title: Academy Awards

text: Oscar gift bags have included vacation packages to Hawaii and Mexico and Japan, a private dinner party for the recipient and friends at a restaurant, videophones, a four-night stay at a hotel, watches, bracelets, spa treatments, bottles of vodka, maple salad dressing, weight-loss gummie candy and up to $25,000 worth of cosmetic treatments and rejuvenation procedures such as lip fillers and chemical peels from New York City facial plastic surgeon Konstantin Vasyukevich. Some of the gifts have even had a "risque" element to them; in 2014, the adult products retailer Adam & Eve had a "Secret Room Gifting Suite". Celebrities visiting the gifting suite included Judith Hoag, Carolyn Hennesy, Kate Linder, Chris Mulkey, Jim O'Heir, and John Salley.


title: Attack on Titan

text: An anime television series was produced by Wit Studio (seasons 1–3) and MAPPA (season 4). A 25-episode first season was broadcast from April to September 2013, followed by a 12-episode second season broadcast from April to June 2017. A 22-episode third season was broadcast in two parts, with the first 12 episodes airing from July to October 2018 and the last 10 episodes airing from April to July 2019. A fourth and final season premiered in December 2020, airing 16 episodes in its first part. A second part consisting of 12 episodes aired from January to April 2022, and a third and final part will premiere in 2023.


title: Attack on Titan

text: "Attack on Titan" has become a critical and commercial success. , the manga has over 110million "tankōbon" copies in print worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It has won several awards, including the Kodansha Manga Award, the Attilio Micheluzzi Award, and the Harvey Award.


title: Attack on Titan

text: The story of "Attack on Titan" centers on a civilization inside three circular walls. According to the knowledge propagated locally, it is the last surviving vestige of human civilization. Its inhabitants, known as Eldians, have been led to believe that over one hundred years ago, humanity was driven to the brink of extinction after the emergence of humanoid giants called Titans, who attack and eat humans on sight. The last remnants of humanity retreated behind three concentric walls and enjoyed roughly a century of peace. Within the walls, the thought of venturing outside is strongly frowned upon and discouraged. To combat Titans, the country's military employs Vertical Maneuvering Equipment (VME), also called Omni-Directional Maneuvering Gear (ODM Gear): a set of waist-mounted grappling hooks and gas-powered propulsion enabling immense mobility in three dimensions. Swords made of ultrahard steel are used in conjunction with the gear, and eventually rocket launcher-like weapons called Thunder Spears are also developed.


title: Attack on Titan

text: There exist different types of Titans. Pure Titans are the weakest and most generic Titans, whose behavior is easy to predict, making them easy to kill. Abnormal Titans are Pure Titans whose behavior is more difficult to predict, making them far more dangerous. The Nine Titans, also known as Titan Shifters (Attack, Colossal, Armored, Female, Beast, Jaw, Cart, War Hammer, and Founding), are the strongest Titans; each is able to shift back and forth between human and Titan form to access their Titan's abilities. Many Titan Shifters also possess the ability to harden certain parts of their bodies at will, typically in order to make them virtually impenetrable, or to strengthen their blows during combat.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Pure Titans are created by injecting Eldians with Pure Titan spinal fluid. If a Pure Titan eats the human body of a person who possesses one of the Nine Titans, said Eldian will revert to human form and gain that Shifter's powers, whereupon they are cursed to live only 13 more years. If their powers are not inherited by another Eldian before their death, their powers will be inherited by an Eldian baby born shortly thereafter, regardless of distance or blood-relations.


title: Attack on Titan

text: As the story progresses, the true nature of the Titans and the existence of civilization outside the walls is revealed to the characters and the audience.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Eren Yeager is a boy who lives in the town of Shiganshina, located on the outermost of three circular walls protecting their inhabitants from Titans. In the year 845, the first wall (Wall Maria) is breached by two new types of Titans, the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan. During the incident, Eren's mother is eaten by a Smiling Titan while Eren escapes. He swears revenge on all Titans and enlists in the military along with his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman and his best friend Armin Arlert. Five years after Shiganshina's fall, the Colossal Titan attacks the city of Trost, located on the second innermost wall (Wall Rose). Eren helps to successfully defend the city after he discovers a mysterious ability to turn himself into a sentient Attack Titan. Additionally, he regains memories of his father giving him this ability shortly after the fall of Wall Maria, and telling him that the truth about their world can be found in their basement in Shiganshina. These events draw the attention of the Survey Corps and their commander, Erwin Smith, who intend to use his power to reclaim Wall Maria and reach the Yeagers' basement. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are transferred to the Special Operations Squad, under the care of Captain Levi Ackerman and Hange Zoë.


title: Attack on Titan

text: During an expedition into the forest between the walls, Eren and his companions encounter a sentient Female Titan, whom they later expose as their fellow military comrade Annie Leonhart. With help from his friends, Eren fights and defeats Annie, who encases herself in crystal and is put in custody. After the fight, it is discovered that there are Titans lying dormant within the walls (known as Wall Titans). Shortly thereafter, Pure Titans mysteriously appear within Wall Rose with no evidence of how they got in, accompanied by the sentient Beast Titan. Ymir, one of the new Survey Corps graduates, reveals that she can also transform into the sentient Jaw Titan, while Ymir's close friend Krista Lenz reveals herself as Historia Reiss, a member of the royal family. Two other members of the Survey Corps, Reiner Braun and Bertholt Hoover, reveal themselves as the Armored and Colossal Titan respectively. They attempt to kidnap Eren and Ymir, but fail. In the ensuing battle, Eren discovers another power within himself called "the Coordinate", that allows him to control other Titans, which he uses to kill the Smiling Titan and send a horde of Pure Titans to attack Reiner and Bertholt. This forces the two to escape, whereupon Ymir willingly flees with them, offering herself as sacrifice to prevent Historia from being targeted by the enemy. In the aftermath of these events, it is determined that the Pure Titans who suddenly appeared within Wall Rose were the inhabitants of various villages within Wall Rose, who had in some way been transformed into Titans. This leads the characters to the conclusion that all Pure Titans are, in fact, transformed human beings.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Eren and his friends join Levi Squad while the Survey Corps is targeted by the Military Police led by Kenny Ackerman, Levi's uncle. In the occasion, they discover that by transforming into a Pure Titan via a serum made of spinal fluid and eating another Titan shifter, a person can gain its abilities, and that Historia and her father, Rod Reiss, are the only surviving members of the royal bloodline. Rod kidnaps Eren because he is in possession of the Founding Titan, obtained by his father Grisha upon eating Frieda Reiss (Historia's half-sister), and by Eren through eating his father. Rod transforms into a monstrous Abnormal Titan, but is killed by Historia (with the help of the Survey Corps), who is thereafter declared Queen.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Having resolved the political unrest, the Survey Corps lead a successful operation to recapture Shiganshina, fighting the Beast, Colossal, Armored, and Cart Titans but suffering massive casualties, wherein Erwin dies in a suicide run against the Beast Titan, and Armin gains ownership of the Colossal Titan when Levi injects him with a serum given by Kenny, causing Armin to eat Bertholt. Eren and his companions return to his childhood home, where they discover the truth of their world: they are actually Eldians, sworn enemies of the conquering Marleyans who were enclosed within the walls after the original King Karl Fritz fled from the war. They are not the last humans as they were told, but rather an enclosed sect of Eldians on an isolated island called Paradis. Because they are "Subjects of Ymir" who can be turned into Titans by being injected with Titan spinal fluid, the Eldians continue to be oppressed by Marley. In the year after the battle of Shiganshina, the Survey Corps kill all of the remaining Pure Titans on the island.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Three years later, the Survey Corps attack Marley's capital, Liberio, orchestrated by Eren and his half-brother Zeke, who is the owner of the Beast Titan. Eren kills Willy Tybur, an Eldian who (along with his family) had been controlling Marley from the shadows and gains ownership of the War Hammer Titan after eating its previous owner, Willy's sister Lara. However, Eren is imprisoned for acting against orders but escapes with a faction of extremist Paradis soldiers called the Yeagerists. Zeke is kept in Levi's custody but manages to escape, severely injuring but not killing him.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Marley's air fleet, led by Reiner, launch an invasion of Paradis, and chaos breaks out in the ensuing battle. Eren and Zeke reunite, which leads them to the Paths—a series of gateways connecting all Eldians through time and space. There, they meet the consciousness of Ymir Fritz—the original Titan—whose tortured past led to her imprisonment within the Paths for thousands of years. Zeke attempts to convince Ymir to fulfill his wish to stop the Subjects of Ymir from reproducing via mass sterilization. However, Eren convinces Ymir to use her power to bring about the Rumbling—unleashing thousands of Wall Titans kept within Paradis' walls and leading them on a genocidal march to kill everyone outside the island.


title: Attack on Titan

text: The Survey Corps ally with remaining Marley forces, including Reiner and a now-freed Annie to stop Eren, and they defeat the Yeagerists before confronting Eren. After Levi kills Zeke and a mysterious creature that is the source of all Titans' powers, Mikasa kills Eren, causing the power of the Titans vanish, reverting all Titans to human form, and stripping the Titan Shifters of their powers, thereby freeing all Eldians from the curse. It is revealed that what transpired was part of Eren's plan to spare twenty percent of humanity, with Armin, Levi, Mikasa, and the others being recognized as heroes in the eyes of the world for killing him and stopping the Rumbling.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Three years later, as Paradis and the rest of the world rebuilds, Armin and his allies begin peace negotiations led by Queen Historia. Mikasa buries Eren underneath a tree on a hill near Shiganshina District. The tree grows over time to resemble the one where the organism that granted Ymir her Titan power lived. An unspecified amount of time after Mikasa's death from old age, a modernized Shiganshina is reduced to rubble in a war. The series ends with a boy and a dog approaching the tree, which has become surrounded by wilderness, indicating that the Titans may return.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Hajime Isayama created a 65-page one-shot version of "Attack on Titan" in 2006. Originally, he also offered his work to the "Weekly Shōnen Jump" department at Shueisha, where he was advised to modify his style and story to be more suitable for "Jump". He declined and instead decided to take it to the "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" department at Kodansha. Before serialization began in 2009, he had already thought of ideas for twists, although they are fleshed out as the series progresses. The author initially based the scenery in the manga on that of his hometown of Hita, Ōita, which is surrounded by mountains.


