spider man history

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Spiderman was created by Stan Lee for Marvel Comics in 1962, the character first appearing that year in Amazing Fantasy #15. Because the superhero was immediately popular, Amazing Fantasy was renamed Amazing Spider-Man. A year later, Stan Lee was promoted and became the youngest editor in the comic book industry. It was primarily due to Spider-Man that Marvel Comics became one of the dominant comic-book publishers by the start of the next decade. In 1977, Spider-Man became the star of his own newspaper strip, achieving equal success in the new medium, ultimately appearing in more than 500 newspapers around the world. Although other super hero comic strips have come and gone, the Spider-Man strip achieved success as the longest running of them all. Spider-Man was written throughout from the start until the late 1990s by Stan Lee, while his younger brother Larry Lieber drew the daily newspaper comics for Marvel since the late 1980's when Larry replaced Fred Kids as the artist for "The Amazing Spider-Man."

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1967 saw the first animated Spider-Man television series, premiering on ABC and running throughout the 1967 and 1968 seasons. A third season was not aired but was later released into syndication. From 1977 to 1979, a live action Spider-Man TV series was attempted. Previous decades had seen the successful 1960s live-action Batman television series, and the 1950s live-action Superman series. But the Spider-man series lasted from only two years. The animated version of Spider-man made a return to television in 1981 and a syndicated solo series played from 1981-1982. Afterwards came "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends". The friends included Incredible Hulk, Firestar, and Iceman, and aired on NBC from 1982 to 1985. The 1990s Spider-Man was more successful, running form 1994-1998 for a total of 65 episodes. By this time Japanese anime was the rage, and a Spider-Man Unlimited series was short-lived and taken off the air to make room for Digimon.

    Peter Parker was about four when his parents were killed in a plane crash. As a result, he was raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. In school, Peter was aloof from his classmates, and appeared as a weak and nerdish outsider. During a school outing, Peter visited a science demonstration of radiation technology. During the demonstration, a radioactive spider crept into a beam of radiation, generated by the experiment. It dropped down and nipped the hand of the unsuspecting Peter. The boy felt ill and left the science demonstration to go home. Walking along the street, he was nearly run over by a speeding car, but found he was able to leap more than a hundred feet and cling to the side of a building in order to escape. As the days pass, he discovered his enhanced strength, agility, and the amazing powers of a spider. His new abilities had been amplified by the spider's passage through the beam of radiation. The result was superhuman reflexes, the spider-like abilities to cling to surfaces, an increased mental alertness, an ability to sense danger, and the most important power of all, the ability to spin and shoot web strands to great distances which then functioned like powerful vines. These enabled Peter to travel rapidly across large distances and heights. Where Superman was able to fly, and even to leave the atmosphere of the earth, Spider-Man was restricted to traveling throughout city environments, albeit rapidly and at great heights. The opportunistic and inventive teenager tried to earn some money as a wrestler, in which he disguised himself with a mask and suit, the costume gradually evolving into the Spider-Man uniform. One evening, after a fight, he goes back to his change room and crosses paths with a burglar. Peter chooses not interfere, believing that it was not his responsibility. Days later, Peter returns home from school and discovers that his Uncle Ben has been murdered by a burglar. He tracks the criminal and captures him, only then recognizing the man as the same burglar he had ignored days earlier in the change room. This leaves Peter guilty and vaults him into the world of fighting crime. He swears to fight evil from that day on.

It was Stan Lee's creativeness that also invented the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk. Spider-Man has appeared in almost every conceivable media format including a Nintendo Video game in 2000. The 2002 release of the first Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Willem Dafoe as his arch-enemy, and Kirsten Dunst as the love of his life, girl-next-door "Mary Jane Watson". Directed by Sam Raimi, the first movie was a commercial success and an artistic achievement, that has already led to a much awaited sequel.

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