Character Spotlight: 7/2/12
A biweekly column by Talisha Harrison aka Tali Adina
Welcome to Talking Comics’ Character Spotlight! Every other week, I’ll be spotlighting a character from comics, cartoons, etc. So this week, the spotlight falls on:
The Amazing Spider-Man
“Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out!
Here comes the Spiderman. “
As your friendly neighborhood web crawler web slings back onto the big screen with a new story , look, and actor after a five-year hiatus, here’s a few things that fans new and old alike ought to know about the web head:
- He was co-created by the Stupendous Stan Lee and the Amazing Steve Ditko.
- His first appearance was in the comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962.
- Spidey has appeared in at least 8 animated TV shows-I was introduced to him from the Spider-Man series that played on Fox Kids during the 90’s.
- From 1978 to 1979, our hero was featured in a live action series on CBS entitled The Amazing Spider-Man.
- Spider-Man is written Spider-Man not Spiderman.
- One of the villains Spidey faced early on in his comic book career was the Chameleon who was introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #1.
- In the original Lee-Ditko stories, Spider-Man has the ability to cling to walls, superhuman strength, a sixth sense (“spider-sense”) that alerts him to danger, perfect balance and equilibrium, as well as superhuman speed and agility.
- Spidey sews his own costume and he constructed mechanical web shooters as well as the web-fluid that he uses.
- The villain Venom is undetectable to Spider-Man’s spider-sense, due to the symbiote having been mentally linked to him, and it for the most part it contains his DNA.
- Peter Parker is the alias of Spider-Man .
- After his parents died, Peter Parker was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
- The famous phrase “With great power comes great responsibility,” predates Spider-Man as the earliest usage of the phrase is attributed to Voltaire. Originally, the phrase was printed as “With great power there must also come great responsibility!” in Amazing Fantasy #15.
- There are alternate versions of Spider-Man such as Miguel O’Hara who is the Spider-Man of 2099, or the Spider-Man in the Ultimate universe who was originally a teenaged Peter Parker who died and then another Spider-Man took over Miles Morales who has come into his own as the new friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
So there you have it folks, that’s the end of this week’s Character Spotlight. Tune in again every two weeks for a new character. Have a wonderful Fourth of July and I hope you enjoy the Spidey Film!
“Spiderman, Spiderman
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame
He’s ingnored
Action is his reward.
To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there’s a hang up
You’ll find the Spider man.”
