text:
PARPG development has ceased but the art will live
Posted by qubodup on September 21st, 2012
PARPG development has ceased.
Don't be sad about it, instead be glad that so much wonderful art has been produced and licensed under free licenses that can be used in other projects!
Find all the art on http://opengameart.org/art-search?keys=parpg
Expect this domain to run out soon!
Ceasing PARPG Development With Style
Posted by qubodup on June 24th, 2012
PARPG has ceased development. Last words can be read and spoken in "the end" thread.
There are two things left for us to do:
- Upload all concept and 3d art to OpenGameArt.org.
- Move on to other projects.
Some game projects that are free software/open art and overlap with PARPG's goals are:
- FLARE (Fantasy Action-RPG)
- Unknown Horizons (FIFEngine RTS)
- Warzone 2100 (PA RTS)
There are also two projects that stem from PARPG:
- fife-rpg, a rewrite of PARPG so it can be used to easily create other RPGs.
- PPARPG, a Panda3D implementation of the PARPG idea.
Hope to see you there soon!
The Future of PARPG – and whether it has one or not
Posted by shevegen on February 16th, 2012
There are some questions what to do with PARPG in its current state.
The biggest problems are in my opinion:
– a lack of general recruiting. Two weeks project report and asking for contributors was a very good way to recruit fresh blood.
– lack of active coders (compared to i.e. ~2 years ago). I think right now only Beliar is making additions to the code somewhat regularly.
– lack of time by people in general, in some areas at least, combined with a lack of motivation to increase the time commitment. For instance, when barra had more time available, he did regular reports every ~2 weeks and asked for recruitment. This worked nicely back then, people helped out a lot more, but there just does not seem anyone able to replace barra.
So the question is, what to do with PARPG?
There will surely be many opinions. I'll give you my own one first:
– I think we should make one final release, as soon as possible, and then declare this to be the "how far we managed to go before we failed". I'd even like to propose a deadline, last day of March 2012.
We should then zip up the project and distribute it to people who want to keep it for nostalgic reasons 😀 Perhaps someone is able to revitalize the project again? Or, it's just memory of a project.
Of course it may be possible to push the game forward still. But I myself would not know how, at the current state.
If the project is discontinued, perhaps someone else will resume at the point where we left? And even if not, we worked on a game project for quite some time, met new people, which is never a bad thing!
Barra has said that he will pay for the hosting in 2012, but I think if we can't find a way to revitalize the project before end of 2012 anyway, it could be closed much earlier.
Any ideas, feedback, to the forum please.
Edit 17 Februar 2012: There will probably a meeting in the next 2 weeks, probably at the weekend (one?), to discuss things. Have a look at the forum and give your opinion please.
Forum Down
Posted by shevegen on December 27th, 2011
Just a quick and short note – the forums are down, the database seems to have crashed.
Q_x has mailed to barra, who will hopefully manage to fix this soon (and perhaps even manage to upgrade WordPress version :D)
Edit: Works again! Thanks barra, that was fast!
Edit: At 30 December 2011 the forum is down again, with another error message. Beginning to wonder what's happening.
Edit: At 03.01.2012 the forum works again. Hopefully it'll work for a longer while now, thanks to the one who fixed it (was not me, I am just trying to let you know) 🙂
Radio silence
Posted by Luke on December 19th, 2011
We've reached the cache in the evening. It's the most remote place we're keeping our stuff in. Small, desolated shack on the mountain stock, close to a big lake. Believe it or not, we have a generator stashed there, hopefully in working condition. But… Does the radio we've been carrying all the way from the bunker work at all?
1… 2… 3… Hello, is anybody out there? 1… 2… 3… Hello? Does anybody read me?
I know you've all been waiting too long for this batch of news. Harsh winter is hitting our little place in the middle of nowhere, covered with waist-deep snow. The winter that seems to be like a white odyssey. After two loud years, we seem to have a couple of quiet ones. Things are happening, just the snow slows us more than we'd expect, days suddenly got shorter, last of our dogs were eaten long ago, and we're pulling the sled on our own. Snowshoes, cold and hunger. We're not out of our rations though, so we'll keep on moving with slow, steady speed, hoping for a community of cheerful people, their full plates and warm shelters behind every hill we've been approaching.
During this period when our batteries were dead, and we were lost in the wild cold lands, quite a lot things happened.
First of all – we have quite a lively fork, PPARPG, lead by Arikel, most widely known due to formerly being involved in The Mana World. You'll find the project at IRC: #pparpg on freenode, and the code is here: https://github.com/arikel/PPARPG . In a nutshell, PPARPG is 3D game set more or less in mood and world of PARPG, and the game is based on Panda 3D engine. We're happily sharing all possible resources and hoping for success.
What's even more surprising, is MrWillis, Rowan the Preacher and Q_x are working together on a sideproject: traditional game, that seems to be a cross-breed between paragraph and board game. You can browse the mailinglist here: http://groups.google.com/group/parpg-sideproject
Also good news: after over a year of being lost, Shevy found his way back to our snowy place. He wrote our last post, so you probably knew this before. He has been given some rusty nails and an old hammer to keep our formal stuff in one piece. After neglecting our docs for a while – we call it a major overhaul!
Beliar codes quite a lot, repairing and adding new features to our code, like tweaking NPCs behavior, or working on a scripting system. Finally, he has also made and successfully tested a build system, also releasing some files that are packed and ready to check them out:http://sourceforge.net/projects/parpg/files/snapshots/.
These are not small things, I think. Every single one of those deserved a separate blog post, separate cheerful "yaay!", quite a bit of excitement on its own. The bitter truth is every single village we've approached so far was abandoned, scavenged and empty, everything that we thought was smoke coming out of a friendly home was a delusion our hungry brains tricked us with, just to keep us going. And man, this winter – will it ever end?
Improving the PARPG Wiki
Posted by shevegen on September 19th, 2011
I am back and working to improve the quality of http://wiki.parpg.net/ – any ideas to help here are very much appreciated.
qubodup wants to know who I am – fair enough! I've been trying to lead the Project for a while although not with that much success. Then I had problems in reallife so I had to make a break.
I've been quite active on the Forum (ranked 4th on the amount of forum posts – of course that does not say much about the quality of the content) and on IRC (when I was active, that is, but I can almost always be found on Freenode IRC anyway).
My impression so far was that the Forum generates a lot of ideas, many of them good, but after a while, plenty of these ideas are also forgotten eventually. Or they become outdated slowly as contributors leave the project or make a break.
That is one reason why I am trying to focus on the Wiki for now and try to improve its quality.
Big Changes Ahead
Posted by Technomage on June 19th, 2011
Greetings PARPGians!
Its been a while since we last updated the blog, and boy have a lot of things have happened in that time! I'll try and outline what we've accomplished in the past few weeks below.
Moving On Up (to Assembla Source Hosting)
The single biggest change we've made is that we now use Assembla (http://assembla.com) as our source repository host. Although Codesion, our previous host, has done a lot for us over the years we decided that it was time to update to a distributed version control system and Codesion's offerings in that area simply did not meet our requirements. However, we will continue to use our Trac page for bug tracking and keep our old svn repository online, at least for the foreseeable future.
One of the really neat things about Assembla is that it is built with Agile Programming methods in mind. Our Assembla workspaces provide tools for asynchronous communication, posting progress reports, viewing repository changesets and managing milestones and backlog items. Although we're still getting used to Agile methodology, I think that most of us would agree that it has significantly improved our communication and collaboration habits. Overall, we've been very impressed with Assembla's free hosting. It is by far the most professional free host we've seen, and has tons of features that we haven't even figured out how to use yet!
Feel free to explore our Assembla pages at http://parpg.assembla.com and get a feel for how it all works.
Through the Looking Glass: From Subversion to Mercurial
One of our primary reasons for changing source hosts was that we wanted to migrate to a distributed version control system (DVCS). Subversion simply wasn't scaling well enough for us, since we often had two, three or even more developers working in parallel. Add in the fact that each of those developers was working on some experimental changes and… well you get the idea.
So we said good bye to subversion (well, sort of – see below) and migrated our codebase to Mercurial. We narrowed down the field to either GIT or Mercurial, and most of the developers agreed that the learning curve of GIT was too steep compared with Mercurial's subversion-like behavior and commands.
There have been a few stumbling blocks to implementing and using the new Mercurial repositories, but we're starting to get used to the new workflow. So far the extra flexibility of Mercurial has been very useful, at least to the programmers.
Three Repositories Are Better Than One
As if changing our source host and VCS wasn't enough, we also split up our codebase into three separate (but related) repositories: parpg-core, parpg-assets and parpg-tools.
The parpg-core repository contains the core code framework which makes up the PARPG application, and as such contains the majority of our Python source code.
The parpg-assets repository contains all of our game data – object definitions, sprites, maps, dialogs, music and sound fx, etc. Unlike the other two repositories, which are Mercurial repositories, parpg-assets is a subversion repository (the reason for this is explained below).
Finally, the parpg-tools repository contains the source code and supporting assets of the various tools and utilities we've developed over the years to help us create game content.
Our justification for splitting up the code like this was that the binary asset files don't change very often and yet comprise the bulk of the storage space (more than 200MB in all), which would have significantly slowed down clones of the repository (DVCSs copy all history in their "check-outs"). Compounding this problem was the fact that Mercurial (and most other DVCSs, actually) don't handle changes to binary files well and tends to create a lot of bloat with each commit. To solve this issue, we moved most of the binary files into parpg-assets – a subversion repository which is able to handle changes to binary files much more gracefully.
To prevent parpg-core from drifting apart from parpg-assets and parpg-tools, we made parpg-assets and parpg-tools subrepositories of parpg-core. What this means in practice is that any time you clone parpg-core, you will also clone/checkout parpg-tools and parpg-assets, respectively. This is a feature of Mercurial that was really fleshed out in the 1.7 branch, so you'll probably want the most recent version of Mercurial clone parpg-core.
Distutils, SCons and (now) WAF, oh my!
Just to make things as confusing as possible we also changed our build system (twice). Originally we used Python's distutils installer to build and install everything, but unfortunately as the project grew more complex we discovered that distutils was very difficult to extend and was really starting to slow down development. To be fair the distutils module was developed to build, maintain and install Python libraries, not games with thousands of assets and dozens of tools.
