Newspaper Article

CREATURE FEATURE, Finding the inner Spidey in us all, Spider-Man strikes a chord in popular culture because he is just an average guy with abnormal talents

DANNY FINGEROTH. Danny Fingeroth, a consultant on the first Spider- Man movie, is the author of "Superman on the Couch." This is from the Los Angeles Times

2004

Overview

When I was editorial director of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man line, we used to refer to Spidey as \"the regular-guy superhero.\" He really could be any one of us. To be Superman, you had to come from another planet. To be Wonder Woman you had to be born a mythological Amazon princess. But to be Spider-Man, you just had to be bitten by a radioactive spider. (Hey, it could happen.) Because no matter how bad things became for [Peter Parker]/Spidey, he always approached his responsibilities the way we all do - ambivalent and complaining all the way. Sure, he felt a responsibility to use his powers for good. He was brought up right. But he wanted to have fun - because, really, how could swinging through the canyons of New York not be fun? Sometimes he loved being Spider-Man; sometimes he hated it. Sometimes he turned his back on it for a while. But his sense of responsibility always brought him back. And that's what we'd all like to think we'd do in his place. To paraphrase Walt Kelly's Pogo: We have met the Spider-Man and he is us.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC
• Subject: Parker, Peter