SPIDER-MAN 3 - Complete Base Set (70 Cards) - Rittenhouse 2007

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Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It was directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by Raimi, his older brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent. It is the final installment in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and the sequel to Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). The film stars Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, James Cromwell, Rosemary Harris, and J. K. Simmons. The film also marks the final film appearance of Cliff Robertson before his retirement and death in 2011. Set a year after the events of Spider-Man 2 , the film follows Peter Parker as he prepares for his future with Mary Jane Watson, while facing three new villains: Uncle Ben's true killer, Flint Marko, who becomes Sandman after a freak accident; Harry Osborn, his former friend, who is now aware of Peter's identity and seeks to avenge his father; and Eddie Brock, a rival photographer who subsequently transforms into Venom. Peter also faces his greatest challenge when he bonds with an extraterrestrial symbiote that increases his abilities but amplifies his anger and other negative traits.

Development of Spider-Man 3 began immediately after the successful release of Spider-Man 2 for a 2007 release. During pre-production, Raimi originally wanted two villains, Harry Osborn and Sandman. At the request of producer Avi Arad, he added Venom to the list and the producers also requested the addition of Gwen Stacy. Principal photography for the film began in January 2006, and took place in Los Angeles and Cleveland before moving to New York City from May until July 2006. Additional pick-up shots were made after August and the film wrapped in October 2006. During post-production, Sony Pictures Imageworks created over 900 visual effects shots. With an estimated production budget of $258–350 million, it was the most expensive film ever made at the time of its release.

Spider-Man 3 premiered on April 16, 2007, in Tokyo, and was released in the United States in both conventional and IMAX theaters on May 4, 2007. The film grossed $894.9 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of the trilogy, the third-highest-grossing film of 2007 and was the highest-grossing Spider-Man film until it was surpassed by Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019. Despite being a commercial success, it was largely deemed inferior to the previous two films; critics praised the action sequences and visual effects, but were polarized over the plot and pacing, and also criticized the film's runtime and number of villains, most notably Venom. The perceived overcrowded narrative was later attributed to studio interference and creative differences between Sony, Raimi, and Arad. A revised version of the film called Spider-Man 3: Editor's Cut was released on home entertainment and digital download on June 13, 2017.

A fourth installment, titled Spider-Man 4 , was set to be released on May 6, 2011, followed by a Venom spin-off film, but both were canceled. The Spider-Man film series was rebooted twice; first with The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield; and later a new film series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, beginning with Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) explored the concept of the multiverse to connect the previous films and characters to the MCU with Maguire and Church reprising their roles in the film.

Plot

A year after Otto Octavius' death,[b] Peter Parker plans to propose to Mary Jane Watson, who has made her Broadway musical debut. In Central Park, a meteorite lands near the two, and an extraterrestrial symbiote follows Peter to his apartment by attaching to his motorbike. Harry Osborn, knowing Peter is Spider-Man, seeks to avenge his father's death. Using his father's performance-enhancing gas and Green Goblin technology, he battles Peter to an eventual stalemate, developing partial amnesia. Meanwhile, police pursue escaped convict Flint Marko, who visits his wife and sick daughter before fleeing. Falling into an experimental particle accelerator that fuses his body with the surrounding sand, he gains the ability to control and reform his body with sand, becoming Sandman.

During a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy's life, Peter kisses her to please the crowd, angering Mary Jane. Marko then robs an armored truck and escapes after defeating Spider-Man. NYPD Captain George Stacy, Gwen's father, informs Peter and his aunt May that Marko is uncle Ben's true killer; the deceased Dennis Carradine was Marko's accomplice. At his apartment, as Peter sleeps in his Spider-Man suit while waiting for Marko to come out of hiding, the symbiote assimilates the suit. Peter awakens on top of a building, discovering that the symbiote has colored his suit black and enhanced his powers; however, it also brings out darker parts of his personality.

Peter locates and battles Marko in a subway tunnel. Discovering that water is his weakness, he opens a pipe, releasing water that reduces Marko to mud and washes him away. Peter's changed comportment alienates Mary Jane, who also received negative reviews from critics. She shares a tender moment with Harry but leaves in regret. Urged by a hallucination of his father, Harry recovers from his amnesia and forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. Harry later meets up with Peter and tells him that Mary Jane loves him. Under the influence of the symbiote, Peter confronts Harry and spitefully claims that his father never loved him. As Peter leaves after an ensuing fight, Harry throws a pumpkin bomb at him; Peter deflects it back, disfiguring Harry's face.

At the Daily Bugle , Peter exposes rival photographer Eddie Brock, whose fake photos incriminate Spider-Man. Publisher J. Jonah Jameson fires Brock and promotes Peter to staff photographer. Later, Peter brings Gwen to a jazz club where Mary Jane now works. In an attempt to make her jealous, Peter interrupts Mary Jane's performance and dances with Gwen in front of her. Gwen, realizing she had been used, apologizes to Mary Jane and leaves. After assaulting the bouncers and accidentally hitting Mary Jane, Peter realizes that the symbiote is corrupting him. Retreating to a church's bell tower and discovering that the sounds of clanging metal weaken the creature, Peter removes the symbiote. Brock, who is at the same church, becomes the symbiote's new host.

As Venom, Brock locates a still-living Marko and convinces him to join forces to kill Spider-Man. Brock abducts Mary Jane and holds her captive from a web at a construction site, intending to kill her in revenge for Peter ruining him, while Marko keeps the police at bay. After Harry declines to help Peter, Harry's butler reveals that Norman's death was not Spider-Man's fault. While Brock and Marko pin Peter down, Harry arrives to help Peter and save Mary Jane. Brock attempts to impale Peter with Harry's glider, but Harry jumps in and is impaled instead. Peter, remembering the symbiote's weakness, assembles a perimeter of metal pipes to create a sonic attack, weakening it and allowing Peter to separate Brock from the symbiote.

Peter activates a pumpkin bomb and throws it at the hostless symbiote. Brock, having become addicted to its influence, attempts to save the symbiote, and both are vaporized. Marko explains that Ben's death was an accident that has haunted him and that everything he has done was to help his daughter; Peter forgives Marko, allowing him to escape. Peter and Harry reconcile before the latter dies from his injuries. Sometime later, Peter visits Mary Jane at the jazz club. They embrace and share a dance.

Cast
  • Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A superhero, a brilliant physics student at Columbia University, and photographer for the Daily Bugle . As he grows arrogant with the city starting to embrace him for the first time in his career, an alien symbiote attaches itself to Peter's costume and influences his behavior for the worse. Maguire said he relished the opportunity to play a less timid Peter in this film.

  • Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson: Peter Parker's girlfriend and a Broadway actress, whom he has loved since childhood. Mary Jane has a string of bad luck in the film, reminiscent of Peter's misfortune in Spider-Man 2 , struggling in her career because of negative reviews and losing her friend when the symbiote takes him over.

  • James Franco as Harry Osborn / New Goblin: The son of Norman Osborn, and Peter Parker's best friend, who believes Spider-Man murdered his father. After learning Peter is Spider-Man and that Norman was the Green Goblin, Harry becomes the New Goblin to battle his former friend directly.

  • Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko / Sandman: A small-time thug who has a wife and sick daughter, for whom he steals money to help get the treatment to cure her. He transforms into the Sandman following a freak accident and incurs Peter's wrath when Peter learns he was his Uncle Ben's true killer. Church was approached for Sandman because of his award-winning performance in the film Sideways , and accepted the role despite the lack of a script at the time. The film's Sandman possesses sympathy similarly exhibited by Lon Chaney Jr. in his portrayals of misunderstood creatures, as well as Frankenstein's monster, the Golem, and Andy Serkis' portrayals of Gollum and King Kong. Church worked out for 16 months to improve his physique for the role, gaining 28 pounds of muscle and losing 10 pounds of fat.

  • Topher Grace as Edward "Eddie" Brock Jr. / Venom: Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle . He is exposed by Peter for creating a fake incriminating image of Spider-Man, and leaps at the opportunity to exact his revenge when he bonds with an extraterrestrial symbiote. Grace had impressed the producers with his performance in the film In Good Company . A big comic book fan who read the first Venom stories as a boy, Grace spent six months working out to prepare for the role, gaining 24 pounds of muscle. He approached the character as someone under the influence, similar to an alcoholic or drug addict, and interpreted him as having a bad childhood, which is the key difference between him and Peter. Grace found his costume unpleasant, as it had to be constantly smeared to give a liquid-like feel. The costume took an hour to put on, though prosthetics took four hours to apply. Grace also wore fangs, which bruised his gums.

  • Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy: Peter's lab partner. He asks her out to embarrass Mary Jane while possessed by the symbiote. Howard said the challenge of playing the role was in reminding many fans of the good-natured character who was Peter's first love in the comics, yet was "the other woman" in the film. Howard strove to create a sense that Gwen could potentially be a future girlfriend for him, and that, "I was not acting like some kind of man-stealing tart." Howard performed many of her stunts, unaware of the fact she was several months pregnant.

  • James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy: Gwen's father and a New York City Police Department Captain.

  • Rosemary Harris as May Parker: The aunt of Peter Parker and the widow of Ben Parker, Peter's uncle. She gives Peter her engagement ring so he can propose to Mary Jane, and gives him lessons in forgiveness.

  • J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson: The aggressive chief of the Daily Bugle . He has a particular dislike towards Spider-Man, whom he considers a criminal.

Several actors reprise their roles from the previous films. Dylan Baker portrays Dr. Curt Connors, a college physics professor under whom Peter Parker studies, while Willem Dafoe portrays Norman Osborn / Green Goblin, Harry's late father, who returns as a hallucination to encourage his son to destroy Spider-Man, and Cliff Robertson appears as Ben Parker, Peter's deceased uncle in his final acting appearance before his retirement and death in 2011. Bill Nunn, Ted Raimi, Michael Papajohn, John Paxton, and Elizabeth Banks return as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, a longtime employee at the Daily Bugle ; Ted Hoffman, also a longtime employee of the Daily Bugle ; Dennis "Spike" Carradine, the carjacker who was believed to have murdered Uncle Ben; Bernard Houseman, butler to the Osborn family; and Betty Brant, the receptionist at the Daily Bugle for J. Jonah Jameson, respectively. Elya Baskin additionally reprises his role as Mr. Ditkovitch, Peter's landlord while Mageina Tovah reprises her role as his daughter Ursula. Joe Manganiello reprises his role as Flash Thompson from the first film in a cameo appearance. Becky Ann Baker appears as Mrs. Stacy. Theresa Russell and Perla Haney-Jardine appear as Emma and Penny Marko, Sandman's wife and daughter respectively.

Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee has a cameo in Spider-Man 3 , as he did in the previous Spider-Man films, which he referred to as his "best cameo". Actor Bruce Campbell, who had cameo roles as a wrestling ring announcer in Spider-Man and as a rude usher in Spider-Man 2 , returns in Spider-Man 3 with a new cameo as a French maître d'. Originally his character, who helps Peter try to propose, was much more antagonistic. Composer Christopher Young appears in the film as a pianist at Mary Jane's theater when she is fired, while producer Grant Curtis cameoed as the driver of an armored car that Sandman attacks. Comedian Dean Edwards played one of the newspaper readers who badmouth Spider-Man. 75-year-old newscaster Hal Fishman appears as himself anchoring the saga of Mary Jane's kidnapping by Venom; he died just fourteen weeks after the movie opened. Actress Lucy Gordon appeared as newscaster Jennifer Dugan.

Production

Development "The most important thing Peter right now has to learn is that this whole concept of him as the avenger or him as the hero, he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he's trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less black and white view of life and that he's not above these people."

Sam Raimi, on how the character of Peter Parker developed in this film

In March 2004, with Spider-Man 2 being released the coming June, Sony announced that Spider-Man 3 was already in development for a release in summer 2007. By the release of Spider-Man 2 , a release date for Spider-Man 3 had been set for May 2, 2007 before production on the sequel had begun. The date was later changed to May 4, 2007. In January 2005, Sony Pictures completed a seven-figure deal with screenwriter Alvin Sargent, who had penned Spider-Man 2 , to script Spider-Man 3 with an option to script a fourth film.

Immediately after Spider-Man 2 's release, Ivan Raimi wrote a treatment over two months, with Sam Raimi deciding to use the film to explore Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante, and that there also can be humanity in those he considers criminals. Harry Osborn was brought back as Raimi wanted to conclude his storyline. Raimi felt that Harry would not follow his father's legacy, but be instead "somewhere between." Sandman was introduced as an antagonist, as Raimi found him a visually fascinating character. While Sandman is a petty criminal in the comics, the screenwriters created a background of the character being Uncle Ben's killer to increase Peter's guilt over his death and challenge his simplistic perception of the event. Overall, Raimi described the film as being about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and the Sandman, with Peter's journey being one of forgiveness.

Raimi wanted another villain, and Ben Kingsley was involved in negotiations to play the Vulture before the character was cut. Thomas Haden Church revealed in a 2018 interview with JoBlo that the character of Vulture was considered to be an accomplice of Marko in the script. Producer Avi Arad convinced Raimi to include Venom, a character whose perceived "lack of humanity" had initially been criticized by Sam Raimi. Venom's alter-ego, Eddie Brock, already had a minor role in the script. Arad felt the series had relied too much on Raimi's personal favorite Spider-Man villains, not characters that modern fans were actually interested in, so Raimi included Venom to please them, and even began to appreciate the character himself. The film's version of the character is an amalgamation of Venom stories. Eddie Brock, Jr., the human part of Venom, serves as a mirror to Peter Parker, with both characters having similar jobs and romantic interests. Brock's actions as a journalist in Spider-Man 3 also represent contemporary themes of paparazzi and tabloid journalism. The producers also suggested adding rival love interest Gwen Stacy, filling in an "other girl" type that Raimi already created. With so many additions, Sargent soon found his script so complex that he considered splitting it into two films, but abandoned the idea when he could not create a successful intermediate climax.

Filming

Camera crews spent 2 weeks from November 5–18, 2005 to film sequences that would involve intense visual effects so Sony Pictures Imageworks could begin work on the shots early in the project. The same steps had been taken for Spider-Man 2 to begin producing visual effects early for sequences involving the villain Doctor Octopus.

Principal photography for Spider-Man 3 began on January 16, 2006, and wrapped in July 2006 after over 100 days of filming. The team filmed in Los Angeles until May 19, 2006. In spring 2006, film location manager Peter Martorano brought camera crews to Cleveland, Ohio, due to the Greater Cleveland Film Commission offering production space at the city's convention center at no cost. In Cleveland, they shot the battle between Spider-Man and Sandman in the armored car. Afterwards, the team moved to Manhattan, where filming took place at various locations, including One Chase Manhattan Plaza, from May 26, 2006, until July 1, 2006. Shooting placed a strain on Raimi, who often had to move between several units to complete the picture. Shooting was also difficult for cinematographer Bill Pope, as the symbiote Spider-Man, Venom, and the New Goblin were costumed in black during fight scenes taking place at night.

After August, pick-ups were conducted as Raimi sought to film more action scenes. The film then wrapped in October, although additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production a month later. In early 2007, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Sandman's story, amounting to four different versions.

Visual effects

John Dykstra, who won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Spider-Man 2 , declined to work on the third film as visual effects supervisor. Dykstra's colleague, Scott Stokdyk, took his place as supervisor, leading two hundred programmers at Sony Pictures Imageworks. This group designed specific computer programs that did not exist when Spider-Man 3 began production, creating nine hundred visual effects shots.

In addition to the innovative visual effects for the film, Stokdyk created a miniature of a skyscraper section at 1:16 scale with New Deal Studios' Ian Hunter and David Sanger. Stokdyk chose to design the miniature instead of using computer-generated imagery so damage done to the building could be portrayed realistically and timely without guesswork involving computer models. In addition to Sony Pictures Imageworks, Cafe FX provided visual effects for the crane disaster scene when Spider-Man rescues Gwen Stacy, as well as shots in the climactic battle. To understand the effects of sand for the Sandman, experiments were done with twelve types of sand, such as splashing, launching it at stuntmen, and pouring it over ledges. The results were mimicked on the computer to create the visual effects for Sandman. For scenes involving visual effects, Thomas Haden Church was super-imposed onto the screen, where computer-generated imagery was then applied. With sand as a possible hazard in scenes that buried actors, ground-up corncobs were used as a substitute instead. Because of its resemblance to the substance, sand from Arizona was used as the model for the CG sand. In a fight where Spider-Man punches through Sandman's chest, amputee martial arts expert Baxter Humby took Tobey Maguire's place in filming the scene. Humby, whose right hand was amputated at birth, helped deliver the intended effect of punching through Sandman's chest. Producer Laura Ziskin said the visual effects budget alone was approximately 30% more than the previous film.

Whereas the symbiote suit worn in the comics by Spider-Man was a plain black affair with a large white spider on the front and back, the design was changed for the film to become a black version of Spider-Man's traditional costume, complete with webbing motif. As a consequence of this, the suit Topher Grace wore as Venom also bore the webbing motif; as producer Grant Curtis noted, "it's the Spider-Man suit, but twisted and mangled in its own right." Additionally, the motif gave a sense of life to the symbiote, giving it the appearance of gripping onto the character's body. When animating the symbiote, Raimi did not want it to resemble a spider or an octopus, and to give it a sense of character. The CG model is made of many separate strands. When animating Venom himself, animators observed footage of big cats such as lions and cheetahs for the character's agile movements.

Deleted scenes

When interviewed at the film's Tokyo premiere on April 16, 2007, Topher Grace said to Access Hollywood that despite liking how the film turned out, he expressed interest in having the rest of his scenes as both Eddie Brock and Venom being restored someday; later adding, "You know what? Spider-Man 3.5, or however they release it. You know, with the extra scenes". Following the release of the film, fan research compiled deleted scenes and archival footage, showing Adrian Lester in the role of Dr. Wallace, a molecular biologist working on a cure for Marko's daughter, and an alternate death scene for Venom that would have revealed the symbiote had consumed Brock, leaving behind his skeletal remains and attempting to reattach itself to Parker, who in turn would have destroyed the symbiote by yanking down a sling of steel rods and creating a sonic attack (although this was depicted in the film's novelization).

Music

Danny Elfman, the composer for the previous installments, chose not to return for the third installment of Spider-Man because of difficulties with director Sam Raimi. Elfman said that he had a "miserable experience" working with Raimi on Spider-Man 2 and could not comfortably adapt his music. Christopher Young was then announced to score Spider-Man 3 in Elfman's absence. Instead, Elfman chose to work with the 2006 reboot of Charlotte's Web . A few years later, he reunited with Raimi to compose the score for the film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).

According to Young, Sandman's theme uses "two contrabass saxophones, two contrabass clarinets, two contrabass bassoons and eight very low French horns" in order to sound "low, aggressive and heavy". Young described Venom's theme as "Vicious, my instructions on that one were that he's the devil personified. His theme is much more demonic sounding." Venom's theme uses eight French horns. Raimi approved the new themes during their first performance, but rejected the initial music to the birth of Sandman, finding it too monstrous and not tragic enough. Young had to recompose much of his score at a later stage, as the producers felt there were not enough themes from the previous films. Ultimately, new themes for the love story, Aunt May, and Mary Jane were dropped.

Marketing

On June 28, 2006, the first Spider-Man 3 teaser trailer premiered in theaters with Superman Returns . The first trailer was released in theaters on November 17, 2006 with the debut of Casino Royale and Happy Feet . This was followed by a second trailer, which was unveiled on March 9, 2007, being attached to the screenings of 300 . The home video releases of Click and Monster House also contained trailers for Spider-Man 3 . In New York City, the hometown of Spider-Man's fictional universe, tourist attractions arranged events and exhibits on April 30, 2007 to lead up to the release of Spider-Man 3 . The unique campaign include a spider exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, workshops on baby spider plants at the New York Botanical Garden, Green Goblin mask-making workshop at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and a scavenger hunt and a bug show at Central Park Zoo.

Promotional tie-in partners include Burger King, 7-Eleven, General Mills, Kraft Foods, and Comcast. Hasbro, which holds the license for Marvel characters, released several toys to tie-in with the film. They include a deluxe spinning web blaster, along with several lines of action figures aimed at both children and collectors. Toys of the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus from the first two films have been re-released to match the smaller scale of the new figures, as have been toys of the Lizard, the Scorpion, Kraven the Hunter, and Rhino in a style reminiscent of the films. Techno Source created interactive toys, including a "hand-held Battle Tronics device that straps to the inside of a player's wrist and mimics Spidey's web-slinging motions". Japanese Medicom Toy Corporation produced collectables, which Sideshow Collectibles distributed in the U.S. A prequel comic was released in June, 2007 and another comic called Spider-Man 3: The Black , which expands the birth of Venom, was released in November, 2007.