SCons seemed like the natural replacement for distutils, since FIFE (our rendering engine and game framework) uses SCons as its build system. But right from the start we ran into problems with SCons. First, SCons didn't like our Python code and we had to write a custom extension to get it to correctly install and optionally compile our Python code. Then SCons didn't like our 8,000+ asset files and we had to write ANOTHER extension to get it to correctly copy our assets (and very, very SLOWLY at that). Then SCons had issues verifying which files had changed between the build/installation directory and the source, which required YET ANOTHER extension (you can see where this is going…).
In the end, we abandoned SCons in favor of its bastard child, WAF. WAF is an old fork of SCons that was developed by a couple of KDE developers. Although much less mature than SCons, WAF has proven to be more than stable enough for our purposes. So far, WAF has been very easy to work with: our current build script is a fraction of the size of our previous SCons buildscript, and yet does everything that SCons could do and more. WAF is also many times faster than SCons, which makes development a lot quicker. Finally, WAF comes as a self-contained script, which means that we distribute WAF along with PARPG – eliminating any issues with users using an outdated or incompatible version of the build software.
Our WAF build system is still being tested, but it should be in the main parpg-core repository soon!
The Times They Are A-Changing
We have even bigger changes planned in the weeks and months ahead, so stay tuned!
Sprint Post-mortem
Posted by qubodup on April 11th, 2011
More than a month ago the PARPG team ended the 1-month Character Customization Sprint. It was all about designing and implementing character stats and creation.
The participants talked about the sprint on chat and in this forum thread but let me sum up the opinions that were expressed (a few contradictions and conflicts of interest ahead 😉 ):
- The sprint was a success
- The short, regular meetings (2 per week) were motivating and increased efficiency
- PARPGians are "Fennecs"
- Critical code that needed fixing was identified
- Trac tickets were helpful for keeping overview
- There were bottlenecks between departments – department-specific sprints could work better?
- Sprint target (character customization) has little importance for gameplay in early versions of PARPG – figure out higher-priority targets?
- Sprints should be shorter / contain less tasks
- More small (non-[epic] user story) tickets would have been helpful – somebody responsability for writing new tickets needs to be defined
- Subversion is hard to work with using a clean development style
Dependency Graph for Ticket #264 (Character customization based on stats and attributes) Everybody likes pictures! 🙂
Notebook Inventory & Character Creation/View Mockups
Posted by qubodup on February 12th, 2011
I want to show you some of the mockups we made!
Inventory Mockup by qubodup from January (tabs added yesterday)
Inventory Mockup by Q_x from January
See this thread for more details.
A week ago the sprint started and so far my feeling is: awesome! We're all working towards finishing a feature of the game in parallel! But I'll save it for the sprint postmortem. 🙂 Let me show you this week's mockup progress:
Mockups by qubodup from the past week
What's amazing is how much artist effort goes into one mockup image. Check out the attribution file to see a list of all authors that made art used in these images.
Hopefully, we'll manage to implement character creation into the game soon!
PARPG goes Agile
Posted by mvbarracuda on January 31st, 2011
Heya and welcome to a short PARPG news update.
Agile & Scrum
If you've watched our wiki closely over the last four weeks, you might have realized that the PARPG team has been researching Agile software development in general and Scrum as one Agile framework in special. When we had our first stab at the project from early 2009 until early 2010, we ran into a couple of issues we couldn't really cope with back then:
- Lack of focus on actual development goals
- Lack of agreed upon development guidelines and processes
- Lack of communication and coordination between the different development departments
After qubodup recommended a Scrum book to me, I checked it out over the last year's Christmas holidays. I started to realize that Scrum could help us to stay focused, have an agreed upon process and ensure that developers actually communicate with each other.
Unfortunately I'm somewhat short of time and can't go into detail, but if you would like to know more about Scrum, Agile and how we'll utilize it in the future, feel free to check out the Agile article series at our wiki.
Sprint prioritization meeting
As part of going Agile, we'll have our first sprint prioritization meeting at Friday, 4th of February, 11PM UTC±0 at our new sprint IRC channel #parpg-sprint. The channel will be used for strict on topic sprint discussion in the future. If community members would like to attend the sprint prioritization meeting, they're welcome to do so. This said: discussion will be restricted to PARPG developers to keep the meeting as productive as possible.
Agile articles
All developers who participate in the meeting are encouraged to check out at least these three articles to be prepared for the meeting:
This said: the other Agile articles at the wiki are good reads to get started as well, so if you got some more time on your hands, feel free to check them out.
Concept art sneak peek
As we subscribe to the philosophy, that a news update without some fancy to look at isn't a good news update, there you go. Gaspard worked on some environment concept art:
See you at the next PARPG news update, scheduled for mid February. The next news update will cover how the writer application process turned out!


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Every year I drive down Stodgin Holler and find it hard to believe how small was the little house that contained so many memories.
Every year I drive down Stodgin Holler and find it hard to believe how small was the little house that contained so many memories. There is no longer a house there, just a cleared area and an electric pole. Ironic that in the 1930s and 1940s Grandpa couldn't get electric to the little house because an adjoining property owner was convinced to put in electric, with electric poles, would draw lightning.
It really wasn't that important to our family because almost no one had electricity or inside plumbing. The house was big enough then, big enough to house the crowd that Christmas eve. The year was 1942 and times were hard everywhere. We lived just west of Anderson, east of the Buffalo River, we rode "Patsy," our pretty mare, to PG (Pleasant Grove) to pick up the mail.
Times may have been hard but at the age of 5 those things didn't concern me. What did concern me was that my cousins, my aunts, and uncles had joined us in our little country home to celebrate Christmas Eve. The house was warm, the tree — no electric lights of course — was decorated with homemade chains and stars, and dinner was over. It wasn't my imagination that jingle bells could be heard coming from the cold and crisp out of doors.
There was no doubt in my mind when I was told it must be Santa and we were about to be in trouble! If Santa came and the children were not in bed he would ride right on by and not stop. It took very little persuading of my younger brothers Harold and Bill and cousins of various ages to usher us in to a bedroom — hiding in the clothes closet and trying hard to be very, very still. We heard the "Ho Ho Ho" and the shuffle of boots on the rugless floors and no picture could have been more convincing than what our ears heard on that special night. We pictured, in our minds, the great big man in the red costume, leaving his reindeer with his sleigh, down for the one night a year, hustling about as he chose personal gifts for each of us. Even the youngest in the crowd tried not to breathe as we listened and pictured what was occurring in the little front room. Soon his departure could be imagined as boots scraped the floor, jingle bells returned and the door was opened and closed.
I haven't any idea today what gifts we opened. I do know no one was disappointed. Probably hard candies, maybe a peppermint cane, an orange, home-made clothing. I do know that the effort made on the part of these young McDonald Countians in the early '40s to bring Christmas to their children was well worth the effort. I know because even 70-plus years later I have no doubt that Santa came to our house that night. Standing as a monument, the electric pole where there once was a barn, a home, a family.
As we approach this very special season, it is my hope that all will be making memories that last, not necessarily of monetary value, not expensive, but rather a special time of giving and laughter, a time of thoughtful moments, to share and enjoy.
Alberta Anders writes a weekly column for the Daily News.

subset: commoncrawl


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Swiss urge glacier hikers to look for artifacts (Update)
Swiss scientists are urging alpinists and hikers to keep an eye out this summer for lost items in melting ice patches—items lost hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
A project run by a Swiss cultural institute and a graduate student in the canton (state) of Graubuenden aims to gather artifacts trapped long ago in glaciers—finds that are now turning up with more frequency due to a warming planet.
The project—the brainchild of Leandra Naef, who has a master's degree in prehistoric archaeology from the University of Zurich—encourages people to turn over things like wood or clothing they might run across in eastern Switzerland where the Swiss National Park is located.
In recent decades mountaineers have found everything from goat skin leggings in the Swiss Alps to a corpse in the melting ice of South Tyrol, each about 5,000 years old.
According to the institute and her published research, Naef focused the most promising possibilities down to about 300 sites that are 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) high or more. She then prioritized them by how often they might have been used by past mountain travelers.
Some of the sites she will try to explore herself, but for most she will rely on the alert eyes of other climbers and hikers, asking them to report any finds to Swiss Alpine Club huts.
The institute is sponsoring the project through the end of 2015 in hopes of cataloging the most promising sites for archaeologists to explore further.
Explore further
© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


text:
Why Is It So Hard For Pandora to Make Money?
It might still be the most popular digital music service in America, but that doesn't mean Pandora is making money. Pandora has named a new CEO in a bid to turn itself around. Tom Gara joins the News Hub. Photo: AP
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... the the ... music streaming service Pandora is a hit with listeners accounts the second ascent of already listing in the US ... that is struggling to turn a profit ... now as a new CEO ... of the joys is to look into whether the new guy Brian MacAndrews ... Hasbro takes to Mana ties the service's popularity ... went up ... one ... side ... and insisting the skies that it had seats of success in his previous ... the job right and this is some says he might ... get ... how to take some things is a big issue for any Internet company ... this big boom in popularity actually turn into some money ... exactly so he ... built up a company like wanted which was the huge online advertising ... business and getting bought out the markets up for about six billion dollars ... back in two thousand and seven when all the big tech companies realize they had to ... buy an online advertising company to be added to the ... tothe economy side you never knew they needed to do and that's exactly Pandora's problem writes of the whole thing is ... they stream the music ... what's the use of mosquito afraid would have applied option the government commendable taking off on a ... about seven to seventy two million listeners right now in the U S and isn't appropriate number ... of August and Dominion snack company ... I may need to make money off that somehow in the US that somehow is likely selling ads and ... in the Texas mall like regular eighteen on top of the typical ... banner ads like to get a website much their ads are actually Fullerton ... how do you listen to what Radiate including that of mine wrote that because the other part this is the cost factor that will cease to pray ... to the risk of companies to to the music produces ... and ... as they develop Melissa is listed as Royalty's lies in how to stop them with that pose the use of a mutual one of the problems is that on like say ... in Apple has the option still ... unit YouTube I phone from Apple units are you buying on a nonsense song or ten dollars aam what a view armor of Pandora ... you listen to stream the musical going long for you know that's when flying in the individual soul ... Pandora pain ... the copyright owner of every single is ... the ... right now that devilish live in the numbers yesterday with billions of dollars every quarter ... developments ... in the billions of dollars of music ... and some all listeners the gadgets that the fixed costs don't often often offer them a lot of things ... and ... so you know one thing that reduce the pressure will be in trying unless loyalty to his is one of the things happening right now there's a big fight between the music industry ... and some of the plane's maintenance resigned instead radio shouldn't ... have to pay the same moral teachings of the house a contender to regular rated into the main policy that are the things that I ... for the traditional idea as well as I considered the most integrated ... all the traditional radio that the Justice filing different structures so when they ... negotiated all of this years ago and ... know what one inch remains as a means not regular royalties negotiations happened ... before there was a really huge and nine radio industry and thought that I mean it ... means the company from the people who are lobbying on the internet sides ... I didn't really see the opportunity that in the Senate on the news the company sold ... in India fell in marginal ... business for ... the fashion turning out the just are you getting ... your most new cars that come with dinner wireless internet into the top ... um you know you can get it right you in your car now nearly everywhere ... so that you know those forces are making the company for the BBVA studios think ... we need to get the best out of this can mean to read a company that China had left the kids ... to that of the internet so people don't care about streaming more more more than ... you are in a way that's not quite the same for the original ready ... to cutting edge issue ... Tom thank so much to time


text:
This Register was set up by the Commission to ensure transparency on expert groups assisting the Commission in relation to:
- the preparation of legislative proposals and policy initiatives;
- the preparation of delegated acts;
- the implementation of EU legislation, programmes and policies, including coordination and cooperation with EU Member States and stakeholders in that regard;
- where necessary, the early preparation of implementing acts, before submission to the committee in accordance with Regulation (EU) N°182/2011.
