Spider-Man, Namor, and Reverse Spider-Man!

I’ve told you about Spider-Man before,  and how Stan Lee “created” him in the Silver Age. He debuted in 1962 in his “Modern” incarnation. Much and/or most of the credit belongs to artist Steve Ditko, a very interesting man. In addition to designing/creating many of comicdom’s pantheon, Spider-Man, The Creeper, Hawk and Dove, Doctor Strange, The Question, and more, Steve Ditko was also known for his very public infatuation with Ayn Randian Objectivism. 

Politics aside, Spider-Man became wildly popular and he was often brought in to a comic book to increase sales, or, a character guest starred in Spider-man as a way for Marvel to promote various other titles. In one instance they featured Namor, The Sub-Mariner before he got his own book. As a child, I enjoyed the concept of Spider-Man but his rouge’s gallery was crap, too many animal based, The Vulture, The Rhino, The Scorpion, The Beetle…

I DID enjoy the 1960’s cartoon, knew the animation sucks even then, but enjoyed the jazzy background music and Spider-Man’s quips.  Much the same reason to watch the current Spider-Man cartoon, where, oddly enough he’s a teen trainee under Ultimate Nick “Samuel Jackson” Fury! In a team with Power Man, Iron Fist, Nova, and White Tiger.

I don’t think Namor will make it to live action, who could believe tiny ankle wings could make a man fly?  Another Spider-Man villain  that will likely never be live action is the nearly completely forgotten Reverse Spider-Man. Just like Spider-Man but evil, with reversed colors! Parker Peters kidnapped a busload of blind orphan kids the first time he appeared in issue #55 .  He was to be known as only interested in bringing life energy back into his Negative Zone so he could build a powerbase there.

This is Spider-Man’s first encounter with the Fantastic Four; he was brought in to raise 

lagging sales.The Fantastic Four were a moderately successful Marvel title, they got their varying powers through exposure to the same dose of the same type of cosmic radiation. Really? Plus, after such a miscalculation no one would consider investing in Reed Richard's company, or whatever he does to make money?

The FF were created in response to DC Comic's Justice League of America but they also had a lot of similarities to  Challengers of the Unknown.  Next time I’ll show you what happened when Spider-Man  joined the Fantastic Four; also, Spider-Man’s  “Custom” FF uniform. 

Remember, it gets worse.