Real name: Peter Parker
Home town: New York City area
First appearance: Amazing Spiderman #252

Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown

Spider-Man is the quintessential Marvel character. Although a super hero, he is spared none of the slings and arrows of ordinary life; he experiences difficulties with friends, family, sweethearts and employers. His powers enable him to do good, but not to improve his own lot in life, and it is his simple humanity, rather than his exotic talent, that has won him millions of enthusiastic fans. He is one super-hero who has not lost the common touch,and in fact he is frequently described as "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

In his 1962 debut, Spider-Man took to fighting crime for a reason commonplace in comic books: he was motivated by the murder of a father figure, his Uncle Ben. Yet Spidey's driving force is guilt, not revenge; he must live forever with the knowledgethat he could have prevented the killing if he had not been so self absorbed. Perhaps he suffers from a classic Oedipus complex; in any case he is certainlyneurotic, forever agonizing over the choices thatconfront him when heattempts to do the right thing. Despite his best efforts, he is viewed with a touchof suspicion by those in authority, and is sometimes considered little morethan a criminal himself.