title: Attack on Titan

text: While working at an internet cafe, Isayama encountered a drunken customer who grabbed him by the collar. It was this incident that showed him "the fear of meeting a person I can't communicate with", which is the feeling that he conveys through the Titans. When designing the appearances of the Titans, he uses several models such as martial artist Yushin Okami for Eren Yeager's Titan form as well as Brock Lesnar for the Armored Titan. George Wada, the anime's producer, stated that the "Wall of Fear" was influenced by the isolated and enclosed nature of Japanese culture. He also said that the inner feelings of every individual is one of the series' main themes. Isayama later would confirm that "Attack on Titan" was inspired in part by "Muv-Luv Alternative", the second visual novel in the "Muv-Luv" visual novel series.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Isayama estimated his basic monthly timeline as one week to storyboard and three weeks to actually draw the chapter. The story was planned out in advance, even marking down in which collected volumes a specific "truth" would be revealed. In September 2013, he stated that he was aiming to end the series in 20 collected volumes. Originally, Isayama planned to give the series a tragic conclusion similar to that of the film adaptation of Stephen King's "The Mist", where every character dies. However, positive response to the manga and anime caused the author to consider changing the ending due to the impact it could have on fans.


title: Attack on Titan

text: In November 2018, the Japanese documentary program "Jōnetsu Tairiku" aired an episode about Isayama's struggles to complete the manga, in which he confirmed that "Attack on Titan" has entered its final story arc. In December 2019, Isayama said he was planning to end the manga in 2020. In June 2020, Isayama stated that there was only 5% of the manga left, and he expected to end it in the upcoming year, closing off the original story line of the series by finally bringing the plot to its conclusion. In November 2020, Isayama stated that the manga was 1% to 2% away from completion, and stated that he planned to end it the same year. In January 2021, it was announced that the series would be finished after an eleven-year publication run on April 9, 2021.


title: Attack on Titan

text: "Attack on Titan" is written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The series began in the first-ever issue of Kodansha's monthly publication "Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine", released on September 9, 2009. The manga was finished after an eleven-year publication run with the release of its 139th chapter on April 9, 2021. On November 8, 2020, it was announced that the manga would get a full color serialization. Kodansha collected its chapters in thirty-four volumes, released from March 17, 2010, to June 9, 2021.


title: Attack on Titan

text: In North America, the series was published in English by Kodansha USA. The first volume was published on June 19, 2012, and the last on October 19, 2021.


title: Attack on Titan

text: A chibi parody spin-off based on the series, titled and written by Saki Nakagawa, began serialization in "Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine" May 2012 issue. It follows the main characters as they battle the Titans while in junior high school. Another manga series based on the prequel light novels "" started running in Kodansha's "Monthly Shōnen Sirius" from August 2013, drawn by Satoshi Shiki. An additional spin-off based on the "No Regrets" visual novel was serialized in the shōjo manga magazine "Aria", titled . It was written by Gun Snark and illustrated by Hikaru Suruga. It focuses on the origins of Captain Levi, one of the most prominent characters in the main series. A yonkoma spin-off, called and drawn by Hounori, was released on Kodansha's Manga Box smartphone and tablet application from December 2013 to December 30, 2014, in both Japanese and English. A manga adaptation of Hiroshi Seko's "" novel, written and illustrated by Ryōsuke Fuji, began publication in "Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine" on August 9, 2015.


title: Attack on Titan

text: The first three spin-off manga were also licensed by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume of each between March and June 2014. The publisher announced at New York Comic Con in October 2015 that it had licensed "Spoof on Titan", and in March 2016 it announced the licensing of "Lost Girls".


title: Attack on Titan

text: A light novel series titled , written by Ryō Suzukaze and illustrated by Thores Shibamoto, began on April 1, 2011. Its story is set before the events of the manga and it was published by Kodansha in three volumes. While the first tells the story of Angel, the blacksmith who develops the first prototypes of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, and the following two follow a young man who was found as a baby in the stomach of a Titan. A second light novel series called , written by Ryō Kawakami and illustrated by Range Murata, was published between August 1, 2014, and May 1, 2015. Vertical released the novels in North America in 2014 and 2015. A novel titled , written by Hiroshi Seko, was published on December 9, 2014. It comprises three short stories featuring Mikasa and Annie Leonhart, titled "Lost in the cruel world", "Wall Sina, Goodbye", and "Lost Girls". It was also released in English by Vertical, in 2016. "Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel", a novel created by American writer Rachel Aaron was published by Quirk Books on August 7, 2018. It is centered on Rosalie Dumarque, who defies her family to join military garrison.


title: Attack on Titan

text: An anime series based on the manga is currently being aired in Japan. Produced by Wit Studio and directed by Tetsurō Araki, a first season aired between April 7, 2013, and September 29, 2013, originally on Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS). The second and the third season, directed by Masashi Koizuka, first aired from April 1, 2017, to June 17, 2017, and between July 23, 2018, and July 1, 2019, respectively on MBS and NHK General TV. Upon the airing of the final episode of the third season on July 1, 2019, it was announced that the fourth and final season of the anime series is scheduled for release in Fall 2020 on NHK General. On September 23, 2020, NHK listed the final season on their broadcasting schedule. It began airing on December 7, 2020. The final season was announced to have changed studios, with production being taken over by MAPPA. Producer Toshihiro Maeda said that Wit Studio "refused" to produce the final season "due to scheduling" issues. The final season's main staff includes directors Yuichiro Hayashi and Jun Shishido (chief), character designer Tomohiro Kishi, art director Kazuo Ogura, 3D CG Director Takahiro Uezono, scriptwriter Hiroshi Seko, and music composers Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto. For the final season, former 3DCG Director Shuuhei Yabuta was the only returning staff member from Wit Studio. The first 16 episodes of season 4 aired until March 29, 2021, and the second part, consisting of 12 episodes, aired from January 10 to April 4, 2022. A third and final part will premiere in 2023.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Other "Attack on Titan"-related manga or light novels were also adapted into anime. Two OVA episodes, based on the "Attack on Titan: No Regrets" prequel manga, were bundled with the 15th and 16th volumes of the main series, released on December 9, 2014, and April 9, 2015, respectively. An anime television adaptation of "Attack on Titan: Junior High" began airing in October 2015. The series was directed by Yoshihide Ibata at Production I.G. A three part OVA of "Attack on Titan: Lost Girls" was released in 2017 and 2018 with the limited editions of volumes 24, 25, and 26.


title: Attack on Titan

text: A live-action film was announced to be in production in October 2011. In December 2012, it was reported that Tetsuya Nakashima left his position as director. According to film distributor Toho, Nakashima had considerable creative differences on the scriptwriting and other matters. In December 2013, Shinji Higuchi was revealed to be directing, and would also be responsible with the special effects. Writer Yūsuke Watanabe and critic/subculture expert Tomohiro Machiyama were announced to be scripting the movie with series creator Isayama. In July 2014, it was revealed that two films would be released in the summer of 2015. It was also revealed that some major characters would be cut from the line up, most noticeably Levi Ackerman and Erwin Smith. A teaser trailer for the first live-action film was released in March 2015. The following month, Toho released the second trailer for the first film, and announced the second installment would be called "Attack on Titan: End of the World". In June 2015, a third trailer for the first film was released, revealing the Three-Dimensional Maneuvering Gear, as well as confirming the film would be released in IMAX theaters in Japan.


title: Attack on Titan

text: A live-action miniseries, titled and utilizing the same actors as the films, started streaming on NTT DoCoMo's online-video service dTV on August 15, 2015. The three-episode series focuses on Zoë Hange and her research of the Titans, as well as how the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment was created.


title: Attack on Titan

text: A stage play titled "Live Impact" was announced on the wraparound jacket band on Volume 21. It was scheduled to run from July 28 to September 3, 2017. The stage play was cancelled after one of the staff members was involved in an accident.


title: Attack on Titan

text: "Deadline Hollywood" reported on January 17, 2017, that Warner Bros. was in negotiations to secure the film rights to the "Attack on Titan" franchise. Harry Potter and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" producer David Heyman would be on board to produce a proposed two-film project that would remake the 2015 Japanese live-action film adaptations. A day later, however, Kodansha representatives said there were no negotiations with Warner Bros. However, on October 29, 2018, it was revealed that Warner Bros. and Kodansha finalized a deal to produce a live-action adaptation with "It" director Andy Muschietti signing on to direct the film.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Two guidebooks to the manga titled "Inside" and "Outside" were released on April 9 and September 9, 2013, featuring concept art, character profiles and interviews. They were combined into one and released in North America on September 16, 2014, by Kodansha USA.


title: Attack on Titan

text: A 16-minute drama CD was created with the anime's staff and included in the January 2014 issue of "Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine".


title: Attack on Titan

text: On November 3, 2014, American writer C. B. Cebulski revealed that a crossover between "Attack on Titan" and Marvel Comics was in the works. Cebulski scripted the scenario written by the manga's author Isayama. The one-shot crossover featured Spider-Man, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy facing off against several Titans, including the Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, and the Female Titan on the streets of New York City. During Free Comic Book Day 2015, Marvel's "Secret Wars" preview included an 8-page presentation "Attack on Avengers" by creator Hajime Isayama with art by Gerardo Sandoval. It was announced at the 2015 New York Comic-Con that an American comic book titled "Attack on Titan Anthology" would be published.


