How Did You Get Into Spider-Man?

[Willi]

How did you get into Spider-Man? Care to share your story? What appeals to you the most?

[Peter Palmer]

Well growing up in the late seventies and eighties,I got into Spider-Man from re-runs of the sixties cartoon and his appearances on "The Electric Company", My first Spidey comic was the Power Records version of "The Mark of the Manwolf", shortly thereafter I got the Pocket Books paperback collection of Amazing Fantasy 15 and the first six issues of ASM. When I was in kindergarten, NBC started "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" I was Spidey that year for Halloween, wearing a costume my mom made.

What really got me interested in the comics though was the Black Costume. I saw ASM #253 at a drug store and was shocked that Spider-Man had changed his costume, especially to something so drastically different. Needless to say, I was fascinated by the storyline, and was hooked into Spidey's world. I was a hardcore collector until a little thing called the clone saga drove me away. After Peter returned as Spidey, they managed to win me back, but lost me again with the reboot. There's been worse things since, but I refuse to let it dampen my love of the character; Spider-man is bigger than that, he'll bounce back eventually. Part of me is still that same kid in his homemade Spidey costume, zipping around his yard on imaginary weblines, Spidey will always be a favorite of mine.

[Arcane Azmadi]

It's actually a pretty funny story. I read the odd comic in the mid-90s when my younger brother brought some home that he'd picked up for cheap from somewhere on the way home from school, but I never really took a serious interest. When i first read about One More Day (it was such a big deal that it even spreads outside the comics community) I couldn't believe it because it sounded so lame, but I didn't really follow up. I saw the first 2 movies and thought they were cool. Then one day I was perusing TV Tropes when I found a link to this image on J.R's site and it caught my attention. I followed the path back to the site itself and read his entire 'Why did it have to be you, Mary Jane?' article, then all the rest of the articles on the site. Then the next time I went to my local comics store (I'd only been buying manga up to that point) I picked up the first Ultimate Spider-Man collection and that was that. So basically, it's all thank to J.R.

[jpd13]

Well growing up in the late seventies and eighties,I got into Spider-Man from re-runs of the sixties cartoon and his appearances on "The Electric Company", My first Spidey comic was the Power Records version of "The Mark of the Manwolf", shortly thereafter I got the Pocket Books paperback collection of Amazing Fantasy 15 and the first six issues of ASM. When I was in kindergarten, NBC started "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" I was Spidey that year for Halloween, wearing a costume my mom made.

Ditto for me on the 60's cartoon and the Eletric Company. I can't believe you mentioned the Power Records version of "The mark of the Manwolf"! Holy crap, I had that as well. I remember being a little thrown off that the voice on the record wasn't THE voice of Spider-Man, which to me at the time (and still) was Paul Soles from the 60's cartoon.

Also, my Father bought me ASM # 153 off a spinner rack which was my first comic.

[Venom65437]

Watched the 90s show religiously and when I was able to go to WAL-MART and buy comics, and they were under $2 each, it was easy for 11 year old me to get into Spidey and afford to follow him.

[Willi]

I developed my interest of Spider-Man in 2002, at the age of eleven.

I'm a Roman Catholic. My local parish was having a flea market that my mother was involved in organizing. I walked through the great hall of the flea market for hours, (The flea market was hosted in my elementary school's auditorium/gymnasium) and at some point during the day, I came to an interesting table that must've featured some collectables and toys relating to Marvel Comics. I spoke to the two vendors at the table, a man and his wife named Michael and Roma, who would go on to become enduring friends of mine.

Michael was a fan of Marvel from his childhood in the 1960s. He loves the Silver Age of Marvel Comics, admiring in particular the works of artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Stan Lee was a childhood hero of Mike's. Although the Hulk is perhaps Mike's favorite Marvel character, he read all of the Marvel books from the Silver Age, is familiar with all of the classic Marvel characters, and even owned a copy of "Amazing Fantasy" #15, until it was stolen from him at a comic book convention some years ago. Mike's favorite comics are those published by Marvel from 1961 to 1968 - he feels that the quality of the books suffered after Martin Goodman sold the company to another owner in 1968.

