Spider-Man has been Marvel’s most popular hero since almost the beginning. The character connected with young readers immediately, overshadowing his fellow Marvel heroes. Since then, the best creators in the comic industry’s history have worked on his stories, taking the rough clay of Steve Ditko and Stan Lee’s Wall-Crawler and forming it into the most popular superhero from the House of Ideas. He’s even overshadowed heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman (but not Batman; Batman is the most popular superhero of them all) at times, showing the height of popularity he’s reached. He’s become a legend and it’s because of the decades of work that was put into the character.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Nowadays, Spider-Man fans are more likely to talk about the ways Marvel has made the character worse than otherwise. However, it’s way more fun to talk about all the ways they’ve made him better, allowing him to reach his potential. Marvel has improved Spider-Man in these seven ways, allowing him to grown into the icon he is today.
7) The Symbiotes
Marvel has long suffered from symbiote madness, ever since Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8. The alien costume became an important part of the Spider-Man comics until Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #1, when it tried to permanently bond to Peter Parker. After a date with some church bells, it would disappear until Eddie Brock was introduced, becoming Venom. Since then, the symbiotes have become some of the most popular Marvel characters ever, with Spider-Man getting some amazing symbiote stories over the decades.
6) Joining the Avengers
The New Avengers was a different kind of Avengers team, and Spider-man joining was an indication of that. Up until this point, he had been a reserve member, but the attack on the Raft saw him join up and become a key member of the group for years. Joining the Avengers is always looked at as a step up for heroes and Spidey joining put him firmly in the upper echelon of the superhero community in-universe. To fans, he had always been a top rank hero but making him an Avenger proved it.
5) The Spider-Totem
J. Michael Straczynski’s ’00s run on Amazing Spider-Man has some of the best – and two of the worst – Spider-stories ever. He kicked off his run by changing the Wall-Crawler in a big way. It was revealed that he was empowered by the “Spider-Totem”, which linked all spider-powered hero. This also brought the debut of Morlun, an energy vampire who drained those powered by the Spider-Totem. Without Morlun, you never get “Spider-Verse”, meaning you never get loads of great Spider-characters or the fantastic Spider-Verse movies. Some fans don’t like this development very much – they prefer Spidey as a sci-fi hero than a partly fantasy based one, which is valid – but it’s impossible to deny how much great stuff its wrought.
4) The Return of Norman Osborn
Green Goblin is Spider-Man’s greatest villain, with Norman Osborn looming large over the character’s history. However, the Wall-Crawler lost him for decades after “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”. Instead, we’d get Hobgoblin and later Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin, but all of that would change in 1996. Osborn was brought back at the end of the Clone Saga and it was honestly the best thing that could happen to the hero. Getting his original arch-enemy back has led to some awesome stories and Norman himself has grown a lot in the last three decades, becoming a better character as well.
3) Killing Gwen Stacy
Nowadays, Marvel tries to gaslight fans into believing that Gwen Stacy was Peter’s perfect girlfriend who is better than everyone else, including Mary Jane. However, anyone who’s actually read their relationship knows how bad it was and how much she held him back. Her death in The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 was a major moment in Spidey’s life that not only got rid of a character holding him back, but gave him another tragedy that developed him as a hero. It also led directly to one of the best moments in Spider-Man history…
2) The Marriage of Spider-Man and Mary Jane
The marriage of Spider-Man and Mary Jane was a hugely important moment in the character’s history. One of the things that made the hero so great for so long was watching him grow up, mature, become a more well-rounded character, and their marriage was the culmination of that. Mary Jane became one of the best supporting characters in the history of comics, rivaling greats like Lois Lane and Alfred. She added so much to the comics until Joe Quesada, fresh off a divorce himself, decided that Spider-Man was “better” and “more popular” when he was single, a loser, and immature (this ignores the massive sales of the late ’80s and early ’90s, when the marriage was a key part of every issue). There’s a reason that even 19 years later, many Spider-fans want her back.
1) Making Him the Friendly Neighborhood Hero
Spider-Man is Marvel’s most relatable hero, having earned the nickname “the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man”. However, anyone who read the early issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, when Ditko was doing just about all of the work and Lee was merely editing, knows that young Peter was anything but friendly. Ditko used him as a mouthpiece for his Objectivist beliefs and the hero was often unpleasant, to say the least. Once Ditko left, Lee would take more power over the book and the Spider-Man we know and love today was born. Honestly, if Ditko’s version of the Wall-Crawler was the standard used by everyone after and not the Lee/Romita Sr. version, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have stayed popular.
What’s your favorite Spider-improvement? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Ufotable -
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
