Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962).

In Amazing Fantasy #18, Spider-Man battled Supercharger, the living battery. Previously, he had battled mostly small-time crooks.

In Amazing Spider-Man #121, the Green Goblin kidnapped Peter Parker's then-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and dropped her off a bridge. Peter tried to save her, but when his webbing caught Gwen, the whiplash broke her neck, and she died instantly.

Flash Thompson was a star football player who mercilessly bullied his high school classmate Peter Parker but greatly admired Spider-Man, an irony in which the superhero took some gratification.

In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3, Spider-Man was offered membership in The Avengers if he could capture the Hulk and return him to Avengers headquarters. Although he did manage to capture the Hulk, Spider-Man was suspicious of what the Avengers wanted with the green-skinned monster. Feeling pity for the creature, Spider-Man decided to release him instead of turning him over to the Avengers, thus failing the test.

Spider-Man brought a new black costume back from the first "Secret Wars". Unfortunately, his nifty new threads turned out to be an alien symbiote that wanted to bond with him permanently! With Mr. Fantastic's help, Spider-Man was able to separate himself from the costume. Apparently feeling a little rejected, the symbiote would eventually bond with Eddie Brock and become the dangerous super-villain known as Venom.

When Peter Parker graduated from high school in Amazing Spider-Man #28, the guest speaker at his graduation ceremony was none other than Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson.

When Kirby showed Lee the first six pages he'd drawn, Lee recalled, "I hated the way he was doing it! Not that he did it badly--it just wasn't the character I wanted; it was too heroic". Instead, Lee turned to Steve Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory.

The Spectacular Spider-Man was a proto-graphic novel designed to appeal to older readers. It only lasted for two issues, but it represented the first Spider-Man spin-off publication.

John Romita, Sr. has stated that in designing Mary Jane, Peter Parker's love interest, he took Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, and her red hair.