Amazing Fantasy #15 (First Appearance)

History

Peter Parker was orphaned at the age of six when his parents were killed in an airplane crash overseas. He went to live with his uncle and aunt, Ben and May Parker, in Forest Hills, New York. Parker was extremely bright and became a high honors student at Midtown High School. Parker's shyness and scholastic interest often made him a social outcast. One evening, Parker attended a public exhibition demonstrating the safe handling of nuclear laboratory waste materials sponsored by the General Techtronics Corporation. During the demonstration, a small Common House Spider happened to be in the path of a particle accelerator's beam and was massively irradiated. The stricken spider fell on to Parker's hand, broke his skin with its fangs, and died. With his hand burning from the bite, Parker left the exhibition. Parker made his way home and passed through an unfamiliar section of the city where he was accosted by a gang of hoodlums. Tossing the gang members aside, Parker was shocked by his own display of strength. As he fled from them, he ran into the path of a speeding car, and leaped to safety about 30 feet up onto a nearby wall. To his growing surprise, he discovered that he was able to stick to the wall with his fingertips. As he easily walked down a guy wire to the street below, he realized that he now possessed a superb sense of balance. Parker quickly associated these spider-like abilities with the bite from the irradiated spider.

Parker went home, where his Aunt May sent him on an errand to deliver clothing to a charity driver located in a nearby National Guard Armory. There he saw a wrestling match which offered a prize for anyone who could remain in the ring at least 3 minutes with a professional wrestler. Interested in testing his new-found powers, Parker decided to accept the wrestler's challenge. Wearing a mask to conceal his features to avoid embarassment in case he lost, he easily defeated his opponent. A television producer's talent agent spotted him and promised him a segment on a network variety show. Parker, calling himself the "Amazing Spider-Man", accepted the offer and decided to use it as a springboard to a show business career as a spectacular stunt performer. Over the next several evenings, Parker used equipment borrowed from his high school to fabricate a fluid that imitated a spider's silk web, and spinneret devices to project that fluid from his wrists in the form of a web strand. He also silkscreened his original design for a costume onto a body stocking and full-head mask. Thus prepared, Peter Parker appeared as Spider-Man on national television and was an immediate media sensation.

Just after the conclusion of the television show, a buglar, being pursued by a security guard, ran by Parker who impetuously allowed him to pass although he could have easily stopped him. When reprimanded by the guard, Parker arrogantly replied he was a professional performer and that chasing criminals was the guard's job. Parker promptly forgot the incident. A few days later, Parker returned home to find that his Uncle Ben had been murdered by a burglar. A police officer informed him that the burglar had been trailed to a nearby abandoned warehouse where the police had him trapped. Grief-stricken, Parker rushed to the warehouse to seek vengeance. At the warehouse Parker, as Spider-Man, easily captured the burglar and realized that he was the same person that he had allowed to run past him earlier that day in the TV studio. He realized that if he had acted responsibly earlier, he might have prevented the death of his uncle. Filled with remorse, he realized that with power comes responsibility, and he vowed to never shirk that responsibility again.

Peter began to use his powers to fight crime. He also tried to join the hero team Fantastic Four in their formative stages but was dismissed. As a solo hero, Parker took pictures of his fights as Spider-Man using an automatic camera, and then sold the pictures to the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man rapidly became one of the most well-known citizens in New York City, although, unfortunately, many people think of him as a menace due to the editorials of Bugle's editor J. Jonah Jameson. Parker's main concern about Aunt May was that, if she ever found out his secret identity as Spider-Man, it would aggravate her weak heart condition.

During this time, Parker dated Betty Brant of the Daily Bugle, although Liz Allan had a crush on him. At the same time, both Aunt May and her neighbor, Aunt Anna, were encouraging Parker to date Anna's niece, Mary Jane Watson, whom he would not meet until months later.

After high school, Parker enrolled in Empire State University, and divided his time as a hero, a student, and photographer. Eventually, Parker moved into his own apartment. During this time, he developed a relationship with Gwen Stacy. Unfortunately, during Spider-Man's conflict with the original Green Goblin, Stacy was killed. Some time later, Parker developed a steady relationship with Mary Jane. Parker proposed marriage, although Mary Jane declined, and soon left Parker's life for many months.

Eventually, Parker graduated from ESU, and pursued his career as a hero and photographer. As he continued to live on his own, as his Aunt May decided to transform her house into a senior citizens' boarding house. At one point Parker began a romantic relationship and heroic partnership with the Black Cat, although Parker later broke it off due to the Black Cat's disdain for Parker's life apart from being Spider-Man.

