Spider-Man Changes the Game
Name: Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Created: 1963 Created By: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko First Appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15- Spider-Man! Humanity: Lee created Peter Parker as a bumbling, awkward teenager with normal teenager problems who somehow also got a superpower. Spiderman was also neurotic. Fun Fact: When he created Spider-Man, Lee wanted to give his characters more depth. To this end, he put thought bubbles into Spiderman's comics. For the first time, readers could see what was going on inside their heroes' heads. Lee's new technique revolutionized the whole industry. |
With his lankier frame and relatable persona, Spider-Man quickly became Marvel's most popular superhero. In 1963, Marvel was selling 17 million comics. A year after Spider-Man was introduced, in 1964, Marvel was selling 28 million comics. The number grew even more to 49 million in 1968 and today, Marvel sells 70 million Spider-Man comics a year. When he created Spider-Man, Stan Lee realized that the whole industry was lacking in characters that had good characterization. The superheroes were all do-gooders, and the villains didn't have even one redeemable characteristic. Lee decided to create Spider-Man as a person that everyone could relate to―and he did! Peter Parker was your average teenager, with a superpower he somehow came across. Yes, he had superpowers, but he also had so many problems. Spiderman's humanity attracted a far broader audience to Marvel's comics. The age range of the readers expanded to include more and more adults. Spider-Man became Marvel's most iconic superhero.
Spider-Man was so popular that the national Department of Health Education and Welfare sent him a letter asking him to do a Spider-Man story on the detrimental effects of drug abuse. They recognized the influence that Spider-Man had on young people, and Lee did too, so he said yes. The story that Lee created was a three issue arc in which Spider-Man battles one of his main rivals, The Green Goblin. In the stories, Spider-Man finds his roommate, Henry Osborn Jr., (who is also the Green Goblin's son) popping pills. In the end of the arc, at the final battle, Spider-Man shows Green Goblin his sick son, and in doing this defeats him. This was the substance of the story. However, the story still needed approval from the Comics Code of Authority (CCA), which refused to approve the three issues because they mentioned drugs.
Now the Comics Code of Authority was created when a group of the biggest comic book publishers came together to create their own system to police the content of their comic books in response to public fear that reading comic books led to juvenile delinquency.
The Comic Code had a strict no drugs policy, and Stan Lee's Spider-Man issues did not meet that policy. Lee pointed out that a government department had expressly requested this story and that drugs were portrayed in a bad light, but the CCA would not put its seal on these three issues of Spider-Man. So Lee decided to publish them without the seal. The issues became extremely successful and satisfied parents, children, and the Department of Health Education and Welfare. The comics' success prompted the CCA to revise its code and allow several things that had previously been banned, including the mention of drug use (only if it portrayed as a bad thing). Lee's stories led to the revisal of the CCA, which then allowed more freedom in later comic books. In this way, Lee helped reform the CCA and paved the way for comics in decades to come.
Now the Comics Code of Authority was created when a group of the biggest comic book publishers came together to create their own system to police the content of their comic books in response to public fear that reading comic books led to juvenile delinquency.
The Comic Code had a strict no drugs policy, and Stan Lee's Spider-Man issues did not meet that policy. Lee pointed out that a government department had expressly requested this story and that drugs were portrayed in a bad light, but the CCA would not put its seal on these three issues of Spider-Man. So Lee decided to publish them without the seal. The issues became extremely successful and satisfied parents, children, and the Department of Health Education and Welfare. The comics' success prompted the CCA to revise its code and allow several things that had previously been banned, including the mention of drug use (only if it portrayed as a bad thing). Lee's stories led to the revisal of the CCA, which then allowed more freedom in later comic books. In this way, Lee helped reform the CCA and paved the way for comics in decades to come.