title: Attack on Titan

text: From January 23 to May 10, 2015, Universal Studios Japan hosted attractions based on "Attack on Titan". "The Real" "Attack on Titan" Experience features a life-size 15 meter tall Eren titan engaging a 14 meter tall female titan in combat. Other attractions include a ground level titan, which visitors can pose with. From May 31 to August 25, 2019, Universal Studios Japan is again set to host attractions for "Attack on Titan" as part of the "Cool Japan" program, including "immersive effects on a grand scale" according to editor Shintaro Kawakubo. On July 3, 2019, the NHK BS Premium television station program series "Fuka Yomi Dokushokai (Reading Too Much Into the Series Book Club)" featured a discussion of the "Attack on Titan" manga series. "Attack on Titan" is the first manga ever featured on the program.


title: Attack on Titan

text: A of the manga was announced, and is scheduled to premiere in 2023. It will run at the Orix Theater in Osaka from January 7–9, and at the Seinenkan Hall in Tokyo from January 14–24, 2023. Gō Ueki will direct the play, Masafumi Hata will write the script, and Ken the 390 will serve as the music director with lyrics by Kaori Miura. The cast includes Kurumu Okamiya as Eren Yeager, Sara Takatsuki as Mikasa Ackerman, Eito Konishi as Armin Arlert, and Ryo Matsuda as Levi.


title: Attack on Titan

text: The manga's publisher, Kodansha, credits "Attack on Titan" for the company's first revenue increase in eighteen years. The "Attack on Titan" anime adaptation is noted to have helped in boosting the manga series' sales while "Mainichi Shimbun" called it a "once-in-a-decade hit". In April 2014, Oricon reported that 30 million volumes of the series have been sold. By November 2014, the manga had 45 million copies in print. By November 2018, the manga had over 86 million copies in circulation worldwide. By December 2019, the number had increased to 100 million. As of September 2022, the manga had over 110 million copies in circulation.


title: Attack on Titan

text: The series' twelfth collected volume was given a first printing of 2.2 million copies, making "Attack on Titan" one of only three manga series ever to get an initial print surpassing 2 million, the others being "One Piece" and "". Volume 13 has the highest initial first print of the series so far, with 2,750,000 copies. It is also the first print run record for its publisher, Kodansha. "Attack on Titan" was the second highest selling manga series of 2013, with 15,933,801 copies sold in a single year. In the first half of 2014 it topped the chart, ending "One Piece"s five-year reign as the highest selling series in that period, with Isayama surprised about it and thanking the readers. By the end of the year, it was the second best selling manga with 11,728,368 copies sold. In 2015, the series sold 8.7 million copies ranking third for the year, and 6.5 million copies in 2016 for the fourth rank. It was also the second best-selling manga of 2017, with 6.6 million copies sold. It was the fourth best-selling manga series in the first half of 2021 with over 4 million copies sold, while its thirty-third volume was the 22nd best-selling manga volume. It was the fourth best-selling manga in 2021, with over 7.3 million copies sold, while its thirty-third volume was the 26th best-selling manga volume.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Six of the seven English volumes published in North America at the time charted on "The New York Times Manga Best Seller" list for the week of October 13, 2013, and volume one was on the list for 81 weeks straight. In June 2015, the first volume clocked in at its 100th week on the top 10 chart, having sold 2.5 million copies. It also currently holds the title of appearing on the list for a volume with 121 weeks. Volume one was also number one on Nielsen BookScan's list of top 20 graphic novels in American bookstores for October 2013, and for the month of September, the series had more volumes on the list than any other series.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Many have analyzed "Attack on Titan" as representing "the hopelessness felt by young people in today's society". Writer Mao Yamawaki called it a "coming-of-age story of the boys and girls at its core", with a new mystery every episode. It is these mysteries that critic Tomofusa Kure said amplifies readers' expectations. The artwork of the manga has been criticized as crude by some reviewers, with Isayama himself admitting his drawings are "amateurish". However, those same critics stated that after years of serialization, the art has been improving, and Kure believes that had the illustrations been "refined", it would not have conveyed the "eeriness" that is a key characteristic of the work. In a short review, Jason Thompson noted how the characters conveniently receive "power-ups" to create plot twists, but concluded that these plot twists and the manga's post-apocalyptic world are "too good to miss".


title: Attack on Titan

text: "Attack on Titan" has gained a strong popularity not only in Japan, but also throughout the world. For instance, coverage of the anime appeared on the front page of the Hong Kong free newspaper "am730" on May 27, 2013, concerning its popularity within Hong Kong as well as in mainland China and Taiwan. The series also attracted criticism: the South Korean "Electronic Times" magazine accused "Attack on Titan" of having a militaristic message that serves Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political leanings, while the series also resonated with Hong Kong youths who saw the invading Titans as a metaphor for mainland China. Hong Kong media commentator Wong Yeung-tat praised Isayama's style and the versatility of "Attack on Titan"s setting, which opens itself to readers' various interpretations.


title: Attack on Titan

text: In 2013, media linked to a 2010 blog post by Isayama indicating that the design of the character Dot Pixis was based on the Imperial Japanese General Akiyama Yoshifuru, whose war record included atrocities during Japanese occupation of Korea and China, such as allowing the Port Arthur massacre to occur. An Internet flame war about the general and his influence on the character ensued on Isayama's blog and included death threats to the author. As many of the threats written in Japanese had grammatical errors, Japanese media outlets claimed that they were written by non-native speakers of Japanese. In 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Culture listed "Attack on Titan" as one of the 38 anime/manga titles banned in China.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Critical interpretations of "Attack on Titan" highlight characteristics shared by the race of Eldians and the Jewish people, noting their persecution by Marleyans as similar to the Jewish persecution by Nazi Germany. This has led to accusations and theories of antisemitism and fascism apology against the series and its author, Isayama, including claims that Isayama is promoting nationalism and the conspiracy theory of Jewish global domination. However, opposing arguments have claimed that, while the Eldians mirror the Jewish people, they are intended for readers to sympathize with rather than to be portrayed as villains. In 2020, Shaan Amin, writing for "The New Republic", identified "Attack on Titan" as a favorite of alt-right and white nationalist internet communities, while also pointing out that people tend to "sift through stories to find the messages they expect".


title: Attack on Titan

text: Mangaka Makoto Yukimura, creator of "Vinland Saga", stated in an interview that he admires Hajime Isayama for his work on "Attack on Titan", due to his ability to handle the entire plot until the end, especially from the 20th volume.


title: Attack on Titan

text: "Attack on Titan" was one of the Manga Division's Jury Recommended Works at the 14th and 15th installments of the Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The 2011 edition of "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!", which surveys professionals in the manga and publishing industry, named "Attack on Titan" the best manga series for male readers. The 2012 edition named it the eighth best, while the 2014 edition named it the sixth best. The series won the "Shonen Tournament 2013" by the editorial staff of the French website "manga-news". On Kadokawa Media Factory's "Da Vinci" magazine "Book of the Year" list, "Attack on Titan" topped the list for two consecutive years in 2013 and 2014. In 2019, CBR.com labeled "Attack on Titan" as the best manga of the 2010s. On TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150.000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, "Attack on Titan" ranked #6.


title: Attack on Titan

text: The Young Adult Library Services Association in the United States named the series one of its "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" in 2013. In 2021, the "Attack on Titan for Giants" large-scale volume broke the Guinness World Record for the "largest comic book published", previously held by "Turma da Mônica".


title: Attack on Titan

text: The "Attack on Titan" series has been represented in mainstream pop culture, including commercial advertisements for Subaru Snickers, and Wonda Coffee. Its characters have been referenced in the animated series "The Simpsons" and "The Amazing World of Gumball", the Korean drama "Surplus Princess", and Japanese rock star Yoshiki's fashion brand Yoshikimono.


title: Attack on Titan

text: Before the start of the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers game held on July 5, 2019, the Colossal Titan mascot made an appearance and performed the ceremonial first pitch before taking a photo-op with Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda who sported the Colossal Titan baseball glove.


title: Maya Hawke

text: Maya Ray Thurman Hawke (born July 8, 1998) is an American actress, model, and singer-songwriter. The daughter of actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, she began her career in modeling. She made her screen debut as Jo March in the 2017 BBC adaptation of "Little Women".


title: Maya Hawke

text: Hawke gained recognition for starring as Robin Buckley in the Netflix science fiction series "Stranger Things" (2019–present), and has appeared in the films "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019), "" (2021), and "Do Revenge" (2022). As a musician, she has released the albums "Blush" (2020) and "Moss" (2022).


title: Maya Hawke

text: Hawke was born on July 8, 1998, in New York City, the older of two children born to actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Her parents met on the set of "Gattaca" (1997), married in May 1998, and divorced in 2005. Hawke has a brother. She also has two half-sisters by her father's second wife, Ryan Shawhughes. She has another half-sister from her mother's ex-fiancé, financier Arpad Busson.


title: Maya Hawke

text: On her father's side, Hawke is a distant cousin of playwright Tennessee Williams. On her mother's side, she is a granddaughter of Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman and model Baroness Nena von Schlebrügge. Schlebrügge's mother, Birgit Holmquist, was also a model, having posed for Axel Ebbe's statue "Famntaget", currently in Smygehuk in Sweden.


title: Maya Hawke

text: Hawke has dyslexia, which resulted in her changing schools frequently during her primary education before she was finally enrolled at Saint Ann's School, a private school in Brooklyn, New York that emphasizes artistic creativity and does not grade work. The artistic environment eventually led her to acting. Hawke also took part in summer studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. She studied toward a BFA in acting at the Juilliard School for one year before dropping out after accepting her role in "Little Women".


