Subject: Spider-Man
Culture: American comics fandom
Setting: Marvel Comics
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Misiroglu ed. 2004 p449-450
"Spider-Man is easily the most widely recognized character in Marvel Comics' four-color pantheon, and has been an American pop-culture mainstay for more than four decades. He was a radical departure from the staid conventions of the comic-book superhero of the 1950s -- a teenage character that wasn't relegated to sidekick status beside an older, more experienced hero. Creators Stan Lee (editor-scripter) and Steve Ditko (artist-plotter) loosed Spider-Man on an unsuspecting world in 1962 in Amazing Fantasy #15, portraying a scientifically brilliant but socially maladroit teen named Peter Parker -- a high-school everyman -- who receives a fateful bite from a radioactive spider during an atomic science demonstration. Parker consequently find himself in possession of the proportional abilities of an arachnid, including heightened strength, speed, agility, the ability to cling to walls and ceilings, and a precognitive 'spider sense' that alerts him to approaching dangers. Using his inborn scientific talents, Parker synthesizes a unique adhesive 'web fluid' -- though superstrong it dissolves after an hour's exposure to the open air -- and builds a pair of wrist-mounted web-shooters that enable him to shape the webbing into various useful forms. He also designs and sews the web-festooned red-and-blue costume that would quickly become 'Spidey's" most visible trademark, and a ubiquitous sight along Manhattan's skyline (hence the immortal and oft-repeated tag-line, 'Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man')."
* Cinema & fumetto 2006 p233
"Peter Parker è un timido adolescente orfano che vive con gli zii Ben e May: brillante negli studi ma incapace di intrattenere rapporti sociali con i coetanei, viene morso da un ragno radioattivo durante una dimostrazione scientifica. Acquisisce così poteri straordinari -- agilità e forza, capacità di aderire alle pareti, un sesto senso che lo avverte del pericolo -- e decide, pur mantenendo il segreto sulla propria identità, di sfruttare le sue doti per fare soldi. Ingaggiato dalla televisione, è proprio uscendo da uno studio di trasmissione che non si preoccupa di fermare un ladro in fuga: mal gliene incoglie, perchè sara proprio quel delinquente ad uccidere suo zio Ben pochi giorni dopo. Peter, afflitto da un senso di colpa che ne segnerà l'esistenza, impara in tal modo che da grandi poteri derivano grandi responsabilità e sceglie di mettere l'Uomo Ragno al servizio della giustizia. Ma anche questa decisione si rivela più sofferta del previsto: non solo, ancora teenager, deve conciliare la vita privata con le requotidiano <<Daily Bugle>> che lo addita come criminale.
"Creato da Stan Lee e dal disegnatore Steve Ditko (1927), l'Uomo Ragno è la sintesi perfietta dello slogan <<Supereroi con superproblemi>> coniata dalla Marvel per rilanciare il suo parco testate negli anni Sessanta."
* Hatfield/Heer/Worcester eds. 2013 p183 (Scott Bukatman, "A song of the urban superhero" p170-198)
"Spider-Man is something of an all-around pariah. Parker began as a nerd's nerd, overly fascinated with chemistry class and oblivious to embodied subjectivities. A bite from a radioactive spider gave him proportionally great strength, the ability to climb walls, and enhanced 'spider-senses.' But the police suspect him, the press is waging a vendetta against him, and the public perceives him as a menace. While Batman courts his vigilante status, Spider-Man has it thrust on him. His first impulse was not to fight crime but to become a TV star, and his self-centeredness led to the death of his beloved uncle. Guilt, rather than righteous vengeance, provides his primal motivation. Not surprisingly, given the level of self-torture here, Spider-Man's main foes have turned out to be his own doppelgangers. As the theme song for the Spider-Man cartoon show once jauntily summed it up: 'To him, life is a great big bang-up!'"
Costume
*
"
