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Misc06.08.2011

Spider-Man’s lost lustre

Spider-Man was invented 50 years ago, and swiftly became Marvel's most popular character. The company did what companies always do when a product hits big: they manufactured more product. The original Amazing Spider-Man magazine was joined by Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spider-Man Family, Ultimate Spider-Man and many, many others. Thousands of storylines were spun, each increasingly desperate to milk some more web-fluid out of the property. Each super-villain was killed and reanimated and re-killed ad infinitum. Spidey's secret identity was revealed, re-hidden, revealed, re-hidden. Fans gawped in exasperation when Peter Parker's moribund Aunt May was finally shot, only for Peter to make a bargain with the demon Mephisto to resurrect her in exchange for the erasure of Peter's marriage to Mary Jane. Confused? It gets a lot more complicated than this.