Spider-Man

My buddy and me.

Peter Parker and his alter ego have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. At three I received a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1, Issue #259 (1984) and from there I was hooked. The story probably didn’t make a lick of sense to me, but I sure did like the art. Through collecting comics I learned how to read. It was then I absorbed the tale of a scrawny, bespectacled, and friendless nerd being raised by elderly relatives gifted with extraordinary powers after a freak accident. The nerdy, lonely, and raised by elderly relatives part of the story mirrored my own origin story pretty succinctly. The beauty and innovation of writer Stan Lee and artists Steve Ditko’s creation is that Spider-Man didn’t fit the mold of the typical brawny and self-assured hero. More often than not, Spider-Man was outmatched by his adversaries with Peter’s personal problems being more emotionally heavy and more complex to solve. You can’t punch your way out of being broke or having your heart broken (well, in most cases).

The so-called “Marvel Method” of creating comics consisted of the writer giving a rough outline to the artist, who then drew their interpretation of the story. The writer then wrote dialogue to match the art. The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 1, Issue #33 (1965) contained
a series of panels (reproduced below) that would become some of the most famous pages
in comic book history.

Spider-Man, physically weighed down by debris well beyond what he can lift, is thinking about all the people he is letting down, by not being strong enough, both physically and mentally. Over four nerve-wracking pages Spider-Man wills himself to rise to the occasion and break free, thus saving the say and coming to the aid of his loved ones. The concept is perfectly executed by Ditko and Lee. These pages have lived in my mind since I first saw them all those years ago and drawn inspiration from them ever since.