Release

Theatrical

Spider-Man 3 had its world premiere at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills in Tokyo on April 16, 2007. The film held its UK premiere on April 23, 2007 at the Odeon Leicester Square, and the U.S. premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in Queens on April 30, 2007.

Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in sixteen territories on May 1, 2007. The film was released in Japan on May 1, 2007, three days prior to the American commercial release, to coincide with Japan's Golden Week. Spider-Man 3 was also released in China on May 3, 2007 to circumvent market growth of unlicensed copies of the film. The studio's release of a film in China before its domestic release was a first for Sony Pictures Releasing International. By May 6, 2007, Spider-Man 3 had opened in 107 countries around the world.

The film was commercially released in the United States on May 4, 2007 in a North American record total of 4,253 theaters, including fifty-three IMAX theaters. The record number of theaters was later beaten by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End , which was released in 4,362 theaters in the United States—109 more than Spider-Man 3 . It was the ninth film to play in more than 4,000 theaters upon opening, just after Shrek 2 , Spider-Man 2 , Shark Tale , Madagascar , Mission: Impossible III , Over the Hedge , Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest . Tracking data a month before the U.S. release reflected over 90% awareness and over 20% first choice among moviegoers, statistics that estimated an opening weekend of over $100 million for Spider-Man 3 . Online tickets for Spider-Man 3 were reported on April 23, 2007 to have been purchased at a faster rate—three times at Movietickets.com and four times at Fandango—than online ticket sales for Spider-Man 2 . On May 2, 2007, Fandango reported the sales rate as six times greater than the rate for Spider-Man 2 . The strong ticket sales caused theaters to add 3:00 AM showings following the May 4, 2007 midnight showing to accommodate the demand.

The FX channel signed a five-year deal for the television rights to Spider-Man 3 , which they began airing in 2009. The price was based on the film's box office performance, with an option for three opportunities for Sony to sell the rights to one or more other broadcast networks.

Home video

Spider-Man 3 was released on Region 4 DVD (anamorphic widescreen) in Australia on September 18, 2007. For Region 2 in the United Kingdom, the film was released on October 15, 2007. Spider-Man 3 was released on DVD in Region 1 territories on October 30, 2007. The film is available in one-disc and two-disc editions, on both standard and Blu-ray formats, as well as packages with the previous films and a PSP release. Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Grant Curtis are among those who contributed to the audio commentaries.

Sony announced plans to create "one of the largest" marketing campaigns in Hollywood for the October 30, 2007 release of the DVD. Beginning with a partnership with Papa John's, Sony printed close to 8.5 billion impressions for pizza boxes, television, radio, and online ads. Sony also worked with Pringles Potato Crisp, Blu Tack, Jolly Time Pop Corn, and Nutella. Sony's Vice President of Marketing, Jennifer Anderson, stated the studio spent approximately 15% to 25% of its marketing budget on digital ad campaigns; from this, Papa John's sent text messages to mobile phones with ads. Anderson stated that there would be three sweepstakes held for consumers, where they would be able to win prizes from Sony and its promotional partners.

In the United States, the film grossed more than $125 million on DVD sales. It also grossed more than $43.76 million on DVD/Home Video Rentals in 11 weeks. However, the DVD sales results of this film did not meet industry expectations. It was ranked in third place on the sales chart, behind I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Ratatouille . The film's DVD sales were limited due to Sony's decision to bundle the Blu-ray version of the film with its new PlayStation 3 game console and Blu-ray player. Spider-Man 3 was included in The Spider-Man Legacy Collection which includes five major Spider-Man films in a 4K UHD Blu-Ray collection which was released on October 17, 2017.

Spider-Man 3: Editor's Cut (2017)

In 2017, Sony released an "editor's cut" of Spider-Man 3 that coincided with the film's 10th anniversary, which is included with the Spider-Man Limited Edition Blu-ray collection on June 13, 2017. The film features unused music from Christopher Young and is two minutes shorter than the theatrical cut. Some scenes are shifted around or have been completely removed, and the film includes 3 new scenes, 3 alternate climax sequences, and 1 extended scene. Spider-Man 3: Editor's Cut was later re-released with the Spider-Man Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray Box Set.

Reception

Box office

Spider-Man 3 earned $336.5 million in North America and $558.4 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $894.9 million. Worldwide, it is the third-highest-grossing film of 2007, the highest-grossing film of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and was the highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia until 2012's Skyfall . The film set a worldwide single-day record ($104 million) on its first Friday and broke its own record again on Saturday ($117.6 million). It also set a worldwide opening-weekend record with $381.7 million. The film's IMAX screenings reached $20 million in 30 days, faster than any other 2D film remastered in the format.

In North America, Spider-Man 3 is the 58th-highest-grossing film, the third-highest-grossing film of the Spider-Man series, the third-highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia, and the highest-grossing 2007 film. The film sold an estimated 48,914,300 tickets. It was released in 4,252 theaters (about 10,300 screens) on Friday, May 4, 2007. This broke the previous record held by Shrek 2 for having the largest number of screenings. It set an opening- and single-day record with $59.8 million (both were first surpassed by The Dark Knight ). This included $10 million from midnight showings. Spider-Man 3 then set an opening-weekend record with $151.1 million (first surpassed by The Dark Knight ), a record for the weekend per-theater average with $35,540 per theater (first surpassed by Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert ), and an IMAX opening-weekend record with $4.8 million (first surpassed by The Dark Knight ). It would hold the record for having the highest opening weekend for any film featuring Spider-Man until it was surpassed by Captain America: Civil War less than a decade later in 2016. 15 years later in 2022, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dethroned Spider-Man 3 for having the largest opening weekend for a Sam Raimi film. The film set record Friday and Sunday grosses and achieved the largest cumulative gross through its second, third, and fourth day of release (all were first surpassed by The Dark Knight ). It also set a record Saturday gross (surpassed by Marvel's The Avengers ). When the film was released, it was ranked in first place at the box office, just ahead of Disturbia . It would also dominate films that were released during the 2007 spring season, such as Meet the Robinsons , Fracture and Blades of Glory . When Shrek the Third opened two weeks later, Spider-Man 3 dropped into second place.

Outside North America, it is the 23rd-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing film of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and the third-highest-grossing film distributed by Sony/Columbia. On its opening day (Tuesday, May 1, 2007), Spider-Man 3 grossed $29.2 million from 16 territories, an 86% increase from the intake of Spider-Man 2 on its first day of release. In 10 of the 16 territories, Spider-Man 3 set new opening-day records. These territories are Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, France, and Italy. In Germany, the film surpassed the opening day gross of Spider-Man 2 . It also crushed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 's record for scoring the biggest opening day in France, earning $6.8 million. Spider-Man 3 had the third-highest opening of any film in Austria, after The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King . Its Japanese opening generated a total of $3.7 million, making it the country's highest Tuesday gross of any film, breaking the former record held by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . Meanwhile, in the UK, the film beat Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith to have the country's largest opening weekend. During its six-day opening weekend (through its first Sunday), the film earned $230.5 million from 107 markets, finishing #1 in all of them. Spider-Man 3 set opening-weekend records in 29 markets including Italy, China, South Korea (the latter was first surpassed by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ), India, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. However, many of these records were achieved thanks to its six-day opening, while previous record-holders in some countries opened over the traditional three-day weekend (traditional two-, four-, or five-day weekend in other countries). In India, it grossed $16.4 million and was the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2007 there. The combined total worldwide opening gross of $381.7 million surpassed the record that was previously held by Revenge of the Sith . Spider-Man 3 would hold that record until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince took it in 2009. Russia and Ukraine both earned $7.4 million from 671 screens, dethroning The Da Vinci Code . Moreover, five Asian countries had overturned a ten-year record that was held by The Lost World: Jurassic Park . As for South Korea, Spider-Man 3 crossed over The Matrix Reloaded for a local currency mark for a Hollywood release, as well as surpassing The Host . In Japan, it earned a total of $26.5 million, kicking the previous record held by The Matrix Reloaded . Spider-Man 3 was in first place at the box office outside North America for three consecutive weekends.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Spider-Man 3 holds a 63% approval rating based on 262 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though there are more characters and plotlines, and the action sequences still dazzle, Spider-Man 3 nonetheless isn't quite as refined as the first two." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times deplored the film's pacing as "mostly just plods" and said it lacked humor. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a two out of four stars, feeling, "for every slam-bang action sequence, there are far too many sluggish scenes". David Edelstein of New York magazine misses the "centrifugal threat" of Alfred Molina's character, adding that "the three villains here don't add up to one Doc Ock" (referring to Molina's portrayal of the character in Spider-Man 2 ). James Berardinelli felt director Sam Raimi "overreached his grasp" by allowing so many villains, specifically saying, "Venom is one bad guy too many". Roger Ebert, who gave Spider-Man 2 a glowing review, gave the sequel two out of four stars and thought Church never expressed how Sandman felt about his new powers, something Molina, as Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 , did "with a vengeance"; he said the film was "a mess," with too many villains, subplots, romantic misunderstandings, conversations and "street crowds looking high into the air and shouting 'oooh!' this way, then swiveling and shouting 'aaah!' that way". The New Yorker 's Anthony Lane, who gave Spider-Man 2 a favorable review, gave the film a negative review, characterizing the film as a "shambles" which "makes the rules up as it goes along".

Roger Friedman of Fox News called the film a "4-star opera", noting that while long, there was plenty of humor and action. Andy Khouri of Comic Book Resources praised the film as "easily the most complex and deftly orchestrated superhero epic ever filmed … despite the enormous amount of characters, action and sci-fi superhero plot going on in this film, Spider-Man 3 never feels weighted down, tedious or boring". Jonathan Ross, a big fan of the comic books, felt the film was the best of the trilogy. Richard Corliss of Time commended the filmmakers for their ability to "dramatize feelings of angst and personal betrayal worthy of an Ingmar Bergman film, and then to dress them up in gaudy comic-book colors". Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe , who gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, wrote that it was a well-made, fresh film, but would leave the viewer "overfulfilled". Jonathan Dean of Total Film felt the film's complex plot helped the film's pacing, in that, "it rarely feels disjointed or loose … Spider-Man cements its shelf-life". IGN critic Todd Gilchrist felt that the film served as a satisfying conclusion to the series, and ultimately rated it with eight stars out of ten. Entertainment Weekly named the Sandman as the eighth best computer-generated film character. Screen Rant cited Sandman along with Doctor Octopus, as the best villain of the trilogy, while The Washington Post ranked him the sixth best villain of all the live-action Spider-Man films.

