This is in no way a comprehensive history of Spider-Man. I have only attempted to give an overview of how the character came to be and to summarize his appearances in various media. To find sites with much more information, see the links section, where I have listed all the sources I used to help compile this information.

There are three sections to this history: comics, animation, and movies.

Note: this fanlisting is for the character Peter Parker 'Spider-Man', and it is listed in the Animation, Characters: Book/Movie, and Comics categories at TFL; therefore, I have not included any information about any live action TV shows featuring Spidey, or any Spider-Man comics in which Peter Parker does not appear.

Depending on when I last updated this page, it may be out of date. Hopefully not! Last Updated: November 4, 2006.

Creation

There are various versions of the story of how Spider-Man came to be, and a few people (including Jack Kirby and Joe Simon) have been credited with involvement in the conception of the character. However, officially, it is writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko who get the credit in the end. They are the two who took the concept of a character named Spider-Man and developed the idea into the character as he would eventually become known: Peter Parker, a teenager with superpowers and all the problems that came along with that. At some point in 1962, Lee and Ditko's version of Spider-Man was presented to Marvel Comics publisher Martin Goodman, who was unconvinced that the character was a good idea, but allowed the story to be published in Amazing Fantasy, an anthology book that was scheduled to be cancelled anyway. When Amazing Fantasy #15, the issue featuring the story that introduced Spider-Man and told how he got his powers, was published in August 1962, it sold surprisingly well, and Goodman decided to give the character his own monthly title: Amazing Spider-Man.

Partial Publication History

This covers only the major core Spider-Man series.

The first issue of Amazing Spider-Man, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko, hit the newsstands in March 1963. Lee and Ditko continued to produce the title together for the first 38 issues, until Ditko left Marvel in 1966. He was replaced on the title by John Romita; his run on the title began with issue 39 (published in August 1966). Romita was the artist for almost every issue from 39 to 125 (October 1973), and has drawn for the book as recently as 2003. Stan Lee wrote the first 110 issues of the title.

As well as appearing in Amazing Spider-Man every month, Spider-Man made guest appearances in various other Marvel comics (including The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil) throughout the 1960s.

In March 1972, Marvel introduced a second monthly book featuring Spider-Man -- Marvel Team-Up, which would see Spidey paired with a guest hero each month. The first three issues featured the Human Torch, and subsequent issues paired Spider-Man with the X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America, and many more. All but 8 of the 150 issues of Marvel Team-Up featured at least a cameo appearance by Spider-Man. The series ended its run in February 1985.

Other major monthly Spider-Man titles published by Marvel through the ages, in brief:

• Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (263 issues, December 1976 - November 1988). The title was shortened to just The Spectacular Spider-Man starting on issue #134 in January 1988.
• Web of Spider-Man (129 issues, April 1985 - October 1995)
• Spider-Man (155 issues under various titles, August 1990 - August 2003). First created as a showcase for Todd McFarlane, the title was called, simply, Spider-Man for its first 74 issues, but was renamed Peter Parker: Spider-Man with the publication of issue #75 in December 1996. Marvel technically cancelled the title in December 1998 with issue #98, but Peter Parker: Spider-Man, volume 2, was launched in January 1999 with the same creative team that had been working on volume 1 only a month earlier. Though volume 2 did start again with issue #1, later issues of the title were given dual numbers to reflect that volume 1 and volume 2 could in fact be viewed as one entity.
• Sensational Spider-Man (34 issues, January 1996 - November 1998)

Current Titles

Everyone loves Spidey, and Marvel knows this. Thus, we get a plethora of books featuring Spidey to choose from every month. woot! Here are the major ones:

