Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most iconic characters and one of the most popular comic characters of all time. Since his debut in the early Sixties, Spider-Man has always been at the forefront of the Marvel Universe, with The Amazing Spider-Man being one of the books whose sales are a barometer for the health of the comics industry. The character has changed a lot over the years, and those changes have had repercussions for the Marvel Universe as a whole.

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Spider-Man has transformed Marvel in so many ways. He's one of the most popular characters of all time, and his trials and tribulations have informed Marvel storytelling for a long time.

10 Spider-Man: Chapter One Was One Of Marvel's First Big Retcon/Reboots

Spider-Man saves a civilian in John Byrne's Chapter One

The Clone Saga left the Spider-Man books a broken shell of what they once were. The story went on way too long, and by the end, fans were kind of sick of Spider-Man in general. To fix that, Marvel brought in writer/artist John Byrne, who had famously helped reboot Superman in the post-Crisis DCU, to do the same with Spider-Man, and Spider-Man: Chapter One was born.

The story went back to Spider-Man's origin and changed parts of it, playing into the forthcoming Spider-Man books released afterward. It was a massive flop, but it was also the first time that Marvel tried this kind of reboot/retcon in such a grand fashion.

9 He Was The First Marvel Solo Hero To Have Multiple Books

Crop of Spider-Man on the cover of Spectacular Spider-Man #59 with the Beetle

Nowadays, popular characters and teams have multiple books, but that wasn't always the way things were. It took years for big books like Fantastic Four or The Avengers to get a second book, and it was unheard of for solo characters to have more than one ongoing series at a time. Until Spider-Man did it, that is.

Spider-Man would get Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 in 1976. He was the first Marvel character to get in on the multiple solo title bandwagon. Even today, few Marvel heroes have been able to sustain more than one solo book as long as Spider-Man has.

8 He's The First Marvel Character To Have Two Different People Hold The Mantle At The Same Time

Spider-Men-Peter-And-Miles

Fans were shocked when they learned that Ultimate Peter Parker was going to be killed, but what came after changed the way Marvel approached legacy characters. Miles Morales was introduced and became a sensation, forging his own destiny as Spider-Man. This was the first time that there would be two Marvel characters with the same name being published at once.

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Both of them would helm successful books, and eventually, Morales would come over to the main Marvel Universe. This success showed Marvel a new way of doing things. Now there are two Wolverines, and the multiple Captain Americas from over the years have all started to operate at the same time.

7 The Superior Spider-Man Changed The Way A Villain Redemption Story Arc Worked

Otto Octavius as the Superior Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man #700 was an unprecedented Marvel milestone. It ended in an equally flabbergasting manner, with Doctor Octopus taking over Peter Parker's body and deciding to become a hero as a superior Spider-Man. Villain redemption stories had been done before, but this one proved to be a very unique take on that trope.

The Superior Spider-Man showed Ock as a hero trying to prove that he was better than the man who spent years beating him. Even more surprising, Ock was a much more successful Peter Parker than Parker himself. While Marvel hasn't tried to replicate this kind of story with others, it's still a milestone.

wolverine and spider-man team-up

Marvel was built on team-ups and interrelated continuity. As the years went by and The Amazing Spider-Man became the big book, things started to shift from having characters that would normally crossover in team books start crossing into Spider-Man's books. Marvel even created Marvel Team-Up as a way to take advantage of that, teaming up Spider-Man with loads of characters, new and old.

Spider-Man's stardom became a kingmaker, as teaming up characters with him gave those characters a boost. Marvel started to do this with more and more of its popular solo characters, most notably Wolverine, eliminating the old way of using Avengers or Fantastic Four to get eyes on characters.

5 One More Day Was Marvel's Biggest, Most Controversial Yet Successful Retcon Ever

One More Day Spider-Man Trades His Marriage And Memories Of Mary Jane To Save Aunt May

One More Day is the most infamous Spider-Man story of all time, unseating the Clone Saga. Retcons were nothing new in Marvel, but few were this big. It fundamentally changed the continuity of Marvel's most significant character. It provoked fan ire in a way that should have been predictable, as a whole generation of fans had grown up with a married Spider-Man.

The strange thing is that, even though fans hated the story from the moment it ended, the new status quo of The Amazing Spider-Man became one of the most popular in years. The controversy helped sell what came after, and while fans wish the story never happened, the results can't be denied.

4 Spider-Man Popularized Symbiotes

Venom & Spider-Man Fight Carnage

Symbiotes' popularity has waxed and waned over the years at Marvel, with recent years seeing them hit a height they hadn't since the '90s. Powerful symbiote possessing heroes and villains have been introduced in droves, and they all owe their existence and popularity to Spider-Man. His use of the first symbiote birthed Venom, who birthed Carnage and so many more, and the rest is history.

Relating symbiotes to their most popular character gave the concept the sales legs it needed to become an iconic part of the Marvel Universe. Spider-Man's stardom gave symbiotes and symbiote-related characters the spotlight they needed to shine.

3 His Book Was The First Ultimate Book

Ultimate Spider-Man #1

The Ultimate Universe had a steep fall from grace, but it remains incredibly influential, especially to the MCU. The first Ultimate book was Ultimate Spider-Man, a book written for the entirety of its existence by Brian Michael Bendis working with various artists. It set the standard for the line, becoming a massive hit.

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Marvel's Ultimate line and its success hinged on Ultimate Spider-Man, and that book delivered better than anyone expected. It made the Ultimate line into the biggest thing in superhero comics for a time, and without it, the MCU would be very different.

2 He Was The First Marvel Solo Character To Get Married

Spider-Man Wedding

Characters getting married in Marvel books weren't new when Peter and Mary Jane got married. Reed Richards and Sue Storm were the first married Marvel couple, followed by Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. However, they were in team books and were all superheroes. Spider-Man was a solo star, and Mary Jane was not a superhero, so their wedding was very different.

Spider-Man and Mary Jane's marriage was the first time a character in a solo Marvel book got married, creating a fan-favorite relationship that most want back. It was a huge status quo change for the Wall-Crawler, and it showed Marvel how far they could take one of their solo stars.

1 His Failures Humanized Marvel's Heroes

Gwen Stacy Spider-Man

Marvel always sold itself as the world outside readers' window, but their early heroes still were basically gods in human clothing. Spider-Man changed all of that. Creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did their level best to make Spider-Man relatable to readers, warts and all. Spider-Man struggled and failed, which changed how creators looked at Marvel's other stars.

Spider-Man represented a paradigm shift in the way superheroes were portrayed. This shift changed the way the Marvel Universe and the industry treated characters, creating new types of stories that would enthrall fans in completely different ways.

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