The Register lists both Commission expert groups and other similar entities, i.e. consultative entities set up by the Union legislator and not by the Commission, which have a similar or identical role to that of Commission expert groups and are administered and financially managed by the Commission.
For each expert group, the Register provides valuable information including on the Commission department which is running the group, as well as on its members, its mission and tasks. The Register also includes relevant documents which are produced and discussed by the groups.


text:
So y'all know we went to the water park with the kids on Thursday.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
The Good Times, They Keep Comin'
Posted by Unknown at 9:43 AM
4 comments:
- Jackie said...
Bummer! I love fireworks, too, so I would have been disappointed. And I also would have completely misread "2007" as well. :)
The party sounds so fun...Enjoy!
- July 05, 2008 3:29 PM
- mer@lifeat7000feet said...
Bummer about your fireworks display. Maybe that's one of those family things you guys will laugh about some day..."remember when mom got the dates wrong and we waited and waited and watied for the fireworks?" *smile*
Oh, your party sounds FUN! My daughter turns 10 next weekend, and we're going to see that movie with her cousins! She's mucho excited.
- July 05, 2008 4:24 PM
- Rick said...
Kind of sad, kind of funny - sitting on a hill side waiting for fireworks to go off and no one was there to light the match.
- July 06, 2008 9:39 AM
- Tanya said...
Bummer on the fireworks!! I always hate to miss them too. That party sounds like a blast, though! How fun.
- July 07, 2008 6:00 PM


text:
Frequent Links
Unknown extension tag "indicator"
Cover of The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #50
(April 2003)
Art by J. Scott Campbell and Tim Townsend
|Publication information
|Marvel Comics
|First appearance
|Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962)
|Created by
Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
|In-story information
|Alter ego
|Peter Benjamin Parker
|Human Mutate
|Team affiliations
New Avengers
Future Foundation
New Fantastic Four
Secret Defenders[1]
Heroes for Hire[2]
Jean Grey School[3]
Parker Industries
|Notable aliases
|Ricochet , Dusk ll , Prodigy ll , Hornet ll , Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider ll
Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, Spider-Man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962). Lee and Ditko conceived the character as an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and as a teenager, having to deal with the normal struggles of adolescence in addition to those of a costumed crime-fighter. Spider-Man's creators gave him super strength and agility, the ability to cling to most surfaces, shoot spider-webs using wrist-mounted devices of his own invention, which he calls "web-shooters", and react to danger quickly with his "spider-sense", enabling him to combat his foes.
When Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. The Spider-Man series broke ground by featuring Peter Parker, the high school student behind Spider-Man's secret identity and with whose "self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness" young readers could relate.[4] Unlike previous teen heroes such as Bucky and Robin, Spider-Man had no superhero mentor like Captain America and Batman; he thus had to learn for himself that "with great power there must also come great responsibility"—a line included in a text box in the final panel of the first Spider-Man story but later retroactively attributed to his guardian, the late Uncle Ben.
Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several comic book series, the first and longest-lasting of which is titled The Amazing Spider-Man. Over the years, the Peter Parker character has developed from shy, nerdy high school student to troubled but outgoing college student, to married high school teacher to, in the late 2000s, a single freelance photographer, his most typical adult role. In the 2010s, he joins the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, Marvel's flagship superhero teams. In a 2012–2014 storyline, Peter Parker dies while his mind is in the body of his enemy Doctor Octopus; Doctor Octopus then lives on inside of Parker's body, taking the role of Spider-Man in The Superior Spider-Man. However, Parker returned to his body in April 2014.[5] Separately, Marvel has also published books featuring alternate versions of Spider-Man, including Spider-Man 2099, which features the adventures of Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of the future; Ultimate Spider-Man, which features the adventures of a teenaged Peter Parker in an alternate universe; and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, which depicts the teenager Miles Morales, who takes up the mantle of Spider-Man after Ultimate Peter Parker's supposed death.
Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes.[6] As Marvel's flagship character and company mascot, he has appeared in many forms of media, including several animated and live-action television shows, syndicated newspaper comic strips, and a series of films starring Tobey Maguire as the hero in the first three movies. Andrew Garfield took over the role of Spider-Man in a reboot of the films.[7] Reeve Carney starred as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.[8] Spider-Man placed 3rd on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time in 2011, behind DC Comics characters Superman and Batman.[9]
- 1 Publication history
- 2 Fictional character biography
- 3 Personality
- 4 Powers, skills, and equipment
- 5 Other versions
- 6 Supporting characters
- 7 Cultural influence
- 8 In other media
- 9 Awards and recognition
- 10 See also
- 11 Notes
- 12 References
- 13 External links
Publication history
Creation and development
In 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in teenage demand for comic books, and the desire to create a character with whom teens could identify.[11]:1 In his autobiography, Lee cites the non-superhuman pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider (see also The Spider's Web and The Spider Returns) as a great influence,[10]:130 and in a multitude of print and video interviews, Lee stated he was further inspired by seeing a spider climb up a wall—adding in his autobiography that he has told that story so often he has become unsure of whether or not this is true.[note 1] At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the character's approval. In a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodman's objections.[note 2] Goodman eventually agreed to a Spider-Man tryout in what Lee in numerous interviews recalled as what would be the final issue of the science-fiction and supernatural anthology series Amazing Adult Fantasy, which was renamed Amazing Fantasy for that single issue, #15 (cover-dated August 1962, on sale June 5, 1962).[12] While this was indeed the final issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing and that "The Spiderman [sic] ... will appear every month in Amazing."[12][13]
Regardless, Lee received Goodman's approval for the name Spider-Man and the "ordinary teen" concept, and approached artist Jack Kirby. As comics historian Greg Theakston recounts, Kirby told Lee about an unpublished character on which he had collaborated with Joe Simon in the 1950s, in which an orphaned boy living with an old couple finds a magic ring that granted him superhuman powers. Lee and Kirby "immediately sat down for a story conference", Theakston writes, and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages.[14] Steve Ditko would be the inker.[note 3] When Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, "I hated the way he was doing it! Not that he did it badly—it just wasn't the character I wanted; it was too heroic".[14]:12 Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled:
One of the first things I did was to work up a costume. A vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked ... before I did any breakdowns. For example: A clinging power so he wouldn't have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. ... I wasn't sure Stan would like the idea of covering the character's face but I did it because it hid an obviously boyish face. It would also add mystery to the character....[15]
Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditko's cover art and commissioned Kirby to pencil a cover that Ditko inked.[12] As Lee explained in 2010, "I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jack's covers."[16]
In an early recollection of the character's creation, Ditko described his and Lee's contributions in a mail interview with Gary Martin published in Comic Fan #2 (Summer 1965): "Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist & spider signal."[17] At the time, Ditko shared a Manhattan studio with noted fetish artist Eric Stanton, an art-school classmate who, in a 1988 interview with Theakston, recalled that although his contribution to Spider-Man was "almost nil", he and Ditko had "worked on storyboards together and I added a few ideas. But the whole thing was created by Steve on his own... I think I added the business about the webs coming out of his hands."[14]:14
Kirby disputed Lee's version of the story, and claimed Lee had minimal involvement in the character's creation. According to Kirby, the idea for Spider-Man had originated with Kirby and Joe Simon, who in the 1950s had developed a character called the Silver Spider for the Crestwood Publications comic Black Magic, who was subsequently not used.[note 4] Simon, in his 1990 autobiography, disputed Kirby's account, asserting that Black Magic was not a factor, and that he (Simon) devised the name "Spider-Man" (later changed to "The Silver Spider"), while Kirby outlined the character's story and powers. Simon later elaborated that his and Kirby's character conception became the basis for Simon's Archie Comics superhero the Fly. Artist Steve Ditko stated that Lee liked the name Hawkman from DC Comics, and that "Spider-Man" was an outgrowth of that interest.[15]
Simon concurred that Kirby had shown the original Spider-Man version to Lee, who liked the idea and assigned Kirby to draw sample pages of the new character but disliked the results—in Simon's description, "Captain America with cobwebs".[note 5] Writer Mark Evanier notes that Lee's reasoning that Kirby's character was too heroic seems unlikely—Kirby still drew the covers for Amazing Fantasy #15 and the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Evanier also disputes Kirby's given reason that he was "too busy" to also draw Spider-Man in addition to his other duties since Kirby was, said Evanier, "always busy".[18]:127 Neither Lee's nor Kirby's explanation explains why key story elements like the magic ring were dropped; Evanier states that the most plausible explanation for the sudden change was that Goodman, or one of his assistants, decided that Spider-Man as drawn and envisioned by Kirby was too similar to the Fly.[18]:127
Author and Ditko scholar Blake Bell writes that it was Ditko who noted the similarities to the Fly. Ditko recalled that, "Stan called Jack about the Fly," adding that "[d]ays later, Stan told me I would be penciling the story panel breakdowns from Stan's synopsis". It was at this point that the nature of the strip changed. "Out went the magic ring, adult Spider-Man and whatever legend ideas that Spider-Man story would have contained". Lee gave Ditko the premise of a teenager bitten by a spider and developing powers, a premise Ditko would expand upon to the point he became what Bell describes as "the first work for hire artist of his generation to create and control the narrative arc of his series". On the issue of the initial creation, Ditko states, "I still don't know whose idea was Spider-Man".[19] Kirby noted in a 1971 interview that it was Ditko who "got Spider-Man to roll, and the thing caught on because of what he did".[20] Lee, while claiming credit for the initial idea, has acknowledged Ditko's role, stating, "If Steve wants to be called co-creator, I think he deserves [it]".[21] Writer Al Nickerson believes "that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the Spider-Man that we are familiar with today [but that] ultimately, Spider-Man came into existence, and prospered, through the efforts of not just one or two, but many, comic book creators".[22]
Commercial success
A few months after Spider-Man's introduction, publisher Goodman reviewed the sales figures for that issue and was shocked to find it to have been one of the nascent Marvel's highest-selling comics.[23]:97 A solo ongoing series followed, beginning with The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (cover-dated March 1963). The title eventually became Marvel's top-selling series[4]:211 with the character swiftly becoming a cultural icon; a 1965 Esquire poll of college campuses found that college students ranked Spider-Man and fellow Marvel hero the Hulk alongside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara as their favorite revolutionary icons. One interviewee selected Spider-Man because he was "beset by woes, money problems, and the question of existence. In short, he is one of us."[4]:223 Following Ditko's departure after issue #38 (July 1966), John Romita, Sr. replaced him as penciler and would draw the series for the next several years. In 1968, Romita would also draw the character's extra-length stories in the comics magazine The Spectacular Spider-Man, a proto-graphic novel designed to appeal to older readers. It only lasted for two issues, but it represented the first Spider-Man spin-off publication, aside from the original series' summer annuals that began in 1964.[24]
