Elementor #14941
In 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in teenage demand for comic books, and the desire to create a character with whom teens could identify.[16]: 1 As with Fantastic Four, Lee saw Spider-Man as an opportunity to “get out of his system” what he felt was missing in comic books.[17] In his autobiography, Lee cites the non-superhuman pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider as a great influence,[15]: 130 and in a multitude of print and video interviews, Lee stated he was further inspired by seeing a spider climb up a wall—adding in his autobiography that he has told that story so often he has become unsure of whether or not this is true.[note 1] Although at the time teenage superheroes were usually given names ending with “boy”, Lee says he chose “Spider-Man” because he wanted the character to age as the series progressed, and moreover felt the name “Spider-Boy” would have made the character sound inferior to other superheroes.[18] He also decided to insert a hyphen in the name, as he felt it looked too similar to Superman, another superhero with a red and blue costume which starts with an “S” and ends with “man”[19] (although artist Steve Ditko intended the character to have an orange and purple costume).[20] At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the character’s approval. In a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodman’s objections.[note 2] Goodman eventually agreed to a Spider-Man tryout in what Lee in numerous interviews recalled as what would be the final issue of the science-fiction and supernatural anthology series Amazing Adult Fantasy, which was renamed Amazing Fantasy for that single issue, #15 (cover-dated August 1962, on sale June 5, 1962).[21] In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already been decided that Amazing Fantasy would be canceled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man.[18] While this was indeed the final issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing and that “The Spiderman [sic] … will appear every month in Amazing.”[21][22]