For Hollywood to make ‘Spider-Man,’ only to redo the movie a couple years later, just boggles the mind. To recast ‘The Incredible Hulk’ for a third time? I don’t get it.
I loved the idea of Spider-Man as a kid, and I loved the Todd MacFarlane run in the 1990s, and the first Raimi movies were released when I was in film school. Those were big.
Spider-Man has always been a symbol of goodness and doing the right thing and looking after your fellow man.
I always had this fascination with superheroes. Who didn’t love Hulk and Spider-Man?
He can’t have any friends and maintain his secret identity as Spider-Man. He can’t even have a normal sex life. He’s a national hero, yet he’s a recluse. He’s instantly recognized by the public, but he cant tell anyone who he is.
There’s a different energy to Spider-Man than there is to Batman.
One of the reasons why Spider-Man is my favorite superhero is because we both undergo big changes in our lives.
Well I grew up following most of the major titles like ‘Fantastic Four,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘Avengers,’ etc. But I had also a lot of love for the smaller titles like ‘Master of Kung Fu,’ ‘Black Panther,’ ‘The Defenders,’ ‘Inhumans,’ and of course Power-Man and Iron Fist.’
Spider-Man initially made me want to come to New York and work for Marvel; I wanted to be a comic book artist.
I grew up loving X-Men, Spider-Man and Batman. Those are obviously the key big ones, but there’s always something kind of cool about Aquaman still, the idea of creating a huge world that is on our planet.
No one likes a pushy parent, and, ‘pride’ being one of the seven deadly sins, I needed to tread very carefully when creating a show about my eldest son, Tom, better known as Peter Parker and even better known as Marvel’s new ‘Spider-Man.’
No one knows who Peter Parker is. People just know who Spider-Man is. When you get that in the mix of growing up and finding yourself, that’s more of a relatable tone than being Captain America and having the country’s weight on your shoulders.
I’ve always had an argument with my best friend that Spider-Man was way better than Batman. I was a massive fan growing up.
‘Spider-Man’ was the best time of my life. I was there with my best friend. We shot in Atlanta. We shot every day and just had an absolute blast. ‘Avengers’ was crazy because you’re on set every day with actors I never dreamed I would work with. I’m as much a fan as anyone else.
Spider-Man has always been a symbol of goodness and doing the right thing and looking after your fellow man.
As much as I love elements of Spider-Man’s past, I don’t really want to go back in and retell the Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin story in animation just so I can do my take on it. I don’t want to redo the first ‘Spider Slayer’ story.
The success of ‘X-Men’ paved the way, I have to presume, for Sony to make Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man.’
I’ve been a comics fan since my first hit of those gateway drawings: Judy, Asterix, and the TV cartoon ‘Spider-Man and his Amazing Friend’ – which naturally led me to Spider-Man comics.
Way back in the ’70s, I was approached to talk about the story I’d write for a Spider-Man movie. They also talked to me about Batman. I had to think about it, but that was way, way back when.
When you’re a kid, and you’re a superhero lover, the holy trinity is Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, so to be able to take any of those and play with it is a huge joy.
I think ‘Spider-Man 2’ is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.
I’m not a really big comic book person. I know the typical ones – ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Storm’ and that stuff. But don’t quiz me, because I’m not good at things like that.
By having Spider-Man exist in the same universe as the Guardians of the Galaxy… C’mon, that opens up so many possibilities!
Venom first made his appearance some years ago in a Spider-Man book, and was a huge best-seller.
I actually remember the exact date I got the call that I got the ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ role – May 6, 2016. It was probably the best day of my life.
I’ve met so many of my idols, but the one person that has eluded me is Bono. But because he’s done ‘Spider-Man,’ I keep thinking maybe, through a Broadway connection, somehow our paths will eventually merge.
People are paying a premium to see movies in 3-D, and that’s a very big deal. It’s never been done before that someone says you have to pay more to see ‘Spider-Man’ than a romantic comedy.
If Spider-Man had to appear on the 90th floor of the Empire State Building, the crew would take the elevator up, open the window and say: ‘OK, Nicholas, out you go!’ There were no tricks or computer effects.
‘The Cape’ is a really good comic! They invented the whole character, and now they’ve built a book of ‘The Cape’ for the show. When I was a kid, I used to love Batman, and I loved Spider-Man. My favorite was this guy called Judge Dredd. I know they made a movie of that in the ’90s.
I collected X-Men, Spider-Man, and Daredevil comics. I definitely had a few Captain America comics lying around in those protective plastic baggies.
Even though ‘Spider-Man’ is a huge blockbuster, it really didn’t feel like that. It felt like we were making this weird, funny high school movie. Like just hanging out with a group of friends.
Each generation needs a ‘Spider-Man’ to mirror their angst.
As an adolescent, Spider-Man was what got me through tough times in terms of being a skinny kid.
Spider-Man initially made me want to come to New York and work for Marvel; I wanted to be a comic book artist.
I turned down ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Spider-Man,’ two movies that I knew would be phenomenally successful, because I had already made movies like that before and they offered no challenge to me. I don’t need my ego to be reminded.
There’s a different energy to Spider-Man than there is to Batman.
Every time I got ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ or ‘Fantastic Four’ or another book firmly on the rails, we got pulled into some big event book or crossover and it cost momentum and messed badly with the pacing and structure of the book.
Back in the early 1970s, what got me and another 400,000 kids out of bed without needing to be called twice was the latest issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.
I got a message that Quentin Tarantino would like to meet me, that he was a Spider-Man fan and wanted to talk about playing Peter Parker. We had a general chat, a nerdy conversation about Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s.
It’s important not to make Spider-Man masculine because he’s a kid. As soon as you make him masculine, it’s harder to relate to him if you are younger and are in high school. I definitely was not masculine in high school.
More than any other super-hero, ‘Spider-Man’ presents us with something very local in its ethics. It’s not messianic. It’s far more tangible.
I feel like what we’ve done in ‘Homecoming’ is really scratching the surface with Spider-Man.
Every generation has their favorite Spider-Man television show. For a lot of us, it’s the one that has the song, ‘Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can.’
There’s so much I’m interested in that I didn’t discover in high school. For ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, because Gwen is a scientist, we went to a lab in San Diego, and we were learning about biology. And I’m fascinated! Because I never went to biology class in high school.
I’m really into Spider-Man, in particular. Since I was a little kid.
People of African descent, most of us grew up accepting and loving Spider-Man. I still love Spider-Man. I still love the Incredible Hulk. I still have those characters that were white role models, superheroes, heroes – whatever you want to call it. You basically had no choice but to accept those.
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