An early 1970s Spider-Man story led to the revision of the Comics Code. Previously, the Code forbade the depiction of the use of illegal drugs, even negatively. However, in 1970, the Nixon administration's Department of Health, Education, and Welfare asked Stan Lee to publish an anti-drug message in one of Marvel's top-selling titles.[4]:239 Lee chose the top-selling The Amazing Spider-Man; issues #96–98 (May–July 1971) feature a story arc depicting the negative effects of drug use. In the story, Peter Parker's friend Harry Osborn becomes addicted to pills. When Spider-Man fights the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn, Harry's father), Spider-Man defeats the Green Goblin, by revealing Harry's drug addiction. While the story had a clear anti-drug message, the Comics Code Authority refused to issue its seal of approval. Marvel nevertheless published the three issues without the Comics Code Authority's approval or seal. The issues sold so well that the industry's self-censorship was undercut and the Code was subsequently revised.[4]:239
In 1972, a second monthly ongoing series starring Spider-Man began: Marvel Team-Up, in which Spider-Man was paired with other superheroes and villains. From that point on there have generally been at least two ongoing Spider-Man series at any time. In 1976, his second solo series, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man began running parallel to the main series. A third series featuring Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, launched in 1985 to replace Marvel Team-Up. The launch of a fourth monthly title in 1990, the "adjectiveless" Spider-Man (with the storyline "Torment"), written and drawn by popular artist Todd McFarlane, debuted with several different covers, all with the same interior content. The various versions combined sold over 3 million copies, an industry record at the time. Several limited series, one-shots, and loosely related comics have also been published, and Spider-Man makes frequent cameos and guest appearances in other comic series.[4]:279 In 1996 The Sensational Spider-Man was created to replace Web of Spider-Man.
In 1998 writer-artist John Byrne revamped the origin of Spider-Man in the 13-issue limited series Spider-Man: Chapter One (Dec. 1998 - Oct. 1999), similar to Byrne's adding details and some revisions to Superman's origin in DC Comics' The Man of Steel.[25] At the same time the original The Amazing Spider-Man was ended with issue #441 (Nov. 1998), and The Amazing Spider-Man was restarted with vol. 2, #1 (Jan. 1999).[26] In 2003 Marvel reintroduced the original numbering for The Amazing Spider-Man and what would have been vol. 2, #59 became issue #500 (Dec. 2003).[26]
When primary series The Amazing Spider-Man reached issue #545 (Dec. 2007), Marvel dropped its spin-off ongoing series and instead began publishing The Amazing Spider-Man three times monthly, beginning with #546-548 (all Jan. 2008).[27] The three times monthly scheduling of The Amazing Spider-Man lasted until November 2010 when the comic book was increased from 22 pages to 30 pages each issue and published only twice a month, beginning with #648-649 (both Nov. 2010).[28][29] The following year, Marvel launched Avenging Spider-Man as the first spinoff ongoing series in addition to the still twice monthly The Amazing Spider-Man since the previous ones were cancelled at the end of 2007.[30] The Amazing series temporarily ended with issue #700 in December 2012, and was replaced by The Superior Spider-Man, which had Doctor Octopus serve as the new Spider-Man, having taken over Peter Parker's body. Superior was an enormous commercial success for Marvel,[31] and ran for 31-issue before the real Peter Parker returned in a newly relaunched The Amazing Spider-Man #1 in April 2014.
Fictional character biography
In Forest Hills, Queens, New York,[32] high school student Peter Parker is a science-whiz orphan living with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. As depicted in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), he is bitten by a radioactive spider (erroneously classified as an insect in the panel) at a science exhibit and "acquires the agility and proportionate strength of an arachnid."[33] Along with super strength, Parker gains the ability to adhere to walls and ceilings. Through his native knack for science, he develops a gadget that lets him fire adhesive webbing of his own design through small, wrist-mounted barrels. Initially seeking to capitalize on his new abilities, Parker dons a costume and, as "Spider-Man", becomes a novelty television star. However, "He blithely ignores the chance to stop a fleeing thief, [and] his indifference ironically catches up with him when the same criminal later robs and kills his Uncle Ben." Spider-Man tracks and subdues the killer and learns, in the story's next-to-last caption, "With great power there must also come—great responsibility!"[34]
Despite his superpowers, Parker struggles to help his widowed aunt pay rent, is taunted by his peers—particularly football star Flash Thompson—and, as Spider-Man, engenders the editorial wrath of newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson.[35][36] As he battles his enemies for the first time,[37] Parker finds juggling his personal life and costumed adventures difficult. In time, Peter graduates from high school,[38] and enrolls at Empire State University (a fictional institution evoking the real-life Columbia University and New York University),[39] where he meets roommate and best friend Harry Osborn, and girlfriend Gwen Stacy,[40] and Aunt May introduces him to Mary Jane Watson.[37][41][42] As Peter deals with Harry's drug problems, and Harry's father is revealed to be Spider-Man's nemesis the Green Goblin, Peter even attempts to give up his costumed identity for a while.[43][44] Gwen Stacy's father, New York City Police detective captain George Stacy is accidentally killed during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus (#90, Nov. 1970).[45] In the course of his adventures Spider-Man has made a wide variety of friends and contacts within the superhero community, who often come to his aid when he faces problems that he cannot solve on his own.
In issue #121 (June 1973),[37] the Green Goblin throws Gwen Stacy from a tower of either the Brooklyn Bridge (as depicted in the art) or the George Washington Bridge (as given in the text).[46][47] She dies during Spider-Man's rescue attempt; a note on the letters page of issue #125 states: "It saddens us to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her."[48] The following issue, the Goblin appears to kill himself accidentally in the ensuing battle with Spider-Man.[49]
Working through his grief, Parker eventually develops tentative feelings toward Watson, and the two "become confidants rather than lovers".[50] A romantic relationship eventually develops, with Parker proposing to her in issue #182 (July 1978), and being turned down an issue later.[51] Parker went on to graduate from college in issue #185,[37] and becomes involved with the shy Debra Whitman and the extroverted, flirtatious costumed thief Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat,[52] whom he meets in issue #194 (July 1979).[37]
From 1984 to 1988, Spider-Man wore a black costume with a white spider design on his chest. The new costume originated in the Secret Wars limited series, on an alien planet where Spider-Man participates in a battle between Earth's major superheroes and villains.[53] He continues wearing the costume when he returns from the Secret Wars, starting in The Amazing Spider-Man #252. Not unexpectedly, the change to a longstanding character's iconic design met with controversy, "with many hardcore comics fans decrying it as tantamount to sacrilege. Spider-Man's traditional red and blue costume was iconic, they argued, on par with those of his D.C. rivals Superman and Batman."[54] The creators then revealed the costume was an alien symbiote which Spider-Man is able to reject after a difficult struggle,[55] though the symbiote returns several times as Venom for revenge.[37]
Parker proposes to Watson a second time in The Amazing Spider-Man #290 (July 1987), and she accepts two issues later, with the wedding taking place in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987)—promoted with a real-life mock wedding using actors (with model Tara Shannon as Watson)[56] at Shea Stadium, with Stan Lee officiating, on June 5, 1987.[57][58] However, David Michelinie, who scripted based on a plot by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, said in 2007, "I didn't think they actually should [have gotten] married. ... I had actually planned another version, one that wasn't used."[57]
In a controversial storyline, Peter becomes convinced that Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider (a clone of Peter created by his college professor Miles Warren) is the real Peter Parker, and that he, Peter, is the clone. Peter gives up the Spider-Man identity to Reilly for a time, until Reilly is killed by the returning Green Goblin and revealed to be the clone after all.[59] In stories published in 2005 and 2006 (such as "The Other"), he develops additional spider-like abilities including biological web-shooters, toxic stingers that extend from his forearms, the ability to stick individuals to his back, enhanced Spider-sense and night vision, and increased strength and speed. Peter later becomes a member of the New Avengers, and reveals his civilian identity to the world,[60] furthering his already numerous problems. His marriage to Mary Jane and public unmasking are later erased in another controversial[61] storyline "One More Day", in a Faustian bargain with the demon Mephisto, resulting in several adjustments to the timeline, such as the resurrection of Harry Osborn, the erasure of Parker's marriage, and the return of his traditional tools and powers.[62]
That storyline came at the behest of editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, who said, "Peter being single is an intrinsic part of the very foundation of the world of Spider-Man".[61] It caused unusual public friction between Quesada and writer J. Michael Straczynski, who "told Joe that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the [story] arc" but was talked out of doing so.[63] At issue with Straczynski's climax to the arc, Quesada said, was
...that we didn't receive the story and methodology to the resolution that we were all expecting. What made that very problematic is that we had four writers and artists well underway on [the sequel arc] "Brand New Day" that were expecting and needed "One More Day" to end in the way that we had all agreed it would. ... The fact that we had to ask for the story to move back to its original intent understandably made Joe upset and caused some major delays and page increases in the series. Also, the science that Joe was going to apply to the retcon of the marriage would have made over 30 years of Spider-Man books worthless, because they never would have had happened. ...[I]t would have reset way too many things outside of the Spider-Man titles. We just couldn't go there....[63]
Following the "reboot", Parker's identity was no longer known to the general public; however, he revealed it to his teammates in the New Avengers[64] and his friends in the Fantastic Four, and others have deduced it. Parker's Aunt May married J. Jonah Jameson's father, Jay Jameson.[65] Jonah himself has been elected Mayor of New York City,[66] and Parker became an employee of the think-tank Horizon Labs.[67]
In issue #700, after the dying supervillain Doctor Octopus has swapped bodies with him, Parker dies.[68] However, the ending of The Superior Spider-Man #1 it shows that Parker still exists within Doctor Octopus's mind.[69] It is later revealed that the Peter Parker persona within Doctor Octopus's mind were just memories that he absorbed from Peter Parker,[70] which he later purges to be completely free to control Parker's former body.[71] However, Peter's consciousness is revealed to still exist, having somehow escaped the mind-purge from Doctor Octopus, but Peter decided to keep a low profile to prevent Doctor Octopus from attempting to erase him again.[72] Doctor Octopus found himself overwhelmed while battling the Green Goblin with few resources or allies. Realizing he had failed as the "superior" Spider-Man he claimed to be, Doctor Octopus let the consciousness of Parker reclaim his body.[73][74]
Following Peter Parker's return, The Amazing Spider-Man was re-launched in April 2014.[75][76] Parker's consciousness has returned to its body but he has no memories of what Doctor Octopus did while in his body.[77] Parker begins to deal with the fallout of Doctor Octopus' possession.[78]
"People often say glibly that Marvel succeeded by blending super hero adventure stories with soap opera. What Lee and Ditko actually did in The Amazing Spider-Man was to make the series an ongoing novelistic chronicle of the lead character's life. Most super heroes had problems no more complex or relevant to their readers' lives than thwarting this month's bad guys.... Parker had far more serious concern in his life: coming to terms with the death of a loved one, falling in love for the first time, struggling to make a living, and undergoing crises of conscience."
