Spider-Man is among the most popular superheroes of all time. Awkward, a loner, and a bit of an introvert, the web-slinger is also one of the most relatable comic book characters out there. As he continues to amaze and inspire fans with his time in live-action and legendary comic book feats, behind the scenes the character’s origin story is muddled water and bad blood.
While in the comic book, the character is bitten by a spider, resulting in him gaining superpowers, in reality, his origins have been more of a game of tug of war between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. With the issue of its rights only having settled last year, an old interview of Lee has resurfaced on the internet, where the acclaimed comic book writer became clear about who really created the character.
Stan Lee on ‘Co-Creating’ Spider-Man with Steve Ditko
In his life and later, Steve Ditko is known to be revolutionary in comic books and comic book art. Throughout his modest, quiet life as a comic book artist in New York City, Ditko has hardly spoken about his work, given a full-length interview, or cleared the many controversies and speculations about him.
Much of these speculations have been about his association with the famous Marvel character, Spider-Man. Widely believed to be the ‘co-creator’ of the character, many including Ditko, have felt that he never really was credited as he should have been just because he ‘had’ brought to life Stan Lee‘s ideas.
While much of the many works on his life would later describe how integral and vital Ditko had been in making Spider-Man a fan-favorite and relatable character (see Rolling Stone, Robin Snyder’s History of Comics #5), Stan Lee seems to have had other opinions.
I think the person with the idea is the person who creates it. And he said ‘No, because I drew it.’ Anyway, Steve definitely felt that he was the co-creator of Spider-Man… After he said it.. I said that was fine with me.
According to Lee, Ditko was still not satisfied. Hence, Lee sent him a letter, addressed to whoever it may concern, declaring that he considered the comic book artist as the web-slinger’s co-creator.
I sent it to him… And i found out that Steve still objected to that because he felt I used the word ‘considered’… that wasn’t definitive enough. So at that point I gave up.
When asked if he would now consider him as the co-creator, Lee did not reply in the affirmative, instead added ‘I am willing to say so‘. His response as per his perspective seems right enough, yet not all fans agree. As his comments went viral, it kicked off another debate within the Marvel fandom about ‘Who really created Spider-Man?’ (see Instagram}.
Million Dollar Question: Who Really Created Spider-Man?
The question of ‘Who created Spider-Man?’ is perhaps the most controversial and debatable one of all time. This question isn’t just between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko but also includes Ditko’s mentor and frequent collaborator of Lee, Jack Kirby. Initially, it was Kirby who drew the character, but since his version did not sit right with Lee, Lee then went on to work with Ditko.
This has further muddled the already murkier tale, making it a complex question with no apparent answer, unless we stick to one or the other perspective of what ‘creator’ really means. Marvel Comics, back in the day, had employed a controversial method of creating comics, widely known as the ‘Marvel Method’.
Instead of writers receiving a full script, a paragraph or a short idea of what an issue was going to be was handed off to the artists. These artists were then responsible for drawing the entire issue, complete with pacing, small details, and plot points, only for the ‘creators’ or ‘authors’ to fill in the dialogue and narration.
Taking this perspective (as Ditko did), it would not be wrong that the artists should be held as ‘co-creators’ as well. While Kirby has been known be have publically taken up this issue, Ditko rather chose to take a private route (see IGN). Although he did try to dispel such controversies later on through ‘essays’, the question remains, with Marvel fans still widely divided.
While Spider-Man is one of the many popular characters Steve Ditko helped ‘co-create’, behind the scenes there is an even dark and murkier issue of complexities regarding the origin of other characters Ditko was involved with (see The Smart Set). With both ‘co-creators’ of Spider-Man having passed away, there is no denying that both were vital to the character even when the extent of their ‘contribution’ in the ‘creation’ of the character continues to be shrouded in mystery.