Prior to this, Spider-Man was among the heroes kidnapped by the powerful Beyonder to fight in his so-called "Secret Wars." When his costume was damaged, Parker tried using the futuristic technology on the Beyonder's planet to repair it, and instead, replaced it with an alien "symbiote" which transformed into a black version of Spider-Man's costume, perhaps based on the newly appeared Spider-Woman. Parker used the symbiote for his costume, which was capable of transforming into street clothing as well as generate webs. When the costume behaved strangely, Parker sought help from the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic, who discovered the costume was a living organism. He helped remove the costume by force, and kept it in Fantastic Four headquarters in captivity. The symbiote would later escaped, plaguing the life of Parker again and ultimately merging with one of Spider-Man's critics Eddie Brock, creating the villain Venom.

As Spider-Man, Parker has met and fought alongside nearly every hero in Manhattan, if not the world. Although he had fought with the hero team Avengers many previous times, he tried to join their number when he learned of the financial stipend their members received. Parker helped them stop an invasion and subsequent breakout of the energy research and villain interment facility, Project Pegasus. Spider-Man was deemed, however, to disruptive to the team's cohesiveness, and was denied membership. Later, however, Spider-Man met the international mercenary Silver Sable, often working on her behalf.

Later still, Mary Jane returned to Parker's life, and, after a battle between Spider-Man and the Puma, she revealed that she had known (or at least suspected) Peter Parker's secret identity from almost the beginning of his career. Soon after, the two were married.

Peter's old friend Harry Osborn leased the couple a loft in the building that Harry and his family are also living in. Mary Jane's niece Kristie also temporarily moved in with the Parkers at one point. Eventually, however, the Parkers had to move into a room in Aunt May's house due to financial problems.

At this time Spider-Man once again allied with the Avengers to stop the alien Nebula from destroying reality with her Infinity Union. An increasingly unnerved Spider-Man, unaccustomed to dealing with cosmic-scale menaces, accidentally allowed Nebula to absorb the power of the Infinity Union, although the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the alien Stranger thwarted her regardless. Parker was told again that Spider-Man may not be suited for Avengers membership, although later he was inducted into their number on a provisional basis.

Parker later returned to his studies and postgraduate work as a lab assistant at Empire State University. During this time, Parker was briefly endowed with the powers of Captain Universe, in order to stop a series of robots, including the mutant-killing Sentinels. Once the menace was defeated, the extra powers left him.

Later still, Aunt May supposedly suffered a debilitating heart attack and died shortly after revealing she knew Parker's secret. This also led to Parkers meeting Ben Reilly, whom he had fought earlier as a clone of himself. Reilly created a similar spider-costume, dubbed the Scarlet Spider by the Daily Bugle, and helped Spider-Man in his adventures. Shortly afterwards, Mary

Jane became pregnant. Peter and Mary Jane briefly moved to Seattle, as Parker considered retiring from being Spider-Man in order to start a family.

Reilly eventually assumed the identity of Spider-Man himself, since the second villain by the name Doctor Octopus tarnished the reputation of the Scarlet Spider. Mary Jane, meanwhile, was to give birth to baby May Parker, but has rushed to the hospital under the pretense of medical emergency. The baby was stolen by the original Green Goblin, unknown to the Parkers, who were told the baby died in miscarriage. When the Green Goblin tried to kill Peter Parker, Ben Reilly jumped in front of the Goblin's glider, sacrificing himself to save Parker.

After many more months of adventuring, Spider-Man was framed for a crime and increased pressure was placed on capturing him. In order to continue his crime-fighting career and investigate the fraudulent claims, Parker relinquished his Spider-Man identity while creating four unique and separate ones: Dusk, Hornet, Prodigy, and Ricochet. As Dusk, Parker was able to investigate the villain Trapster and publicly exonerate Spider-Man, at which point he resumed the identity.

When the Avengers were attempting to reform their number after disbanding for a year after the crisis known as Onslaught, Spider-Man was contacted due to his past affiliation with them. However, by his own choice Parker decided to dissolve ties with the Avengers.

Aunt May was later discovered to be alive; the woman who seemingly died was in actuality a genetically modified actress. Parker, Mary Jane, and Aunt May moved to an apartment in Manhattan. Parker had promised Mary Jane to give up his Spider-Man identity, but he would continually sneak out at night as Spider-Man. Their marriage began to strain, in part because of a new modeling career of Mary Jane and in part because Parker's secret was discovered. Before they could reconcile, however, Mary Jane was supposedly killed when her airplane exploded. For a long time, Parker refused to believe her dead, but eventually grew to accept it.