As one contemporaneous journalist observed, "Spider-Man has a terrible identity problem, a marked inferiority complex, and a fear of women. He is anti-social, [sic] castration-ridden, racked with Oedipal guilt, and accident-prone ... [a] functioning neurotic".[32] Agonizing over his choices, always attempting to do right, he is nonetheless viewed with suspicion by the authorities, who seem unsure as to whether he is a helpful vigilante or a clever criminal.[80]
Notes cultural historian Bradford W. Wright,
Spider-Man's plight was to be misunderstood and persecuted by the very public that he swore to protect. In the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the Daily Bugle, launches an editorial campaign against the "Spider-Man menace." The resulting negative publicity exacerbates popular suspicions about the mysterious Spider-Man and makes it impossible for him to earn any more money by performing. Eventually, the bad press leads the authorities to brand him an outlaw. Ironically, Peter finally lands a job as a photographer for Jameson's Daily Bugle.[4]:212
The mid-1960s stories reflected the political tensions of the time, as early 1960s Marvel stories had often dealt with the Cold War and Communism.[4]:220–223 As Wright observes,
From his high-school beginnings to his entry into college life, Spider-Man remained the superhero most relevant to the world of young people. Fittingly, then, his comic book also contained some of the earliest references to the politics of young people. In 1968, in the wake of actual militant student demonstrations at Columbia University, Peter Parker finds himself in the midst of similar unrest at his Empire State University.... Peter has to reconcile his natural sympathy for the students with his assumed obligation to combat lawlessness as Spider-Man. As a law-upholding liberal, he finds himself caught between militant leftism and angry conservatives.[4]:234–235
Powers, skills, and equipment
A bite from a radioactive spider on a school field trip causes a variety of changes in the body of Peter Parker and gives him superpowers.[81] In the original Lee-Ditko stories, Spider-Man has the ability to cling to walls, superhuman strength, a sixth sense ("spider-sense") that alerts him to danger, perfect balance and equilibrium, as well as superhuman speed and agility. Some of his comic series have him shooting webs from his wrists.[81] Academically brilliant, Parker has expertise in the fields of applied science, chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, mathematics, and mechanics. The character was originally conceived by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as intellectually gifted, but not a genius; however, later writers have depicted the character as a genius.[82] With his talents, he sews his own costume to conceal his identity, and constructs many devices that complement his powers, most notably mechanical web-shooters.[81] This mechanism ejects an advanced adhesive, releasing web-fluid in a variety of configurations, including a single rope-like strand to swing from, a net to bind enemies, and a simple glob to foul machinery or blind an opponent. He can also weave the web material into simple forms like a shield, a spherical protection or hemispherical barrier, a club, or a hang-glider wing. Other equipment include spider-tracers (spider-shaped adhesive homing beacons keyed to his own spider-sense), a light beacon which can either be used as a flashlight or project a "Spider-Signal" design, and a specially modified camera that can take pictures automatically.
Other versions
Due to Spider-Man's popularity in the mainstream Marvel Universe, publishers have been able to introduce different variations of Spider-Man outside of mainstream comics as well as reimagined stories in many other multiversed spinoffs such as Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man: India. Marvel has also made its own parodies of Spider-Man in comics such as Not Brand Echh, which was published in the late 1960s and featured such characters as Peter Pooper alias Spidey-Man,[83] and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, who appeared in the 1980s. The fictional character has also inspired a number of deratives such as a manga version of Spider-Man drawn by Japanese artist Ryoichi Ikegami as well as Hideshi Hino's The Bug Boy, which has been cited as inspired by Spider-Man.[84] Also the French comic Télé-Junior published strips based on popular TV series. In the late 1970s, the publisher also produced original Spider-Man adventures. Artists included Gérald Forton, who later moved to America and worked for Marvel.[85]
Supporting characters
Spider-Man has had a large range of supporting characters introduced in the comics that are essential in the issues and storylines that star him. After his parents died, Peter Parker was raised by his loving aunt, May Parker, and his uncle and father figure, Ben Parker. After Uncle Ben is murdered by a burglar, Aunt May is virtually Peter's only family, and she and Peter are very close.[33]
J. Jonah Jameson is depicted as the publisher of the Daily Bugle and is Peter Parker's boss and as a harsh critic of Spider-Man, always saying negative things about the superhero in the newspaper. Despite his role as Jameson's publishing editor and confidant Robbie Robertson is always depicted as a supporter of both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.[35]
Eugene "Flash" Thompson is commonly depicted as Parker's high school tormentor and bully, but in later comic issues he becomes a friend to Peter.[35] Meanwhile Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn, is most commonly recognized as Peter's best friend but has also been depicted sometimes as his rival in the comics.[37]
Peter Parker's romantic interests range between his first crush, the fellow high-school student Liz Allan,[35] to having his first date with Betty Brant,[86] the secretary to the Daily Bugle newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson. After his breakup with Betty Brant, Parker eventually falls in love with his college girlfriend Gwen Stacy,[37][40] daughter of New York City Police Department detective captain George Stacy, both of whom are later killed by supervillain enemies of Spider-Man.[45][45] Mary Jane Watson eventually became Peter's best friend and then his wife.[57] Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, is a reformed cat burglar who had been Spider-Man's girlfriend and partner at one point.[52]
Writers and artists over the years have established a rogues gallery of supervillains to face Spider-Man. As with him, the majority of these villains' powers originate with scientific accidents or the misuse of scientific technology, and many have animal-themed costumes or powers.[note 6] Early on Spider-Man faced such foes as the Chameleon (introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #1, March 1963), the Vulture (#2, May 1963), Doctor Octopus (#3, July 1963), the Sandman (#4, Sept. 1963), the Lizard (#6, Nov. 1963), Electro (#9, Feb. 1964), Mysterio (#13, June 1964), Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin (#14, July 1964), Kraven the Hunter (#15, Aug. 1964), the Scorpion (#20, Jan. 1965), the Rhino (#41, Oct. 1966)—the first original Lee/Romita Spider-Man villain[87]—, the Shocker (#46, March 1967), and the physically powerful and well-connected criminal capo Wilson Fisk, also known as the Kingpin.[37] The Clone Saga introduces college professor Miles Warren, who becomes the Jackal, the antagonist of the storyline.[40] Harry Osborn then replaces Norman as the Green Goblin and also a derivative villain called the Hobgoblin was developed to replace Norman as archenemy in #238 until Norman was revived later.[88] After Spider-Man rejected his symbiotic black costume, Eddie Brock, a bitter ex-journalist with a grudge against Spider-Man, bonded with the symbiote (which also hated Spider-Man for rejecting it), gaining Spider-Man's powers and abilities, and became the villain Venom in issue #298 (May 1988).[37] Brock briefly became an ally to Spider-Man when Carnage, another symbiote-based villain, went on a murderous spree in issue #344.[89] At times these enemies of Spider-Man have formed groups such as the Sinister Six to oppose Spider-Man.[90] Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) and Venom (Eddie Brock) are generally described or written as his archenemies.[91][92][93]
Cultural influence
Comic book writer-editor and historian Paul Kupperberg, in The Creation of Spider-Man, calls the character's superpowers "nothing too original"; what was original was that outside his secret identity, he was a "nerdy high school student".[94]:5 Going against typical superhero fare, Spider-Man included "heavy doses of soap-opera and elements of melodrama." Kupperberg feels that Lee and Ditko had created something new in the world of comics: "the flawed superhero with everyday problems." This idea spawned a "comics revolution."[94]:6 The insecurity and anxieties in Marvel's early 1960s comic books such as The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and X-Men ushered in a new type of superhero, very different from the certain and all-powerful superheroes before them, and changed the public's perception of them.[95] Spider-Man has become one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the world, and has been used to sell toys, games, cereal, candy, soap, and many other products.[96]
Spider-Man has become Marvel's flagship character, and has often been used as the company mascot. When Marvel became the first comic book company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1991, the Wall Street Journal announced "Spider-Man is coming to Wall Street"; the event was in turn promoted with an actor in a Spider-Man costume accompanying Stan Lee to the Stock Exchange.[4]:254 Since 1962, hundreds of millions of comics featuring the character have been sold around the world.[97]
Spider-Man joined the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from 1987 to 1998 as one of the balloon floats,[98] designed by John Romita Sr.,[99] one of the character's signature artists. A new, different Spider-Man balloon float is scheduled to appear from at least 2009 to 2011.[98]
In 1981, skyscraper-safety activist Dan Goodwin, wearing a Spider-Man suit, scaled the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, the Renaissance Tower in Dallas, Texas, and the John Hancock Center in Chicago, Illinois.[100]
When Marvel wanted to issue a story dealing with the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the company chose the December 2001 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.[101] In 2006, Spider-Man garnered major media coverage with the revelation of the character's secret identity,[102] an event detailed in a full page story in the New York Post before the issue containing the story was even released.[103]
In 2008, Marvel announced plans to release a series of educational comics the following year in partnership with the United Nations, depicting Spider-Man alongside UN Peacekeeping Forces to highlight UN peacekeeping missions.[104] A BusinessWeek article listed Spider-Man as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics.[105]
Rapper Eminem has cited Spider-Man as one of his favorite comic book superheroes.[106][107]
In other media
Spider-Man has appeared in comics, cartoons, films, video games, coloring books, novels, records, and children's books.[96] On television, he first starred in the ABC animated series Spider-Man (1967-1970)[108] and the CBS live-action series The Amazing Spider-Man (1978–1979), starring Nicholas Hammond. Other animated series featuring the superhero include the syndicated Spider-Man (1981–1982), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981–1983), Fox Kids' Spider-Man (1994–1998), Spider-Man Unlimited (1999–2000), Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003), and The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008–2009). A new animated series titled Ultimate Spider-Man, starring Drake Bell, premiered on Disney XD on April 1, 2012.[109]
A tokusatsu show featuring Spider-Man was produced by Toei and aired in Japan. It is commonly referred to by its Japanese pronunciation "Supaidā-Man".[110] Spider-Man also appeared in other print forms besides the comics, including novels, children's books, and the daily newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man, which debuted in January 1977, with the earliest installments written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita, Sr.[111] Spider-Man has been adapted to other media including games, toys, collectibles, and miscellaneous memorabilia, and has appeared as the main character in numerous computer and video games on over 15 gaming platforms.
