2. THE STORY Spider-Man is a Marvel character. He is a superhero but he lives an ordinary life; he experiences difficulties with friends, family, sweethearts and employers. His powers enable him to do good and help people, but not to solve his ordinary life problems, and it is his simple humanity, rather than his exotic talent, that has won him millions of enthusiastic fans. He is one super-hero who has not lost the common touch, and in fact he is frequently described as "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." In his 1962 debut, Spider-Man took to fighting crime for a reason commonplace in comc books: he was motivated by the murder of a father figure, his Uncle Ben. Yet Spidey's driving force is guilt, not revenge; he must live forever with the knowledge that he could have prevented the killing if he had not been so self absorbed. Perhaps he suffers from a classic Oedipus complex; in any case he is certainly neurotic, forever agonizing over the choices that confront him when he attempts to do the right thing. Despite his best efforts, he is viewed with a touch of suspicion by those in authority, and is sometimes considered little more than a criminal himself. As originally depicted by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, Peter Parker was just a bit of a wimp. Bright, imaginative, but nonetheless an alienated adolescent, he might well have been a typical comic book reader. Although he has matured and gained in confidence over the years. Spidey is still all to human. He misses appointments, catches the flu when he needs to fight, forgets to put film in his camera and has trouble paying the rent. In short Spider-Man remains Everyman, "the super hero who could be you."

4. SUPERPOWERS

5. MARY JANE WATSON

6. MAY PARKER May parker is an independent woman in her 50s who works as a secretary and regularly sees a therapist to deal with the death of her husband Ben. May used to hate Spider-Man because she believed he had no regard for innocent bystanders and hid himself behind a mask. Finally, she learns Peter's secret identity, something that initially makes her angry,but after some time she accepts it. Aunt May seemed to be scared of the idea of Peter risking his life on a constant basis, but supports him anyway.

7. BEN PARKER When Ben's much younger brother Richard Parker and his wife Mary were killed in a plane crash, Ben and May took in their orphaned son Peter and raised him as their own. Ben was very protective of Peter, going as far as fighting some of the bullies that tormented young Parker. Peter became friends with Charlie Weiderman in high school, a teen even more unpopular than he was. However, Charlie often provoked the trouble with the other teens. One day, he was chased to the Parker home by a group of bullies, led by and Ben intFlash Thompson ervened. Ben told them that if they wanted Charlie, they would have to go through him. Flash tried to, but was surprised by Ben's army training. As soon as the bullies were gone, he told the boy that he wasn't welcome at the house or with Peter. In high school, a radiocasete spider bite gave Peter superhuman powers. Creating the costumed identity of Spider-Man for himself, Peter sought first to exploit his newfound powers as a masked wrestler and then as a television star. Coming from a television appearance, Spider-Man saw a burgler being chased by a security guard. The guard called for Spider-Man to stop the thief, but the nascent Spidey refused on the grounds that catching criminals was not his job. The robber got away. When Peter later returned home, he was informed that his beloved Uncle Ben had been killed by a burglar. Outraged, he donned his Spider-Man costume and captured the man only to realize to his horror that it was the same burglar whom he could have effortlessly captured earlier at the studio. As a result, Peter considered himself morally responsible for Ben's death and resolved to fight crime as a superhero — realizing that with great power comes great responsibility — and vowing never to let another innocent person come to harm if he could help it.

8. TO BE CONTINUED ...