• Amazing Spider-Man: The original and still the core title, with over 500 issues published since 1963. J. Michael Straczynski, who started on the book in June 2001, is the current writer.
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Launched in December 2005. The current writer is Peter David.
• New Avengers: After the original Avengers disbanded disassembled in 2004, Captain America and Iron Man re-formed the team with a new group of heroes including Spider-Man. (Other team members in the beginning were Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, The Sentry, and Wolverine.) The New Avengers title made its first appearance in January 2005, and Spidey has at least been seen in almost every issue so far. (Issues during the Civil War storyline in the second half of 2006 began to focus on a single character rather than the team and Spider-Man played less of a role in those. What his role in the team after Civil War might be is anyone's guess at this point.) Written by Brian Michael Bendis.
• Sensational Spider-Man: Formerly known as Marvel Knights Spider-Man. This title began its run in June 2004 under the Marvel Knights title. The first 22 issues used that name, but issue 23 (April 2006) was renamed Sensational Spider-Man. Right now it's being written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
• Ultimate Spider-Man: This title takes place outside regular continuity in Marvel's Ultimate Universe, so technically it doesn't belong with all the other Spidey titles I've listed here, but I include it here because I think it deserves to be mentioned as a major Spider-Man book. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley have been with the title since its inception in October 2000, but Bagley will be leaving soon.

Several animated series based on the adventures of Peter Parker and his alter ego Spider-Man have been produced over the years. This is a very brief summary of them.

Spider-Man (1967-1970)

Produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, this show premiered on ABC on September 9, 1967. 52 episodes over three seasons were produced, with the last episode airing sometime in 1970. Major characters included Peter Parker (obviously), J. Jonah Jameson, and Betty Brant, while several of the villains from the comics (Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Electro, Doctor Doom) also made guest appearances. Even if you've never seen a single episode of this show, I'm willing to bet you know its themesong. :)

Spider-Man (1981-1982)

From SpiderFan.org: "This cartoon followed the formula of the 1967 cartoon: Peter Parker lives with his Aunt May and is a photographer for J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. His responsibility to be Spider-Man causes problems with his work, his studies, and his romantic involvement with Betty Brant (26 episodes)." Produced by Marvel.

Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981-1984)

From SpiderFan.org: "This series was new in concept: Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar all lived with Peter's Aunt May as boarders while they attended college at E.S.U. Peter and Bobby Drake shared a room that transformed into a Super Crime Lab and Angelica Jones had a pet dog named Ms. Lion." Three seasons of this show were produced. The first had 13 episodes, the second three, and the third eight. Season two and three were packaged with Hulk cartoons. Produced by Marvel and aired on NBC.

Spider-Man (1994-1998)

From SpiderFan.org: "Beginning in November of 1994, John Semper and crew launched the most accurate portrayal of Peter Parker to be animated to date. Where previous animated incarnations focused on action, this version provided the same three dimensional Peter Parker found in the comics. Complete with the familiar supporting cast, a hapless lovelife, doting Aunt May, and grumpy J. Jonah Jameson, the show places Peter during his college years at ESU. In the 65 episodes, Spidey faced almost all of the major Spidey villains, old and new (except for the absence of the Sandman). Even the comic's second stringers like Rocket Racer, Madam Web, and the Prowler have appeared in the show!" Five seasons (65 episodes) of this show were produced. The first episode aired on November 19, 1994 on Fox, and the last aired on January 31, 1998.

Spider-Man Unlimited (1999-2001)

From SpiderFan.org: "Taking place after the 1990's series, our hero is trapped on 'Counter Earth,' a world very similar yet very different from Earth. The connection between the two shows is negligible." 13 episodes were produced and aired by Fox over a span of a bit more than a year.

Spider-Man (2003)

Produced by Marvel and Sony (and therefore featuring continuity that is more similar to the movies than it is to the comics or previous animated series) for MTV, this cartoon was created using 3D animation techniques. 13 episodes aired on MTV during the summer of 2003 before the show was cancelled. Probably most notable for the fact that Spider-Man is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser fame. :)

Future?

Apparently Marvel CEO Avi Arad has indicated that Marvel and Sony are working on producing a new Spider-Man animated series for release around the time of Spider-Man 3. We shall see!