More recently, however, Parker discovered Mary Jane was alive, captured by a villain who had been stalking her prior to her airplane flight. After a brief reconciliation, Mary Jane requested to leave Parker once more, saying that she needed time to adjust by herself. He soon took a job as a teacher at his somewhat beloved Midtown High. After getting this job, he encountered a strange old man named Ezekiel (Amazing S-M V2 #30) who possessed powers very similar to his. He knew Peter's secret identity and talked to him about things about his powers he had never thought of, like, "Did the radiation enable the spider to give you these powers? Or was the spider trying to give you those powers before it died?" After many questions, telling Spidey his powers were 'totemistic' in nature, and showing Peter what he could've done, had he stayed in showbiz, Ezekiel warned Peter about a totemistic predator named Morlun, who would try to kill him. After ignoring the warnings of Ezekiel, and being defeated by Morlun, Spidey attempted to get Ezekiel to help him. Refusing to do so, Spidey went after Morlun again after Spidey found him terrorizing innocent people. After being nearly beaten again, Ezekiel helped Spidey, but seemingly perished. Spidey then injected himself with radiation at a nuclear plant, which hurt Morlun, thus enabling Spider-man to defeat him. However, after the brutal battle, Spider-man returned to his apartment, and fell deep asleep. Aunt May came by, only to find that Peter had severe wounds and scars, and a tattered Spider-man costume on the floor. After a day of coming to grips with the fact that her nephew is Spider-man, Aunt May revealed that she knew. Now their relationship is stronger than ever, and eventually, Mary Jane and Peter reunited for good. Later still, after a breakout at the Raft Security Prison, Spider-man joined the New Avengers. May, Peter, and Mary Jane have moved into Avengers Tower after an enemy destroyed both Peter's and May's places.

Changes resulting from a confrontation with Morlun (The Other storyline) have caused Peter to try and reconcile 'the man and the spider' within himself. He has now gained greater speed, poisonous, razor-sharp stingers located within his arms, night vision, increased sensory awareness via vibratory patterns transmitted through the hairs on his body and through his weblines, a greater clinging ability, and equal superhuman strength in order to carry heavy objects on his back.

Following the latest events of "The Other" and along Spideys "The Road to Civil War" (Amazing S-M: 529-531) Tony Stark used his knowledge and highest-tech equipment to tailor Peter a new and in many ways extraordinary suit. It is based on nano-fibre and is controlled by Peter himself by thinking of what he wants it to do. In its appearence and funtion it quite resembles Iron Man´s armor and since Spider-Man very much became Tony´s right hand, Spider-Man was dubbed "Iron Spidey"...

Since the Civil War started, Spider-Man has been having an inner conflict with himself on deciding whose side he should be on. On one hand, Iron Man (Spider-Man's new boss and friend), wants him to be for the Superhero Registration Act (as seen in the books, also referred to as Superhuman Registration Act by some creators and other officials, referring to it as SRA seems most appropriate). However, having had a secret identity, Spider-man would´ve rather been with Captain America, against the SRA. That's changed now. After talking to Aunt May and Mary Jane who totally back him up and reassured him, Spider-Man recently (Civil War #2) revealed his secret identity at a press conference held by Iron Man to an entire room of stunned media, name and all!

This was Peter’s show of commitment to the cause and a show of solidarity with his mentor, Tony Stark. Peter went above and beyond the requirements of the SRA when he outed himself. It was a question of loyalty, and a very, very personal choice. Peter feels indebted to Tony for all he's done for him and his family; this is one way of repaying that. After all Peter is Tony´s right hand in this conflict and just like Tony he very much needed to unmask to be able to stand for what he represents.

Also, if Peter hadn't revealed his identity, he would've become an outlaw. It would've cut him off from his family, or put them on the wrong side of the law. Peter knows the meaning of: "With great power comes great responsibility." He feels that burden every day, and when something is law or something is made illegal, he takes it extremely seriously. People like J. Jonah Jameson have been declaring for years that Spider-Man has no regard for the law. If he openly defied the Registration Act, then he would have verified once and for all the worst things that had ever been said about him.

Poor Jonah ;)...

Power

Spins a web, anytime...