John Hartl of MSNBC gave Spider-Man 3 a positive review, but stated that it has some flaws such as having "too many storylines". His opinion is echoed by Houston Chronicle 's Amy Biancolli who complained that "the script is busy with so many supporting characters and plot detours that the series' charming idiosyncrasy is sometimes lost in the noise". Jack Matthews of Daily News thought the film was too devoted to the "quiet conversations" of Peter and Mary Jane, but that fans would not be disappointed by the action. Finally, Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly felt that the director "substituted scope and scale for the warmth and wit that made those two previous pictures so memorable".

Legacy

Raimi himself would later call the film "awful" during a 2014 interview. In 2018, Avi Arad accepted responsibility for pushing Raimi to include Venom in the film, and how the end result had disappointed many fans of the character, saying "I think we learned that Venom is not a sideshow. In all fairness, I'll take the guilt because of what Sam Raimi used to say in all of these interviews feeling guilty that I forced him into it". In 2021, Raimi acknowledged that the negative internet reaction to Spider-Man 3 at the time felt "awful" and had been difficult for him to take, but when his agent told him that he was being considered by Marvel Studios to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), he wondered if he could do another superhero film but ultimately decided to direct the film.

Following its initial mixed reception, Spider-Man 3 has gained widespread meme popularity on social media. Peter Parker's corrupted personality under the Venom symbiote has been nicknamed "Bully Maguire" or "Emo Peter Parker" and has helped increase the popularity of the film among the millennial and Gen-Z generations. The character's strutting the streets during the film's climatic montage scene was used as an option content on Destiny 2 . Em Casalena of Screen Rant reassessed it as the fourth most underrated superhero film ever made.

Spider-Man is a superhero created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in the anthology comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962) in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and in movies, television shows, and video game adaptations set in the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man is the alias of Peter Parker , an orphan raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben in New York City after his parents Richard and Mary Parker died in a plane crash. Lee and Ditko had the character deal with the struggles of adolescence and financial issues and gave him many supporting characters, such as J. Jonah Jameson, Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, romantic interests Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and Black Cat and foes such as Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin and Venom. In his origin story, he gets spider-related abilities from a bite from a radioactive spider; these include clinging to surfaces, superhuman strength and agility, and detecting danger with his "spider-sense." He also builds wrist-mounted "web-shooter" devices that shoot artificial spider webs of his own design.

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, a high school student from Queens behind Spider-Man's secret identity and with whose "self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness" young readers could relate. While Spider-Man had all the makings of a sidekick, 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, his late Uncle Ben Parker.

Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several comic book series, the first and longest-lasting of which is The Amazing Spider-Man . Over the years, the Peter Parker character developed from a shy, nerdy New York City high school student to troubled but outgoing college student, to married high school teacher to, in the late 2000s, a single freelance photographer. In the 2000s, he joins the Avengers. Doctor Octopus also took on the identity for a story arc spanning 2012–2014, following a body swap plot in which Peter appears to die. 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. Miles later become a popular superhero in his own right, later brought into the mainstream continuity, where he sometimes works alongside Peter.

Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes. He has appeared in countless forms of media, including several animated and live action television series, syndicated newspaper comic strips, and in multiple series of films. The character was first portrayed in live action by Danny Seagren in Spidey Super Stories , a The Electric Company skit which ran from 1974 to 1977. In films, Spider-Man has been portrayed by actors Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Tom Holland. He was voiced by Chris Pine and Jake Johnson in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse . Reeve Carney starred originally as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark . Spider-Man has been well received as a superhero and comic book character, and he is often ranked as one of the most popular and iconic comic book characters of all time and one of the most popular characters in all fiction.

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.: 1  As with Fantastic Four, Lee saw Spider-Man as an opportunity to "get out of his system" what he felt was missing in comic books. In his autobiography, Lee cites the non-superhuman pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider as a great influence,: 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] Although at the time teenage superheroes were usually given names ending with "boy", Lee says he chose "Spider-Man" because he wanted the character to age as the series progressed, and moreover felt the name "Spider-Boy" would have made the character sound inferior to other superheroes. He also decided to insert a hyphen in the name, as he felt it looked too similar to Superman, another superhero with a red and blue costume which starts with an "S" and ends with "man" (although artist Steve Ditko intended the character to have an orange and purple costume). 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). In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already been decided that Amazing Fantasy would be canceled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man. 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 ."

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. 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".: 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....

Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditko's cover art and commissioned Kirby to pencil a cover that Ditko inked. 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."

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." 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  Ditko claimed in a rare interview with Jonathan Ross that the costume was initially envisioned with an orange and purple color scheme rather than the more famous red and blue.

Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962) first introduced the character. It was a gateway to commercial success for the superhero and inspired the launch of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book. Cover art by penciller Jack Kirby and inker Steve Ditko

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.

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 draw Spider-Man in addition to his other duties since Kirby was, said Evanier, "always busy".: 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.: 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 stated, "I still don't know whose idea was Spider-Man". Ditko did, however, view the published version of Spider-Man as a separate creation to the one he saw in the five pencilled pages that Kirby had completed. To support this Ditko used the analogy of the Kirby/Marvel Thor, which was based on a name/idea of a character in Norse mythology: "If Marvel’s Thor is a valid created work by Jack, his creation, then why isn’t Spider-Man by Stan and me valid created work, our creation?"

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". 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]". He has further commented that Ditko's costume design was key to the character's success; since the costume completely covers Spider-Man's body, people of all races could visualize themselves inside the costume and thus more easily identify with the character.

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 was one of the nascent Marvel's highest-selling comics.: 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: 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.": 223  Following Ditko's departure after issue #38 (July 1966), John Romita Sr. replaced him as penciller 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 Annual s that began in 1964.

An early 1970s Spider-Man story ultimately 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.: 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 him 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.: 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 supervillains. 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 miniseries, one-shot issues, and loosely related comics have also been published, and Spider-Man makes frequent cameos and guest appearances in other comic book series. 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 . 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). 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).

When the 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 January 2008). 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 November 2010). The following year, Marvel launched Avenging Spider-Man as the first spin-off ongoing series in addition to the still-twice monthly The Amazing Spider-Man since the previous ones were canceled at the end of 2007. 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, his mind having taken over Peter Parker's body. Superior was an enormous commercial success for Marvel, and ran for 31 issues before the real Peter Parker returned in a newly relaunched The Amazing Spider-Man #1 in April 2014.

Following the 2015 Secret Wars crossover event, a number of Spider-Man-related titles were either relaunched or created as part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event. Among them, The Amazing Spider-Man was relaunched as well and primarily focuses on Peter Parker continuing to run Parker Industries, and becoming a successful businessman who is operating worldwide.

Fictional character biography

Early years

In Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, Midtown High School student Peter Benjamin 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". Along with heightened athletic abilities, 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!"

Despite his superpowers, Parker struggles to help his widowed aunt pay the 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. As he battles his enemies for the first time, Parker finds juggling his personal life and costumed adventures difficult. In time, Peter graduates from high school, and enrolls at Empire State University (a fictional institution evoking the real-life Columbia University and New York University), where he meets roommate and best friend Harry Osborn, and girlfriend Gwen Stacy, and Aunt May introduces him to Mary Jane Watson. 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. Gwen Stacy's father, New York City Police detective captain George Stacy is accidentally killed during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus (issue #90, November 1970).

In issue #121 (June 1973), 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). 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." The following issue, the Goblin appears to kill himself accidentally in the ensuing battle with Spider-Man.

Working through his grief, Parker eventually develops tentative feelings toward Watson, and the two "become confidants rather than lovers". A romantic relationship eventually develops, with Parker proposing to her in issue #182 (July 1978), and being turned down an issue later. Parker went on to graduate from college in issue #185, and becomes involved with the shy Debra Whitman and the extroverted, flirtatious costumed thief Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. the Black Cat, whom he meets in issue #194 (July 1979).

1980s

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 miniseries, on an alien planet where Spider-Man participates in a battle between Earth's major superheroes and supervillains. He continues wearing the costume when he returns, starting in The Amazing Spider-Man #252. The change to a longstanding character's 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." The creators then revealed the costume was an alien symbiote which Spider-Man is able to reject after a difficult struggle, though the symbiote returns several times as Venom for revenge. Parker proposes to Watson 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 at Shea Stadium, with Stan Lee officiating, on June 5, 1987. 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." Parker published a book of Spider-Man photographs called Webs . and returned to his Empire State University graduate studies in biochemistry in #310 (Dec. 1988).

1990s

In the controversial 1990s storyline the "Clone Saga", a clone of Parker, created in 1970s comics by insane scientist Miles Warren, a.k.a. the Jackal, returns to New York City upon hearing of Aunt May's health worsening. The clone had lived incognito as "Ben Reilly", but now assumes the superhero guise the Scarlet Spider and allies with Parker. To the surprise of both, new tests indicate "Reilly" is the original and "Parker" the clone. Complicating matters, Watson announces in The Spectacular Spider-Man #220 (Jan. 1995) that she is pregnant with Parker's baby. Later, however, a resurrected Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) has Watson poisoned, causing premature labor and the death of her and Parker's unborn daughter. The Green Goblin had switched the results of the clone test in an attempt to destroy Parker's life by making him believe himself to be the clone. Reilly is killed while saving Parker, in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75 (Dec. 1996), and his body immediately crumbles into dust, confirming Reilly was the clone.

In issue #97 (Nov. 1998) of the second series titled Peter Parker: Spider-Man , Parker learns his Aunt May was kidnapped by Norman Osborn and her apparent death in The Amazing Spider-Man #400 (April 1995) had been a hoax. Shortly afterward, in The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13 (#454, Jan. 2000), Watson is apparently killed in an airplane explosion. She turns up alive and well in (vol. 2) #28 (#469, April 2001), but she and Peter become separated in the following issue.

2000s

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski began writing The Amazing Spider-Man , illustrated by John Romita Jr., beginning with (vol. 2) #30 (#471, June 2001). Two issues later, Parker, now employed as a teacher at his old high school, meets the enigmatic Ezekiel, who possesses similar spider powers and suggests that Parker having gained such abilities might not have been a fluke—that Parker has a connection to a totemic spider spirit. In (vol. 2) #37 (#478, Jan. 2002), May discovers her nephew Parker is Spider-Man, leading to a new openness in their relationship. Parker and Watson reconcile in (vol. 2) #50 (#491, April 2003), and in #512 (Nov. 2004)—the original issue numbering having returned with #500—Parker learns his late girlfriend Gwen Stacy had had two children with Norman Osborn.

