as the four Spider-Armors, the Spidey Stealth Suit, his famous Web-Shooters, the Cryo-Cube 3000 and the noise reduction headphones. At Parker Industries he invented a magnitude of devices including but not limited to the Anti-Electro Netting which successfully de-powered Electro, an antidote for the Zodiac poison, and easy to apply holographic plating.

After his years of crime-fighting, Spider-Man became an excellent martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant, having utilized his fighting style that directly complements his superhuman spider-powers and abilities. His methods are volatile, enabling him to rival practically all types of combatants. In addition to this, Peter has been trained by Captain America in unarmed combat. After temporarily losing his spider-sense, Peter received formal combat training from Shang-Chi and together created a new martial art style dubbed "the Way of the Spider."  However, since the return of his spider-sense, Peter let his training lapse. Spider-Man's feats include defeating Firelord, Daken, Wolverine, the Sinister Six single-handedly, Quicksilver, the X-Men single-handedly, Spider-Man (Otto Octavius), Spider-Woman, both Black Panther and Hawkeye, and Morlun. He has stalemated Captain America, Julia Carpenter, and Shang-Chi.

Spider-Man's main trademark equipment, are his web-shooters. Thanks to Peter Parker's brilliance at physical science, his scientific knowledge allowed him to create web-shooters for use when Peter first became Spider-Man. The twin devices worn on his wrists are able to shoot thin strands of a special web fluid at high pressure and speeds.

When Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man, he creates himself the original red and blue Spider-Man costume and a mask that he could wear to hide his face. Spider-Man mainly wears this classic spider-themed costume suit throughout his super hero career and while he has worn several other suits(such as a Black Symbiote, the Iron Spider, The Future Foundation suit) that are still the same as the original, he always finds himself returning to wearing this costume

Spider-Man in pop culture

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Spider-Man is one of the most well-known superheroes ever created. His quote With great power comes great responsibility is one of the most popular superheroes quotes ever. He has also been in television and video games and most popularly Sam Raimi's film trilogy which includes Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3. The Amazing Spider-Man movies are also popular.

Television

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In animation, he appeared in a 1967 television series named after him. He also appeared in "Spidey Super Stories" on The Electric Company. He appeared as a guest star in a Spider-Woman animated series. There was also a 1981 animated series of him, and then an animated series called Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. In 1994, there was another series about him, and there was a spin-off called Spider-Man Unlimited. After the Sam Raimi movies, there was an animated series of Spider-Man on MTV called Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. In 2008, there was an animated series called The Spectacular Spider-Man. He appeared in The Super Hero Squad Show. In live-action, there is Amazing Spider-Man and a tokusatsu series of Spider-Man in Japan.

Movies

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References

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  1. Amazing Spider-Man #434
  2. Spider-Man #91
  3. Spectacular Spider-Man #257
  4. Sensational Spider-Man #27
  5. Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36
  6. Amazing Spider-Man #149–151
  7. What If? (vol. 2) #31
  8. Wright, Bradford W (2001). Comic Book Nation. Johns Hopkins Press. ISBN 0801874505.
  9. De Falco, Tom (2001). Spider-Man:The Ultimate Guide. Marvel.