Michael and I had a great conversation upon our first meeting. Regarding comic books, he probably inquired to see how familiar I was with them. Batman had been the only comic book super-hero who appealed to me as a child, but I was exposed to Batman through mediums other than comics such as television (Having seen the 1990s animated series "Batman") and film. (Having seen the film "Batman Forever" in theatres as a toddler)
From what I can remember, Michael broached the subject of Spider-Man, suggesting that it would be a good time to get into the character with Spider-Man’s debut motion picture about to be released.
Spider-Man had never deeply appealed to me as a toddler. I remember seeing his image on a pair of slippers/sandals that I once owned, and I was put off by the way he appeared on the sandals. He seemed muscular in the image, and brainless. He seemed to lack tact. He was likely in some sort of action pose. I didn’t know anything about the character beyond that image, not even knowing who Peter Parker was.
Once as a toddler, I was changing channels on the television while my grandma (Who is now deceased) was babysitting me. She was in the other room at that moment, and I came across the Spider-Man animated series of 1990s fame. It was the pilot episode, featuring the Lizard. From the few moments I saw of it, the cartoon interested me, and Spider-Man perhaps seemed more sophisticated than I had previously thought, but it would be several years before I watched it again.
In 2002, at Michael’s suggestion, I went to the theatre with my parents to see “Spider-Man.” My life was changed. I considered it one of the most mature films I had ever seen in my life up to that time. (Bear in mind that I was eleven years old) The part of the film that opened my eyes to realize the immense gravity of danger present in adult life was the scene in which Spider-Man courageously crashes through the window of a burning apartment building to rescue the person he had screaming from within. The flaming ceiling partially collapsed, and perhaps motivated by fear, Spider-Man, although himself a young person, shouted in a very mature way – “WHERE ARE YOU?!” That brief moment between Spider-Man’s entry, to the partial collapse of the ceiling, to his shouting, was perhaps the one scene in cinematic history that shaped my forming, preteen mind the most. I suppose it represented maturity to me, what it means to grow into a man.
I had known much sorrow in my early life through circumstances such as the death of loved ones. I cried in the theatre when Uncle Ben died because to me it symbolized at least two things to me - the death of my own childhood best friend, and the eventual, impending death of my significantly older father. In real life, my father was older than the cinematic version of Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben states early in the film that he’s “sixty-eight” during Peter’s senior year of high school. During my senior year of high school, my dad was sixty-nine!
I related with how much yearning, longing, and unfulfilled desire was in Peter’s heart – his yearning for Mary Jane in the film, his need to feel accepted (Having been rejected by his peers) and his desire to make Uncle Ben and Aunt May proud of him. I related with his personal loss, in the person of Uncle Ben. (Reminding me, as I mentioned, of my childhood best friend who had died) I “marvel[ed] at the awesome might of Spider-Man” as Spider-Man’s dialogue on the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 aptly predicts. I loved his costume as presented in the film. I loved his powers. To this day, of all of Spider-Man’s abilities, his ability to web-swing is my favorite! I could sit here and type for hours about how great the film is, (Danny Elfman’s score has rung throughout my memory for years) and “Spider-Man” easily remains my favorite film to this day!
There’s so much for me to address, but I feel that I must take a break for now - - and I haven’t even gotten to the part about the comics!

[SaviorSpyder CJ]

For me, it was when the first movie came out. Just fell in love with the character then, and for a birthday present, I was given a Spider-Man classic from Target (Which covered ASM #1-3 and Amazing Fantasy #15.) I was hooked from there.

[Peter Palmer]

I'd have to imagine the movies got a lot of kids into Spidey, just as the Christopher Reeve movies got me into Superman, and The 1989 "Batman" made a lot of fans. I was already a dyed-in-the-wool Spidey fan by that point, but I was pretty happy with the first film.