He joins the superhero team the New Avengers in New Avengers #1–2. After their respective homes are destroyed by a deranged, superpowered former high-school classmate, Parker, Watson, and May move into Stark Tower, and Parker begins working as Tony Stark's assistant while again freelancing for The Daily Bugle and continuing his teaching. In the 12-part 2005 story arc "The Other", Parker undergoes a transformation that evolves his powers. In the comic Civil War #2 (June 2006), part of the company-wide crossover arc of that title, the U.S. government's Superhuman Registration Act leads Spider-Man to reveal his true identity publicly. A growing unease about the Registration Act prompts him to escape with May and Watson and join the anti-registration underground.

In issue #537 (Dec. 2006), May is critically wounded by a sniper hired by Wilson Fisk and enters into a coma. Parker, desperate to save her, exhausts all possibilities and makes a pact with the demon-lord Mephisto, who saves May's life in exchange for Parker and Watson agreeing to have their marriage and all memory of it disappear. In this changed reality, Spider-Man's identity is secret once again, and in #545 (Jan. 2008), Watson returns and is cold toward him.

That controversial storyline, "One More Day", rolled back much of the fictional continuity 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". It caused unusual public friction between Quesada and writer 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. 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....

In this new continuity, designed to have very limited repercussions throughout the remainder of the Marvel Universe, Parker returns to work at the Daily Bugle , which has been renamed The DB under a new publisher. He soon switches to the alternative press paper The Front Line . J. Jonah Jameson becomes the Mayor of New York City in issue #591 (June 2008). Jameson's estranged father, J. Jonah Jameson, Sr., marries May in issue #600 (Sept. 2009).

During the "Secret Invasion" by shape-shifting extra-terrestrials, the Skrulls, Norman Osborn shoots and kills the Skrull queen Veranke. He leverages this widely publicized success, positioning himself as the new director of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-like paramilitary force H.A.M.M.E.R. to advance his agenda, while using his public image to start his own Dark Avengers. Norman himself leads the Dark Avengers as the Iron Patriot, a suit of armor fashioned by himself after Iron Man's armor with Captain America's colors.

Harry is approached by Norman with the offer of a job within the Dark Avengers. It is later revealed that it is a ruse to coerce Harry into taking the American Son armor, whom Norman had planned to kill, in order to increase public sympathy. When Harry has the option of killing Norman, Spider-Man says to decapitate him, since Norman's healing factor may repair a blow to the head. Spider-Man also cautions Harry that killing Norman will cause Harry to "become the son Norman always wanted". Harry instead backs down, and turns away from his father forever.

2010s

Siege

At Loki's suggestion, Norman Osborn creates a rationale to invade Asgard, claiming the world poses a national security threat. During a pitched battle with several superheroes, Osborn fights with the recently-resurrected Steve Rogers, however, Iron Man removes Osborn's Iron Patriot armor remotely, revealing Osborn used green facepaint to create a goblin-like look. Osborn screams that the Avengers do not know what they have done, only for Spider-Man to knock him down. He ends up incarcerated in the Raft penitentiary, blaming his Goblin alter-ego for ruining his chance to protect the world.

"Big Time"

Sometime after Siege , MJ invites Peter over so the two of them could gain closure over the marriage that did not happen and the breakup. Later, a massive war ensued between Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man to get Lily Hollister's and Osborn's son, in which Spider-Man found that the child was actually Harry's, who later leaves town to raise him. Spider-Man assisted the Avengers in defeating Doctor Octopus' army of Macro-Octobots. He then faced a new Hobgoblin and the Kingpin, but days later, he lamentably lost Marla Jameson in a fight between Alistair Alphonso Smythe's Spider-Slayers.

"Spider-Island"

After helping Anti-Venom (Eddie Brock) reveal Mr. Negative's true identity, The Queen was revealed as the true mastermind: she wanted to turn the whole human race into spiders. Mr. Fantastic created a cure using the Anti-Venom Symbiote which Peter's clone Kaine accidentally cured from his mutations, turning him into a perfect clone. While he and the Avengers battled the Spider-Queen in Central Park, Kaine killed her and Peter managed to get the cure to every citizen via Doctor Octopus's Octobots. He met with Jay and May while they were leaving for Boston.

Because of he revealing he had spider-powers, Peter's psychic blind spot was weakened, letting Charlie Cooper to know he was Spider-Man, causing Peter to be single once again. Peter gives a last cure sample to MJ, who briefly attempted to keep some spider-powers and then look at the Empire State Building, lit in red and blue in his honor.

The Superior Spider-Man

In the middle of a fight, Spider-Man was unsuspectedly pinched by one of Doctor Octopus' Octobots programmed to swap consciousness between the two, causing Peter to become trapped in the dying body of his foe while Doctor Octopus claimed Peter's life for himself. In an attempt to take back his life with the little time he had left, Peter broke out of Octopus's cell in the Raft, leading to a final confrontation between the two in the Avengers Tower. Though Peter failed to reverse the change, he managed to establish a weak link with Otto's mind using an Octobot. In his final moments, Peter forced Otto Octavius to relive all of his memories. Having experienced in a flash all of Peter's trials and tribulations, Otto learned his lesson of power and responsibility and swore to carry on with Peter's life with dignity as a "Superior" Spider-Man.

A portion of Peter survived in his original body in the form of a subconsciousness. Though Otto attempted to rid of this remnant of Peter, he decided to seek its help sometime later after being overwhelmed by the returned Green Goblin and his Goblin Nation. Realizing that he failed in his role as the "Superior" Spider-Man, having pushed his allies aside and lost his resources in the process, Otto willingly allowed Peter to reclaim his body in order to defeat Osborn once and for all and save Anna Maria Marconi, Otto's love. In the aftermath of Otto's possession of his body, Peter began to amend the relationships damaged by Otto's arrogance and negligence, both as Peter Parker and Spider-Man. He additionally took up the reins of Parker Industries, a small company founded by Otto after leaving Horizon Labs.

"All-New Marvel NOW"

While adjusting to his new status quo, especially his position as the CEO of his very own company, Peter learned a second person has been bit by the radioactive spider, Cindy Moon . Spider-Man tracked her down and freed her from a bunker owned by the late Ezekiel Simms, where Cindy had spent over a decade in voluntary confinement shortly after getting her powers, in order to avoid drawing Morlun's attention. While Peter notified Cindy that Morlun was dead, he had in fact survived his last encounter against Spider-Man. Not long after rescuing Cindy, who went on to adopt her own superheroic identity as Silk, Spider-Man was approached by a contingent of spider-people from all over the Multiverse that banded together to fight the Inheritors, a group of psychic vampires and the family of Morlun that had begun to hunt down the spider-totems of other realities. During a mission to gather more recruits in A.D. 2099, the Spider-Army stumbled upon another party of spider-people led by Otto Octavius, or rather a version of him from the recent past who had been plucked out of time. With the help of Spider-Woman, who had previously infiltrated the Inheritor's base on Earth-001, the Spider-Army learned of a prophecy in which the Inheritors planned to sacrifice three key spiders: the Other, the Bride, and the Scion. These individuals were Kaine, Moon, and Benjamin "Benjy" Parker of Earth-982, respectively. With the help of even more recruits from other realities and even a deviant Inheritor named Karn, the Spider-Army, including a version of Gwen Stacy with spider-powers known as "Spider-Gwen", launched one final attack on the Inheritors' home of Earth-001. The ritual was stopped, and the Inheritors were exiled with no means to return home to the radioactive wasteland that had become the world of Earth-3145. With the Inheritors neutralized, most of the spider-totems were sent home.

"All-New, All-Different Marvel"

Following the revival of the Multiverse, Octavius secretly created a digital backup of his mind that ended up inhabiting of the metallic body of Parker Industries' robotic assistant, the Living Brain. Octavius routinely hacked into the systems of the market share to manipulate its numbers in favor of Parker Industries. As a consequence of this, the company managed to expand into a global conglomerate with numerous bases in different countries, with the company's trademark invention being a mobile device called the Webware. By 8 months after the revival, Spider-Man officially became the mascot of Parker Industries under the guise of being Peter's bodyguard.

Peter discovered New U as a front of operations for the Jackal, who claimed to have found a way to bring people back from the dead using cloning technology. In the turn of events, the Jackal was revealed to be Ben Reilly, who had been brought to life by the original Jackal before taking his place. The Jackal's plan eventually fell apart following the triggering of cellular decay in the clones created by New U, which led to the release of the Carrion Virus worldwide.

"Fresh Start"

After the events of "Go Down Swinging," Peter's life was plagued with problems on both sides. As Spider-Man, Mayor Fisk publicly supported him, condemning all other vigilantes in order to isolate him from his superhero peers. As Peter Parker, his academic credentials were revoked after being accused of plagiarizing his doctoral dissertation from Octavius, resulting in his firing from the Daily Bugle . On the other hand, Peter became romantically involved again with Mary Jane. For a brief time, Peter Parker and Spider-Man were split into separate beings due to an accident involving the reverse-engineered Isotope Genome Accelerator.

However, the separation split Peter down the middle, so both individuals did not share Peter's sense of responsibility, resulting in a reckless and vain Spider-Man. Peter eventually managed to reverse the process, and merge his two halves back together before the side-effects could worsen and result in their death. Later, Spider-Man becomes plagued by visions of a mysterious villain known as "Kindred" who has seemingly been working with Mysterio. As this happened, villains the Black Ant and the Taskmaster captured animal-themed supervillains for Kraven the Hunter as part of a plan to destroy unworthy hunters. Spider-Man was tasked with finding Kraven the Hunter, whose ultimate goal through the hunt was to anger Spider-Man and lead him to kill him, ending his curse. After Spider-Man refused and Dr. Connors saved his child Billy, Kraven lifted the force field from Central Park, allowing Spider-Man, Connors, Billy, and the Black Cat to escape while the Avengers rounded up all the loose criminals.

2020s

"Last Remains"

Kindred uses the resurrected Sin-Eater's sins to create constructs that attack the ship Spider-Man is on underwater with Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, Anya Corazon, and Julia Carpenter. The sins possess the other spider-heroes, and they attack Spider-Man, with Doctor Strange managing to hold down a demon-possessed Silk. Spider-Man admits that the Sin-Eater isn't controlling his friends, but "Kindred" is. Spider-Man tells Doctor Strange that he will take on Kindred, but he needs Doctor Strange's help since demon possession is not what Spider-Man is used to fighting. Doctor Strange agrees to Spider-Man's offer, and gives him the Hand of Vashanti.

