Spidey's pure comic genius

As the theme-song says, 'Look out - here comes the Spider-Man!' Who would have thought a nerdy lovesick-teen-cum-wall-crawling web-slinger would emerge as a front-runner for this year's most popular pin-up?

Starring Tobey Maguire in the title role, Sam Raimi's film version of Stan Lee's most syndicated Marvel Comics strip has already spun a web of considerable size over all opposition at the US box-office, heralding the return of the superhero movie to the silver screen. With Spider-Man leading the charge, comic-book crusaders are back, and with a glut of inky icons about to be made flesh and bone, the future for Hollywood looks super indeed.

Setting an all-time record, Spider-Man took a staggering $114 million across its opening weekend in America, beating previous champ Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by some $24 million. Not even George Lucas's latest Star Wars instalment Attack Of The Clones, which opened a fortnight later, could match that. At the time of writing, just four weeks into its US release, Spider-Man had already crawled up the charts to become the sixth highest-grossing film of all time, netting over $333 million, a mere $25 million away from claiming fifth spot from current holder Jurassic Park.

'My love of comics started with DC Comics Superman and Batman, because they were simple and I could understand them as a small child,' says 42-year-old Raimi, best known previously for his Evil Dead horror trilogy. 'Then I discovered the Marvel universe, and became enamoured of it, and its characters and interactions. They had real depth, and problems with each other. Superman never really had a problem with Batman, but plenty of other heroes didn't like Spider-Man. They thought he was selfish and a nuisance. In the DC universe, you knew that Superman could have anything he wanted. He could take a piece of coal and make a diamond. With Spider-Man, that guy is broke - he doesn't have any way to make money. I love that. I can relate to it.'

Just as DC Comics has experienced a recent downturn in success, after the collapse of Tim Burton's Superman Lives project and the resounding failure of the fourth Caped Crusader film, Batman And Robin, so Marvel has seen an upswing in fortunes. 'You can't write about a perfect person - every human being is flawed,' says Stan Lee, and it's this formula that has seen more than two billion Marvel comic-books published in 75 countries worldwide. What is strange - bar the fact that the technology to fully recreate Marvel's heroes has just become available - is that it's taken the studios so long to cotton on. 'They're followers in Hollywood,' explains Lee. 'They've got to see something succeed before they get on the bandwagon. Superman succeeded, and they thought that was a fluke. Batman succeeded, but the sequels didn't do so well. All of a sudden, Blade, a little known character, did very well. Then X-Men came along, and it was a monster hit.'

While Stephen Norrington's 1998 film, which saw Wesley Snipes take the title role of the vampire hunter Blade, proved a sleeper hit (its popularity confirmed with the recent sequel taking a respectable $81 million in America), it was Bryan Singer's X-Men that has truly paved the way for Spider-Man. With a story concerning a bunch of mutant human beings cast out of society, the film took a then record-breaking $54 million during its opening three days. 'Bryan did a wonderful job,' says Lee. 'He took something that could've been a bomb, that could've looked silly - six, seven characters, all with different super-powers - but he gave it some depth, so that even an adult could enjoy it.'

Capturing that all-important adult appeal is a must. Spider-Man, despite focusing on a teen-love story between Maguire's Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst's MJ, does so with the help of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, Spidey's nemesis and the alter-ego of respected businessman Norman Osborn. An evil world dominator one minute, an upstanding citizen the next, his schizophrenic scenes in front of the mirror add an intriguing psychological dimension to the story, while the inclusion of his son, Harry (James Franco), paves the way for the inevitable sequel. Although this is not due to start shooting until 2003, Bryan Singer has already begun work on X-Men follow-up X2, reuniting the likes of Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Sir Ian McKellen and Anna Paquin. Daredevil is also to be made, with Mark Stephen Johnson (best known for children's drama Simon Birch) set to direct Ben Affleck as Matt Murdoch, fighting off the villainous Kingpin (played by Michael Clarke Duncan).

Other Marvel strips currently in development include the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Black Panther, Ghost Rider and the Silver Surfer, but the most advanced - and most eagerly anticipated - must be The Hulk. To be directed by Ang Lee, the Taiwanese helmer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it stars Australian stand-up Eric Bane as Dr David Banner (with the Hulk himself computer-generated) and recent Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly.

But DC isn't dead yet. While Ashley Judd looks set to get her claws out as Catwoman, three simultaneous efforts are being mounted to resurrect Warner Brothers' Batman franchise, the most promising being Darren Aronofsky's collaboration with comic author Frank Miller for Batman: Year One. Who will follow Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney as the Caped Crusader is far from resolved, but don't bet on it not being Nicolas Cage, a man hell-bent on playing the hero. Failing to don Superman's red pants after the Burton film fell through, Cage is reputedly now attached to another cult DC effort - as the titular mage-like misfit in Constantine, adapted from the Hellblazer comics. With the work of English guru Alan Moore - most recently with Jack the Ripper tale From Hell and, to come, his Victorian strip The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Saffron Burrows and Sean Connery also hitting our screens - it's a boon time for comic lovers. In the words of the incorrigible Stan Lee, 'I can't wait to go to the movies!'

Spider-Man
Cert: 12A