Spider-man - The Unlikely Super Hero
It is very difficult in today's commercialized world not to be familiar with Spider-Man. And it doesn't matter whether you have Young school age children, you're in college or like me you're as old as dirt and we have all been exposed to this most unlikeliest of all Super Heroes.
But if he is not a great super hero then why has his popularity grown ever since he was first introduced back in 1962? It seems as though we just can't get enough of him. Don't get me wrong, I am also a great fan of his and but Spider-Man (real name: Peter Parker) is not your typical super hero. I would even go so far as to say that he even challenges the definition of what a super hero really is.
Spider-Man does possess special powers - like being able to cling to any surface, spider-quick reflexes that operate up to 40 times faster than those of any normal person and an uncanny spider-sense, a tingling sensation in the back of his neck and which warns him of danger. But he also is very human.
What other super hero do you know that talks to himself, misses appointments and catches the flu - when he has to fight and forgets to put film in his camera (Peter is a photographer by trade) and he even has trouble paying his rent. And I believe that these are the things that make him our favorite hero. Because Spider-Man is the super hero that could be any one of us.
But did you know that as popular as Spider-Man is today - that he was originally a one-shot experiment for a dying comic book series and actually almost didn't even get into print at all because the editor in charge at Marvel Comics thought that people would be turned OFF reading about spiders. However, since the series was going to be terminated anyways and Goodman finally agreed to let Spider-Man debut in August of 1962 in Amazing Fantasy #15. And by 1970, Marvel Comics had become one of the dominant comic book publishers and with Spider-Man as their flagship series.
Introduced as Peter Parker, a nerdy science whiz kid, that was not only extremely shy but he was considered clumsy, uncoordinated and a big wimp and that was constantly being bullied.
Orphaned at the age of four, when his parents were killed in a plane crash and Peter was forced to live with his elderly Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
One day during a science demonstration Peter was bitten by a radio-active spider and as a result and he receives spider-like powers such as superior strength and lightning fast reflexes. However and being a super hero and saving people is not exactly what Peter had in mind. He was more interested in making money with his new powers as a professional wrestler and which broughthim fame as a big TV star.
One day while at the studio, Peter was confronted by a burglar and instead of trying to catch him and Peter let him get away. After all and it wasn't his job to stop him - thatwas up to the police. It was the same thief that, a short time later, killed Peter's best friend and his Uncle Ben.
Peter now filled with guilt and over not stopping the person who killed his uncle. And it is that guilt that will drive Spider-Man through the rest of his career as a vigilante.
Garry has been a great fan of Spider-Man since the original comic book series. He has followed Peter's (Spider-Man's) exploits through the Sunday comics (until they were canceled), bad TV series and the latest movies. He is already planning to see the 4th Spiderman movie in 2011 and the Broadway musical Spiderman and Turn of the Dark in 2010.
