Spider-Man made his Hollywood feature film debut in Sam Raimi's 2002 adaptation, Spider-Man. The film follows the plot of the original comic pretty closely: Peter Parker, an orphaned teenager attending high-school in New York City, lives with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Somewhat of a social pariah and bullied by the jock-stereotype Flash Thompson, Peter is eventually bitten by a modified spider at a science exhibition, thus granting him super-powers (super strength, super agility, the ability to sense danger, the ability to adhere to surfaces, and also 20/20 vision). Peter tries his hand at a wrestling competition and wins a fair bit of money, after which he allows a thief to escape. The thief ends up killing Uncle Ben, and Peter - as Spider-Man - corners the thief in a warehouse and leaves him tied up for the police to take care of.
However, the film also takes many creative liberties in regards to the original. The website, http://thatwasnotinthebook.com/diff/spider-man_comic_book_1962_vs_spider-man_movie_2002 , gives us a few differences. In the comic, Peter meets Mary Jane at University through his Aunt May, he develops the web and web shooters himself, and he is bitten while attending a radiation exhibit at the local science hall. In the movie, Peter is next-door neighbors with Mary Jane during high-school, he gains the ability to shoot the web from his wrists due to the spider-bite, and he is bitten at school field trip to the OsCorp labs by a genetically modified spider (rather than a radioactive one).
There are also many more differences to take into account. Peter and Harry are best friends from the outset, whereas Peter meets him in college because they are roommates. Mary Jane is Peter's first crush/girlfriend in the film, while it was Gwen Stacy in the comics - she doesn't even appear in the movie. Uncle Ben's sage advice regarding power and responsibility in the film was actually written in the last panel of the Spider-Man story in Amazing Fantasy #15 as the voice of the narrator/artist.
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| Is that you, Uncle Ben? |
Another big change is the antagonist - the Green Goblin. As discussed in the post regarding the comic, Spider-Man fought a slew of villains before moving to college. He first battled with the Green Goblin in issue #14, however he first fought the Chameleon in issue #1, the Vulture in issue #2, and Doc Ock in issue #3. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man is still getting the swing of things (get it?) when he faces off against the Green Goblin, yet the original Spider-Man has had quite a few scraps under his belt by the time he and the Goblin battle. And speaking of the Goblin, in the comics he throws Gwen Stacy off of a bridge who Spider-Man attempts to rescue (resulting in her death), and then he accidentally kills himself when the two face off again for the final time. In the film, the Goblin drops both Mary Jane and a tram car full of children, causing Spider-Man to choose between the two. In what could be considered a typical "Hollywood" happy ending, Peter is able to save both (not killing Mary Jane with his webbing), though the Goblin still accidentally kills himself in the final showdown. With the exception of chronology issues and little differences, the film is a pretty close adaptation of the original work.
Useful links:
Sources:
Spider-Man. Dir. Sam Raimi. Perf. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Willem Dafoe.
Columbia Pictures, 2002. Film.
The Amazing Spider-Man. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Issues 1, 2, 3, 14, and 121. Marvel, 1963-1973.
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