![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A friend gave me a copy of the first 11 issues of the Spider-Man comics. They were rather fascinating.
Weird facts:
- The whole origin story (spider bite, death of Uncle Ben, etc) happens very fast. He literally gets bitten, immediately gets superpowers, and then ("a few minutes later") starts his wrestling career.
- He doesn't actually start doing much superheroing for a surprisingly long time. In the first few stories, he (1) mourns Uncle Ben and captures his killer; (2) rescues an astronaut (okay, this is legit superheroics); (3) fights the Fantastic Four; (4) gets accused of theft and proves his innocence; (5) sells pictures of the Vulture (and takes him down purely for the cool photos); (6) saves the world from an alien invasion. It's only post-alien invasion that he starts actually thinking of maybe saving people. Mostly, he's in it for the photo money.
- The writers haven't particularly figured out how his powers work – but one thing they're pretty sure of is that his main gimmick is crafting weird objects out of webbing. In just these issues, he makes a web-parachute, a web-column, a web-ball filled with web-fluid (?????), a web-shield, web-swamp shoes, a (flying) web-bat, web-wings, a web-heart to woo Sue Storm, and a giant spider made out of webbing on a wooden frame.
- He also totally trolls J. Jonah Jameson by using web fluid to stick his pants to his chair. Jameson spends the next scene walking around in his boxers.
- There is a Spidey Signal! It looks vaguely Bat-signal-esque, but projects from Spider-Man's belt. So, if you were looking at the Spidey Signal and turned around, you'd see Peter Parker standing there wearing a stupid belt and posing.
- He has a full-on romance with Betty Brant. I knew she was a love interest, but I didn't realise how totally into each other the two of them were.
- The second story totally forgets his name and calls him "Peter Palmer".
Weird facts:
- The whole origin story (spider bite, death of Uncle Ben, etc) happens very fast. He literally gets bitten, immediately gets superpowers, and then ("a few minutes later") starts his wrestling career.
- He doesn't actually start doing much superheroing for a surprisingly long time. In the first few stories, he (1) mourns Uncle Ben and captures his killer; (2) rescues an astronaut (okay, this is legit superheroics); (3) fights the Fantastic Four; (4) gets accused of theft and proves his innocence; (5) sells pictures of the Vulture (and takes him down purely for the cool photos); (6) saves the world from an alien invasion. It's only post-alien invasion that he starts actually thinking of maybe saving people. Mostly, he's in it for the photo money.
- The writers haven't particularly figured out how his powers work – but one thing they're pretty sure of is that his main gimmick is crafting weird objects out of webbing. In just these issues, he makes a web-parachute, a web-column, a web-ball filled with web-fluid (?????), a web-shield, web-swamp shoes, a (flying) web-bat, web-wings, a web-heart to woo Sue Storm, and a giant spider made out of webbing on a wooden frame.
- He also totally trolls J. Jonah Jameson by using web fluid to stick his pants to his chair. Jameson spends the next scene walking around in his boxers.
- There is a Spidey Signal! It looks vaguely Bat-signal-esque, but projects from Spider-Man's belt. So, if you were looking at the Spidey Signal and turned around, you'd see Peter Parker standing there wearing a stupid belt and posing.
- He has a full-on romance with Betty Brant. I knew she was a love interest, but I didn't realise how totally into each other the two of them were.
- The second story totally forgets his name and calls him "Peter Palmer".