According to Stan Lee, Spider-Man’s full-body costume helped him become a comic book icon because unlike most other superheroes, anybody could imagine themselves under the costume. This gave Spider-Man a worldwide appeal from the very beginning, something that has been validated by the proliferation of Spider-heroes in the contemporary Marvel Universe.
In an interview with the comic book magazine Alter-Ego, Lee shared his take on the secret to Spider-Man’s success, decades after the fact.
“Any young person of any race could identify with Peter Parker, or rather Spider-Man,” the legendary author explained, highlighting a small but vital decision that skyrocketed the hero to fame and prestige.
Stan Lee Explains How Spider-Man’s Full-Body Costume Made Him A Global Icon
The Webslinger’s Universal Appeal, Explained
In his Alter Ego interview, along with others, Stan Lee was always frank about the fact that Spider-Man’s chances of success were far from guaranteed. As Lee explained, the head of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s hated the idea of Spider-Man, and Lee only inadvertently saved the company from making a huge mistake and passing on the hero.
Stan “the Man” put the Webslinger in Amazing Fantasy #15, and the rest is history. The character was a massive hit, and has been one of Marvel’s most popular heroes ever since. But why? Over the years, his creator came up with some compelling theories, including one subtle insight into Spider-Man’s costume which he believed was a gamechanger.
Stan stated:
There’s one very interesting thing about Spider-Man’s costume that I don’t know if everybody is aware of. And it happened, I think, accidentally. When Steve Ditko designed the costume, he covered Peter up totally. You don’t see any skin, any flesh at all. On most other superhero costumes, you see a bit of the face, or the hands, or something. Well, what happened was, it was a very fortuitous choice of costumes, because – and I learned this later; I wasn’t aware of it in the beginning – but it happened that any young person of any race could identify with Peter Parker, or rather Spider-Man. Because, for all we knew, under the costume he could have been black, …he vould have been Asian…he could have been Indian. He could have been anybody with any skin color.
In other words, it was an unintentional, but “fortuitous” creative decision that launched the career of arguably the greatest superhero. Spider-Man’s costume, in addition to being visually unforgettable, made him a sort of “blank slate” that every fan could project themselves on to. In retrospect, this gave him a universal appeal other heroes lacked.
“I think that turned out to be a wonderful thing,” Stan Lee remarked, decades later, as he made the case that it was “one of the reasons Spider-Man is so popular all over the world.” Though they didn’t mean to, Spider-Man transcended certain barriers 1960s comic creators didn’t even realize were in place, and the results still reverberate to this day.
Marvel Fulfilled The Unspoken Promise Of Spider-Man’s Costume Nearly Fifty Years After His Introduction
Miles Morales Taking The Mantle Was A Massive Step For Marvel
Stan Lee credited artist Steve Ditko with making Spider-Man’s costume head-to-toe, a counterintuitive design decision that turned out to be the most underrated brilliant aspect of the costume.Whether Ditko consciously chose to subvert familiar trends in superhero costumes or not, this move turned out to be far more consequential than he could have possibly imagined.
It was far from obvious, at first, but eventually it became clear that Spider-Man’s costume was instrumental in making him appeal to a wider audience than many other Marvel heroes. Of course, under the costume, Peter Parker was another white character, but as long as his secret identity remained obscured, the possibility remained that he could be anyone.
In 2011, when Marvel made the bold decision to kill off the Ultimate version of Peter Parker and replace him with a new Spider-Man, they chose a black character, Miles Morales, to fill the role. Curiously, Miles’ introduction to Marvel canon came in the same month that Stan Lee’s Alter Ego interview was published.
Miles fulfilled the longstanding latent promise of Spider-Man: that anyone, of any race, color, gender identity, or creed, could take up the mantle as long as they were ready for their great responsibility that came with their newfound great power. Of course, in the fifteen-years since, Marvel Comics has doubled and tripled down on this with its expanding Spider-Verse of heroes.
Spider-Man’s Arch-Relatability Has Been Foundational To His Generational Success
How The Webslinger’s Costume Helped Him Become A Timeless Icon
Marvel’s Spider-Verse has proven that any and every type of character can don a Spider-suit. The proliferation of Spider-heroes has always been recognized as an outgrowth of the original hero’s popularity, but Stan Lee’s comments about what made the classic red-and-blue design unique, and popular, add valuable new context to the discussion.
It also highlights how even the most seemingly minor creative decisions can have a massive ripple effect. From Steve Ditko at his drawing board, to Stan Lee at his typewriter, to the higher ups at Marvel, the “wrong” decision could have been made at many points along the way, making it practically a miracle Spider-Man became the hero he did.
Everything clicked into place just right when Spider-Man debuted. Ditko designed an instantly immortal costume, while Lee delivered a memorable character, both in and out of the Spidey suit. After Amazing Fantasy #15, readers clamored for more, and within a few months, Spider-Man #1 was on shelves. From there, the character steadily grew into a cultural juggernaut.
The hero’s universal appeal might not have been a major factor in those first few months, but over time it became a cornerstone of Spider-Man’s enduring popularity, and the exponential growth of his reputation as Marvel’s superstar hero. Spider-Man creator Stan Lee put it best when he called it “wonderful,” a testament to how comics bridged gaps and gave everyone a hero to relate to.
- First Appearance
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Amazing Fantasy
- Alias
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Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner
- Alliance
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Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors
- Race
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Human