title: Maya Hawke

text: Like both her mother and grandmother, Hawke modeled for "Vogue" at the beginning of her career. She was also chosen as the face of the British fashion retailer AllSaints' 2016/2017 collection. In 2017, she starred as one of several faces in a video campaign for Calvin Klein's underwear range, directed by Sofia Coppola. In September, 2022, Hawke modelled for Calvin Klein's FW22 Underwear campaign.


title: Maya Hawke

text: Hawke was Sofia Coppola's choice to play the title role of The Little Mermaid in Universal Pictures's planned live-action adaptation. However, the producers preferred actress Chloë Grace Moretz. This and other conflicts ultimately led to Coppola leaving the project. Moretz eventually dropped out as well.


title: Maya Hawke

text: Hawke made her acting debut in 2017 as Jo March in the BBC miniseries adaptation of "Little Women". In September 2018, she starred in thriller "Ladyworld", directed by Amanda Kramer. Hawke later broke out with her performance as Robin Buckley in the third season of Netflix's "Stranger Things", which released in 2019. Also that year, Hawke played Linda Kasabian/'Flowerchild' in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", and co-starred in Marc Meyers' thriller film "Human Capital", which is based on Stephen Amidon's 2004 novel of the same name.


title: Maya Hawke

text: In 2020, Hawke starred in Gia Coppola's sophomore film, "Mainstream", alongside Andrew Garfield. In the same year, she guest starred in the fifth episode of the miniseries "The Good Lord Bird", which stars her father, Ethan Hawke. She stars as Annie Brown, the daughter of her father's character. In June, she appeared in "Italian Studies", written and directed by Adam Leon and co-starring Vanessa Kirby. It premiered in the Tribeca Film Festival and later released on January 14, 2022. Later that month, she appeared as Heather in the Netflix horror film "". In 2021, she also starred in a spin-off podcast series based on her "Stranger Things" character, "Rebel Robin: Surviving Hawkins". She starred in another scripted podcast series, "The Playboy Interview", in which she plays Helen Gurley Brown.


title: Maya Hawke

text: In 2022 Hawke starred in Netflix's dark comedy film "Do Revenge" alongside Camila Mendes. In April 2022, she was cast in Bradley Cooper's biographical film about Leonard Bernstein, "Maestro", co-starring Cooper and Carey Mulligan. In May, it was reported that she had been cast in the upcoming film "The Kill Room" alongside her mother Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson. In July, it was announced that she will guest star in Disney's "Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur", set to premiere in 2023. She is also set to appear in Wes Anderson's upcoming romantic dramedy "Asteroid City".


title: Maya Hawke

text: Hawke has said that folk music has influenced her music career including artists like Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell. She takes inspiration from "great lyricists" like Cohen and Bob Dylan as, according to her, "music is the best way to communicate poetry".


title: Maya Hawke

text: In August 2019, Hawke released her first two singles, "To Love a Boy" and "Stay Open". The songs were written and recorded by Hawke and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Jesse Harris. Hawke performed a series of headlining gigs around New York City in early 2020, her first ever solo live performances as a musician. In each of these shows, Hawke was supported by Benjamin Lazar Davis, Tōth, Will Graefe and Nick Cianci respectively. On March 18, 2020, Hawke released the first single "By Myself" and announced her debut album titled "Blush" amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Hawke wrote, "I feel like this is not a time for self-promotion. It is a time for activation, education and self-examination." The album's second single, "Coverage", was released on April 22, 2020, before its music video directed by Maya's father Ethan Hawke was released on the 28th. Initially set for release on June 19, 2020, "Blush" was delayed to August 21, 2020 To support the release of "Blush", Hawke appeared as a musical guest for the first time in her career on "The Today Show" in late August 2020.


title: Maya Hawke

text: On June 29, 2022, alongside the release of the single "Thérèse", Hawke announced her second album "Moss", which was released on September 23, 2022.


title: Maya Hawke

text: For her work on "Stranger Things", Hawke was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Stan Lee

text: Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which would later become Marvel Comics. He was the primary creative leader for two decades, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and film industries.


title: Stan Lee

text: In collaboration with others at Marvel—particularly co-writers/artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko—he co-created iconic characters, including superheroes Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, the Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow. These and other characters' introductions in the 1960s pioneered a more naturalistic approach in superhero comics, and in the 1970s Lee challenged the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to changes in its policies. In the 1980s he pursued the development of Marvel properties in other media, with mixed results.


title: Stan Lee

text: Following his retirement from Marvel in the 1990s, Lee remained a public figurehead for the company, and frequently made cameo appearances in films and television shows based on Marvel characters on which he received an executive producer credit, which allowed him to become the highest grossing person in film of all time. He continued independent creative ventures into his 90s until his death in 2018. Lee was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the NEA's National Medal of Arts in 2008.


title: Stan Lee

text: Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 28, 1922, in Manhattan, New York City, in the apartment of his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia ("née" Solomon) and Jack Lieber, at the corner of West 98th Street and West End Avenue. Lee was raised in a Jewish household. In a 2002 interview, he stated when asked if he believed in God, "Well, let me put it this way... [Pauses.] No, I'm not going to try to be clever. I really don't know. I just don't know." On another interview from 2011, when asked about his Romanian origins and his relationship with the country, he said that he had never visited it and that he did not know Romanian because his parents never taught it to him.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee's father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression. The family moved further uptown to Fort Washington Avenue, in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Lee had one younger brother named Larry Lieber. He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, particularly those with Errol Flynn playing heroic roles. Reading "The Scarlet Pimpernel", he called the title character "the first superhero I had read about, the first character who could be called a superhero." By the time Lee was in his teens, the family was living in an apartment at 1720 University Avenue in The Bronx. Lee described it as "a third-floor apartment facing out back". Lee and his brother shared the bedroom, while their parents slept on a foldout couch.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. In his youth, Lee enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of writing the "Great American Novel" one day. He said that in his youth he worked such part-time jobs as writing obituaries for a news service and press releases for the National Tuberculosis Center; delivering sandwiches for the Jack May pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center; working as an office boy for a trouser manufacturer; ushering at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway; and selling subscriptions to the "New York Herald Tribune" newspaper. At fifteen, Lee entered a high school essay competition sponsored by the "New York Herald Tribune", called "The Biggest News of the Week Contest." Lee claimed to have won the prize for three straight weeks, goading the newspaper to write him and ask him to let someone else win. The paper suggested he look into writing professionally, which Lee claimed "probably changed my life." He graduated from high school early, aged sixteen and a half, in 1939 and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project.


title: Stan Lee

text: From 1945 to 1947, Lee lived in the rented top floor of a brownstone in the East 90s in Manhattan. He married Joan Clayton Boocock, originally from Newcastle, England, on December 5, 1947, and in 1949, the couple bought a house in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island, living there through 1952. Their daughter Joan Celia "J. C." Lee was born in 1950. Another daughter, Jan Lee, died a few days after her birth in 1953.


title: Stan Lee

text: The Lees resided in the Long Island town of Hewlett Harbor, New York, from 1952 to 1980. They also owned a condominium on East 63rd Street in Manhattan from 1975 to 1980, and during the 1970s they owned a vacation home in Remsenburg, New York. For their move to the West Coast in 1981, they bought a home in West Hollywood, California, previously owned by comedian Jack Benny's radio announcer Don Wilson.


title: Stan Lee

text: The Stan Lee Foundation was founded in 2010 to focus on literacy, education, and the arts. Its stated goals include supporting programs and ideas that improve access to literacy resources, as well as promoting diversity, national literacy, culture and the arts.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee donated portions of his personal effects to the University of Wyoming at various times, between 1981 and 2001.


title: Stan Lee

text: In 2017, POW! was acquired by Camsing International, a Chinese company, during the period Lee was caring for his terminally ill wife and dealing with his own failing eyesight. Lee filed a lawsuit against POW! in May 2018, asserting that POW! had not disclosed the terms of its acquisition by Camsing to him. Lee stated that POW! CEO Shane Duffy and co-founder Gill Champion had presented him with what they said was a non-exclusive license for POW! for him to sign, under Camsing, to use his likeness and other intellectual property. This contract turned out to be an exclusive license, which Lee claimed he would never have entered.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee's lawsuit contended that POW! took over his social media accounts and was impersonating him inappropriately. POW! considered these complaints without merit and claimed that both Lee and his daughter J.C. were aware of the terms. The lawsuit was dropped in July 2018, with Lee issuing the statement: "The whole thing has been confusing to everyone, including myself and the fans, but I am now happy to be surrounded by those who want the best for me" and saying that he was happy to be working with POW! again.


title: Stan Lee

text: Following Lee's death, his daughter J.C. gathered a legal team to review the legal situation relating to Lee's intellectual property from his later years. In September 2019, J.C. filed a new lawsuit against POW! in the United States District Court for the Central District of California not only related to recent events but also to regain the intellectual property rights that Lee had set up when founding Stan Lee Entertainment in 1998. The complaint identified a period between 2001 and 2017 during which Lee's partners Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman were said to have misled Lee about various intellectual property rights deals.


title: Stan Lee

text: In June 2020, Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed J.C. Lee's lawsuit against POW! Entertainment, declaring it "frivolous" and "improper", sanctioning J.C. Lee for $1,000,000, and sanctioning her lawyers for $250,000 individually and severally. The court also gave POW! Entertainment the right to make a motion to recover legal fees. "We feel vindicated by the Court's decision today," said POW! in a statement. "Stan purposefully created POW! eighteen years ago with me as a place to safeguard his life's work. Before he passed, Stan was adamant that POW! continue to protect his creations and his identity after he was gone, because he trusted that we would safeguard his legacy for generations to come."


