Subject: Spider-Man

Culture: American comics fandom

Setting: Marvel Comics

Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)

* Misiroglu ed. 2004 p449-450

"Spider-Man is easily the most widely recognized character in Marvel Comics' four-color pantheon, and has been an American pop-culture mainstay for more than four decades. He was a radical departure from the staid conventions of the comic-book superhero of the 1950s -- a teenage character that wasn't relegated to sidekick status beside an older, more experienced hero. Creators Stan Lee (editor-scripter) and Steve Ditko (artist-plotter) loosed Spider-Man on an unsuspecting world in 1962 in Amazing Fantasy #15, portraying a scientifically brilliant but socially maladroit teen named Peter Parker -- a high-school everyman -- who receives a fateful bite from a radioactive spider during an atomic science demonstration. Parker consequently find himself in possession of the proportional abilities of an arachnid, including heightened strength, speed, agility, the ability to cling to walls and ceilings, and a precognitive 'spider sense' that alerts him to approaching dangers. Using his inborn scientific talents, Parker synthesizes a unique adhesive 'web fluid' -- though superstrong it dissolves after an hour's exposure to the open air -- and builds a pair of wrist-mounted web-shooters that enable him to shape the webbing into various useful forms. He also designs and sews the web-festooned red-and-blue costume that would quickly become 'Spidey's" most visible trademark, and a ubiquitous sight along Manhattan's skyline (hence the immortal and oft-repeated tag-line, 'Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man')."

Costume