Strength Level: Spider-Man's musculature has been augmented so that he can lift (press) between 10 and 25 tons Although, he generally can lift 10 tons or more under duress. Because of his recent change, The Other, it has been stated he can lift 25 tons. Known Powers: Spider-Man possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and equilibrium; the ability to cause parts of his body to stick with great tenacity to most surfaces; a subconscious premonitional "danger" sense; organic webbing generation; a psychic alignment with the insects and spiders in his immediate environment; retractable, razor-sharp, venomous stingers; night vision; and the ability to sense vibrations transmitted from the hairs on his body or his webbing. The irradiated Common House Spider (Achaearanea tepidariorum) which bit Peter Parker was apparently already mutated from prior exposure to certain frequencies of radiation and received a final, lethal dose during Parker's attendance of the exhibition. The radioactive, complex mutagenic enzymes in the spider's blood that were transferred at the time of the bite triggered numberous body-wide mutagenic changes within Parker. Superhuman Strength: Spider-man was originally capable of lifting 10 tons or more under duress. This capacity was increased to 15 tons in an encounter with an enemy called the Queen, and due to events taking place in Spider-Man: The Other, Spider-Man's strength may be in the Class 20 - Class 25 range. His leg muscles have developed to the point where he can easily jump several stories in a single bound. If Spider-Man is under extremely great stress, he can to lift several tons over his normal strength if the need arises.

• Superhuman Stamina: due to mutagenic exposure Spider-Man possesses stamina far above peak humans and can remain energized hours before fatigue sets in.

• Superhuman Durability: the composition of his skeleton, inter-connected tissues, and nervous system have all been enhanced. His bodily tissues are substantially more durable and resistant to impact or trauma than an ordinary human, although he is certainly not invulnerable.

• Healing Factor: Spider-Man's Healing Factor efficiency has been greatly increased

• Superhuman Agility: Spider-Man is extraordinarily limber and his tendons and connective tissues are twice as elastic as the average human being's, despite their enhanced strength.

• Superhuman Reflexes: His reflexes are faster than an average human by about a factor of 15 (he is often able to dodge bullets, if he is far enough away). Practical reaction time is at least a dozen times that of a normal human.

• Superhuman Equilibrium: He possesses the ability to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium in any position imaginable. He seems able to adjust his position by instinct, enabling him to balance himself on virtually any object, no matter how small or narrow. He has developed a unique fighting style that makes full use of his agility, strength, and equilibrium.

• Wall-Crawling: Spider-Man's exposure to the mutated spider venom induced a mutagenic, cerebellum-wide alteration of his engrams resulting in the ability to mentally control the flux of inter-atomic attraction (electrostatic force) between molecular boundary layers. This overcomes the outer electron shell's normal behavior of mutual repulsion with other outer electron shells and permits the tremendous potential for electron attraction to prevail. The mentally controlled sub-atomic particle responsible for this has yet to be identified. This ability to affect the attraction between surfaces is so far limited to Spider-Man's body (especially concentrated in his hands and feet) and another object, with an upper limit of several tons per finger. Limits to this ability seem to be psychosomatic, and the full nature of this ability has yet to be established. It is known that his control of this ability has increased recently, and it appears that his adhesive ability is now found throughout his entire body, including his face (which he can utilize to prevent undesireable mask removal), and back (which he can use to carry heavy objects on his back while webslinging).

• Spider-Senses: Spider-Man possesses an extrasensory "danger" or "spider" sense which warns him of potential immediate danger by tingling sensation in the back of his skull, and links with his superhuman kinesthetics, enabling him to evade most any injuries, unless he cognitively overrides his automatic reflexes. The precise nature of this sense is unknown. It appears to be a simultaneous clairvoyant responce to a wide variety of phenomena (everything from falling safes to speeding bullets to thrown punches), which has given several hundredths of a second's warning, which is sufficient time for his reflexes to allow him to avoid injury. The sense also can create a general response on the order of several minutes: he cannot discern the nature of the threat by the sensation. He can, however, discern the severity of the danger by the strength of his response to it. Spider-Man's fighting style incorporates the advantage that his "spidey-sense" provides him. His body begins to produce more adrenaline after the sense is triggered, an extension of the 'fight or flight syndrome.' Recently, thanks to the genetic manipulations of the Queen and the changes of the Other, Spider-man's spider-sense has improved dramatically, creating a psychic alignment with his environment, especially with other arachnids and insects, and a more empathic and sympathetic relationship with spider, his vision now allows him to see at night, (or very low-light) and sense vibrations transmitted on the hairs on his arm or on his web lines.

• Organic Webbing Projection: In the Queen saga, Spider-man, as stated below in the Webshooters section, was also gifted with the ability to organically produce his own webbing, depending on his health and vitality.

