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"Things are going pretty well for Peter."

So says Tobey Maguire in an interview, describing the character he plays—Peter Parker and his wall-crawling alter ego Spider-Man—on the big screen. Maguire's third swing as the comic book hero hits theaters this week in Spider-Man 3.

Life's good, Parker's got his girl

Maguire continues: "He's got his girl, he's got his job and school. He's kind of just managing his whole life.  Generally, Peter's in a good state. Of course, it doesn't stay that way."

It doesn't stay that way.

When describing the appeal of Marvel Comics' flagship character, I can't think of five words more aptly webbed together. Creator Stan Lee once billed Spider-Man as "The hero that could be you!" As we consider the ups and downs of our own lives—the balloons popped and dreams quashed, our fears, worries, and battles—we find in the oft-wounded web slinger a kindred spirit. His life never seems to work out right either.

Surely, it's this superhero's relative frailty, his being less super and more human that explains his ongoing popularity. And for believers, this mixture of power and weakness also illustrates some important biblical truths. We'll get to those later. First, let's take a brief look at Spidey's origins and history.

As with many comic book characters, Spider-Man's creation was more the effort of collaboration. Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee all lay claim to portions of the early mythology, but Lee seems to have come up with the basics: a teen-aged superhero with arachnid-like powers and personal problems to boot.

In Origins of Marvel Comics, Lee tells how Martin Goodman, publisher of then-Timely Comics (and Lee's brother-in-law) balked at the concept: "He patiently informed me that people didn't like spiders, that it was an unlikely name for a hero, and that Spider-Man would merit somewhat less than the reading public's wholehearted, enthusiastic approval."

When Stan suggested that his unlikely hero appear in the last issue of a failed anthology comic, Goodman agreed they had nothing to lose. The rest, as they say, is history. Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (August 1962) featured Spider-Man on the cover and sold like hotcakes.  A year later, the character received his own series, The Amazing Spider-Man, which remained Marvel's number one seller for many years.

For those unfamiliar with the original Lee-written, Ditko-drawn version of Spidey's origin, here's a recap (all covered to some degree in 2002's Spider-Man movie): High school bookworm/science geek Peter Parker is smarting from his peers' put-downs. When bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter gains the proportionate strength, agility, and wall-crawling ability of the creature.  Rather than use these abilities for the good of mankind, however, the teen-ager decides they're his ticket to fame and fortune. 

Hiding his plans from his beloved foster parents, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Peter develops wrist-worn web shooters. Turns out, he's not only a science whiz but a pretty good tailor too. Clad in a form-fitting red-and-blue costume with a web motif, the youngster makes good on his ambition.

Pride and bitterness keep him from interfering with a thief's getaway—a failure Peter lives to regret. When Uncle Ben is murdered, Spider-Man tracks down the killer—and finds the same crook he'd allowed to escape.

In Stan Lee's concluding prose, "And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come—great responsibility!"

With those deathless words, not only was a legend born, but a maverick feature that broke several super-hero shibboleths: e.g., teenagers are always sidekicks, super-heroes always act altruistically, and, if such heroes have personal problems, they keep them to themselves.

Ensuing adventures added and intensified the innovations. There was, for example, the time when Peter needed money so he appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. He was paid by check, only to discover he couldn't cash it because he didn't have an account in the name of Spider-Man! Once, he tore his costume and had to sew it himself (he could hardly take it to a local tailor without revealing his secret). Another sequence, which Lee reports he greatly enjoyed writing, showed our hero applying for a job with the Fantastic Four, thinking it would pay him more than he was making on his own. When he discovered the super-group was a non-profit organization, he left in a huff.

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