TL:DR on Spidey’s Creation
Pre-1963, Martin Goodman (then editor of pre-Marvel, Timely Comics) rejected Stan Lee’s original idea of having a teenager with life problems to be a superhero because it wasn’t conventional to have young teenagers be the main protagonist more so have superheroes having problems!
Imagine the irony when Stan Lee placed Spider-Man into the already failing Amazing Fantasy series. On that fateful date of June 5th 1963, the first Spidey story was birth in Amazing Fantasy #15 and the rest as they say, was history.
If you never paid attention to who Spider-Man was, here are phenomenal facts about everyone’s favorite wall crawler to tingle your senses:
- In 2021, a pristine copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 (the first appearance of Spidey in a comic book) was sold for $3.6m – the highest price ever paid for a single comic book issue. [Reference]
- In March 2025, Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2 reigned as the number 1 graphic novel sold. [Reference]
- There are 19 on-screen movies related to Spider-Man and 13 of them feature Spidey in it as the protagonist. [Reference]
- Spider-Man brings in $1.3 billion worth of retail sales per year – a testament to popularity. [Reference]
Is there a Biblical explanation for Spidey’s stickiness to our hearts and minds for all these years?
The Biblical explanation for the popularity of Spider-Man
So God’s Word must have stuck for Stan Lee’s brilliant idea! Good ol’ teenage Peter Parker with spider powers stuck for pop culture ages past, present and future according to Proverbs 30:28.
There are four small creatures on the earth, yet they are exceedingly wise… The spider grasps with [her] hands, and she is in a king’s palaces.
– Proverbs chapter 30 : verses 24, 28 [Hebrew Bible translated by Rabbi A.J. Rosenberg]
We can interpret the passage above as the spider being a persistent sticky ‘bug’ on the wall of homes and palaces, immovable from its place – a timeless Biblical fact.
Does God love Spider-Man as a character as much as we do that He decided to make Peter Parker’s story STICK? PERHAPS!
The Words of Jesus the Messiah/Christ explaining the eternal authority of God’s Word:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
– Matthew chapter 5 : verses 17-18 [Berean Standard Bible]
The religious Jew and the Bible believing Christian believe that the words recorded in the Bible form our reality until the new heaven and new earth to come. In other words, the words in the Bible remain true as long as we are on this (current) earth.
So God’s Word must have stuck for Stan Lee’s brilliant idea! The good ol’ teenage Peter Parker with spider powers stuck for pop culture ages past, present and future according to Proverbs 30:28.
Thank God for the Spider-Man we have all come to love to date.
Other Interesting Biblical References to Spider-Man’s Story
Proverbs chapter 30 : verse 28 has a translation problem:
e.g. Proverbs chapter 30 : verse 28 [King James Version]:
The spider taketh hold with her hands, And is in kings’ palaces.
e.g. Proverbs chapter 30 verse 28 [English Standard Version]:
the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.
The Spider-Man stuck because the Word of God said so and so did his translation counterpart! The Lizard stuck to Spidey all these years!
The English translations of this verse have no consistency at all! Sometimes the ol’ Hebrew word is translated as Spider and at other texts, a Lizard!
Click here for the full list of translation comparison for Proverbs 30:28.
Enter the Lizard
Not the wild reptile but Doctor Conners in Spidey’s lore.
TL:DR: Doctor Conners was a brilliant scientist with a disability: he only had one arm to live with. Like every brilliant scientist, he wanted to find a solution to his plight and hopefully help many lives such as his. He sought the solution in the lizard species but when he tried to replicate the lizards bodily regeneration on himself, he turned into a gigantic lab coat wearing, “Look what huge teeth you have,” uncontrollable tail whipping man-sized.. LIZARD.
The Lizard in Spider-Man’s history as a pop icon:
- The Lizard first appeared in the Amazing Spider-Man #16 (1964) comic book.
- Comic Book artist best known for the Spawn comic book series: Todd MacFarlane remade the Lizard into a menacing monster in Amazing Spider-Man #313 (1989)
- The Lizard appears in 18 Spider-Man games! (As compared to Doctor Octopus who appears in 17 Spidey games) [Reference]
The Spider-Man stuck because the Word of God said so and so did his translation counterpart! The Lizard stuck to Spidey all these years!
Venom as a great analogy to Sin according to Christian doctrine
Venom first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988) and I should know because I was born then.
TL:DR: Venom began as a black living alien symbiote that Peter Parker donned during the very first Secret Wars arc. He rejected the alien after it turned him from a mild mannered person into a would be violent wrathful murderer.
Fortunately, the symbiote had two weaknesses, high frequency sounds and intense heat. After fleeing from Peter Parker’s body under the clamoring of a church bell, the alien Symbiote found a new host who will succumb to his sins, Eddy Brock, aka Venom.
Is Venom a fan favorite? He appears in 6 games, appears in almost every Spider-Man animated series known to man and has 3 stand alone (without Spidey) movies and his huge symbol is as captivating as Batman’s!
Why is Venom so popular? Todd MacFarlane, the monster’s creator suggests that the love for relatable anti-heroes makes Venom a fan favorite. [Reference]
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
– Romans chapter 7 : verses 23-24 [New Living Translation]
The alien Symbiote behind Venom is a resemblance to Sin in the Bible. Just like Sin, the Venom Symbiote is inescapable, and it overcomes us to think of and act out our worst behaviors. Just like Peter Parker struggling with the voice of the alien Symbiote within, so too do we struggle with Sin.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
– Romans chapter 7 : verses 18-20 [New Living Translation]
The Venom Symbiote, as powerful as it may be, has two vulnerabilities: Sound and Fire. Sin’s weakness is The Word of God made Flesh and the Fire of God.
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
– Isaiah chapter 6 : verses 5-7 [New Living Translation]
Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
– Romans chapter 7 : verse 25 through chapter 8 verses 1-2 [New Living Translation]
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
– John chapter 1 verse 14 [New Living Translation]
God reaching out to mankind – to YOU and I – in order to forgive our sins and free us from guilt and shame are culminated in Jesus the Messiah to the Jews (Christ to us non-Jews) as recorded history and prophecy fulfilled in the Bible. For Jesus obeyed God His Father and died in place of us being God’s crucified sacrifice for us.
If we believe what the Bible records (Word/Sound) about Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we don’t have to die because of our sins but gain new life in resurrection by the Spirit of God (Spirit of God/Fire), for Jesus rose from the dead.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them… And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
– Acts chapter 2 : verses 2-3, 21 [New International Version]
In other words, the only way to defeat our sinful tendencies (Venom in us that leads to death in every relationship and life), is to understand the Word of God (The Bible/Sound) and to live with the power of the Holy Spirit (fire).
Final thoughts on the Bible prophesying Spider-Man’s popularity
The Hebrew Bible, aka the Old Testament, aka the Tanakh is made up of words from the ancient prophets and kings of ancient Israel. When biblical prophets spoke, it was God speaking through them. The words of kings like David and Solomon are prophetic and detail the timeless principals and patterns of God’s ways.
If the prophecies of the Bible are true and persist throughout reality and providing us the connection between Proverbs 30:28 and the spectacular fictional inspirational hero, Spider-Man. I can only conclude that God wants us to know that He is real.
God gives us hints to the human condition and His solution when pop culture echo Biblical realities. As in the case of Venom, we see parallels into God’s forgiveness and His solution to our sinful nature in the death of Jesus on the cross, His burial and His resurrection being new life for everyone who believes – for you and I.
May the story of Spider-Man continue to inspire generations to come because God’s Word says that this sticky hero ain’t going no where!
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