I just kind of stumbled into this Marvel thing with 'Spider-Man.' It's been great. I love it, it keeps me in town, it keeps me busy, and it's a lot of fun.
When you're a kid, and you're a superhero lover, the holy trinity is Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, so to be able to take any of those and play with it is a huge joy.
I'm the first one in line to go watch 'Spider-Man', but there's definitely something in me that makes me want to go to a movie and see something that makes me feel good about life.
Spider-Man has always been a symbol of goodness and doing the right thing and looking after your fellow man.
As an adolescent, Spider-Man was what got me through tough times in terms of being a skinny kid.
When you're given the assignment to write, for example, 'Spider-Man,' the concept, characters and environment are all laid out for you. Everything is pre-established, and your sole responsibility as a creator is to craft an exciting, entertaining, hopefully original adventure, to add layers and colors to a canon that already exists.
Every significant book at Marvel had its key antagonist. 'The Fantastic Four' had Doctor Doom; 'Spider-Man' had Doc Ock, among others; Thor had Loki, if not Surtur. Without Magneto, the X-Men had nobody.
The success of 'X-Men' paved the way, I have to presume, for Sony to make Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man.'
Spider-Man initially made me want to come to New York and work for Marvel; I wanted to be a comic book artist.
My reason for getting into the film business was a Spider-Man comic called 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died' when I was a kid; it changed my life.