title: Stan Lee

text: On January 10, 2018, the "Mail Online" alleged that Lee was accused by a small number of nurses of sexually harassing them at his home in early 2017. Lee denied the allegations and claimed that the nurses were attempting to extort him.


title: Stan Lee

text: In April 2018, "The Hollywood Reporter" published a report that claimed Lee was a victim of elder abuse; the report asserted that, among others, Keya Morgan, Lee's business manager and a memorabilia collector, had been isolating Lee from his trusted friends and associates following his wife's death in order to obtain access to Lee's wealth, estimated to amount to . In August 2018, a restraining order was issued against Morgan to stay away from Lee, his daughter, and his associates for three years. The Los Angeles Superior Court charged Morgan in May 2019 with five counts of abuse for events that had occurred in mid-2018. The charges were false imprisonment, grand theft of an elder or dependent adult, fraud, forgery, and elder abuse.


title: Stan Lee

text: Another figure in the alleged abuse was Lee's former business manager Jerardo Olivarez, who was introduced to Lee by J.C. after his wife's death. Lee filed suit against Olivarez in April 2018, calling him one of several "unscrupulous businessmen, sycophants and opportunists" that approached him during this period. According to Lee's complaint, after gaining Lee's power of attorney, Olivarez fired Lee's personal banker, changed Lee's will, convinced him to allow transfers of millions of dollars from his accounts and used some of the funds to purchase a condominium.


title: Stan Lee

text: In September 2012, Lee underwent an operation to insert a pacemaker, which required cancelling planned appearances at conventions. Lee eventually retired from convention appearances by 2017.


title: Stan Lee

text: On July 6, 2017, Joan Boocock, his wife of 69 years, died of complications from a stroke. She was 95 years old.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee died on November 12, 2018, just one month before his 96th birthday, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being rushed there for a medical emergency earlier in the day. Lee had previously been hospitalized for pneumonia in February of that year. The immediate cause of death listed on his death certificate was cardiac arrest with respiratory failure and congestive heart failure as underlying causes. It also indicated that he suffered from aspiration pneumonia. His body was cremated and his ashes were given to his daughter.


title: Stan Lee

text: Roy Thomas, who succeeded Lee as editor-in-chief at Marvel, had visited Lee two days prior to his death to discuss the upcoming book "The Stan Lee Story" and stated "I think he was ready to go. But he was still talking about doing more cameos. As long as he had the energy for it and didn't have to travel, Stan was always up to do some more cameos. He got a kick out of those more than anything else."


title: Stan Lee

text: With the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon, Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics division belonging to pulp magazine and comic-book publisher Martin Goodman. Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodman's wife, was formally hired by Timely editor Joe Simon.


title: Stan Lee

text: His duties were prosaic at first. "In those days [the artists] dipped the pen in ink, [so] I had to make sure the inkwells were filled", Lee recalled in 2009. "I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them". Marshaling his childhood ambition to be a writer, young Stanley Lieber made his comic-book debut with the text filler "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in "Captain America Comics" #3 (cover-dated May 1941), using the pseudonym Stan Lee (a play on his first name, "Stanley"), which years later he would adopt as his legal name. Lee later explained in his autobiography and numerous other sources that because of the low social status of comic books, he was so embarrassed that he used a pen name so nobody would associate his real name with comics when he wrote the Great American Novel one day. This initial story also introduced Captain America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss. It would be adapted into a sequential art story in 2014 by Lee and Bruce Timm in "Marvel's 75th Anniversary Celebration".


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a backup feature, "'Headline' Hunter, Foreign Correspondent", two issues later, using the pseudonym "Reel Nats". His first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in "Mystic Comics" #6 (August 1941). Other characters he co-created during this period, called the Golden Age of Comic Books, include Jack Frost, debuting in "U.S.A. Comics" #1 (August 1941), and Father Time, debuting in "Captain America Comics" #6 (August 1941).


title: Stan Lee

text: When Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby left in late 1941 following a dispute with Goodman, the 30-year-old publisher installed Lee, just under 19 years old, as interim editor. The youngster showed a knack for the business that led him to remain as the comic-book division's editor-in-chief, as well as art director for much of that time, until 1972, when he would succeed Goodman as publisher.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 and served within the US as a member of the Signal Corps, repairing telegraph poles and other communications equipment. He was later transferred to the Training Film Division, where he worked writing manuals, training films, slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification, he said, was "playwright"; he added that only nine men in the U.S. Army were given that title. In the Army, Lee's division included many famous or soon-to-be famous people, including three-time Academy Award-winning director Frank Capra, "New Yorker" cartoonist Charles Addams, and children's book writer and illustrator Theodor Geisel, later known to the world as "Dr. Seuss."


title: Stan Lee

text: Vincent Fago, editor of Timely's "animation comics" section, which put out humor and talking animal comics, filled in until Lee returned from his World War II military service in 1945. Lee was inducted into the Signal Corps Regimental Association and was given honorary membership of the 2nd Battalion of 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord at the 2017 Emerald City Comic Con for his prior service.


title: Stan Lee

text: While in the Army, Lee received letters every week on Friday from the editors at Timely, detailing what they needed written and by when. Lee would write stories, then send them back on Monday. One week, the mail clerk overlooked his letter, explaining that nothing was in Lee's mailbox. The next day, Lee went by the closed mailroom and saw an envelope with the return address of Timely Comics in his mailbox. Not willing to miss a deadline, Lee asked the officer in charge to open the mailroom, but the latter refused. So Lee took a screwdriver and unscrewed the mailbox hinges, retrieving the envelope containing his assignment. The mailroom officer saw what he did and turned him into the base captain, who did not like Lee. He faced tampering charges and could have been sent to Leavenworth Prison. The colonel in charge of the Finance Department intervened and saved Lee from disciplinary action.


title: Stan Lee

text: In the mid-1950s, by which time the company was now generally known as Atlas Comics, Lee wrote stories in a variety of genres including romance, Westerns, humor, science fiction, medieval adventure, horror and suspense. In the 1950s, Lee teamed up with his comic book colleague Dan DeCarlo to produce the syndicated newspaper strip "My Friend Irma", based on the radio comedy starring Marie Wilson. By the end of the decade, Lee had become dissatisfied with his career and considered quitting the field.


title: Stan Lee

text: In the late 1950s, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz revived the superhero archetype and experienced significant success with an updated version of the Flash, and later with the Justice League of America super-team. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Lee to come up with a new superhero team. Lee's wife suggested that he experiment with stories he preferred, since he was planning on changing careers and had nothing to lose.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee acted on the advice, giving his superheroes a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes typically written for preteens. Before this, most superheroes had been idealistically perfect people with no serious, lasting problems. Lee introduced complex, naturalistic characters who could have bad tempers, fits of melancholy, and vanity; they bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, got bored or sometimes even physically ill.


title: Stan Lee

text: The first superheroes Lee and artist Jack Kirby created together were the Fantastic Four. The team's immediate popularity led Lee and Marvel's illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. Again working with Kirby, Lee co-created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvel's most successful character, Spider-Man, all of whom lived in a thoroughly shared universe. Lee and Kirby gathered several of their newly created characters together into the team title "The Avengers" and would revive characters from the 1940s such as the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. Years later, Kirby and Lee would contest who deserved credit for creating "The Fantastic Four".


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee's revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to the way in which comic books engaged the readership and built a sense of community between fans and creators. He introduced the practice of regularly including a credit panel on the splash page of each story, naming not just the writer and penciller but also the inker and letterer. Regular news about Marvel staff members and upcoming storylines was presented on the Bullpen Bulletins page, which (like the letter columns that appeared in each title) was written in a friendly, chatty style. Lee remarked that his goal was for fans to think of the comics creators as friends, and considered it a mark of his success on this front that, at a time when letters to other comics publishers were typically addressed "Dear Editor", letters to Marvel addressed the creators by first name (e.g., "Dear Stan and Jack"). Lee recorded messages to the newly formed Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club in 1965. By 1967, the brand was well-enough ensconced in popular culture that a March 3 WBAI radio program with Lee and Kirby as guests was titled "Will Success Spoil Spiderman [sic]".


title: Stan Lee

text: Throughout the 1960s, Lee scripted, art-directed and edited most of Marvel's series, moderated the letters pages, wrote a monthly column called "Stan's Soapbox", and wrote endless promotional copy, often signing off with his trademark motto, "Excelsior!" (which is also the New York state motto). To maintain his workload and meet deadlines, he used a system that was used previously by various comic-book studios, but due to Lee's success with it, became known as the "Marvel Method". Typically, Lee would brainstorm a story with the artist and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would fill the allotted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Lee would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and coloring. In effect, the artists were co-plotters, whose collaborative first drafts Lee built upon.


title: Stan Lee

text: Following Ditko's departure from Marvel in 1966, John Romita Sr. became Lee's collaborator on "The Amazing Spider-Man". Within a year, it overtook "Fantastic Four" to become the company's top seller. Lee and Romita's stories focused as much on the social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man's adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as the Vietnam War, political elections, and student activism. Robbie Robertson, introduced in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #51 (August 1967) was one of the first African-American characters in comics to play a serious supporting role. In the "Fantastic Four" series, the lengthy run by Lee and Kirby produced many acclaimed storylines as well as characters that have become central to Marvel, including the Inhumans and the Black Panther, an African king who would be mainstream comics' first black superhero.


title: Stan Lee

text: The story frequently cited as Lee and Kirby's finest achievement is the three-part "Galactus Trilogy" that began in "Fantastic Four" #48 (March 1966), chronicling the arrival of Galactus, a cosmic giant who wanted to devour the planet, and his herald, the Silver Surfer. "Fantastic Four" #48 was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel's readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that "As the fourth year of the "Fantastic Four" came to a close, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemed to be only warming up. In retrospect, it was perhaps the most fertile period of any monthly title during the Marvel Age." Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "[t]he mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s", and Lee soon discovered that the story was a favorite on college campuses. Lee and artist John Buscema launched "The Silver Surfer" series in August 1968.


title: Stan Lee

text: The following year, Lee and Gene Colan created the Falcon, comics' first African-American superhero, in "Captain America" #117 (September 1969). In 1971, Lee indirectly helped reform the Comics Code. The U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare had asked Lee to write a comic-book story about the dangers of drugs and Lee conceived a three-issue subplot in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #96–98 (cover-dated May–July 1971), in which Peter Parker's best friend becomes addicted to prescription drugs. The Comics Code Authority refused to grant its seal because the stories depicted drug use; the anti-drug context was considered irrelevant. With Goodman's cooperation and confident that the original government request would give him credibility, Lee had the story published without the seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of drugs, among other new freedoms.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee also supported using comic books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often dealing with racism and bigotry. "Stan's Soapbox", besides promoting an upcoming comic book project, also addressed issues of discrimination, intolerance, or prejudice.


title: Stan Lee

text: In 1972, Lee stopped writing monthly comic books to assume the role of publisher. His final issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man" was #110 (July 1972) and his last "Fantastic Four" was #125 (August 1972).


