If you were to create a Mount Rushmore of superheroes based exclusively on their cultural impacts, it would, earnestly, probably lean pretty hard in DC Comics’ favor. Two of the spots would undoubtedly go to Superman and Batman just for being the foundations for the contemporary superhero archetype, and a third would probably go to Wonder Woman for being the most influential female superhero ever created. For as popular as Captain America and Iron Man have become in the last 20 years, they really can’t compare to the widespread influence and recognizability of those three — but there’s one Marvel character in particular who can.
It’s pretty inarguable that Spider-Man is Marvel Comics’ most famous creation, probably owing to the everyman ubiquity that makes him such a relatable character. Unlike a billionaire tech genius or the monarch of a wealthy African nation, Peter Parker was a high-school nerd who just happened to stumble into superpowers, and his turn to heroism is one born out of a selfish mistake that any one of us could have made. The ease with which viewers can see themselves in Spider-Man is undoubtedly one of the elements that drives his continued popularity in wider culture — alongside a comic book history spanning more than 60 years, the character has had his own newspaper comic strip, countless live-action and animated TV shows, multiple video games, and of course, several film series.
