The Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-man made his first comic book appearance in the August 1962 edition of Amazing Fantasy #15. The creator of Spider-man, Stan Lee, single handedly revived Marvel Inc., which is mostly credited to the Amazing Spider-man. Amazing Spider-man gave Marvel some of it's greatest Super Villains, including Doctor Octopus, The Green Goblin, Sandman, King Pin, The Vulture and Venom just to name a few. Many others would be created by such writers as Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Todd McFarlane. There have been over 580 Amazing Spider-man comics published with several other subsets including The Spider-man Annual and Giant Size Spider-man. The Spider-man hero eventually went on to be featured in other comics with his name in the title such as Web of Spider-man, The Spectacular Spider-man and Ultimate Spider-man

Spider-man is a character that almost wasn't ever published. When Lee pitched his idea to the company, they pretty much told him there is no way. Nobody wants to read about a troubled, geeky teenager who struggles to keep his hero life and personal life separate. It turns out they were entirely wrong. Peter Parker became the Spider-man after being bit by a radioactive spider during a field study he attended. On his way home he began noticing powers that were super human. Throughout the Spider-man series, Parker deals with his Uncle Ben's death and learns about responsibility and self sacrifice. Spider-man became the most popular character in Marvel Comics history.

There have been several animated made for television cartoons portraying Spider-man as well as three Box Office Hit movies. A fourth movie is in production and scheduled to release in 2011. Other than X-Men, the Spider-man trilogy of movies has made the most impact on comic book based films. The success of those films opened the door for such comic book based movies as Hell Boy, Jonah Hex, Daredevil and Fantastic Four. There is no limit to what comic book may be featured in a movie next. With the way special effects are advancing, the possibilities are unlimited.

Stan Lee is a native New Yorker, who was born December 28th in 1922. His real name is Stanley Lieber. He got into the comic book business as an interim editor for Kirby and Simon when he was only 19 years old. While Spider-man was his most popular character, Lee assisted in creating several Super Heroes such as The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Daredevil, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Dr. Strange to name a few. Lee has made many appearances in television shows and movies such as "The Simpsons", "Princess Diaries 2", "The Big Bang Theory" and "Robot Chicken". Lee has also experimented with his own television shows such as "Who wants to be a Super Hero?" and his now airing series, "Stan Lee's Superhumans."

While Spider-man was first known for his appearance in comic books, you can now get just about any type of item with his face or name on it. Many action figures have been made of Spider-man and his foes. Anywhere you turn, you can implement Spider-man into the room. If your child likes Spider-man then there are bed sets, curtains, light switch covers, lunchboxes and clothes that can be found with Spider-man's image on them. If you are a Comic Book lover, there are also several Christmas ornaments of Spider-man out there. And since it is coming up on the Christmas season I have listed a few of my favorite Spider-man Christmas Ornaments from Amazon.