Curated playlist

Characters created by Steve Ditko

Doctor OctopusDoctor Octopus, the Marvel Comics villain known as Doc Ock, began as a name before he was anything else. Stan Lee, who created him with the artist Steve Ditko, later described how the idea arrived. "For some reason, I thought of an…
Spider-ManMarvel's publisher told Stan Lee that Spider-Man would never work. The comic was being canceled anyway.
Gwen StacyGwen Stacy is a college student in Marvel's Spider-Man comics, and her murder in 1973 is still argued over by readers and writers. In 2004, the artist John Romita Sr. looked back on the uproar. Fans had threatened him, writer Gerry Conway…
Mac GarganMac Gargan, a Marvel Comics supervillain, once said he would go through anything "just so long as the pay is good!" That line tells you most of what you need to know about the man before the costumes. Gargan began as a private…
Ned LeedsNed Leeds is a Daily Bugle reporter in Marvel Comics, and the husband of Betty Brant. In 1987, readers learned that he had secretly been the supervillain Hobgoblin. By then he was already dead. That order of events shaped everything that…
Kraven the HunterKraven the Hunter, born Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff, greeted Spider-Man with a borrowed phrase. In The Amazing Spider-Man issue 15, published in August 1964, he called the hero "the most dangerous game." The line comes from a short story…
Mary Jane WatsonMary Jane Watson, the Marvel Comics character, makes her most famous entrance on the last page of The Amazing Spider-Man #42, published in November 1966. Peter Parker finally meets her there, and he is stunned by her beauty. She greets him…
Flash ThompsonEugene "Flash" Thompson first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, published in August 1962 by Marvel Comics. Writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko introduced him in the very issue that launched Spider-Man. Flash starts out as the star of his…
Lizard (character)In The Amazing Spider-Man #6, published in November 1963, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced the Lizard. He is a Marvel Comics monster whose human side is a scientist named Dr. Curtis Connors, known as Curt. Connors wanted one thing. He…
MysterioMysterio is a Marvel Comics supervillain whose greatest weapon was never strength. He first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #13, dated June 1964, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. He became one of Spider-Man's most enduring enemies…
Electro (Marvel Comics)Electro, the Marvel Comics supervillain who first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #9 in February 1964, can throw bolts of roughly 100,000 volts from his fingertips. Yet he is better known for losing than for winning. Stan Lee and Steve…
J. Jonah JamesonJ. Jonah Jameson is the flattop-haired, cigar-smoking newspaper boss of Marvel Comics, and he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man issue #1, dated March 1963. Writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko created him. With his moustache and…
Sandman (Marvel Comics)The Sandman, a Marvel Comics character who can turn his whole body into sand, lost one of his early fights to a household vacuum cleaner. His opponent was Spider-Man, the hero who would shadow his life for decades. The man inside the sand…
Sinister SixThe Sinister Six are a team of supervillains in Marvel Comics, drawn mostly from the enemies of Spider-Man. When the first five recruits gathered, each refused to give up the honor of killing him. So they let a random drawing decide who…
Doctor StrangeDoctor Strange, the sorcerer of Marvel Comics, began life with a lukewarm review from the man who edited him. In a 1963 letter to Jerry Bails, Stan Lee described a five-page filler for Strange Tales and admitted that "The first story is…
Chameleon (character)The Chameleon, a Marvel Comics supervillain whose real name is Dmitri Smerdyakov, began his criminal career by pretending to be Spider-Man. It did not work. He was soon exposed and arrested. Even so, he debuted in the first issue of The…
Squirrel GirlSquirrel Girl, whose real name is Doreen Allene Green, bursts out of a forest at Iron Man in her very first comic book story. She is 14 years old, she carries a pet squirrel named Monkey Joe, and she hopes to become his sidekick. Instead…