Comic Book Lit Crit: The Lee-Ditko Spider-Man: Anger

[Chronosagaaddict]

wow... that's some deep shit, I never thought of it like that. Well played sir..

[spidercarnagevenom1]

HAHAHAHAHA, he's a teenager you idiot, he doesn't understand responsibility, until he is faced with head on,((later in the issues, later in the story, like in real life)) but even the most responsible adult would forget his morals and ethics to kick a little murderer ass....

[WatchThisReview]

It's an interesting take, but many of the early interactions were brought on against Parker by bullies (when he was actually attempting to join in) rather than his bad attitude which was more present as the run continued. Many of the antisocial behaviors were brought on by direct negative experiences with the individuals themselves (Flash, the wrestling promoter, etc). He definitely had more of a violent streak, though, and his anger has always been somewhat present to a much lesser degree.

[spideyhaswebshooters]

The Lee-Ditko Spider-Man era is the best and the Lee-Romita team is good until mid-1970. After that it's all rehash -- only with violence, death, and "darkness".

The seeds of Peter's anger were sown by his peers who ostracized him first. As he once said "the rest of the world can go hang for all I care". Peter has had to mature past the cruelty of adolescence in order to become more socially responsible but it's never easy for a hero to care in a world that is still cruel and full of hatred.

[Jenga666]

Agree with everything you've said. Spidey has defended his secret identity more jealously than any other comic book figure (Quesada has no idea what he's doing), but please don't look at him as a teenager anymore; Spidey has aged. Even after brand new day he's an experienced man.

[Xman78]

The first thing I would do with super powers - get rich, bang chicks. And I'm an everyman!

[batman6458]

this video is fail

[DRbiohazard]

Romita drew the coolest version of

Spider-man, but The Amazing Spider-

Man comic book has never been more

entertaining than when Steve Ditko drew

Spidey. There' never been such a wealth of new villains created than during Ditko's

tenure.

[MBproducing]

steve is a good artist though you are right he had his ups and downs. jus like you exampled for us. Cool Video!

[osleyee]

I think that spider-man is popular because his custom is unique look at other super heroes custom like batman and superman they look similar as well as others.I seriously think that peter is not that a average person he has spide power.the only think that people can related is that he has a girfriend and aunt as well as a love one past away his uncle

[lemonlysunny]

NERD!!!!!!!

[vasglorious]

Sooooo, you don't like the original comics done by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.

[TheRussells]

No; I *LOVE* Lee-Ditko! I think they're FANTASTIC. My argument isn't that the later comics are better, but that they're more "popular", that the things that make Lee-Ditko's Spidey truly amazing were gradually smoothed out by later creative teams, including Lee-Romita. Real art isn't about how many people like it, but about how good it is. B/c they're so unlike any other comics & b/c Peter is so unlike any other hero-- b/c of his anger and anti-socialness, Lee-Ditko's Spider-Man is Great Art.

[GadGades]

@TheRussells I somewhat agree, though the second big team still need interesting spider-man stories, for me, the amazing book went through a long period of it being bad. Decades, even when some good stuff was going on, it could be weird in the not so good sense. And it's because people didn't let Peter be a character. It's why the mary jane marriage lasted way longer than it was believable, if you take into account the problems it had.

[GadGades]

@TheRussells including just the fact that her famous stints should have made it impossible. If you look at daredevil ,issue per issue, daredevil wasn't a bad comic and it got increasingly good but for a long time, it was always one or two levels below spider-man. But afterwards, the more spider-man writers didn't seem to get Peter, or the more Daredevil surpassed him. Only recently has spider-man comics have been consistently good though no arc that's really moving.

[clickhereforfun]

You eager a wait mine huh....okay pizza tastes good with beer!!!

[SpawnGuy]

Perhaps Peter's anger stemed ultimatly from what he origonally saw Spidey as...somthing that would make his life better, and clearly wasn't. One possibility is Stan may have stuck him in the five stages of greif and left him in anger until he managed to make amends for Ben's death by saving May in the Master Planner trilogy.

[DRbiohazard]

Enjoyed your observations...thanks for posting.

Kirby and Ditko are my all-time favorite artists.

