Teenager Peter Parker is granted the proportional abilities of a spider after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Despite his newfound celebrity as the crime fighting Spider-Man, he still struggles with being accepted by the public and his peers, paying the rent, and generally catching any break at all. When I was ten years old, I was unaware that Spider-Man was a revolutionary character. I was not born into a world without Spider-Man, and did not know of a time when absolutely all heroes were perfect and devoid of problems. As far as I knew, the blue and red-costumed swinger was the prototypical superhero. He sure seemed cool to me, anyways. As far as I can recall, Spider-Man was the first cartoon show that I watched on Saturday mornings, and even as a wee lad I knew that Spidey was different. As outlandish as he was, there was a reality about his life— he was screwed by his boss, short of cash, distrusted by cops, and frustrated by women. Watching Spider-Man was a bit unsettling, since I could not rely on him always coming out on top, but I kind of liked that. I still like it. The links to the left are some of my favorite Spidey villians.