Spider-Man was also featured in a trilogy of live-action films directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as the titular superhero. The first Spider-Man film of the trilogy was released on May 3, 2002; its sequel, Spider-Man 2, was released on June 30, 2004 and the next sequel, Spider-Man 3, was released on May 4, 2007. A third sequel was originally scheduled to be released in 2011, however Sony later decided to reboot the franchise with a new director and cast. The reboot, titled The Amazing Spider-Man, was released on July 3, 2012; directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield as the new Spider-Man.[112][113][114][115][116] A sequel titled The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released on May 2, 2014.[117][118] Most recently, Sony and Disney have made a deal for Spider-Man to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[119]
A Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, began previews on November 14, 2010 at the Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway, with the official opening night on June 14, 2011.[120][121] The music and lyrics were written by Bono and The Edge of the rock group U2, with a book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.[122] Turn Off the Dark is currently the most expensive musical in Broadway history, costing an estimated $70 million.[123] In addition, the show's unusually high running costs are reported to be about $1.2 million per week.[124]
Awards and recognition
From the character's inception, Spider-Man stories have won numerous awards, including:
- 1962 Alley Award: Best Short Story—"Origin of Spider-Man" by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Amazing Fantasy #15
- 1963 Alley Award: Best Comic: Adventure Hero title—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1963 Alley Award: Top Hero—Spider-Man
- 1964 Alley Award: Best Adventure Hero Comic Book—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1964 Alley Award: Best Giant Comic - The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1
- 1964 Alley Award: Best Hero—Spider-Man
- 1965 Alley Award: Best Adventure Hero Comic Book—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1965 Alley Award: Best Hero—Spider-Man
- 1966 Alley Award: Best Comic Magazine: Adventure Book with the Main Character in the Title—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1966 Alley Award: Best Full-Length Story - "How Green was My Goblin", by Stan Lee & John Romita, Sr., The Amazing Spider-Man #39
- 1967 Alley Award: Best Comic Magazine: Adventure Book with the Main Character in the Title—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1967 Alley Award Popularity Poll: Best Costumed or Powered Hero—Spider-Man
- 1967 Alley Award Popularity Poll: Best Male Normal Supporting Character—J. Jonah Jameson, The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1967 Alley Award Popularity Poll: Best Female Normal Supporting Character—Mary Jane Watson, The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1968 Alley Award Popularity Poll: Best Adventure Hero Strip—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1968 Alley Award Popularity Poll: Best Supporting Character - J. Jonah Jameson, The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1969 Alley Award Popularity Poll: Best Adventure Hero Strip—The Amazing Spider-Man
- 1997 Eisner Award: Best Artist/Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team—1997 Al Williamson, Best Inker: Untold Tales of Spider-Man #17-18
- 2002 Eisner Award: Best Serialized Story—The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2, #30–35: "Coming Home", by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita, Jr., and Scott Hanna
- 2005: Spider-Man was the #1 superhero on Bravo's Ultimate Super Heroes, Vixens, and Villains show.[125]
- No date: Empire magazine's fifth-greatest comic book character.[126]
See also
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- ^ Lee, Stan; Mair, George (2002). Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. Fireside. ISBN 0-684-87305-2.
He goes further in his biography, claiming that even while pitching the concept to publisher Martin Goodman, "I can't remember if that was literally true or not, but I thought it would lend a big color to my pitch."
- ^ Detroit Free Press interview with Stan Lee, quoted in The Steve Ditko Reader by Greg Theakston (Pure Imagination, Brooklyn, NY; ISBN 1-56685-011-8), p. 12 (unnumbered). "He gave me 1,000 reasons why Spider-Man would never work. Nobody likes spiders; it sounds too much like Superman; and how could a teenager be a superhero? Then I told him I wanted the character to be a very human guy, someone who makes mistakes, who worries, who gets acne, has trouble with his girlfriend, things like that. [Goodman replied,] 'He's a hero! He's not an average man!' I said, 'No, we make him an average man who happens to have super powers, that's what will make him good.' He told me I was crazy".
- ^ Ditko, Steve (2000). Roy Thomas, ed. Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection. TwoMorrows Publishing. ISBN 1-893905-06-3. "'Stan said a new Marvel hero would be introduced in #15 [of what became titled Amazing Fantasy]. He would be called Spider-Man. Jack would do the penciling and I was to ink the character.' At this point still, Stan said Spider-Man would be a teenager with a magic ring which could transform him into an adult hero—Spider-Man. I said it sounded like the Fly, which Joe Simon had done for Archie Comics. Stan called Jack about it but I don't know what was discussed. I never talked to Jack about Spider-Man... Later, at some point, I was given the job of drawing Spider-Man'".
- ^ Jack Kirby in "Shop Talk: Jack Kirby", Will Eisner's Spirit Magazine #39 (February 1982): "Spider-Man was discussed between Joe Simon and myself. It was the last thing Joe and I had discussed. We had a strip called 'The Silver Spider.' The Silver Spider was going into a magazine called Black Magic. Black Magic folded with Crestwood (Simon & Kirby's 1950s comics company) and we were left with the script. I believe I said this could become a thing called Spider-Man, see, a superhero character. I had a lot of faith in the superhero character that they could be brought back... and I said Spider-Man would be a fine character to start with. But Joe had already moved on. So the idea was already there when I talked to Stan".
- ^ Simon, Joe, with Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers (Crestwood/II, 1990) ISBN 1-887591-35-4. "There were a few holes in Jack's never-dependable memory. For instance, there was no Black Magic involved at all. ... Jack brought in the Spider-Man logo that I had loaned to him before we changed the name to The Silver Spider. Kirby laid out the story to Lee about the kid who finds a ring in a spiderweb, gets his powers from the ring, and goes forth to fight crime armed with The Silver Spider's old web-spinning pistol. Stan Lee said, 'Perfect, just what I want.' After obtaining permission from publisher Martin Goodman, Lee told Kirby to pencil-up an origin story. Kirby... using parts of an old rejected superhero named Night Fighter... revamped the old Silver Spider script, including revisions suggested by Lee. But when Kirby showed Lee the sample pages, it was Lee's turn to gripe. He had been expecting a skinny young kid who is transformed into a skinny young kid with spider powers. Kirby had him turn into... Captain America with cobwebs. He turned Spider-Man over to Steve Ditko, who... ignored Kirby's pages, tossed the character's magic ring, web-pistol and goggles... and completely redesigned Spider-Man's costume and equipment. In this life, he became high-school student Peter Parker, who gets his spider powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. ... Lastly, the Spider-Man logo was redone and a dashing hyphen added".
- ^ Mondello, Salvatore (March 2004). "Spider-Man: Superhero in the Liberal Tradition". The Journal of Popular Culture X (1): 232–238. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1976.1001_232.x.
...a teenage superhero and middle-aged supervillains—an impressive rogues' gallery [that] includes such memorable knaves and grotesques as the Vulture...
- ^ Secret Defenders #6
- ^ Heroes for Hire vol. 3 #8
- ^ Spider-Man and the X-Men #1
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wright, Bradford W. (2001). Comic Book Nation. Johns Hopkins Press : Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-7450-5.
- ^ Sacks, Ethan (12 January 2014). "Exclusive: Peter Parker to return from death in 'Amazing Spider-Man' #1 this April". New York Daily News.
- ^ "Why Spider-Man is popular.". Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ "It's Official! Andrew Garfield to Play Spider-Man!". Comingsoon.net. 2010-07-02. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
- ^ "Complete Cast Announced for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark". Broadway.com. 2010-08-16. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
- ^ "IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes". Retrieved 2011-05-09.
- ^ a b Lee, Stan; Mair, George (2002). Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. Fireside. ISBN 0-684-87305-2.
- ^ DeFalco, Tom; Lee, Stan (2001). O'Neill, Cynthia, ed. Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide. New York: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0-7894-7946-X.
- ^ a b c Amazing Fantasy (Marvel, 1962 series) at the Grand Comics Database: "1990 copyright renewal lists the publication date as June 5, 1962"; "[T]he decision to cancel the series had not been made when it went to print, since it is announced that future issues will include a Spider-Man feature."
- ^ "Important Announcement from the Editor!", Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), reprinted at Sedlmeier, Cory, ed. (2007). Amazing Fantasy Omnibus. Marvel Publishing. p. 394. ISBN 978-0785124580.
- ^ a b c Theakston, Greg (2002). The Steve Ditko Reader. Brooklyn, NY: Pure Imagination. ISBN 1-56685-011-8.