[gregxb]

I was very young. Maybe three years old. There was this giant coloring book in the basement featuring Spider-Man and the Green Goblin on the cover. The Manhattan street below them was covered with snow. That was my first exposure to the webhead...

... about a year later, I received a reprinting of ASM #39 and #40... I was hooked. My very next story was a reprinting of the Death of Gwen Stacy and the Death of the Green Goblin.

All of this was coincidental, btw. Random chance. But the Green Goblin was with me just as long as Spidey was. Probably one reason why I was thrilled with his return.

[iron_patriot]

I got into Spider-Man around the time of TAS(one of my clearest memories is being ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED of Venom),then a few years after that the PS1 Spider-Man games and the 2002 movie came out. That started my love for him.
However,I didn't get into comics until 6 years later,when Iron Man came out. I immediately got in front of my computer and started researching on the various Iron Man and Spider-Man comics.
Next, I went to my LCS and lo and behold, I saw Ultimate Spider-Man 123(I think,anyway it was the return of Venom,my favorite villain) on the shelf,picked it up instantly. And here I am now, 120 comics,20 TPBS and HCs(not much of a collection but hey,comics are more expensive in the Philippines) and who knows how many dollars(or pesos) later

[spidertour02]

I got into comics because my sister decided somewhat randomly to give me the money to buy one.

It was 1993 -- the X-Men cartoon was on the air, but the Spider-Man cartoon had yet to begin its run. We were in the paper store on a campground in Virginia, and we came across a rack of comic books. My sister told my other sister and me that we could buy one comic book each. I bought a copy of X-Men Adventures #6, and that set me off on a lifelong love of comics.



It was an adaptation of the X-Men episode "Cold Vengeance" (Season 1, Episode 6), but the comic had a noticeably harder edge than the episode thanks to the lack of stringent censorship. One big twist is that the jealous villager is killed by Sabretooth when Creed double-crosses him. It was shocking to my young brain to see that.

The next time I was in a supermarket with my mom and sister, we came across some comics in the magazine section. They let me pick one out to buy, and I wanted to try a non-X-Men book this time around. I saw a colorful cover that drew my eye, and I said to myself, I know Spider-Man!* And so, I bought my first Spider-Man comic: The Amazing Spider-Man #383.



It was a very, very dumb story arc. Spider-Man was captured to be put on trial by a gang of dudes in power armor called The Jury for the crime of bringing the alien symbiote to earth. Basically, the rationale was that Spider-Man was directly responsible for the deaths caused by Venom and Carnage (remember, this was very shortly after maximum Carnage) -- a tremendous leap of logic, by the way. The story goes all over the place, from "witnesses" telling stories of Venom-related horrors (one woman says that Venom made her kid a scared vegetable, and thus Spider-Man must pay) to deaths during Maximum Carnage. Spider-Man ends up working with the Jury before double-crossing them, or something like that. I try to forget it.

The thing that hooked me was the art. This was Mark Bagley in his prime, and it was AWESOME. It doesn't show in my artwork now, but I tried to emulate Bagley's style for years. I became a big fan of his work, and when J.M. DeMatteis started to write the book, I was hooked. I continued to buy comics when I came across issues in the supermarket or the newspaper store, but my preference was always The Amazing Spider-Man or X-Men.

After several years, I really got hooked on the Mackie/JR JR run of Peter Parker: Spider-Man (which, believe it or not, is still my favorite Spider-Man run of the ones I read "live" ... minus the reboot issues, of course). I became a lifelong fan of JR JR's work because of that book.



*I don't quite recall how I recognized Spider-Man. I know that I read one of the many reprints of Spider-Man, Storm, and Power Man Battle Smokescreen because I got it as a handout in school at one point. That's right, kids: Spider-Man was in an anti-smoking PSA comic with Luke Cage and Storm.



