The Amazing Spider-Man

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the name of several media presentations which feature the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man, including an American comic book series, a daily newspaper comic strip, and a television program.

Comic book

Spider-Man first appeared in the comic book "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (Aug. 1962). The series was cancelled with that issue, but response to the character was so positive that a solo title, "The Amazing Spider-Man", was launched with a March 1963 cover-date.

The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Steve Ditko, and the pair produced 38 issues from 1963 to 1966. Since then, many writers and artists have taken over the monthly comic through the years, chronicling the adventures of Marvel's most identifiable hero.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the character's flagship series. Most of the major characters and villains of the Spider-Man saga have been introduced here, and it is where key events occur. The title was published continuously until 1998 when Marvel Comics relaunched it with a new issue #1 (Jan. 1999), but on Spider-Man's 40th anniversary, this new title reverted to using the numbering of the original series, beginning again with issue #500 (Dec. 2003). Beginning with issue #546 (Jan. 2008), in place of the main title and two spin-off series, "The Amazing Spider-Man" began thrice-monthly publication.

Newspaper comic strip

The daily newspaper comic strip began on January 3, 1977. It was first written by Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita. The strip was surprisingly successful in an era with few serialized adventure strips. The strip slowly grew in circulation and as of 2008 is still being published. Lee's brother Larry Lieber illustrated and later wrote the strip for much of its run. In 1992, Paul Ryan took over the penciling (with Joe Sinnott inking) on the Sunday version of the strip, and drew that feature for just over three years. While the strip and the comic book feature the same characters, they do not share the same continuity, and the strip has had a decreased emphasis on supervillain enemies. A rare exception was the 1987 wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson which occurred in both the comic book and the comic strip. Guest stars in the newspaper strip include Wolverine, Daredevil and Dr. Strange. Villains include Dr. Doom, Kraven the Hunter, and The Rhino. Stories from the strip have been reprinted in paperback and in" Comics Revue" magazine.

Television program

Spidey got his shot at live-action TV stardom in April 1977, when he debuted in the "Amazing Spider-Man" TV series. Nicholas Hammond portrayed Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the short-lived series, which had started out as a series of TV-movies, obviously made to capitalize on the "The Incredible Hulk" television series. The show was canceled a year after its debut.

Radio series

In 1995, BBC Radio commissioned a Spider-Man 'audio book' which aired on BBC Radio 1 over 50 episodes on week days between January 15 1996 and March 24 1996. The performance was co-produced by Brian May who also contributed to the musical arrangement and wrote and performed the theme tune. [http://www.dirkmaggs.dswilliams.co.uk/The%20amazing%20spiderman%20dirk%20maggs.htm]

The scope of the story included a number of familiar characters from the Spider-Man comic books as well as key figures from the Marvel "Heroes" universe such as Fantastic Four, Namor the Submariner, and Doctor Doom.

The role of Spider-Man was performed by William Dufries. Also included in the cast list was "EastEnders" star Anita Dobson.

Games

Several games titled "The Amazing Spider-Man" have been released.

In 1980, D. Gottlieb & Co. released "The Amazing Spider-Man" pinball machine, designed by Ed Krinski as part of their Star Series 80 line. The line continued well into the early 1980s.

"The Amazing Spider-Man", a puzzle oriented action game developed by Oxford Digital Enterprises and released in 1990 for the Amiga, then later ported to PC:DOS, Commodore 64, and Atari ST. The title was published by Paragon Software Corporation and features over 250 screens. [ [http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/amazing-spider-man Moby Games] ]

In 1990, "The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin", developed and published by Sega, premiered on the Sega Master System and was later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991, the Sega Game Gear in 1992, and the Sega Mega-CD in 1993. Fundamentally, the game is the same on each platform with each iteration including new levels, enhanced graphics and a few incremental improvements to the game play. The story involves Spider-Man trying to collect six keys from six villains to defuse a bomb in New York planted by the Kingpin. Spider-Man has a finite supply of webfluid and the only way to replenish is to take photos, most profitably of the supervillains, to sell to the "Daily Bugle".

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the title of a video game released for the original Nintendo Game Boy. It was published in 1990 by LJN Ltd. (a subsidiary of Acclaim), and developed by Rare. It is a platform side scrolling action game. The game play involves running across New York chasing supervillains to locate Mary Jane Watson.

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" was released the following year and was developed by B.I.T.S. The game is a side-scrolling beat-'em up. Spider-Man attempts to clear his name after he is accused of a crime committed by the Hobgoblin. In 1993, B.I.T.S. released the third in the series titled, "".

References

* [http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/spidermn/about.htm King Features: "The Amazing Spider-Man"] (comic strip official site)
* [http://amazingspider-blog.blogspot.com The Amazing Spider-Blog] (Covers the daily strip)