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around America, lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions. Lee and John Romita Sr. launched the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip on January 3, 1977. Lee's final collaboration with Jack Kirby, "The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience", was published in 1978 as part of the Marvel Fireside Books series and is considered to be Marvel's first graphic novel. Lee and John Buscema produced the first issue of "The Savage She-Hulk" (February 1980), which introduced the female cousin of the Hulk, and crafted a Silver Surfer story for "Epic Illustrated" #1 (Spring 1980).


title: Stan Lee

text: He moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel's TV and movie properties. He was an executive producer for, and made cameo appearances in Marvel film adaptations and other movies. He occasionally returned to comic book writing with various Silver Surfer projects including a 1982 one-shot drawn by John Byrne, the "Judgment Day" graphic novel illustrated by John Buscema, the "Parable" limited series drawn by French artist Mœbius, and "The Enslavers" graphic novel with Keith Pollard. Lee was briefly president of the entire company, but soon stepped down to become publisher instead, finding that being president was too much about numbers and finance and not enough about the creative process he enjoyed.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee stepped away from regular duties at Marvel in the 1990s, though he continued to receive an annual salary of $1 million as chairman emeritus. In 1998 he and Peter Paul began a new Internet-based superhero creation, production, and marketing studio, Stan Lee Media. It grew to 165 people and went public through a reverse merger structured by investment banker Stan Medley in 1999, but, near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordon. Stan Lee Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2001. Paul was extradited to the U.S. from Brazil and pleaded guilty to violating SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with trading his stock in Stan Lee Media. Lee was never implicated in the scheme.


title: Stan Lee

text: Following the success of Fox Studio's 2000 "X-Men" film and Sony's then-current "Spider-Man" film, Lee sued Marvel in 2002, claiming that the company was failing to pay his share of the profits from movies featuring the characters he had co-created. Because he had done so as an employee, Lee did not own them, but in the 1990s, after decades of making little money licensing them for television and film, Marvel had promised him 10% of any future profits. Lee and the company settled in 2005 for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.


title: Stan Lee

text: In 2001, Lee, Gill Champion, and Arthur Lieberman formed POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment to develop film, television, and video game properties. Lee created the risqué animated superhero series "Stripperella" for Spike TV. That same year, DC Comics released its first work written by Lee, the "Just Imagine..." series, in which Lee reimagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash.


title: Stan Lee

text: In 2004, POW! Entertainment went public through a reverse merger again structured by investment banker Stan Medley. Also that year, Lee announced a superhero program that would feature former Beatle Ringo Starr as the lead character. Additionally, in August of that year, Lee announced the launch of Stan Lee's Sunday Comics, a short-lived subscription service hosted by Komikwerks.com. From July 2006 until September 2007 Lee hosted, co-created, executive-produced, and judged the reality television game show competition "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" on the Sci-Fi Channel.


title: Stan Lee

text: In March 2007, after Stan Lee Media had been purchased by Jim Nesfield, the company filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming Lee had given his rights to several Marvel characters to Stan Lee Media in exchange for stock and a salary. In June 2007, Stan Lee Media sued Lee; his newer company, POW! Entertainment; and POW! subsidiary QED Entertainment.


title: Stan Lee

text: In 2008, Lee wrote humorous captions for the political fumetti book "Stan Lee Presents Election Daze: What Are They Really Saying?" In April of that year, Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced a partnership with POW! to produce a CGI film series, "Legion of 5". Other projects by Lee announced in the late 2000s included a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, a TV adaptation of the novel "Hero", a foreword to "Skyscraperman" by skyscraper fire-safety advocate and Spider-Man fan Dan Goodwin, a partnership with Guardian Media Entertainment and The Guardian Project to create NHL superhero mascots, and work with the Eagle Initiative program to find new talent in the comic book field.


title: Stan Lee

text: In October 2011, Lee announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee's Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for that demographic; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel "Romeo & Juliet: The War", by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan. At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International, Lee announced his YouTube channel, "Stan Lee's World of Heroes", which airs programs created by Lee, Mark Hamill, Peter David, Adrianne Curry and Bonnie Burton, among others. Lee wrote the book "Zodiac", released in January 2015, with Stuart Moore. The film "Stan Lee's Annihilator", based on a Chinese prisoner-turned-superhero named Ming and in production since 2013, was released in 2015.


title: Stan Lee

text: In 2008, POW! Entertainment debuted the manga series "Karakuri Dôji Ultimo", a collaboration between Lee and Hiroyuki Takei, Viz Media and Shueisha, The following year POW! released "Heroman", which was written by Lee, and serialized in Square Enix's "Monthly Shōnen Gangan" with the Japanese company Bones. In 2011, Lee started writing a live-action musical, "The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao," and created the limited series "Blood Red Dragon", a collaboration with Todd McFarlane and Japanese rock star Yoshiki.


title: Stan Lee

text: The 2000s saw Lee's public persona penetrate the public consciousness through merchandising, branding, and appearances in Marvel books as a character in the Marvel Universe. In 2006, Marvel commemorated Lee's 65 years with the company by publishing a series of one-shot comics starring Lee himself meeting and interacting with many of his co-creations, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Thing, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Doom. These comics also featured short pieces by such comics creators as Joss Whedon and Fred Hembeck, as well as reprints of classic Lee-written adventures. At the 2007 Comic-Con International, Marvel Legends introduced a Stan Lee action figure. The body beneath the figure's removable cloth wardrobe is a reused mold of a previously released Spider-Man action figure, with minor changes. Comikaze Expo, Los Angeles' largest comic book convention, was rebranded as Stan Lee's Comikaze Presented by POW! Entertainment in 2012.


title: Stan Lee

text: At the 2016 Comic-Con International, Lee introduced his digital graphic novel "Stan Lee's God Woke", with text originally written as a poem he presented at Carnegie Hall in 1972. The print-book version won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards' Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.


title: Stan Lee

text: On July 6, 2020, Genius Brands acquired exclusive worldwide rights to use Lee's name, physical likeness, and signature as well as licensing rights to his name and original IPs from POW! Entertainment. The assets will be placed under a new joint-venture with POW!, called Stan Lee Universe. In 2022, Marvel signed a licensing deal with Stan Lee Universe to use Lee's name and likeness in film and television projects, as well as attractions and merchandising.


title: Stan Lee

text: Stan Lee appears in one panel as "third assistant office boy" in "Terry-Toons" #12 (September 1943). Stan Lee is featured prominently as a story character in "Margie" #36 (June 1947).


title: Stan Lee

text: He later appears in a mask on the cover of "Black Rider" #8 (March 1950), albeit as a character model, not as Stan Lee.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee and Jack Kirby appear as themselves in "The Fantastic Four" #10 (January 1963), the first of several appearances within the fictional Marvel Universe. The two are depicted as similar to their real-world counterparts, creating comic books based on the "real" adventures of the Fantastic Four.


title: Stan Lee

text: Kirby later portrayed himself, Lee, production executive Sol Brodsky, and Lee's secretary Flo Steinberg as superheroes in "What If" #11 (October 1978), "What If the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?", in which Lee played the role of Mister Fantastic.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee was shown in numerous cameo appearances in many Marvel titles, appearing in audiences and crowds at many characters' ceremonies and parties. For example, he is seen hosting an old-soldiers reunion in "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos" #100 (July 1972), in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #169 (June 1977), as a bar patron in "Marvels" #3 (1994), at Karen Page's funeral in "Daredevil" vol. 2, #8 (June 1998), and as the priest officiating at Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' wedding in "New Avengers Annual" #1 (June 2006). Lee and Kirby appear as professors in "Marvel Adventures Spider-Man" #19 (2006).


title: Stan Lee

text: He appears in "Generation X" #17 (July 1996) as a circus ringmaster narrating (in lines written by Lee) a story set in an abandoned circus. This characterization was revived in Marvel's "Flashback" series of titles cover-dated July 1997, numbered "-1", introducing stories about Marvel characters before they became superheroes.


title: Stan Lee

text: In "Stan Lee Meets Superheroes" (2007), written by Lee, he comes into contact with some of his favorite creations.


title: Stan Lee

text: In the first series of Angel and the Ape, (1968–1969), Lee was parodied as Stan Bragg, editor of Brain-Pix Comics.


title: Stan Lee

text: A humorously illustrated Lee briefly appears in "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies". The character is depicted in a cameo, before being informed by another character that is a DC film. Despite DC Comics being a competitor, Lee himself actually provides the voice for the character.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee and other comics creators are mentioned in Michael Chabon's 2000 novel set in the early comics industry "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay".


