He Almost Did Not Get Published
Way back in the 1960s, Marvel tasked the legendary Stan Lee with creating a new character to maintain the momentum the company had achieved with the recent success of the Fantastic Four. It was quite the herculean task, but after examining the other top selling comics and seeing what worked and what did not, Stan presented his publisher with Spider-Man. The publisher was not a fan, claiming people hate spiders so why would they want a spider themed superhero? Instead, they met in the middle, and Spider-Man’s first appearance would be in Amazing Fantasy, a comic line that was on the edge of cancellation. On Spider-Man's debut issue the company had unexpected record sales of the comic, and the rest is history.
He Was The First Teenage Superhero
On top of the unpleasant spider theme, Spider-Man had another hard sell. He was to be the first teenaged superhero. Or rather, he was the first teenaged hero that was not a sidekick to an adult superhero. Aside from the novelty of the concept, this was done in an effort to make him more relatable. After all, a large portion of comic readers are teenagers. Seeing a hero that worked through some of the same problems as the reader only made sense. The formula worked and paved the way for many more teenaged heroes to come.
Spider-Man Not Spiderman
When he was first designed it was decided he would go against the mold of the superheroes that came before him. So when it came time to give him a name, Stan Lee wanted to give a fitting name for the spectacular hero. Being a teenager, he was tempted to give him a stereotypical moniker like lad or boy, but he decided against it. He was to be a hero in his own right and those names did not suit him. Stan Lee finally arrived with the name we all know and love. He was inspired the most by DC’s Superman. However, he wanted it to be distinct, and so he added the hyphen in the name. While some properties use them interchangeably, the accurate way to write it is "Spider-Man."