- ^ a b Ditko, Steve (2000). Roy Thomas, ed. Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection. TwoMorrows Publishing. ISBN 1-893905-06-3.
- ^ "Deposition of Stan Lee". Los Angeles, California: United States District Court, Southern District of New York: "Marvel Worldwide, Inc., et al., vs. Lisa R. Kirby, et al.". December 8, 2010. p. 37.
- ^ Ditko interview (Summer 1965). "Steve Ditko - A Portrait of the Master". Comic Fan #2 (Larry Herndon) via Ditko.Comics.org (Blake Bell, ed.). Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-03. Additional WebCitation archive, February 28, 2012.
- ^ a b Evanier, Mark; Gaiman, Neil (2008). Kirby: King of Comics. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-9447-X.
- ^ Bell, Blake. Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko (2008). Fantagraphic Books.p.54-57.
- ^ Skelly, Tim. "Interview II: 'I created an army of characters, and now my connection to them is lost.'" (Initially broadcast over WNUR-FM on "The Great Electric Bird," May 14, 1971. Transcribed and published in The Nostalgia Journal #27.) Reprinted in The Comics Journal Library Volume One: Jack Kirby, George, Milo ed. May 2002, Fantagraphics Books. p. 16
- ^ Ross, Jonathon. In Search of Steve Ditko, BBC 4, September 16, 2007.
- ^ Nickerson, Al. "Who Really Created Spider-Man?" P.I.C. News, 5 February 2009. Accessed 2009-02-17. Archived 2009-02-17.
- ^ Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3821-9.
- ^ Saffel, Steve. Spider-Man the Icon: The Life and Times of a Pop Culture Phenomenon (Titan Books, 2007) ISBN 978-1-84576-324-4, "A Not-So-Spectacular Experiment", p. 31
- ^ Michael Thomas. "John Byrne: The Hidden Story". Comic book resources. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
- ^ a b "The Marvel 500s: How Many Are There?". Comic Book Resources. 2008-08-05.
- ^ "Wizard World Philadelphia Spider-Man panel coverage". 2007-06-15.
- ^ "IGN: SDCC 10: Spider-Man: The End of Brand New Day". 2010-07-25.
- ^ "Marvel.com: The Next Big Thing: Spider-Man: Big Time". Retrieved 2010-09-27.
- ^ "IGN.com: Amazing is no longer the only Spider-Man book on the block". 8 November 2011.
- ^ "Peter Parker Resurrected in Slott's Amazing Spider-Man". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
- ^ a b Kempton, Sally, "Spiderman's [sic] Dilemma: Super-Anti-Hero in Forest Hills", The Village Voice, April 1, 1965
- ^ a b Lee, Stan (w), Ditko, Steve (a). Amazing Fantasy 15 (Aug 1962), New York City, New York: Marvel Comics
- ^ Daniels, Les. Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1991) ISBN 0-8109-3821-9, p. 95.
- ^ a b c d Saffel, Steve. Spider-Man the Icon: The Life and Times of a Pop Culture Phenomenon (Titan Books, 2007) ISBN 978-1-84576-324-4, p. 21.
- ^ Lee, Stan (w), Ditko, Steve (a). "Spider-Man"; "Spider-Man vs. The Chameleon"; "Duel to the Death with the Vulture; "The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!" The Amazing Spider-Man 1-2 (March, May 1963), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Amazing Spider-Man, The (Marvel, 1963 Series) at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Lee, Stan (w), Ditko, Steve (a). "The Menace of the Molten Man!" The Amazing Spider-Man 28 (September 1965), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ Saffel, p. 51
- ^ a b c Sanderson, Peter (2007). The Marvel Comics Guide to New York City. New York City: Pocket Books. pp. 30–33. ISBN 1-4165-3141-6.
- ^ Lee, Stan (w), Romita, John (a). "The Birth of a Super-Hero!" The Amazing Spider-Man 42 (November 1966), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ Saffel, p. 27
- ^ Lee, Stan (w), Romita, John (p), Mickey Demeo (i). "Spider-Man No More!" The Amazing Spider-Man 50 (July 1967), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ Lee, Stan (w), Kane, Gil (p), Giacoia, Frank (i). "The Spider or the Man?" The Amazing Spider-Man 100 (September 1971), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ a b c Saffel, p. 60
- ^ Saffel, p. 65, states, "In the battle that followed atop the Brooklyn Bridge (or was it the George Washington Bridge?)...." On page 66, Saffel reprints the panel of The Amazing Spider-Man #121, page 18, in which Spider-Man exclaims, "The George Washington Bridge! It figures Osborn would pick something named after his favorite president. He's got the same sort of hangup for dollar bills!" Saffel states, "The span portrayed...is the GW's more famous cousin, the Brooklyn Bridge. ... To address the contradiction in future reprints of the tale, though, Spider-Man's dialogue was altered so that he's referring to the Brooklyn Bridge. But the original snafu remains as one of the more visible errors in the history of comics."
- ^ Sanderson, Marvel Universe, p. 84, notes, "[W]hile the script described the site of Gwen's demise as the George Washington Bridge, the art depicted the Brooklyn Bridge, and there is still no agreement as to where it actually took place."
- ^ Saffel, p. 65
- ^ Conway, Gerry (w), Kane, Gil (p), Romita, John (i). "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" The Amazing Spider-Man 121 (June 1973), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ Sanderson, Marvel Universe, p. 85
- ^ Blumberg, Arnold T. (Spring 2006). "'The Night Gwen Stacy Died': The End of Innocence and the 'Last Gasp of the Silver Age'". International Journal of Comic Art 8 (1): 208.
- ^ a b Sanderson, Marvel Universe, p. 83
- ^ Shooter, Jim (w), Zeck, Michael (p), Beatty, John, Abel, Jack, and Esposito, Mike (i). "Invasion" Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars 8 (December 1984), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ Leupp, Thomas. "Behind the Mask: The Story of Spider-Man's Black Costume", ReelzChannel.com, 2007, n.d. WebCitation archive.
- ^ Simonson, Louise (w), LaRocque, Greg (p), Mooney, Jim and Colletta, Vince (i). "'Til Death Do Us Part!" Web of Spider-Man 1 (April 1985), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ Gross, Michael (June 2, 1987). "Spider-Man to Wed Model". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
- ^ a b c Saffel, p. 124
- ^ Shooter, Jim and Michelinie, David (w), Ryan, Paul (p), Colletta, Vince (i). "The Wedding" The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 21 (1987), New York City, New York: Marvel Comics
- ^ "Life of Reilly". GreyHaven Magazine. NewComicsReviews.com. Archived from the original on 1996-01-01.
- ^ Millar, Mark (w), McNiven, Steve (p), Vines, Dexter (i). "Civil War" Civil War 2 (August 2006), New York, NY: Marvel Comics
- ^ a b Weiland, Jonah. "The 'One More Day' Interviews with Joe Quesada, Pt. 1 of 5", Newsarama, December 28, 2007. WebCitation archive.
- ^ Straczynski, J. Michael (w), Quesada, Joe (p), Miki, Danny (i). "One More Day Part 4" The Amazing Spider-Man 545 (December 2007), Marvel Comics
- ^ a b Weiland, Jonah. "The 'One More Day' Interviews with Joe Quesada, Pt. 2 of 5", Newsarama, December 31, 2007. WebCitation archive.
- ^ New Avengers vol. 1 #51
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man #600
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man #591
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man #648
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man #700
- ^ The Superior Spider-Man #1
- ^ The Superior Spider-Man #8
- ^ The Superior Spider-Man #9
- ^ The Superior Spider-Man #25
- ^ The Superior Spider-Man #30
- ^ The Superior Spider-Man #31
- ^ "Exclusive: Peter Parker to return from death in 'Amazing Spider-Man' #1 this April". NY Daily News. 2014-01-12. Retrieved 2014-08-22.
- ^ "All-New Marvel NOW! Q&A: Amazing Spider-Man". Marvel. January 13, 2014.
- ^ "Enter Amazing Spider-man the Infinite Comic". Marvel. January 14, 2014.
- ^ The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #1
- ^ Sanderson, Peter. Marvel Universe: The Complete Encyclopedia of Marvel's Greatest Characters (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1998) ISBN 0-8109-8171-8, p. 75
- ^ Daniels, p. 96
- ^ a b c Gresh, Lois H., and Robert Weinberg. "The Science of Superheroes" (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002) ISBN 0-471-02460-0 (preview)
- ^ Kiefer, Kit; Couper-Smartt, Jonathan (2003). Marvel Encyclopedia Volume 4: Spider-Man. New York: Marvel Comics. ISBN 0-7851-1304-5.
- ^ "examples of "Not Brand Echh" comics". Dialbforblog.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ McCarthy, Helen, 500 Manga Heroes and Villains (Barron's Educational Series, 2006), ISBN 978-0-7641-3201-8,[page needed]
- ^ Lambiek comic shop and studio in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. "Lambiek Comiclopedia: Gérald Forton". Lambiek.net. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Lee, Stan, Origins of Marvel Comics (Simon and Schuster/Fireside Books, 1974) p. 137
- ^ Saunders, et al, Marvel Chronicle, p. 119
- ^ DeFalco, Tom (2004). Comics Creators on Spider-Man. Titan Books. ISBN 1-84023-422-9.
- ^ "2004" Maximum Carnage (May–August 1963), Marvel Comics, ISBN 0-7851-0987-0
- ^ "Broadway's 'Spider-Man spin's magic'.". Kansas City Star. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
- ^ Goldstein, Hilary (2006-02-01). "Spider-Man villain poll". IGN. Retrieved 2006-10-01.
- ^ "The 20 Greatest Spider-Man Villains". Blogzarro.com. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ "Fans : Top Ten : Top Ten Greatest Spider-Man Villains". SpiderFan.org. 2003-09-01. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ a b Kupperberg, Paul (2007). The Creation of Spider-Man. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 1-4042-0763-5.
- ^ Fleming, James R. (2006). "Review of Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society. By Danny Fingeroth". ImageText (University of Florida). ISSN 1549-6732. Retrieved Fleming. Check date values in:
- ^ a b Knowles, Christopher (2007). Our Gods Wear Spandex. illustrated by Joseph Michael Linsner. Weiser. p. 139.
- ^ "Spider-Man Weaving a spell". Screen India. 2002. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- ^ a b "Spider-Man Returning to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Paradede"[dead link], Associated Press via WCBS (AM), August 17, 2009
- ^ Spurlock, J. David, and John Romita. John Romita Sketchbook. (Vanguard Productions: Lebanon, N.J. 2002) ISBN 1-887591-27-3, p. 45: Romita: "I designed the Spider-Man balloon float. When we went to Macy's to talk about it, Manny Bass was there. He's the genius who creates all these balloon floats. I gave him the sketches and he turned them into reality".
