Marvel's Spider-Man (2017) versus the comics: the sixth origin

The most adapted character is also the one who is made the most younger. Decryption source by source, without disclosing the outcomes.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

The most suitable character, and what it produces

This character holds a record: no other has been the subject of so many separate animated series. Each restarts, presents the origin again, and resets the counter to zero.

This corpus can now formulate the consequence, and it is important.

A monthly comic accumulated. Each issue adds to the previous one, the consequences persist, the characters age, the losses remain. After sixty years, the whole constitutes a mass which no new work can dispose of.

An adaptation works by resets successive. Each new series starts from the same point, with the same opponents in the same order, and disappears without transmitting anything to the next one.

The result is a lasting asymmetry. The character on the paper has a history; the screen character has a series of short stories who do not communicate. We can multiply the adaptations without ever building what sixty years of publication have built.

This is perhaps the most important observation that this corpus can offer to a reader who hesitates between the screen and the paper: what one cannot give is the duration.

Systematic rejuvenation

The series places the character in high school. But the paper had brought him out as soon as ASM #31(1965), for college, then adulthood, work and marriage.

The gap is therefore several decades of fictional life, and there is nothing accidental about it: almost all adaptations bring this character back to his youngest version.

Two causes combine, and they must be distinguished.

The first is the target audience. A production aimed at young people works better with a protagonist close to the age of its spectator - this was also the discovery of 1962.

The second is more structural: the origin is the best known and strongest part of the material. It is short, self-contained, tested, and requires no prior knowledge. Starting over with it is the least risky choice a production can make.

This corpus indicates the consequence, rarely stated. The character as shown on the screen is frozen at sixteen for forty years, while the character on the paper has aged, changed jobs, lost loved ones and has since recovered. They are no longer quite the same.

The characters, from paper to screen

• Peter Parker—Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962); taken back to high school.
• Miles Morales— Ultimate Fallout #4 (2011); sidekick.
• Gwen Stacy— Vigilante since Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (2014).
• Anya Corazon—Amazing Fantasy #1 (2004); long discreet.
• Harry Osborn— The friend whose fate we know.

The laboratory that became a school

The series places its plot in a scientific school, where the character is admitted for his abilities. The device comes from paper, but transformed.

The stories of the 2010s had in fact given the character a job in a research laboratory— an adult position, with colleagues, salary and responsibilities. It was the logical outcome of a character who had always been defined by his scientific competence, but about whom nothing had been done professionally for a long time.

The series takes up this framework and converts in school, in accordance with the rejuvenation described above. The laboratory becomes a classroom, the colleagues become comrades, the salary becomes a scholarship.

The transposition is skillful, and this corpus recognizes a real quality in it: it preserves what mattered – a place where the character's intelligence serves a purpose – by adapting it to the chosen age.

It illustrates a rule that can be stated simply: a paper decoration is transposed well when we identify its function rather than its shape. What mattered was not the laboratory, it was the existence of a place where the character did not have to hide what he knew how to do.

What Repetition of Origin Does to the Market

The systematic rejuvenation described above has a direct consequence on prices, and this corpus has never before had the opportunity to state it so clearly.

Each new adaptation retells the same first twenty numbers. The origin, the death of a loved one, the first adversaries, the diary, entry into high school. This portion of the catalog is therefore put back forward every three or four years, indefinitely.

The result is a concentration extreme of demand. A handful of issues absorb most of the interest generated by the adaptations, while hundreds of others, often better, remain at flat levels.

Two practical consequences follow from this, and they go in opposite directions.

The first: the most requested numbers are not depreciate practically never, because demand is renewed by a permanent mechanism rather than by a one-off release. This is what distinguishes this character from those whose popularity rises when a film is announced and then falls.

The second, more useful to those who buy: everything that is located out of this portion remains permanently accessible. Major stories from the following decades — those that the paper considers to be its peaks — are obtained at prices unrelated to their importance, because no adaptation has ever told them.

This corpus therefore formulates a simple rule for this character: the notoriety of a number follows adaptations, not quality. Anyone who buys to read will find their best value in periods that the screen has never touched; he who buys for value will have to pay the price of what everyone knows.

This rule finally explains an observation that all specialized booksellers make: buyers from the screen almost always ask for the same five or six numbers, whatever their age and whatever adaptation brought them there. Demand does not diversify over time, because the mechanism that produces it does not diversify either.

The corollary is clear for those who build a long-term collection: the rarity of a number and its notoriety evolve independently of each other. The periods neglected by the screen continue to become physically rarer - copies are damaged, disappear, leave the market - while their price does not change. This is exactly the setup that rewards patience.

Collection side: which numbers to aim for after the series

Ultimate Fallout #4(2011) bears the first appearance of Miles Morales, and it's one of the few truly solid keys to the modern period.

Its singularity deserves to be explained. Most post-2000 keys suffer from considerable mintages which cap their value. This benefited from a rare conjunction: the character lasted, he got his own series, and he was carried through successive adaptations – which is far from being the case of all the creations of this decade.

An essential point of vigilance regarding this number: it exists in several covers, whose value differences are considerable. Before any purchase, identify precisely which variant it is; an announcement that only mentions the title and number is insufficient.

Amazing Fantasy #1(2004) features Anya Corazon. This number illustrates an inverse and instructive configuration: a character little exploited after its debut, the first appearance of which remains very accessible. The difference in trajectory with the previous one is entirely due to the use that was made of it subsequently.

Edge of Spider-Verse #2(2014) is in high demand, with the same variant precautions.

As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Where to start reading

For the adult scientific setting, read the stories from the 2010s which give the character a job as a researcher: they show what the series has converted into a school. For Miles Morales, start with his own series, which follows Ultimate Fallout #4(2011) and can be read without prior knowledge.

Timeline to know

• 1962— Amazing Fantasy #15: the origin, started again since with each adaptation.
• 1965— ASM #31: the character leaves high school.
• 2004—Amazing Fantasy #1: Anya Corazon.
• 2011— Ultimate Fallout #4: Miles Morales.
• 2014— Edge of Spider-Verse #2: Gwen as a vigilante.
• 2017— The series, sixth of the name, back to high school.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

This series allows the corpus to state its most general observation on the gap between the two supports: a monthly comic accumulated— the consequences persist, the characters age — while a franchise on screen proceeds by resets which do not transmit anything. We can therefore multiply the adaptations without ever building what sixty years of publication have built. It also documents the systematic rejuvenation: the origin is the shortest, most autonomous and least risky part of the material, hence a character frozen at sixteen on the screen for forty years, when the one on paper has aged. For the collector, it leads to an enlightening comparison between two early modern appearances, of which everything depended on the subsequent use.

The verdict: function preserved, age restored

• Loyalty: the scientific competence of the character, the city and its scale, the extended entourage of the recent paper, the tug between studies and duty, and the historical adversaries.
• Freedoms: an age brought back to high school, an adult laboratory converted into a school, origins of aligned sidekicks, reduced material insecurity and sixty years of accumulation put aside.
• Collectible numbers: Ultimate Fallout #4 (2011), Amazing Fantasy #1 (2004), Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (2014).

Sixth series, sixth origin, sixth high school. The paper has continued to move forward all this time — and that's the only thing that no adaptation will be able to reproduce.

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