title: Stan Lee

text: Under the name "Stanley Lieber", he appears briefly in Paul Malmont's 2006 novel "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril".


title: Stan Lee

text: In Lavie Tidhar's 2013 "The Violent Century", Lee appears – as "Stanley Martin Lieber" – as a historian of superhumans.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee had cameo appearances in many Marvel film and television projects, including those within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A few of these appearances are self-aware and sometimes reference Lee's involvement in the creation of certain characters. He additionally voiced a cameo appearance as himself in the 2018 DC Comics movie "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies". Out of respect for Lee, Marvel Studios enacted a new policy following his death that forbids cameos by Lee in new films by using archive footage of him, with "" (2019) marking his final appearance; the film was released several months after his death.


title: Stan Lee

text: Lee was featured with his colleagues and family in the 2010 documentary "With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story", which explored his life, career, and creations.


title: Spider-Man

text: Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (August 1962) in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He has since been featured in films, television shows, novels, video games, and plays. Spider-Man is the alias of Peter Parker, an orphan raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben in New York City after his parents Richard and Mary Parker died in a plane crash. Lee and Ditko had the character deal with the struggles of adolescence and financial issues and gave him many supporting characters, such as Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, and Harry Osborn; romantic interests Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and the Black Cat; and foes such as Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin, and Venom. In his origin story, Spider-Man gets superhuman spider-powers and abilities from a bite from a radioactive spider; these include clinging to surfaces and ceilings, superhuman strength, speed, and agility, and detecting danger with his precognition ability called "spider-sense." He also builds wrist-mounted "web-shooter" devices that shoot artificial spider-webs of his own design that were meant to be used for fighting his enemies and web-swinging across the city. After his personal tragedy of his late Uncle Ben, Peter began using his spider-powers to fight against crime as Spider-Man.


title: Spider-Man

text: When Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. The Spider-Man series broke ground by featuring Peter Parker, a high school student from Queens, New York, as Spider-Man's secret identity, whose "self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness" were issues to which young readers could relate. While Spider-Man had all the makings of a sidekick, unlike previous teen heroes such as Bucky and Robin, Spider-Man had no superhero mentor like Captain America and Batman; he thus had to learn for himself that "with great power comes great responsibility" — a line included in a text box in the final panel of the first Spider-Man story but later retroactively attributed to his guardian, his late Uncle Ben Parker.


title: Spider-Man

text: Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several comic book series, the first and longest-lasting of which is "The Amazing Spider-Man". Over the years, the Peter Parker character developed from a shy, nerdy New York City high school student to a troubled but outgoing college student, to a married high school teacher to, in the late 2000s, a single freelance photographer. In the 2000s, he joins the Avengers. Doctor Octopus also took on the identity for a story arc spanning 2012–2014, following a body swap plot in which Peter appears to die. Marvel has also published books featuring alternate versions of Spider-Man, including "Spider-Man 2099", which features the adventures of Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of the future; "Ultimate Spider-Man", which features the adventures of a teenaged Peter Parker in an alternate universe; and "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man", which depicts the teenager Miles Morales, who takes up the mantle of Spider-Man after Ultimate Peter Parker's supposed death. Miles later became a popular superhero in his own right and was brought into the mainstream continuity, where he sometimes works alongside Peter.


title: Spider-Man

text: Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes. He has appeared in countless forms of media, including several animated TV series, a live-action television series, syndicated newspaper comic strips, and multiple series of films. The character was first portrayed in live-action by Danny Seagren in "Spidey Super Stories", a "The Electric Company" skit which ran from 1974 to 1977. In films, Spider-Man has been portrayed by actors Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Tom Holland. He was voiced by Chris Pine and Jake Johnson in the animated film "" (2018), with Johnson reprising the role in its sequel "" (2023). Reeve Carney starred originally as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical "". Spider-Man has been well-received as a superhero and comic book character, and he is often ranked as one of the most popular and iconic comic book characters of all time and one of the most popular characters in all fiction.


title: Spider-Man

text: In 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in teenage demand for comic books, and the desire to create a character with whom teens could identify. As with Fantastic Four, Lee saw Spider-Man as an opportunity to "get out of his system" what he felt was missing in comic books. In his autobiography, Lee cites the non-superhuman pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider as a great influence, and in a multitude of print and video interviews, Lee stated he was further inspired by seeing a spider climb up a wall—adding in his autobiography that he has told that story so often he has become unsure of whether or not this is true. Although at the time teenage superheroes were usually given names ending with "boy", Lee says he chose "Spider-Man" because he wanted the character to age as the series progressed, and felt the name "Spider-Boy" would have made the character sound inferior to other superheroes. He also decided to insert a hyphen in the name, as he felt it looked too similar to Superman, another superhero with a red and blue costume that starts with an "S" and ends with "man" (although artist Steve Ditko intended the character to have an orange and purple costume). At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the character's approval. In a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodman's objections. Goodman eventually agreed to a Spider-Man tryout in what Lee in numerous interviews recalled as what would be the final issue of the science-fiction and supernatural anthology series "Amazing Adult Fantasy", which was renamed "Amazing Fantasy" for that single issue, #15 (cover-dated August 1962, on sale June 5, 1962). In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already been decided that "Amazing Fantasy" would be canceled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man. While this was indeed the final issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing and that "The Spiderman ... will appear every month in "Amazing"."


title: Spider-Man

text: Regardless, Lee received Goodman's approval for the name Spider-Man and the "ordinary teen" concept and approached artist Jack Kirby. As comics historian Greg Theakston recounts, Kirby told Lee about an unpublished character on which he had collaborated with Joe Simon in the 1950s, in which an orphaned boy living with an old couple finds a magic ring that granted him superhuman powers. Lee and Kirby "immediately sat down for a story conference", Theakston writes, and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. Steve Ditko would be the inker. When Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, "I "hated" the way he was doing it! Not that he did it badly—it just wasn't the character I wanted; it was too heroic". Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled:


title: Spider-Man

text: Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditko's cover art and commissioned Kirby to pencil a cover that Ditko inked. As Lee explained in 2010, "I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jack's covers."


title: Spider-Man

text: In an early recollection of the character's creation, Ditko described his and Lee's contributions in a mail interview with Gary Martin published in "Comic Fan" #2 (Summer 1965): "Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist & spider signal." At the time, Ditko shared a Manhattan studio with noted fetish artist Eric Stanton, an art-school classmate who, in a 1988 interview with Theakston, recalled that although his contribution to Spider-Man was "almost nil", he and Ditko had "worked on storyboards together and I added a few ideas. But the whole thing was created by Steve on his own... I think I added the business about the webs coming out of his hands." Ditko claimed in a rare interview with Jonathan Ross that the costume was initially envisioned with an orange and purple color scheme rather than the more famous red and blue.


title: Spider-Man

text: Kirby disputed Lee's version of the story and claimed Lee had minimal involvement in the character's creation. According to Kirby, the idea for Spider-Man had originated with Kirby and Joe Simon, who in the 1950s had developed a character called the Silver Spider for the Crestwood Publications comic "Black Magic", who was subsequently not used. Simon, in his 1990 autobiography, disputed Kirby's account, asserting that "Black Magic" was not a factor, and that he (Simon) devised the name "Spider-Man" (later changed to "The Silver Spider"), while Kirby outlined the character's story and powers. Simon later elaborated that his and Kirby's character conception became the basis for Simon's Archie Comics superhero the Fly. Artist Steve Ditko stated that Lee liked the name Hawkman from DC Comics, and that "Spider-Man" was an outgrowth of that interest.


title: Spider-Man

text: Simon concurred that Kirby had shown the original Spider-Man version to Lee, who liked the idea and assigned Kirby to draw sample pages of the new character but disliked the results—in Simon's description, "Captain America with cobwebs". Writer Mark Evanier notes that Lee's reasoning that Kirby's character was too heroic seems unlikely—Kirby still drew the covers for "Amazing Fantasy" #15 and the first issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man". Evanier also disputes Kirby's given reason that he was "too busy" to draw Spider-Man in addition to his other duties since Kirby was, said Evanier, "always busy". Neither Lee's nor Kirby's explanation explains why key story elements like the magic ring were dropped; Evanier states that the most plausible explanation for the sudden change was that Goodman, or one of his assistants, decided that Spider-Man, as drawn and envisioned by Kirby, was too similar to the Fly.


title: Spider-Man

text: Author and Ditko scholar Blake Bell writes that it was Ditko who noted the similarities to the Fly. Ditko recalled that "Stan called Jack about the Fly", adding that "[d]ays later, Stan told me I would be penciling the story panel breakdowns from Stan's synopsis." It was at this point that the nature of the strip changed. "Out went the magic ring, adult Spider-Man and whatever legend ideas that Spider-Man story would have contained." Lee gave Ditko the premise of a teenager bitten by a spider and developing powers, a premise Ditko would expand upon to the point he became what Bell describes as "the first work for hire artist of his generation to create and control the narrative arc of his series". On the issue of the initial creation, Ditko stated, "I still don't know whose idea was Spider-Man". Ditko did, however, view the published version of Spider-Man as a separate creation to the one he saw in the five pencilled pages that Kirby had completed. To support this Ditko used the analogy of the Kirby/Marvel Thor, which was based on a name/idea of a character in Norse mythology: "If Marvel’s Thor is a valid created work by Jack, his creation, then why isn’t Spider-Man by Stan and me valid created work, our creation?"


title: Spider-Man

text: Kirby noted in a 1971 interview that it was Ditko who "got "Spider-Man" to roll, and the thing caught on because of what he did". Lee, while claiming credit for the initial idea, has acknowledged Ditko's role, stating, "If Steve wants to be called co-creator, I think he deserves [it]". He has further commented that Ditko's costume design was key to the character's success; since the costume completely covers Spider-Man's body, people of all races could visualize themselves inside the costume and thus more easily identify with the character.


