Spider-Man

: Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics character. For other uses see Spider-Man (disambiguation).

Adaptations

Television

Spider-Man has been adapted to television numerous times, through a short-lived live-action television series and several animated cartoon series.

Related Topics:
Television - Television series

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• The first, animated series was simply titled Spider-Man, and ran on ABC from 1967 to 1970. The show's first season was produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, which soon went bankrupt. In 1968, animator Ralph Bakshi took over. Bakshi's episodes, which suffered from extremely low budgets, were stylized and featured dark ominous settings and pervasive background music. One episode reused complete background animation, characters, and storyline from an episode of Rocket Robin Hood. The series may be best remembered for its theme song. Spider-Man was voiced by Paul Soles. http://www.spiderfan.org/shows/tv_60s/index.html
• Spider-Man was also an occasional character in the 1970s children's educational show The Electric Company which presented brief tales using a combination of animation and live action called the Spidey Super Stories. In addition, in the educational spirit of the series, Spider-Man communicates only in word balloons for the viewer to read. Comic book adaptations of these stories were included in a companion kids-oriented comic book, Spidey Super Stories, published by Marvel.http://www.spiderfan.org/shows/tv_electric_co/index.html
• In 1977, a short-lived live action television series was produced called The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Nicholas Hammond in the title role. Although the series earned good ratings, fans complained about its low-budget production values and its writing, which neither followed the comics' spirit nor provided adventures that were distinctively appropriate for the character. It also suffered from a sporadic broadcast schedule. The CBS Television Network cancelled it, along with Wonder Woman, to avoid being called "the superhero network." Several episodes from this series were released as full-length motion pictures outside the U.S. Three movies were released overseas, including Spider-Man (the original TV-movie pilot from 1977), Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978), and The Dragon's Challenge (1981).
• In 1978, a Spider-Man tokusatsu series was produced for Japanese television by Toei Company Ltd., but apart from Spider-Man's costume it was not based on the original source. It also had little-to-nothing to do with the Manga Spider-Man from 1970.
• In 1980, with the creation of the animation studio Marvel Productions Ltd., Marvel endeavored to translate more of their comic characters to television. To garner the attention of the major networks, Marvel first created a new syndicated Spider-Man cartoon that was partially based on the old 60s show. The strategy worked, and NBC became interested in having their own Spider-Man cartoon.
• Towards this end the cartoon series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was created for NBC featuring Spider-Man, Iceman of the X-Men, and a new character, Firestar. Actor Dan Gilvezan gave voice to this incarnation of the wall-crawler. This series also featured a number of Marvel guest stars, and shared many of its character designs with the solo Spider-Man show produced just before it.
• In 1994, was made for the Fox Network, (to accompany their X-Men series) with Christopher Daniel Barnes providing the webslinger's voice. This series had a bigger budget and used a novel system of one large story arc per season developed by John Semper. As a result each of the individual 65 episodes (starting with season 2) were called "chapters." This series more closely reflected the comic book as it focused on the personal conflict Peter Parker felt as Spider-Man, instead of following the action-oriented shows that preceded it. http://www.spiderfan.org/shows/tv_90s/index.html
• In 1999, an animated series named Spider-Man Unlimited was developed for Fox (intended to be an Expanded Universe final season of the 1994 show) in which Spider-Man is transported to an animated Counter-Earth. Here Spidey was voiced by Rino Romano. http://www.spiderfan.org/shows/tv_unlimited/index.html
• In 2003, another television series adaptation, ' this time using computer animation was produced by Mainframe Entertainment and broadcast on MTV; it featured characters and continuity from the 2002 Spider-Man film, as well as the character Kingpin as depicted in the Daredevil movie. Spider-Man was voiced by Neil Patrick Harris.

Film

On May 3, 2002, the film Spider-Man was released. It was directed by Sam Raimi and starred actor Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. The film featured a number of impressive CGI effects to bring Spider-Man to life. Though the film adaptation took a number of liberties with the character's history and powers, most notably giving him organic web-shooters rather than mechanical, it was essentially true to the character and was widely embraced by the viewing public. Earning more than $403 million at U.S. box offices, it was the highest-grossing movie of the year while also opening up at a record $114.8 million. Spider-Man went on to become the sixth highest-grossing film in North American history and is ranked 11th worldwide with a total take of more than $821 million internationally.