Unlike Kiby, Ditko does not get the recognition he deserves...he's the artist who

defined the look of Spidey's most famous foes.

[sadistoflovers]

something i dont relate with peter parker on is that he has liz allen, betty brant, gwen stacy, mary jane and the black cat all wanting to jump his bones and he continues to whine when he has it better than the majority of us, he supposed to be someone outsiders can view as themselves but if you try you will see he has it all, why not make the guy overweight and grotesgue to women, give him acne all over his body and dandrif and have him live in his moms basement?

[xfreak360]

hes a superhero he has to push people out of his life so they dont get hurt

[cha5]

I know that Spider Man is regarded as the most "human" and sympathetic superhero by alot of fans,

But just myself I always regarded

Jack Kirby's Ben Grimm The Thing as a far more tragic and touching character,

I'm one of those fans who feels that Kirby plotted the Fantastic Four storylines,

And I think Kirby really put alot of himself into the character of Ben Grimm,

All this is JMHO of course.

[CartoonFan56]

I also prefer Ditko, mostly for his artwork. His characters always had a quirky and neurotic look about them, something that was lost when Romita stepped in. Your theory has very much intrigued me. Very cool.

[smithryansmith]

nice theory. It makes sense that they nerd who had been picked on suddendly has the power to take revenge on those who ostrasize him. sounds more like a supervillain origin. only tragedy and guilt avert his destiny. and ditkos conservative views spill out in making parker a rebel in reverse, against the majority of his age group

[artistisgreat]

my opinion is that your opinion suX!!!!

[TheRussells]

Care to eludicate, my enthusaistic commentator?

[BushidoBen]

you got a great point bro. but if spidey was an average guy, then the story and movie wouldnt be that great to watch. we love to see a guy that was weak, but fought his way to be strong.

[TheRussells]

That's true. In the comics, that fight was a constant thing; I think the moment in the comics that made everyone say, hey, this dude is strong and never gives up, is the classic concluding chapter to the Master Planner story. It'd be interesting to see where Ditko would have taken it, had he and Lee not had their falling out.

[GadGades]

@TheRussells Y'know I think Ditko was going to make him the nice guy he ended up being. I think it was more stan lee, not trying to give him to much credit, I'll explain what I mean. Ditko did the Blue Beetle, and his blue beetle is almost an alternate Spider-man, his, or a branch. I think he would have stablize Pete, and made him a scientist. Stan's not a great writer but he might be the fire that early spidy had.

[GShton]

You are a nerd.

[TheRussells]

I think the proper term is "geek"; nerds are more computer-oriented. Either way, there's no need to resort to name-calling, you fribble.

[Zod79]

Good points. I've often thought the same thing. Too bad the folks who made the movies didn't make the same realization.

[TheRussells]

The movies are more in line with the Romita interpetation. And while I definitely perfer Ditko, I understand that Lee & Romita have a much wider appeal-- that the aspects that make Spider-Man so insanely popular are in some ways the result of smoothing out the truly unique traits of the character. Thanks for the comment, Zod-- I kneel before you!

[cg81]

your a loser

[TheRussells]

Thank you for your intelligent comment, cg81.

By the way? It's "you're", not "your".

But a man of your obvious scholastic rigour knows that.

Thank you for blessing us with your awe-inspiring presence and thought-provoking commentary.

[Shlabam]

(Continued from last comment) Until he came along, super heroes were all pastiches of each other, one-hundred-percent do-gooders who were perfect in every way, and their only flaws were what their powers didn't allow them to do. Of course, like all of Marvel's characters, they eventually mellowed and became people with less angry personalities that readers could sympathize with better.

[TheRussells]

I think that's a very valid point. Perhaps it was Ditko taking that personality to its logical and somewhat unlikable extrapolation that caused Lee to implement the mellowing process, as it were.

I hope this video doesn't come across the wrong way: I think the angry Spider-Man is fantastically interesting.

==Tom (Mary says hi)

[Shlabam]

Hm. Interesting theory. I can't help but think that maybe Spider-Man's original anger was a byproduct of Stan Lee's attempts (at the time) to place flaws in his super heroes, early evidenced by the dysfunctional family themes in "Fantastic Four", and the tortured monstrosity that is the Hulk.