It was a school giveaway sponsored by The American Cancer Society, and I remember little to nothing about it outside of the fact that (a) Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Storm were in it, and (b) it had to do with some dude trying to get a kid on a track team to smoke. I don't know, it was really weird. The only thing I kept thinking while reading it is "Who's this black guy?" I had never even heard of Luke Cage before. This comic was first published in 1982 and then reprinted seven times between 1982 and 1998, when it was remade to update the looks of Storm, Luke Cage, and Smokescreen (who now looked like the Black Panther for some reason). Luke Cage was also called "Cage" in the title of the new version, since he was no longer going by "Power Man" at that point. The remade version was also reprinted three times, with the last one coming as recently as 2002.



The thing is, I don't remember if I read this before or after The Amazing Spider-Man #383. Looking at the publication dates, I highly suspect that I read either the 1991 or 1992 reprinting, which would make it before The Amazing Spider-Man #383. I may or may not have seen Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends in syndication by that point, and I was peripherally aware of Spider-Man thanks to the Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. Either way, I knew and recognized Spider-Man before picking up my first Spider-Man comic.

[KidFlash]

When I was about 4 or 5 I remember watching bits and pieces of the 90's series. But, I really didn't give a frack!! Untill the First Spider-Man came out, when I was about 6. When I got home from the movie thehtre I searched for videos of Spidey fights on the internet and thats how I saw complete 90's series for the first time. But unfortenetually I found and watched (shudder,shudder) the Spider-Man Unlimited Serie---(barf), can't even say it. Ever since watching the 90's series I fell in love with the character since. My first Spidey comic was ASM #508. Ever Since I've been following spidey through the good and the BND.

[Aziz]

It wasn't a video game that's for sure, before the first Activision game I never knew Spider-Man had a vidogame other than the one on the Atari 2600

Spider-Man & his Amazing Friends is cool and fun to watch, when I think of how bad the writing is I don't feel like watching it, when I do I enjoy it and laugh at it, it's the one thing that I look at with the eye of "It's so bad it's good", back as a kid that was my first exposure to Spider-Man, I guess I was 3 years old, or maybe two when I first got attached to the character through that amazing cartoon, and its twin from 1981 (superior to Spider-Friends in the most parts) and some episodes of the classic 1967 series (bad picture quality, made me happy for youtube when I finally discovered it finding Spider-Man cartoon in high quality pictures)

[Styleshift]

My memory is a bit hazy when it comes to how I got into comics.
All I remember is that my dad had old Spider-man and Flash comics.

My mother used to buy me them because they would get me away from the t.v. and video games when I was in doors.

I definitely got into Batman because of the animated series.
As for Spider-man I do like the animated series but I didn't enjoy it as much as X-men and Batman.

The funny thing is that it was the exact opposite in comics. I liked the Batman comics but they didn't grab me like they do now and I didn't even think about the X-men until I was in 8th/9th grade and really started to get into comics. I started reading Spider-man just before the clone saga.
JMD was the writer that started my love for Spider-man. That lead to me buying Spider-man 2099 which was written by none other than Peter David. (God I have never read a bad Peter David story. Novel or Comic)

So yeah. That's how I got into Spidey.
Peter David and J.M. DeMattaeis

[groupcelebration]

I'm pretty new to Spiderman. I read a lot of other comics, but my first exposure to Spiderman was through Ultimate Spiderman years ago. It was a comic that I really didn't like, so I kind of swore off the character.

More recently I picked up the Wizard Hardcover of the Greatest Spiderman Stories ever told. I actually enjoyed and it and figured I should give the character another chance. Being a big JMS fan, I decided to start reading his run on Spiderman and I loved the first 3 ultimate collection trades. Hated the 4th though, but I guess I can only expect so much from a single run.

I think the young whiney Ultimate Spiderman really turned me off from the character and caused me to have these false expectations of what all the comics would be about. I'm glad I've put that aside and checked out other stories though. When Spiderman is written well, I really enjoy him.