Related Topics:
May 3 - 2002 - Film - Spider-Man - Sam Raimi - Tobey Maguire - CGI

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Spider-Man 2 was 2004's second-most financially successful movie and 15th-most financially successful movie of all time. It premiered in more North American movie theaters (4,152) than any previous movie. Its first-day gross ($40.5 million) surpassed its predecessor's $39.4 million record. The only higher single-day movie gross was Shrek 2's $44.8 million in the first weekend of its May 2004 release, and s $50 million on the first day of its May 2005 release.

Related Topics:
Spider-Man 2 - 2004 - Financially successful movie of all time - Shrek 2

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Spider-Man 2 was the first motion picture released in the Sony UMD format for the PlayStation Portable, being included for free with the first one million PSP systems released in the United States.

Related Topics:
Sony - UMD - PlayStation Portable - United States

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Video games

Main article: Spider-Man (games)

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Spider-Man first appeared in video game form in 1982, in the Parker Brothers game Spider-Man for the Atari 2600. http://www.spiderfan.org/software/console/1983_parker_brothers/index.html Subsequently, Spider-Man games were created by Acclaim, Sega, Paragon Software Corporation, LJN, and Activision for various video game consoles over the years. Spider-Man has also been featured as a character in several fighting games made by Capcom, beginning with Marvel Super-Heroes and continuing in the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Related Topics:
1982 - Parker Brothers - Atari 2600 - Acclaim - Sega - Paragon Software Corporation - LJN - Activision - Video game console - Fighting game - Capcom - Marvel Super-Heroes - ''Marvel vs. Capcom'' series

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Two three-dimensional Spider-Man games (Spider-Man and ') were developed for the PlayStation. The first game was developed by Neversoft, using a similar engine to their Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games (Spider-Man was also a secret character in the second installation of THPS). The second game was developed by Vicarious Visions. The first title also appeared on Sega Dreamcast, N64 and PC. The second was PlayStation only. Both games were successful.

Related Topics:
Spider-Man - PlayStation - Neversoft - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Vicarious Visions - Sega Dreamcast - N64 - PC

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In tandem with the 2002 release of Spider-Man the movie, Activision released Spider-Man, the first Spider-Man game for all the major video game console systems, including Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC, as well as a portable version for the Game Boy Advance.

Related Topics:
2002 - Spider-Man - Nintendo GameCube - Xbox - PlayStation 2 - PC - Game Boy Advance

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Most recently, the 2004 video game Spider-Man 2 by Activision was released along with the Spider-Man 2 movie, also for GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2, a version was made specifically for PC, plus a handheld versions for both Game Boy Advance and the N-Gage. Like the movie, it opened to critical and commercial success.

Related Topics:
2004 - Spider-Man 2 - GameCube - Xbox - PlayStation 2 - PC - Game Boy Advance - N-Gage

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2005 saw another version of Spider-Man 2, this time for Sony's new handheld, the PlayStation Portable; which debuted in the first quarter of the year along with the system.

Related Topics:
2005 - PlayStation Portable

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Ultimate Spider-Man came out in September 2005. It is cel shaded and features both Spider-Man and Venom as playable characters. It is based off the Ultimate Spider-Man comics. The game is available on PC, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS.

Related Topics:
September 2005 - Cel shaded - Venom - Ultimate Spider-Man - PC - GameCube - PlayStation 2 - Xbox - PlayStation Portable - Nintendo DS

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Real life

Spider-man imitators in real life include :

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• "Spider Dan" Goodwin, who in 1981, climbed the glass of the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center in Chicago using suction cups.
• Alain Robert nicknamed Spiderman, rock and urban climber who has scaled more than 70 tall buildings using his hands and feet, without using additional devices. He sometimes wears a Spider-Man suit during his climbs. In May 2003, he was paid approximately $18,000 to climb the 312-foot, Lloyd's of London, to promote the premiere of the movie Spider-Man on the British television channel, Sky Movies.