The Many Origins of Spider-Man: A History

[CBR News]

Alan Kistler looks at the many origin stories of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, from "Amazing Fantasy" to Japan to Broadway across the various medium's the webslinger has graced.


Full article here.

[starman]

We miss "The Spectacular Spider-Man" too. I was really excited that we were going to get The Scorpion and The Hobgoblin in the 3rd season.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

Really nice list here.

I never knew about the TV performer angle or PAD's take on why Peter never patented the web fluid.

[Venomous Mask]

Takuya meets the warrior Garia, last survivor of Planet Spider, a world destroyed by Prof. Monster and his evil Iron Cross army. Now, Takuya must continue the fight against the villain.

Garia injects Takuya with his blood, granting him the super-powers of a man from Spider (or a "Spider-Man," if you will). Takuya gains spider-powers and a psychic sense keyed to warn him about the actions of his enemies, but unfortunately is now also sensitive to cold temperatures just as some spiders are. With Garia's high-tech alien bracelet, Takuya can instantly summon his "Spider-Protector" costume. The bracelet also fires webs, summons the Spider-Machine GP-7 (a flying race car), and controls Garia's spaceship, "Marveller," which can also transform into the sword-wielding mecha called "Leapardon."

Only in Japan.

[AdamYJ]

So it seems that Japan had two different takes on Spider-Man.

And I liked the whole "Neogenic Recombinator" thing in the '90s cartoon series. It was kind of just a step away from the "genetically engineered spider" origin from the Raimi movie plus could be used as an explanation for all the villians with animal motifs.

[Alex6166]

Chapter One? Why'd they mention that!!! :)

Doctor Octopus involved in SPider-man's origin. I guess that could make sense.

[sandwich eater]

Really nice list here.

I never knew about the TV performer angle or PAD's take on why Peter never patented the web fluid.

There's an issue of Amazing Spider-Man from the 70s where Spidey tries to sell his webbing formula to a company, but they reject it because it dissolves in a couple hours. However, I always found this a little ridiculous because in the real world we are constantly searching for materials that degrade for various applications such as environmentally friendly packaging or even biomaterials for implants that degrade over time in the body. Maybe he'd get rejected in the 70s, but in today's world that web fluid would be worth millions of dollars.

[Dr.J.]

Only in Japan.

I remember seeing this effort advertised back in 1977-1078 or so.The cover looked good, but as the saying goes," You can't judge a book by the cover. I don't regret picking it up.I'm sure that it's the same efforts. Ugh!

[Dr.J.]

I recall also several other takes on spidys origin through the years, such as spectaculer 1, back in 1969, 94, from 1970, and 181, from 78 or so, but they all pretty much stuck to the original origin.

[Dr.J.]

Ahh yes, the infamoue "chapter one" mess! I bet that I'm not the only one, who didn't buy beyond the misserble first issue! Any one out there who went for all 12, then realized what a waste of money they put out? I beleave that these 12 issues beyond any other effort sank Byrnes ship.

[Squashua]

"A later story adds that Richard and Mary worked under Nick Fury and even encountered the mutant called Wolverine on one mission."

Wasn't Mary a red head?

Hmm...

[Squashua]

"Drake Bell, who actually played a parody character based on Spider-Man in the film "Superhero Movie."

Comments like these really do your article justice. Excellent effort in my opinion; quite comprehensive.

Spectacular S-M was a great cartoon. At least it was cancelled due to legal issues and not poor network management decisions or bad quality.

[President Kang]

Very thorough!