Development Hell

It took a long, long time for Spider-Man to get to the movies. Marvel first sold the movie rights to the character to Cannon Films in 1985. The project went through several scripts by several different screenwriters as well as a few prospective directors before Cannon studio head Menahem Golan left the company in 1989 to form a new studio called 21st Century Films, taking the rights to Spider-Man with him. More writers attempted to come up with a filmable script, and one was eventually settled on for a while. Attempting to find the money to produce the film, Golan then signed deals with Viacom (for the TV rights to the movie), Columbia Tri-Star (for the home video release), and an independent studio called Carolco, which agreed to finance a $50 million Spidey film with Golan getting credit as producer. In 1991, Carolco signed director James Cameron to the project, and this is where further problems arose: Cameron's contract gave him approval over every credit and he demanded that Menahem Golan not be listed as a producer. This led to Golan suing Carolco in 1993, and Carolco selling its rights to the project to MGM. After that, pretty much everyone started suing everyone else, and many companies involved, including Marvel, filed for bankruptcy.

In early 1999, all the lawsuits were resolved in Marvel's favour when a judge ruled that all rights associated with the Spider-Man film had expired and so everything Spider-Man was legally back in Marvel's hands. On March 1, 1999, it was announced that Marvel had once again sold the film rights to Spider-Man, this time to Sony Pictures Entertainment. The deal with Sony has turned out to be about one billion times more productive than all the previous arrangements, as by April of 1999 -- only a month after signing the deal with Marvel -- Sony had announced that screenwriter David Koepp would write a screenplay, working from a treatment written by James Cameron (Cameron had dropped out of the project after the success of Titanic). Director Sam Raimi had been hired by early 2000, and in July 2000 Sony announced that Tobey Maguire would be their Spidey. Filming on the first ever Spider-Man movie finally began in January 2001.

The Movies

Two Spider-Man movies have been released so far, with a third in the works and set for release on May 4, 2007. All the movies in the series have been produced by Marvel and Sony/Columbia and directed by Sam Raimi, and have featured the same actors in the major roles: Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, James Franco as Harry Osborn, Rosemary Harris as Aunt May, and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. Alvin Sargent has worked on the screenplays for all three films.

Spider-Man, the first movie in the series, was released on May 3, 2002. It tells the story of Spider-Man's origin, starting with the spider bite (the radioactive spider of the comics having been replaced by a more modern genetically engineered spider) through the death of Uncle Ben (played by Cliff Robertson) at the hands of the burglar Peter should have stopped. Peter becomes Spider-Man and dedicates himself to Uncle Ben's idea that "with great power comes great responsibility" shortly after graduating from high school. He also pursues -- and, as Spider-Man, protects -- the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson, who happens to be dating his best friend, Harry Osborn. Meanwhile, he must also face off against Harry's father Norman (played by Willem Dafoe), aka the Green Goblin, who becomes a particularly dangerous enemy after he learns Spider-Man's true identity. Spider-Man earned over $400 million at the US box office, making it the top-grossing movie of 2002. Worldwide, it made over $800 million US, placing it in the top 20 highest grossing movies of all-time.

Spider-Man 2, which was released on June 30, 2004, picks up the story about a year after the first movie left off, with Peter finding his double life an increasing strain to keep up with. He's doing poorly in school, he gets fired from his job, and he finds that Spider-Man is cramping his social life, too -- Mary Jane is tired of waiting for him to make a move and is seeing another man (and not just any other man, either: it's J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son John), and Harry is growing more and more bitter over Peter's protecting the identity of the man who killed his father. When he begins experiencing strange and sudden losses of his powers, Peter decides to give up being Spider-Man for good. The villain of the piece is Otto Octavius (played by Alfred Molina), transformed into the maniacal Doctor Octopus in a freak lab accident. Generally considered one of the greatest comic book adaptations ever made, Spider-Man 2 is one of the few sequels that's thought by many people (including me) to be superior to the original. Though its reviews were slightly better than the first movie's (2 has a 93% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes compared to 1's 89%), it made less money at the box office -- $783 million US worldwide, which is still enough to place it in the all-time top 20. In the US, it was the second highest grossing moving of 2004 behind Shrek 2.

Several additions to the cast have been made for Spider-Man 3, including Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, Thomas Haden Church as Sandman, and James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy. The film will also feature Spider-Man's black costume. The teaser trailer for the movie is viewable online at Apple Trailers.

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