• Hibernation Healing: It was revealed in the story arc "Evolve or Die" that Spider-Man enters a state of dormancy and sheds his skin and outer tissues, just like an actual Spider, at least once in his life time. Spider-Man's recent intermittent black outs and loss of superpowers were the result of the involuntary attempt of his body to enter this dormant state. The symptoms manifested themselves because Parker was simply too stubborn to allow himself to hibernate; he finally did so as a result of a near-death experience.

• Stingers: Spider-Man has recently developed retractable, poisonous, razor-sharp stingers that are located within his arms. These stingers protrude from his wrists and are coated in a neurotoxin that causes temporary paralysis, however he has not yet developed control over them. However, they are only triggered in dire situations, such as Morlun attacking Mary Jane.

• Known Abilities: Thanks to Peter's amazing acrobatic powers and spider sense, he is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, with a fighting style derived from his spider-like attributes. He is also a brilliant individual, with exceptional skill as a scientist, an excellent inventor, and a very skilled photographer.
  
  

Equipment

• Webshooters: Spider-Man wears web-shooters which were twin devices worn on his wrists. The devices were able to shoot thin strands of a special "web fluid" at high pressure. After being altered by the "Queen", Spider-Man's body is able to organically produce its own webbing, but he still regularly employs these webshooters.

• Web fluid: A shear-thinning liquid (virtually solid until a shearing force is applied to it, rendering it fluid) whose exact formula remains unknown, but is rumoured to be related to nylon. On contact with air, the long-chain polymer knits and forms an extremely tough, flexible fiber with extraordinary adhesive properties. The web fluid’s adhesive quality diminishes rapidly with exposure to air. Where it does not make contact with air, such as the attachment disk of the web-shooter, it remains very adhesive. After approximately 2 hours, imbibed ether causes the solid form of the web fluid to dissolve into a powder. Because the fluid almost instantly sublimates from solid to liquid when under shear pressure, and is not adhesive in its anaerobic liquid/solid phase transition point, there is no clogging of the web-shooter’s parts.

The spinneret mechanism in the web-shooter is machined from stainless steel, except for the turbine component, which is machined out of a block of Teflon and the two turbine bearings, which are made of amber and artificial sapphire. The wristlet and web fluid cartridges are mainly nickel-plated annealed brass. Spider-Man’s web cartridge belt is made out of brass and light leather and holds up to 30 cartridges. The cartridges are pressurized to 300 pounds per square inch and sealed with a bronze cap which is silver soldered closed. The wristlets have sharp steel nipples, which pierce the bronze cap when the cartridges are tightly wedged into their positions. A palm switch that is protected by a band of spring steel, which requires a 65 pounds pressure to trigger, actuates the hand-wound solenoid needle valve. The switch is situated high on the palm to avoid most unwanted firings. A rubber seal protects the small battery compartment. The effect of the very small turbine pump vanes is to compress (share) the web fluid and then force it, under pressure, through the spinneret holes which cold-draws it (stretches it: the process wherein nylon gains a four-fold increase in tensile strength), then extrudes it through the air where it solidifies. As the web fluid exits the spinneret holes, it is attracted to itself electro statically and thus can form complex shapes. The spinneret holes have three sets of adjustable, staggered openings around the turbine, which permit a single line, a more complex, spun web line, and a thick stream. The web line’s tensile strength is estimated to be 120 pounds per square millimeter of cross section. The 300 pounds per square inch of pressure in each cartridge is sufficient to force a stream of the complex web pattern an estimated 60 feet (significantly farther if shot in a ballistic parabolic arc).

The web formula has been altered as needed, including an insulated version for Electro and a form of body armor while battling the Enforcers.

• Iron Spider Armor: Tony Stark has developed an armored suit for Spider-man in light of recent events. It´s made of a liquid metal nano-fibre and can more or less disappear when not needed. It responds to neurochemical impulses. The suit can also blend into a variety of backgrounds. He can give it the shapes and colours of his classic costumes for instance. The build-in waldoes can pick up things, act as weapons or look around corners if Peter wishes, displaying the results in its eyepieces. It´s capable of mid-range gliding and it´s bullet-proof against small calibre weapons. It has build-in communication devices and enhanced visual capabilities.

Transportation:

Spider-Man's main form of transportion is "web slinging" with the aid of his spider-webs. One of Spider-Mans more notable modes of transportation was the Spider-Mobile. Ironically, Spider-Man/Peter Parker to this day does not have a drivers license... leaving one to wonder how well he did drive the Spider-Mobile.