Early in its run, Marvel Comics limited superheroes to one comic book each, except for those who are also on teams. There were some exceptions, such as when Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos were running at the same time as Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, but with superheroes, it was one comic per hero plus the team issues like the Avengers or Fantastic Four. In 1971, Marvel put Spider-Man in a team-up series called Marvel Team-Up, which ran at the same time as his solo Amazing Spider-Man series, but that was similar to the team issues since Spider-Man’s name wasn’t in the title and he was one of two heroes in each issue. However, this all changed in 1976 when Spider-Man made history at Marvel Comics.
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On September 28, 1976, Marvel Comics released Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema. This was the first time in Marvel history that a superhero had two ongoing solo books with his name on both.
Spider-Man Was the First Marvel Hero to Get Two Ongoing Solo Titles
For many years, Marvel Comics liked to push its most popular heroes in multiple titles. For example, after The Fantastic Four was a hit, Marvel headlined the Human Torch in Strange Tales, which usually featured two stories, with a second hero in the secondary story. The Avengers had big-name heroes, but for years, Captain America and Iron Man had a split series format in Tales of Suspense. When those heroes ended up getting their own solo titles, they left the series. As mentioned, when Spider-Man became popular, Marvel gave him Marvel Team-Up, which saw him team up with a different hero in each issue.
However, Spider-Man was very popular, and with The Amazing Spider-Man selling so well, Marvel decided to give it a shot and gave him a second monthly title, the first time they had ever attempted this. It was risky because Marvel risked flooding the market with too much of a good thing, but that isn’t what happened. Instead, Spider-Man was showcased in The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Marvel Team-Up, and he just continued to grow in popularity. In fact, this second title was so popular that it ran for 264 issues.
This first issue of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man sees him fighting the Tarantula while going through some typical Peter Parker bad luck. What set this series apart, at least at first, was that it was as much about Peter as it was about Spider-Man, but those lines became blurred over time. The run was full of as many important and groundbreaking storylines as anything in Spider-Man history. It even included two of the greatest Spider-Man storylines in history, including parts of “Kraven’s Last Hunt” and the “Death of Jean DeWolff.” It also featured the introduction of Cloak and Dagger.
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Set Up Marvel for More Second Series
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man was such a huge success, and helped make Spider-Man even more popular, that Marvel began to create more chances at second ongoing series for popular titles. In fact, over the years, several titles got second and even third series based on their characters. This is nowhere more prevalent than the X-Men. When the team returned in Giant-Size X-Men #1, it revitalized their popularity, and soon the team warranted more and more comics. The series The New Mutants was created to showcase the next generation of the X-Men, but things got even more convoluted in the 1990s and beyond when multiple comics with the X-Men title began to be produced at the same time.
Even Spider-Man upped his output. When “Kraven’s Last Hunt” was playing out, it was split between three different Spider-Man ongoing titles, with Web of Spider-Man joining The Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. While all this was going on, Wolverine was showing up in different comics other than the X-Men, as well as his own miniseries and ongoing titles. By the time the 1980s came to an end, it seemed that the market was being oversaturated by Spider-Man and Wolverine, but those titles kept selling, and there was no reason to slow down.
It wasn’t just Marvel either. There have been times when there are multiple Batman and Superman titles on sale at DC Comics. Even before Spider-Man was showcased in two solo titles, Superman appeared in Superman and Action Comics while Batman was the star of both Batman and Detective Comics. While this was always a success for DC, it wasn’t until 50 years ago that Marvel decided to give it a try, and there wasn’t a better superhero to test this on than Spider-Man. Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, was a massive success, and the hero continues to be one of the most published superheroes in Marvel Comics to this day.
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