- ^ "Skyscraper Defense". Retrieved 2011-07-04.
- ^ Yarbrough, Beau (2001-09-24). "Marvel to Take on World Trade Center Attack in "Amazing Spider-Man"". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
- ^ Staff (2006-06-15). "Spider-Man Removes Mask at Last". BBC. Retrieved 2006-09-29.
- ^ Brady, Matt (2006-06-14). "New York Post Spoils Civil War #2". Newsarama. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- ^ Lane, Thomas (2008-01-04). "Can Spider-Man help UN beat evil?". BBC. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- ^ Pisani, Joseph (June 1, 2006). "The Smartest Superheroes". Business Week Online. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
- ^ Cohen, Johnathan (2008-12-12). "Exclusive: Eminem Talks New Album, Book". Billboard.
- ^ Lockett, Dee (2015-04-02). "7 Fun Facts We Learned From Eminem's Genius Annotations". Vulture.
- ^ "Spider-Man (1967)". UGO Networks. Archived from the original on 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- ^ "Ultimate Spider-Man". Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ "Japanese Spider-Man". Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ "John Romita Interview". www.keefestudios.com. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
- ^ "EXCLUSIVE: 'Spider-Man 4' Scrapped; Sam Rami & Tobey Maguire & Cast Out; Franchise Reboot for 2012". Deadline.com. January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
- ^ ""Spider-Man" Film Gets Reboot; Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire Out". Zap2It.com. January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
- ^ "Maguire, Raimi out of 'Spider-Man' franchise". Yahoo! Movies. Associated Press. January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2010.[dead link]
- ^ DiOrio, Carl (2010-02-10). "'Spider-Man' reboot will be in 3D". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-03-20.[dead link]
- ^ Leins, Jeff (2010-07-01). "Andrew Garfield is the New Spider-Man". NewsinFilm.com. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ "Andrew Garfield & Marc Webb Return For 'Amazing Spider-Man 2'". Huffington Post. 2012-09-28. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ^ Truitt, Brian (2013-07-20). "Garfield relishes web-swinging in 'Amazing Spider-Man 2'". USA Today. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
- ^ Lesnick, Silas (2015-02-09). "It's Official: Spider-Man Enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe!". SuperHeroHype. Retrieved 2015-02-10.
- ^ Lustig, Jay. "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark". New Jersey On-Line. January 18, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
- ^ Gans, Andrew. "Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano, Patrick Page to Star in Spider-Man; Performances Begin in November". Playbill.com, August 10, 2010
- ^ "SpidermanBroadway.Marvel.com". Spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Hetrick, Adam. "Troubled Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark Delays Broadway Opening Again". Playbill.com. January 13, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
- ^ "Could Spider-Man the Musical be the 'biggest disaster in Broadway history'?". The Week. August 13, 2010 (updated November 4, 2010).
- ^ "Ultimate Super Heroes, Vixens, and Villains Episode Guide 2005 - Ultimate Super Villains". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
- ^ "The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters". Empire Online. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
External links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spider-Man.
- Official website
- Spider-Man at the Marvel Universe wiki
- Spider-Man at the Comic Book DB
- Spider-Man at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- SpiderFan
- Spider-Man at DMOZ


text:
Corporate Social Responsibilities
Our purpose is to build trust in society and solve problems wholeheartedly with professional due care. The main driving force behind our corporate responsibility is the interests of our staff to give back to the community we live and operate in.
A combination of factors — evolving relationships between developed and emerging economies, global institutions and nation states and public and private sectors — has led to a greater understanding of the connection and interdependency between business and society. There is an expectation that business addresses social and environmental issues through its operations, products and services and its unique expertise.
At WTA, we do this through:
Our marketplace
The most significant impact we can have on society is by supporting local economic stability and growth. It's through our client work and the influence we can have on the wider business world by making a commitment to audit independence, financial transparency and sound governance and by fostering and encouraging entrepreneurship around the globe that we can contribute to a better working world.
Our workplace
While our core business is all about delivering exceptional service to our clients, we know that if we attract and retain the best people — and invest in them — we will deliver the best results for our clients. We pride ourselves on having the highest performing teams and strive to be a highly inclusive organization.
Supporting our communities
We invest in our communities, both close to home and in emerging markets, through skills-based volunteering. We invest in education to ensure that future generations have the skills required for societies to thrive. We know, too, that entrepreneurs can transform economies, drive innovation and change communities. We invest, therefore, in small- to medium-size businesses, social enterprises and entrepreneurs, particularly women and youth.
Managing our environmental impact
The biggest impact we can have on contributing to minimizing the negative effects of climate change is by supporting our clients and the marketplace as they move towards a low carbon economy. We also have a commitment and a responsibility to manage our own operations in a way that reduces our own environmental footprint.


text:
MLMIFC celebrated the Volunteer Day in Edmonton - Canada
- Details
- Category: Last Activities Edmonton
- Published: Monday, 11 April 2016 13:52
Maria Luisa de Moreno International Foundation celebrated the International Volunteer Day. The purpose of this event was for volunteers to be celebrated and recognized for their efforts,their collaboration and their time. In Edmonton, MLMIFC, provided a certificate to all who had volunteered, throughout the years, for more than 50 hours. A presentation of all the projects and programs that were done during the year 2014, was shown. As well to enjoy the day, bingo was played, and the winners received gifts. To culminate this special day, dinner was served to all.


text:
THIS OPINION HAS NO PRECEDENTIAL VALUE. IT SHOULD NOT BE CITED OR RELIED ON AS PRECEDENT IN ANY PROCEEDING EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY RULE 268(d)(2), SCACR.
In The Court of Appeals
Christine Visser, Appellant,
APEX Builders, LLC, and Bill Pinckney, Respondents.
Appeal From Greenville County
John C. Few, Circuit Court Judge
Unpublished Opinion No. 2011-UP-171
Submitted March 1, 2011 – Filed April 18, 2011
Keven Kurtis Kenison, of Greenville, for Appellant.
Rhett D. Burney, of Laurens, for Respondents.
PER CURIAM: Christine Visser appeals a circuit court order dismissing her appeal from a magistrate's decision for failure to file a notice of appeal sufficient to give notice of her grounds for appeal to APEX Builders, Inc. and Bill Pinckney (collectively, "APEX"). Visser argues the circuit court erred in dismissing her appeal because (1) her original notice of appeal provided adequate notice; (2) if the original notice was insufficient, the circumstances surrounding her appeal provided adequate notice when combined with the original notice; and (3) her supplemental notice of appeal provided adequate notice. We affirm[1] pursuant to Rule 220(b)(1), SCACR, and the following authorities:
1. As to whether the original notice in and of itself provided adequate notice: State v. Sullivan, 310 S.C. 311, 314-15, 426 S.E.2d 766, 768-69 (1993) (holding similar exceptions listed in an original notice of appeal failed by themselves to apprise the other parties and courts of the grounds for appeal).
2. As to whether the circumstances surrounding the appeal and the original notice provided adequate notice: Rule 210(h), SCACR ("[T]he appellate court will not consider any fact which does not appear in the Record on Appeal."); Price v. Pickens Cnty., 308 S.C. 64, 67, 416 S.E.2d 666, 668 (Ct. App. 1992) ("The burden is on the appellant to provide a sufficient record such that this court can make an intelligent review.") (citation omitted).
3. As to whether the supplemental notice provided adequate notice: United Dominion Realty Trust, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 307 S.C. 102, 107, 413 S.E.2d 866, 869 (Ct. App. 1992) (holding an issue was not preserved because the circuit court did not rule on the issue and the appellant failed to raise the issue in a motion to alter or amend) (citation omitted).
HUFF, SHORT, and PIEPER, JJ., concur.
[1] We decide this case without oral argument pursuant to Rule 215, SCACR.


text:
Pelvic Pain
Indentifying Conditions that Cause Pelvic Pain,
to Find a Solution
Most women experience pelvic pain of some type at some point in their lives, and a very long list of conditions can cause such pain. Many of these conditions, though, can cause severe or longer-term pelvic pain, including uterine fibroids; endometriosis; cancer; menstrual conditions; ovarian cysts; gastrointestinal conditions; ectopic pregnancy; and urologic conditions, such as interstitial cystitis – to name just some.
Two other general terms refer to conditions that can also cause pelvic pain:
• Pelvic inflammatory disease. In this infectious condition, bacteria or other infectious organisms have crossed the cervical barrier and irritated and affected the uterus, fallopian tubes, or adjacent pelvic structures. The result can be persistent inflammation or long-term scarring. Pelvic inflammatory disease can also encompass symptoms from sexually transmitted diseases, vaginal infections, or urinary infections.
• Adhesions. Abnormal physical connections between the surface of organs and structures in the pelvis, usually caused by connective tissue such as scar tissue, can form after injury to tissue in the area due to surgery, infection, or chronic conditions such as endometriosis. These connections can cause pulling, pressure, or stiffness that results in pelvic pain.
Pelvic pain may be acute (sharp and with rapid onset), intermittent, or constant. Every woman's tolerance for pelvic pain is different, but certainly when such pain begins to interfere with activities, to affect other aspects of physical health, or to cause distress, it should be evaluated.
With so many potential causes of pelvic pain, isolating the basis of a woman's discomfort may take time and patience. The staff at our Center for Gynecology & Women's Health may use a variety of different steps to determine the cause of pelvic pain. These include:
• taking a medical history;
• physical examination (both standing and prone);
• and a number of different lab and imaging studies.
Ultrasound conducted externally on the pelvis or with a probe introduced through the vagina may be useful. In addition, our specialists may perform a diagnostic hysteroscopy to view the interior of the uterus or laparoscopy to view the interior of the pelvis. CT and MR imaging, as well as other radiologic, urologic, and gastroenterologic tests may also be employed.
Our women's center can offer treatment or refer for treatment for conditions underlying pelvic pain, including psychological factors that may exacerbate the experience of pelvic pain. Treatment can include medications (including analgesics, anti-inflammatories, hormone therapy, muscle relaxants, or antidepressants), heat therapy, nerve blocks, physical therapy (relaxation techniques), minimally invasive surgery using hysteroscopy or laparoscopy, or major surgery (such as hysterectomy).