Finally encountering Kindred, Peter identifies the loved ones who died in his life morbidly arranged in attendance, provoking him to attack Kindred for his desecration of their remains. Peter frantically cries that Kindred stop what he's doing to them and kill him in place of their suffering. Owing to his end of the deal, Kindred then snaps Peter's neck, stating they will go and face the truth together. During the time Peter was dead, Peter's consciousness remembered the fateful day of the start of One More Day and Kindred accepts to resurrect Peter.

Personality and themes "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."

Comics historian Peter Sanderson

Sally Kempton for the Village Voice opined in 1965 that "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". 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.

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 .: 212 

The mid-1960s stories reflect the political tensions of the time. Early 1960s Marvel stories often deal with the Cold War and Communism.: 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.: 234–235 

Powers, skills, and equipment

Peter Parker has superhuman abilities derived from mutations resulting from the bite of a radioactive spider. Since the original Lee-Ditko stories, Spider-Man has had the ability to cling to walls. This has been speculated to be based on a distance-dependent interaction between his body and surfaces, known as the van der Waals force, though in the 2002 Spider-Man film, his hands and feet are lined with tiny clinging cilia in the manner of a real spider's feet. Spider-Man's other powers include superhuman strength, speed, agility and balance, and a precognitive sixth sense referred to as his "Spider-Sense," which alerts him to danger.

Spider-Man has a healing factor that allows him to recover from injuries sustained during battle. In the aftermath of the 1989 "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, Spider-Man was said to have "superhuman recuperative abilities" that sped up his recovery from the exhaustion he suffered in defeating the Tri-Sentinel.

The character was originally conceived by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as intellectually gifted, but later writers have depicted his intellect at genius level. After years of fighting, Parker honed his skill into an equivalent of martial arts that is unique to his powers. Academically brilliant, Parker has expertise in the fields of applied science, chemistry, physics, biology, engineering, mathematics, and mechanics.

With his talents, he sews his own costume to conceal his identity, and he constructs many devices that complement his powers, most notably mechanical web-shooters, to help navigate and trap his enemies along with a spider-signal as a flashlight and a warning beacon to criminals. Thomas Fireheart's scientists, among the best in the world, are unable to replicate the fluid Parker created while in high school.

Supporting cast

Spider-Man has had a wide range of connected characters during his inception. A variant cover art of The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1 depicts the heads of various Spider-Man enemies behind Spider-Man (as drawn by Kevin Maguire) as shown in the center.

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.

J. Jonah Jameson is the publisher of the Daily Bugle and Peter Parker's boss. A harsh critic of Spider-Man, he constantly features negative articles about the superhero in his newspaper. Despite his role as Jameson's editor and confidant, Robbie Robertson is always depicted as a supporter of both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

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 and adopts his own superhero identity, Agent Venom, after merging with the Venom symbiote. Meanwhile, Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn, is most commonly recognized as Peter's best friend, although some versions depicted him as his rival.

Enemies

Writers and artists over the years have established a rogues gallery of supervillains to face Spider-Man, in comics and in other media. As with the hero, the majority of the villains' powers originate with scientific accidents or the misuse of scientific technology, and many have animal-themed costumes or powers.[note 6] The most notable Spider-Man villains are listed down below in the ordering of their original chronological appearance:

Unlike most superheroes, Spider-Man does not have a single villain with whom he has come into conflict the most. Instead, he is often regarded as having three archenemies, and it can be debated as to which one is the worst:

  1. ^ Doctor Octopus (a.k.a. Doc Ock) is a highly intelligent mad scientist who utilizes four mechanical appendages for both movement and combat. He has been described as Spider-Man's greatest enemy, and the man Peter Parker might have become if he had not been raised with a sense of responsibility. Doc Ock is infamous for defeating him the first time in battle and for almost marrying Peter's Aunt May. He is also the core leader of the Sinister Six, and at one point adopted the "Master Planner" alias. ("If This Be My Destiny...!") Later depictions revealed him in Peter Parker's body where he was the titular character for a while.

  2. ^ The Norman Osborn version of the Green Goblin is most commonly regarded as Spider-Man's archenemy. While Norman is usually portrayed as an amoral industrialist and the head of the Oscorp scientific corporation, the Goblin is a psychopathic alternate personality, born after Norman's exposore to some unstable chemicals that also increased his strength and agility. The Goblin is a Halloween-themed villain, dressing up like an actual goblin and utilizing a large arsenal of high tech weapons, including a glider and pumpkin-shaped explosives. Unlike most villains, who only aim to kill Spider-Man, the Goblin also targeted his loved ones and showed no remorse in killing them as long as it caused pain to Spider-Man, therefore making him not only Spider-Man's worst enemy, but also Peter Parker's. His most infamous feat is killing Spider-Man's girlfriend in what became one of the most famous Spider-Man stories of all time and helped end the Silver Age of Comic Books and begin the Bronze Age of Comic Books. While the Goblin was killed in the same story, he returned in the 1990s to plague Spider-Man once again, committing more heinous acts (such as being involved in the murder of Aunt May). He also came into conflict with other heroes, such as the Avengers. Norman is sometimes depicted as an enemy of Spider-Man even when not being the Green Goblin.

  3. ^ The Eddie Brock incarnation of Venom is often regarded as Spider-Man's deadliest foe, and has been described as an evil mirror version of Spider-Man in many ways. He is also among Spider-Man's most popular villains. Originally a photographer who grew to despise Spider-Man, Eddie later came into contact with the Venom symbiote, which had been rejected by Spider-Man. The symbiote merged with Eddie and gave him the same powers as Spider-Man, in addition to making him immune to the web-slinger's "spider-sense". Venom's main goal is usually to ruin Peter Parker's life and mess with his head in any way he can. Despite this, Venom is not a traditional criminal, as he is only interested in hurting Spider-Man and does not engage in criminal acts, lacking the typical supervillain desires for wealth and power. The character also has a sense of honor and justice, and later starred in his own comic book stories, where he is depicted as an antihero and has a desire to protect innocent people from harm. On several occasions, he and Spider-Man even put their differences aside and became allies.

Romantic interests

Peter Parker's romantic interests range between his first crush, fellow high-school student Liz Allan, to having his first date with Betty Brant, 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, daughter of New York City Police Department detective captain George Stacy, both of whom are later killed by supervillain enemies of Spider-Man. Mary Jane Watson eventually became Peter's best friend and then his wife. Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, is a reformed cat burglar who had been Spider-Man's sole superhuman girlfriend and partner at one point.

Alternate versions of Spider-Man

Within the Marvel Universe there exists a multiverse with many variations of Spider-Men. An early character included in the 1980s is the fictional anthropomorphic animal parody of Spider-Man in pig form named Spider-Ham (Peter Porker). Many imprints of Spider-Men were created, like the futuristic version of Spider-Man in Marvel 2099 named Miguel O'Hara. In the MC2 imprint, Peter marries Mary Jane and has a daughter named Mayday Parker, who carries on Spider-Man's legacy and Marvel Noir has a 1930s version of Peter Parker. Other themed versions exist within the early 2000s, such as a Marvel Mangaverse version and an Indian version from Spider-Man: India named Pavitr Prabhakar.

Ultimate Spider-Man was a popular modern retelling of Peter Parker. The version of Parker would later be depicted as being killed off and replaced by an Afro-Latino Spider-Man named Miles Morales.

The storyline "Spider-Verse" brought back many alternate takes on Spider-Man and introduced many newly inspired ones, such as an alternate world where Gwen Stacy gets bitten by a radioactive spider instead, along with a British-themed version named Spider-UK called Billy Braddock from the Captain Britain Corps.

Cultural impact and legacy

In The Creation of Spider-Man , comic book writer-editor and historian Paul Kupperberg calls the character's superpowers "nothing too original"; what was original was that outside his secret identity, he was a "nerdy high school student".: 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".: 6  The insecurity and anxieties in Marvel's early 1960s comic books, such as The Amazing Spider-Man , The Incredible Hulk , The Fantastic Four , and The 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. 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.

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.: 254  Since 1962, hundreds of millions of comics featuring the character have been sold around the world. Spider-Man is the world's most profitable superhero. In 2014, global retail sales of licensed products related to Spider-Man reached approximately $1.3 billion. Comparatively, this amount exceeds the global licensing revenue of Batman, Superman, and the Avengers combined. Spider-Man is also one of the highest-grossing franchise titles being the highest-grossing American comic book superhero est. $25.6 billion worldwide.

Spider-Man joined the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from 1987 to 1998 as one of the balloon floats, designed by John Romita Sr., one of the character's signature artists. A new, different Spider-Man balloon float also appeared from 2009 to 2014.

In 1992, Spider-Man was homaged by Italian band 883's song "Hanno ucciso l'Uomo Ragno", describing the possible aftermath of Spider-Man's murder on New York City.

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 . In 2006, Spider-Man garnered major media coverage with the revelation of the character's secret identity, an event detailed in a full-page story in the New York Post before the issue containing the story was even released.

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 the UN Peacekeeping Forces to highlight UN peacekeeping missions. A BusinessWeek article listed Spider-Man as one of the top 10 most intelligent fictional characters in American comics.

Rapper Eminem has cited Spider-Man as one of his favorite comic book superheroes.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC , a case concerning royalties on a patent for an imitation web-shooter. The opinion for the Court, by Justice Elena Kagan, included several Spider-Man references, concluding with the statement that "with great power there must also come—great responsibility".

In 2020, the laundry solution company Jensen-Group named one of their machines after the Amazing Spider-Man. The "Amazing Evolution Spider" is a machine for separating and feeding garments into a flatwork finishing machine after washing. Torben Andersen, the sales manager of Jensen-Group, said in an interview that he was an avid comic-book fan as a kid and wanted to pay homage to his childhood hero with the naming.

Spider-Man has become a subject of scientific inquiry. In 1987, researchers at Loyola University conducted a study into the utility of Spider-Man comics for informing children and parents about issues relating to child abuse. In 2019, an Israeli study from Ariel University and Bar-Ilan University suggested that exposure to short clips from the Spider-Man movies could help to reduce an individual's arachnophobia.

Reception The culmination of nearly every superhero that came before him, Spider-Man is the hero of heroes. He's got fun and cool powers, but not on the god-like level of Thor. He's just a normal guy with girlfriend problems and money issues, so he's more relatable than playboy billionaire Iron Man. And he's an awkward teenager, not a wizened adult like Captain America. Not too hot and not too cold, Spider-Man is just right.

