Is Peter Parker really Steve Ditko?

**Darthfury78** · 04-16-2012, 02:32 AM

While Stan Lee created the concept of Spider-Man, it was Steve Ditko who created the character as well as define who he is. Although it was said that Mr. Ditko is a private man, his run on Amazing Spider-Man define his personality as he drew the characters. I think that when we read his work on Spider-Man, we're actually seeing his personal life unfold and how it shaped his personality. Tell me if I am wrong? But I feel that Peter Parker is Steve Ditko and Spider-Man was his way of escaping the world that he was never a part of.

**remoteman** · 04-16-2012, 04:32 AM

That's an interesting thought. It's slightly difficult to tell though as Lee was scripting the series, and therefore would have been able to directly influence Peter Parker's characterisation far more than Ditko would ever seemed to.

**Darthfury78** · 04-16-2012, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by remoteman

That's an interesting thought. It's slightly difficult to tell though as Lee was scripting the series, and therefore would have been able to directly influence Peter Parker's characterisation far more than Ditko would ever seemed to.

I believed that Stan gave Ditko a few lines to work with. And he drew everything out for Stan to write down. I believe Ditko told his story through his illustrations.

**CTpitch** · 04-16-2012, 08:58 AM

I would believe steve ditko would make a deal to the devil so yes

**The_Ronin** · 04-16-2012, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Darthfury78

I believed that Stan gave Ditko a few lines to work with. And he drew everything out for Stan to write down. I believe Ditko told his story through his illustrations.

Sometimes that definitely was the case, other times less so. Lee and Ditko even clashed a few times on politics, Ditko began a march towards his objectivism, while Lee was firm in his more liberal beliefs, sometimes those early stories what Ditko wanted to have happen in the art was not always reflected by Lee's script.

Ditko did get a chance to put a lot more of his personal politics into his characters Mr. A and The Question.

**remoteman** · 04-16-2012, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by Darthfury78

I believed that Stan gave Ditko a few lines to work with. And he drew everything out for Stan to write down. I believe Ditko told his story through his illustrations.

That could very well be the case. Do you have any slightly more specific examples? At the moment the points that you are making are a little vague. To be quite honest, I'm not sure if any of us really know what sort of guy Ditko was, given how secretive he has always been about his private life.

**Darthfury78** · 05-24-2012, 12:33 AM

How I would love to see Steve Ditko return to Marvel and work on a Daredevil project.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/11/...l-art-gallery/

The early Spider-Man stories, in particular Peter Parker was actually Steve Ditko's childhood.

**Aziz Abbasi** · 05-24-2012, 12:42 AM

Golden Age Clark Kent was Peter Parker like, Ditko was young back then, maybe school age
CK had the secret identity story with his luck, if you have the 70 years of Superman book collecting certain stories, you should check it out

**Darthfury78** · 05-24-2012, 12:50 AM

Originally Posted by Aziz Abbasi

Golden Age Clark Kent was Peter Parker like, Ditko was young back then, maybe school age
CK had the secret identity story with his luck, if you have the 70 years of Superman book collecting certain stories, you should check it out

Exactly what I am talking about. The high school version of Peter Parker at the time Spider-Man started was a reflection of Steve Ditko and how he viewed the world at that time. And the high school Peter is a reflection of Mr. Ditko's personality. This is only on the Peter Parker side.

**Talisman** · 05-24-2012, 08:26 AM

Steve is more Doctor Strange than Spidey.

**Huree** · 05-27-2012, 01:50 AM

Definitely an interesting question to ask and worth pondering.

I think the characterization of Peter Pater at a fundumental level is slightly schizophrenic because of the tension between what Stan wanted from the character and what Steve wanted. And that tension is able to be traced and observed by looking closely at the results of the unique way in which they produced comics.

The early "Marvel Method" of working as I understand, went something like this:

1. The Writer and the artist would discuss a plot.

2 Next the artist would then go off and draw a comic of a predetermined page length without a script.

3. The 'writer' (almost always Stan the Man) would fill in the dialogue, thought balloons, and captions etc..

the end.

So what ended up happening in this particular partnership and method of Ditko and Lee making Spider-Man in the early to mid 60's, was that for whatever reason their relationship became rocky, to the point where they stopped talking to each other all together and a handful of issues were supposedly made without Lee even suggesting anything for plots and the issues would arrive to him already drawn and he would have to fill in the text.

So getting back to the original question of "is Steve Ditko Peter Parker?" my guess would be that Ditko tried as hard as he could to make him a version of himself with his ideals and everything but if Steve was the one filling in the word balloons I doubt that Spider-man would be such a jovial wise-cracker, and that's an integral part of his character! So I would have to say that Peter Parker/ Spider-Man would not be the iconic instantly recognizable character we all know and love today without BOTH Stan and Steve in equal measure. It was a true collaboration. And I wouldn't want to choose the "yes" column or the "no" column

Peter Parker/ Spider-Man is such a complex contradictory character all logic would point to him just not being believable at all but somehow he is the most human and relatable character in all of superhero comics:

-He's a shy bookworm
-He's a witty insult comedian
-He's a wallflower
-He's always got a date with a hot girl he's blowing off
-He's a scientist
-He's a photographer that designed and sewed his own super-hero costume

Sorry this was real long I know there's a point or 2 to be extracted from there though even if I lost it now. Spider-Man is the best superhero that's my point.

There's a really great documentary the BBC produced a few years ago about Ditko that I'd encourage everyone interested to watch if they haven't seen it already, a really revealing and interesting interview with Stan Lee about all this buisness plus alan moore, John Romita etc... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJqXPozfnWQ

**Huree** · 05-27-2012, 02:00 AM

...and that's not even touching Ditko's obsession with Ayn Rand and Peter chastizing the student protesters in #38 (Ditko's last issue) and Spider-Man being voted next to Che and Bob Dylan as the youth of America's most influential revolutionary figures in a 1965 Esquire poll and speculating about how Steve and Stan might have felt about that respectively.