The Ultimate Guide to Spider-Man

It’s easy to understand why people love Spider-Man. A geeky teenager given superpowers by a fantastical accident, he was perhaps the very first ground- level superhero. Since his introduction in 1962, he’s been one of the most popular characters in comic books. Part of the reason is how relatable he’s always been. Sure, he had special abilities, but quite different from so many fictional heroes, he had real-world problems. Spider-Man was working through adolescence, while dealing with school, a job, money issues, family and all the things that so many of us deal with as we grow up. We’ll be taking a deep dive into everything Spidey-related. It all starts with the comics, of course, and hundreds of stories told in all their four-color glory as they not only introduced both versions of the Wall-Crawler, but also the incredible roster of friends and foes who either support or battle Web-Head. But it doesn’t stop there. Spider-Man has been all over television, video games and, of course, the movies, where eight different live-action Spider- Man films have hit theaters in this century alone (as well as one very popular animated one). Add Spidey’s role in three other Marvel movies, and he has appeared on-screen more than any other superhero in that time. And there’s plenty more of him in store, with the first of two more animated flicks— Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse— hitting theaters in June and the second next year, plus, the announcement of another live-action film in the not-too- distant future. So grab onto one of Spidey’s webs and prepare to swing through more than six decades of history, from the brainchild of a pair of longtime comics professionals to the casting of a British teenager to play that creation on-screen, and beyond.