IGN staff on placing Spider-Man as the number one hero of Marvel.

In 2005, Bravo's Ultimate Super Heroes, Vixens, and Villains TV series declared that Spider-Man was the number 1 superhero. Empire magazine ranked him the fifth-greatest comic book character of all time. Wizard magazine placed Spider-Man as the third-greatest comic book character on their website. In 2011, Spider-Man placed third on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time, behind DC Comics characters Superman and Batman. and sixth in their 2012 list of "The Top 50 Avengers". In 2014, IGN identified Spider-Man the greatest Marvel Comics character of all time. A 2015 poll at Comic Book Resources named Spider-Man the greatest Marvel character of all time. IGN described him as the common everyman that represents many normal people but also noted his uniqueness compared to many top-tiered superheroes with his many depicted flaws as a superhero. IGN noted that, despite being one of the most tragic superheroes of all time, he is "one of the most fun and snarky superheroes in existence." Empire praised Spider-man's always-present sense of humor and wisecracks in the face of the many tragedies he faces. The magazine website appraised the depiction of his "iconic" superhero poses describing it as "a top artist's dream".

George Marston of Newsarama called Spider-Man's origin the greatest origin story of all time, opining that "Spider-Man's origin combines all of the most classic aspects of pathos, tragedy and scientific wonder into the perfect blend for a superhero origin."

Real-life comparisons

Real-life people who have been compared to Spider-Man for their climbing feats include:

  • 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.

  • Alain Robert, nicknamed "Spider-Man", is a rock and urban climber who has scaled more than 70 tall buildings using his hands and feet, without using additional devices. He sometimes wears a Spider-Man suit during his climbs. In May 2003, he was paid approximately $18,000 to climb the 95-metre (312 ft) Lloyd's building to promote the premiere of the movie Spider-Man on the British television channel Sky Movies.

  • "The Human Spider", alias Bill Strother, scaled the Lamar Building in Augusta, Georgia in 1921.

  • In Argentina, criminals that climb buildings and trespass into private property through the open balconies are said to use the "Spider-Man method" (in Spanish, "el Hombre Araña").

Todd McFarlane (born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic book creator, artist, writer, filmmaker and entrepreneur, best known for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and as the writer and artist on the superhero horror-fantasy series Spawn.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise, on which he was the artist to draw the first full appearances of the character Venom. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s. Spawn was a popular hero in the 1990s and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties.

Since leaving inking duties on Spawn with issue No. 70 (February 1998), McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio.

In September 2006, it was announced that McFarlane would be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by major league baseball pitcher Curt Schilling. McFarlane used to be a co-owner of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers before selling his shares to Daryl Katz. He is also a high-profile collector of record-breaking baseballs.

As a filmmaker, he produced the 1997 film adaptation of Spawn starring Michael Jai White. He will make his directorial debut with the reboot film, which he is also writing, and which will star Jamie Foxx.

Early life

Todd McFarlane was born on March 16, 1961, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Bob and Sherlee McFarlane. He has two brothers, Curtis and Derek. Bob worked in the printing business, which led him to take work where he could find it, and as a result, during McFarlane's childhood, the family lived in thirty different places from Alberta to California.

McFarlane began drawing as a hobby at an early age, and developed an interest in comics, acquiring as many as he could, and learning to draw from them. He was a fan of comics creators such as John Byrne, Jack Kirby, Frank Miller and George Pérez, as well as the writing of Alan Moore. (John Parker of ComicsAlliance has also noted the influence of Walt Simonson in McFarlane's work.) McFarlane created the character Spawn when he was 16, and spent "countless hours" perfecting the appearance of each component of the character's visual design.

One day while in the twelfth grade at Calgary's William Aberhart High School, McFarlane, working as a groundskeeper for the Calgary Cardinals, was standing in the bleachers when a 13-year-old ninth grader sitting near him named Wanda began flirting with him. The two began dating, over the objections of Wanda's father, who thought she was too young for him, though in time McFarlane won him over.

Right after high school, McFarlane attended baseball tryouts at Gonzaga University. Despite being a good fielder and fast, he was not a good hitter. Moreover, he could not afford Gonzaga, so he attended Spokane Falls Community College for a year, his relationship with Wanda developing into a long-distance one. In 1981 McFarlane began attending Eastern Washington University (EWU) on a baseball scholarship, studying as part of a self-designed program for graphics and art. His practical goal was to join his father in the printing business in Calgary, Alberta, though his dream was always to be a comic book creator. He worked part-time on campus as a janitor in the school's administration building, as his scholarship required an on-campus job, and also worked weekends at a comics shop called the Comic Rack, devoting a couple of hours late at night to practice his comics art.

He sought to play baseball professionally after graduation, but suffered a serious ankle injury in his junior year during a game with arch rivals Washington State University. He subsequently focused on drawing, working at the comic book store to pay for the rest of his education, and living in a trailer park in Cheney, Washington with Wanda, who had moved to the area to be with him and attend EWU as well. In 1984, a year after his injury, McFarlane's final chance to play for the big leagues came when he tried out with the Toronto Blue Jays' farm team in Medicine Hat, Alberta, but he ended up being ranked last on the roster, ending his professional baseball prospects. McFarlane graduated with a bachelor's degree that same year. He stayed in Spokane while Wanda finished her degree.

Career

Early work, DC, and Marvel

While still in college, McFarlane began sending 30–40 packages of submissions each month to comics editors, totaling over 700 submissions after a year and a half, most of which were in the form of pinups. Half resulted in no response, while the other half resulted in rejection letters, though he received some constructive criticism from a few editors. One of them, DC Comics' Sal Amendola, gave McFarlane a dummy script in order to gauge McFarlane's page-to-page storytelling ability. Amendola's advice that McFarlane's submissions needed to focus page-to-page stories rather than pinups led McFarlane to create a five-page Coyote sample that he initially sent to Uncanny X-Men editor Ann Nocenti at Marvel Comics, who passed it along to Archie Goodwin and Jo Duffy, the editors of the Marvel imprint Epic Comics, which published Coyote . They in turn passed it onto Coyote creator Steve Englehart, who called McFarlane to offer McFarlane his first comic job, a 1984 backup story in Coyote .

McFarlane soon began drawing for both DC and Marvel, with his first major body of work being a two-year run (1985–1987) on DC's Infinity, Inc. In 1987, McFarlane illustrated the last three issues of Detective Comics' four-issue "Batman: Year Two" storyline. From there, he moved to Marvel's Incredible Hulk , which he drew from 1987 to 1988, working with writer Peter David.

The Amazing Spider-Man

In 1988, McFarlane joined writer David Michelinie on Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man , beginning with issue 298, drawing the preliminary sketch for that cover's image on the back of one of his Incredible Hulk pages. McFarlane garnered notice for the more dynamic poses in which he depicted Spider-Man's aerial web-swinging, his enlarging of the eyes on the character's mask, and greater detail in which he rendered his artwork. In particular was the elaborate detail he gave to Spider-Man's webbing. Whereas it had essentially been rendered as a series of X's between two lines, McFarlane embellished it by detailing far more individual strands, which came to be dubbed "spaghetti webbing". McFarlane drew the first full appearance of Eddie Brock, the original incarnation of the villain Venom. He has been credited as the character's co-creator, though this has been a topic of dispute within the comic book industry (see Eddie Brock: Creation and conception ).

McFarlane's work on Amazing Spider-Man made him an industry superstar. His cover art for Amazing Spider-Man No. 313, for which he was originally paid $700 in 1989, for example, would later sell for $71,200 in 2010. One critic of McFarlane's detail-heavy style was Comics Journal editor Gary Groth, who said of McFarlane in a 2017 interview, "He doesn't have any authentic virtues as a visual stylist. His work is so overembellished that it disguised the fact that the composition is chaotic and cluttered to the point of being almost unreadable. He never really learned the craft of comics — he just faked it really well."

During his run on The Amazing Spider-Man , McFarlane became increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of control over his own work, as he wanted more say in the direction of storylines. He began to miss deadlines, requiring guest artists to fill-in for him on some issues. In 1990, after a 28-issue run of Amazing Spider-Man , McFarlane told editor Jim Salicrup that he wanted to write his own stories, and would be leaving the book with issue No. 328, which was part of that year's company-wide "Acts of Vengeance" crossover storyline. In July 2012 the original artwork to that issue's cover, which features Spider-Man dispatching the Hulk, sold for a record-breaking $657,250 USD, the highest auction price ever for any piece of American comic book art. McFarlane was succeeded on Amazing Spider-Man by McFarlane's future fellow Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen.

New Spider-Man title

Wanting to appease McFarlane, Marvel gave McFarlane a new, adjectiveless Spider-Man title for him to both write and draw. Spider-Man #1 (August 1990) sold 2.5 million copies, largely due to the variant covers with which Marvel, seeking to capitalize on McFarlane's popularity, published the issue in order to encourage collectors into buying more than one edition. This practice was a result of the comics speculator bubble of the 1990s, which would burst later that decade. McFarlane, unbeknownst to his parents at the time, was making about a million dollars a year. McFarlane wrote and illustrated 15 of the series' first 16 issues, many issues of which featured other popular Marvel characters such as Wolverine and Ghost Rider in guest roles.

Despite his acclaim as an artist, fans found McFarlane's writing to be clumsy, unsophisticated and pretentious, and questioned the wisdom of allowing him to write a new Spider-Man title in the first place. At the same time, editorial had problems with the dark tone of the stories McFarlane was telling, beginning with the inaugural "Torment" storyline, which depicted a more vicious version of the reptilian villain Lizard under the control of the voodoo priestess Calypso. Subsequent storylines such as "Masques" featured Spider-Man confronting the demonic Hobgoblin, while "Perceptions", which involved Spider-Man dealing with police corruption, child rape and murder (a hint of the work he would later do on Spawn ), led some stores to refuse to stock the book. This created further tensions between McFarlane and editorial, which viewed Spider-Man as an historically light-hearted character marketed to young readers. Editor Jim Salicrup in particular was required to make a number of compromises for McFarlane's work, including enforcing McFarlane's minor costume changes across the entire line of other Spidey comics, placing limitations on his choice of villains for his stories, and dealing with strong disagreement on the handling of the character Mary Jane Watson. This strained McFarlane's relationship with Salicrup, which was expressed in the remarkable amount of public disagreement that appeared in the book's letters page. Eventually McFarlane's attention to his deadlines again began to waiver, and he missed issue 15 of the title. His final issue on the book, #16 (November 1991), was part of a crossover storyline with X-Force , and led to creative clashes with new editor Danny Fingeroth. According to McFarlane and editor Tom DeFalco in the 2000 documentary The Devil You Know: Inside the Mind of Todd McFarlane , among the examples of the issues that prompted his departure were editorial's censorship of a panel in that issue in which the character Juggernaut was graphically stabbed in the eye with a sword. DeFalco supported the editing of the panel, calling it "inappropriate", while McFarlane called this "lunacy", arguing that such graphic visuals are commonplace in Marvel's books. Fed up with editorial interference, he left the company under something of a cloud. According to David Wallace of Comics Bulletin, "McFarlane's fifteen issues of Spider-Man are now (perhaps slightly unfairly) held up alongside the likes of X-Force as the epitome of everything that was wrong in 1990s comics, and their cash-in approach to the then-booming speculator market precipitated the near-collapse of the industry."

