Spider-Man Confidential: From Comic Icon to Hollywood Hero

Edward Gross. Hyperion Books, $16.95 (268pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-8722-4

In time for the spring release of Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man comes a history of the comic book hero in all his many incarnations. Spider-Man Confidential: From Comic Icon to Hollywood Hero recounts the 1962 birth of Spider-Man, created by Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee as a kind of everyman hero who would break with the comic book formula by losing as many battles as he won. Entertainment writer Edward Gross (X-Files Confidential) briefly traces the evolution of the strip and provides episode guides for the various Spider-Man animated television series. He also details the making of the Hollywood film and offers a ""Rogues' Gallery"" of Spider-Man's enemies. (Apr.)

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