title: Spider-Man

text: A few months after Spider-Man's introduction, publisher Goodman reviewed the sales figures for that issue and was shocked to find it was one of the nascent Marvel's highest-selling comics. A solo ongoing series followed, beginning with "The Amazing Spider-Man" #1 (cover-dated March 1963). The title eventually became Marvel's top-selling series with the character swiftly becoming a cultural icon; a 1965 "Esquire" poll of college campuses found that college students ranked Spider-Man and fellow Marvel hero the Hulk alongside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara as their favorite revolutionary icons. One interviewee selected Spider-Man because he was "beset by woes, money problems, and the question of existence. In short, he is one of us." Following Ditko's departure after issue #38 (July 1966), John Romita Sr. replaced him as penciller and would draw the series for the next several years. In 1968, Romita would also draw the character's extra-length stories in the comics magazine "The Spectacular Spider-Man", a proto-graphic novel designed to appeal to older readers. It only lasted for two issues, but it represented the first Spider-Man spin-off publication, aside from the original series' summer "Annual"s that began in 1964.


title: Spider-Man

text: An early 1970s Spider-Man story ultimately led to the revision of the Comics Code. Previously, the Code forbade the depiction of the use of illegal drugs, even negatively. However, in 1970, the Nixon administration's Department of Health, Education, and Welfare asked Stan Lee to publish an anti-drug message in one of Marvel's top-selling titles. Lee chose the top-selling "The Amazing Spider-Man;" issues #96–98 (May–July 1971) feature a story arc depicting the negative effects of drug use. In the story, Peter Parker's friend Harry Osborn becomes addicted to pills. When Spider-Man fights the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn, Harry's father), Spider-Man defeats him by revealing Harry's drug addiction. While the story had a clear anti-drug message, the Comics Code Authority refused to issue its seal of approval. Marvel nevertheless published the three issues without the Comics Code Authority's approval or seal. The issues sold so well that the industry's self-censorship was undercut and the Code was subsequently revised.


title: Spider-Man

text: In 1972, a second monthly ongoing series starring Spider-Man began: "Marvel Team-Up", in which Spider-Man was paired with other superheroes and supervillains. From that point on, there have generally been at least two ongoing Spider-Man series at any time. In 1976, his second solo series, "Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man" began running parallel to the main series. A third series featuring Spider-Man, "Web of Spider-Man", launched in 1985 to replace "Marvel Team-Up". The launch of a fourth monthly title in 1990, the "adjectiveless" "" (with the storyline "Torment"), written and drawn by popular artist Todd McFarlane, debuted with several different covers, all with the same interior content. The various versions combined sold over 3 million copies, an industry record at the time. Several miniseries, one-shot issues, and loosely related comics have also been published, and Spider-Man makes frequent cameos and guest appearances in other comic book series. In 1996, "The Sensational Spider-Man" was created to replace "Web of Spider-Man".


title: Spider-Man

text: In 1998 writer-artist John Byrne revamped the origin of Spider-Man in the 13-issue limited series "" (Dec. 1998 – Oct. 1999), similar to Byrne's adding details and some revisions to Superman's origin in DC Comics' "The Man of Steel". At the same time, the original "The Amazing Spider-Man" was ended with issue #441 (Nov. 1998), and "The Amazing Spider-Man" was restarted with vol. 2, #1 (Jan. 1999). In 2003, Marvel reintroduced the original numbering for "The Amazing Spider-Man" and what would have been vol. 2, #59 became issue #500 (Dec. 2003).


title: Spider-Man

text: When the primary series "The Amazing Spider-Man" reached issue #545 (Dec. 2007), Marvel dropped its spin-off ongoing series and instead began publishing "The Amazing Spider-Man" three times monthly, beginning with #546–548 (all January 2008). The three times-monthly scheduling of "The Amazing Spider-Man" lasted until November 2010, when the comic book was increased from 22 pages to 30 pages each issue and published only twice a month, beginning with #648–649 (both November 2010). The following year, Marvel launched "Avenging Spider-Man" as the first spin-off ongoing series in addition to the still-twice monthly "The Amazing Spider-Man" since the previous ones were canceled at the end of 2007. The "Amazing" series temporarily ended with issue #700 in December 2012, and was replaced by "The Superior Spider-Man", which had Doctor Octopus serve as the new Spider-Man, his mind having taken over Peter Parker's body. "Superior" was an enormous commercial success for Marvel, and ran for 31 issues before the real Peter Parker returned in a newly relaunched "The Amazing Spider-Man" #1 in April 2014.


title: Spider-Man

text: Following the 2015 "Secret Wars" crossover event, a number of Spider-Man-related titles were either relaunched or created as part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event. Among them, "The Amazing Spider-Man" was relaunched as well and primarily focuses on Peter Parker continuing to run Parker Industries, and becoming a successful businessman who is operating worldwide.


title: Spider-Man

text: In Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, Midtown High School student Peter Benjamin Parker is a science-whiz orphan living with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. As depicted in "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (Aug. 1962), he is bitten by a radioactive spider (erroneously classified as an insect in the panel) at a science exhibit and "acquires the agility and proportionate strength of an arachnid". Along with heightened athletic abilities, Parker gains the ability to adhere to walls and ceilings. Through his native knack for science, he develops a gadget that lets him fire adhesive webbing of his own design through small, wrist-mounted barrels. Initially seeking to capitalize on his new abilities, Parker dons a costume and, as "Spider-Man", becomes a novelty television star. However, "He blithely ignores the chance to stop a fleeing thief, [and] his indifference ironically catches up with him when the same criminal later robs and kills his Uncle Ben." Spider-Man tracks and subdues the killer and learns, in the story's next-to-last caption, "With great power there must also come—great responsibility!"


title: Spider-Man

text: Despite his superpowers, Parker struggles to help his widowed aunt pay the rent, is taunted by his peers—particularly football star Flash Thompson—and, as Spider-Man, engenders the editorial wrath of newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson. As he battles his enemies for the first time, Parker finds juggling his personal life and costumed adventures difficult. In time, Peter graduates from high school and enrolls at Empire State University (a fictional institution evoking the real-life Columbia University and New York University), where he meets roommate and best friend Harry Osborn and girlfriend Gwen Stacy, and Aunt May introduces him to Mary Jane Watson. As Peter deals with Harry's drug problems, and Harry's father is revealed to be Spider-Man's nemesis the Green Goblin, Peter even attempts to give up his costumed identity for a while. Gwen Stacy's father, New York City Police detective Captain George Stacy, is accidentally killed during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus (issue #90, November 1970).


title: Spider-Man

text: In issue #121 (June 1973), the Green Goblin throws Gwen Stacy from a tower of either the Brooklyn Bridge (as depicted in the art) or the George Washington Bridge (as given in the text). She dies during Spider-Man's rescue attempt; a note on the letters page of issue #125 states: "It saddens us to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her." The following issue, the Goblin appears to kill himself accidentally in the ensuing battle with Spider-Man.


title: Spider-Man

text: Working through his grief, Parker eventually develops tentative feelings toward Watson, and the two "become confidants rather than lovers". A romantic relationship eventually develops, with Parker proposing to her in issue #182 (July 1978), and being turned down an issue later. Parker went on to graduate from college in issue #185, and becomes involved with the shy Debra Whitman and the extroverted, flirtatious costumed thief Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. the Black Cat, whom he meets in issue #194 (July 1979).


title: Spider-Man

text: From 1984 to 1988, Spider-Man wore a black costume with a white spider design on his chest. The new costume originated in the "Secret Wars" miniseries, on an alien planet where Spider-Man participates in a battle between Earth's major superheroes and supervillains. He continues wearing the costume when he returns, starting in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #252. The change to a longstanding character's design met with controversy, "with many hardcore comics fans decrying it as tantamount to sacrilege. Spider-Man's traditional red and blue costume was iconic, they argued, on par with those of his D.C. rivals Superman and Batman." The creators then revealed the costume was an alien symbiote which Spider-Man is able to reject after a difficult struggle, though the symbiote returns several times as Venom for revenge.


title: Spider-Man

text: Parker proposes to Watson in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #290 (July 1987), and she accepts two issues later, with the wedding taking place in "The Amazing Spider-Man Annual" #21 (1987)—promoted with a real-life mock wedding using actors at Shea Stadium, with Stan Lee officiating, on June 5, 1987. David Michelinie, who scripted based on a plot by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, said in 2007, "I didn't think they actually should [have gotten] married. ... I had actually planned another version, one that wasn't used." Parker published a book of Spider-Man photographs called "Webs". and returned to his Empire State University graduate studies in biochemistry in #310 (Dec. 1988).


title: Spider-Man

text: In the controversial 1990s storyline the "Clone Saga", a clone of Parker, created in 1970s comics by insane scientist Miles Warren, a.k.a. the Jackal, returns to New York City upon hearing of Aunt May's health worsening. The clone had lived incognito as "Ben Reilly", but now assumes the superhero guise the Scarlet Spider and allies with Parker. To the surprise of both, new tests indicate "Reilly" is the original and "Parker" the clone. Complicating matters, Watson announces in "The Spectacular Spider-Man" #220 (Jan. 1995) that she is pregnant with Parker's baby. Later, however, a resurrected Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) has Watson poisoned, causing premature labor and the death of her and Parker's unborn daughter. The Green Goblin had switched the results of the clone test in an attempt to destroy Parker's life by making him believe himself to be the clone. Reilly is killed while saving Parker, in "Peter Parker: Spider-Man" #75 (Dec. 1996), and his body immediately crumbles into dust, confirming Reilly was the clone.