Image Comics

McFarlane then teamed with six other popular artists to form Image Comics, an umbrella company under which each owned a publishing house. McFarlane's studio, Todd McFarlane Productions, published his creation, the occult-themed Spawn , written and drawn by McFarlane. It was Image's second release, following the release of Rob Liefeld's Youngblood the month prior. Upon its release in 1992, Spawn #1 (May 1992) sold 1.7 million copies, still a record for an independent comic book.

Responding to harsh criticism of his abilities as a writer, McFarlane hired acclaimed writers to guest-write issues #8–11, including Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim, and Frank Miller. Subsequent writers he would hire on the series included Grant Morrison, Andrew Grossberg, and Tom Orzechowski. Greg Capullo penciled several issues as a guest artist, and became the regular penciler with #26, with McFarlane remaining as writer and inker until #70. The series continued to be a hit, and in 1993 Wizard declared Spawn "the best-selling comic on a consistent basis that is currently being published." Spawn is notable for being one of only two Image books that debuted during the company's 1992 launch, along with Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon , that continued to be published into the 2020s.

During Image's early years of operation, the company was subject to much industry criticism over aspects of its business practices, including late-shipped books, and its creators' emphasis of art over writing. One of these critics was McFarlane's former Hulk collaborator, writer Peter David. This came to a head during a public debate they participated in at Philadelphia's Comicfest convention in October 1993, which was moderated by artist George Pérez. McFarlane stated that Image was not being treated fairly by the media, and by David in particular. The three judges, Maggie Thompson, editor of the Comics Buyer's Guide , William Christensen of Wizard Press , and John Danovich of the magazine Hero Illustrated , voted 2–1 in favor of David, with Danovich voting the debate a tie.

In 1994 McFarlane and DC Comics collaborated on an intercompany crossover, each producing a book featuring Batman and Spawn. The first of the two books, Batman-Spawn: War Devil was written by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant, drawn by Klaus Janson, and published by DC. It was followed by Spawn/Batman , which was written by Frank Miller and drawn by McFarlane. That year marked the point when McFarlane ceased to be the regular writer and artist of Spawn . The first issue that he did not draw was issue 16, which was drawn by Greg Capullo. Aside from the four fill-in writers on issues #8–11, it was the first issue on which McFarlane was not the regular writer, as it was the first of a three-issue storyline written by Grant Morrison. Over the course of the ensuing decades, he would hire other writers such as Brian Holguin and David Hine, and artists such as Whilce Portacio, Angel Medina, and Philip Tan. McFarlane occasionally offered story input and inked covers. He would sporadically return as the interior artist for intermittent issues, and for a few years wrote it under a pseudonym in order to generate interest in the book by fostering the illusion that new talent was being brought into the book's production.

In 2006 McFarlane announced plans for Spawn/Batman with artist Greg Capullo, which McFarlane wrote and inked, which paid tribute to Jack Kirby. He also began taking an active role in comics publishing again, publishing collections of his Spawn comics in trade paperback form. Spawn Collection Volume 1 collecting issues 1–12 minus issue 9 (due to royalty issues with Neil Gaiman) and 10 (due to a vow he made to Sim) was released in December 2005. The first volume achieved moderate success, ranking 17 in the top one hundred graphic novels, with pre-order sales of 3,227 for that period.

In 2008, McFarlane returned to co-plot the series with returning writer Brian Holguin, with issue 185. The book survived the comics speculator bubble's crash, but its sales have fluctuated, never matching the sales figures of the 1990s. Though it continues publication, its appearance on the Diamond Top 300 chart has been intermittent since the mid-2000s. Nonetheless, Shea Hennum of Paste magazine has observed of the series, "It's a book that, for a time, people continued to buy because of the character instead of the creator. It has become as much of an institution as it is a comic.

Haunt , an ongoing series co-created by McFarlane and Robert Kirkman, was announced in 2007 and launched on October 7, 2009. The comic was initially written by Kirkman, penciled by Ryan Ottley, and inked by McFarlane, with Greg Capullo providing layouts. McFarlane contributed pencils to some issues, and co-wrote issue 28, the series finale, with Joe Casey, who took over writing duties from Kirkman.

In 2019, McFarlane wrote and drew Spawn #301, surpassing Dave Sim's 300-issue series Cerebus as the longest-running creator-owned comics series. The book, whose release date is October 2 of that year, earned McFarlane a place in the Guinness World Records, for which McFarlane was given a certificate on October 5, 2019 at the New York Comic Con prior to his panel, "The Road to Historic Spawn 300 and 301."

Todd McFarlane Entertainment

Todd McFarlane Productions published multiple Spawn spin-offs and mini-series. McFarlane increasingly concentrated his own personal attention to those other ventures, which resulted in irregular work as an illustrator. In 1994, McFarlane created a toy company, Todd Toys, initially to merchandise collectible action figures of the Spawn characters. In three months, the company sold more than 2.2 million of the action figures nationwide. After Mattel sent a cease-and-desist order on the basis of a male doll in Mattel's Barbie line named Todd, McFarlane changed the company name to McFarlane Toys. The company's line of figures quickly expanded to those of popular cultural icons, such as members of the band Kiss, characters from the film franchise Texas Chainsaw Massacre , TV series such as The X-Files , and sports figures such as Terrell Owens. In 1999, the company sold over 6 million action figures. As of 2017, the company was fifth-largest action-figure manufacturer in the United States.

In 1996, McFarlane founded Todd McFarlane Entertainment , a film and animation studio. In collaboration with New Line Cinema, it produced the 1997 Spawn film and a new Spawn movie, planned in 2008. Spawn , while critically panned, was a modest box office success, earning $54.8 million domestically, and almost $33 million worldwide, against a $40 million budget. Todd McFarlane Entertainment also produced the animated series Todd McFarlane's Spawn , (featuring voice work by actor Keith David) which aired on HBO from 1997 until 1999. Ed Bark of The Dallas Morning News called the series a "very unpleasant viewing experience" and asked "why anyone would want to subject themselves to such a relentlessly grim, gruesome dehumanizing experience." Nonetheless, the animated series won a 1998 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation.

The studio produced a number of music videos and other animations, including:

  • 1998: "Do the Evolution" by Pearl Jam – Rolling Stone included this video in its 2012 list of The Greatest Animated Music Videos.

  • 1999: "Freak on a Leash" by KoЯn – This video debuted at number eight on MTV's Total Request Live on February 9, 1999, and peaking at number 1 on its thirteenth day, February 25. and spent ten non-consecutive days at the top position until its "retirement", on May 11, 1999. The video won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video and the 1999 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Award for Music Video of the Year. It was also nominated for a 1999 MTV Video Music Award.

  • 2002: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys – McFarlane produced the animated sequences in this film by Peter Care, in which the main characters, Tim and Francis, imagine themselves as muscle-bound warriors. Although the consensus at Rotten Tomatoes was equivocal of the sequences' effectiveness, Armond White of New York Press singled them out for praise.

  • 2006: "Land of Confusion" by Disturbed – McFarlane, who worked with Greg Capullo on the art for the 2005 album Ten Thousand Fists , also created the animated video for the band's cover of Genesis' 1986 single, "Land of Confusion".

On July 21, 2011, at San Diego Comic-Con International, McFarlane and Stan Lee debuted their new comic, Blood Red Dragon . The series is a collaboration with musician Yoshiki and stars a fictionalized version of him.

McFarlane and Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling formed the gaming studio 38 Studios (formerly Green Monster Games ), in order to produce role-playing games, with McFarlane overseeing art direction.

In February 2012, the company released its only title, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning , a single-player action role-playing game that was a moderate success, but by late May 2012, the company had ceased operation, due to financial difficulties for which it had filed for bankruptcy.

McFarlane was one of several artists to illustrate a variant cover for Kirkman's The Walking Dead No. 100, which was released July 11, 2012 at the San Diego Comic-Con.

In July 2017, Blumhouse Productions announced McFarlane would direct a reboot of the 1997 film Spawn . McFarlane had by then written a first-draft script. In May 2018, it was announced that Jamie Foxx would portray the titular character. In July 2018, it was reported that Jeremy Renner would be starring alongside Foxx as Detective Twitch. On October 25, 2018, filming was set to begin in June 2019, but was eventually delayed to a later date. In August 2021, it was reported that Broken City screenwriter Brian Tucker had been hired to rewrite McFarlane's screenplay.

In November 2021, McFarlane launched a dedicated television development and production arm of his McFarlane Films, which has signed a first-look deal with production company wiip. The company has three shows in development: a Spawn spin-off Sam & Twitch , stop-motion, animated event series McFarland, and a live-action adaptation of the Sean Lewis comic Thumbs.

  • Condition: New
  • Subject Type: TV & Movies
  • Card Size: Standard
  • Autographed: No
  • Set: Spider-Man 3
  • Character: Spider-Man
  • Film: Spider-Man 3
  • Custom Bundle: No
  • Number of Cards: 70
  • Material: Card Stock
  • Size of Cards: 89 mm by 64 mm
  • Year Manufactured: 2007
  • Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
  • Franchise: Spiderman
  • Modified Item: No
  • Imperial Dimensions of Cards: 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches
  • Type: Non-Sport Trading Card
  • Language: English
  • Manufacturer: Rittenhouse
  • Features: Base Set
  • Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Comic Book, Animation, Stan Lee, Graphic Novel
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States

PicClick Insights - SPIDER-MAN 3 - Complete Base Set (70 Cards) - Rittenhouse 2007 PicClick Exclusive

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