Kurt Busiek recently wrote about the conceptual similarity between the debut covers of Batman and Spider-Man.
At first glance, both Batman and Spider-Man are inherently different heroes; look no further than them being cornerstone heroes of storied comic rivals Marvel and DC. But dig a little deeper and similarities do begin to surface. They both take on animal personas. So too are they inspired to fight crime after the murder of a loved one. Of course, Bruce Wayne lost his parents to crime, and Peter Parker lost his Uncle Ben.
Batman made his first-ever appearance in Detective Comics #27 (1939), written by written by Bill Finger and illustrated by Bob Kane. The cover is one of the most iconic in comic book history. Later on, Marvel’s Spider-Man entered the scene in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962, written Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. The cover artist for that issue was Jack Kirby. The two covers are strikingly similar; both heroes are swinging through the air in their costumes, both also have someone clutched in their arms.
In a recent post on Facebook, legendary comic scribe Kurt Busiek (known for such works as Marvels and Astro City) pondered the idea that Martin Goodman — the man who launched the company that would become Marvel Comics — requested that the character take a hint from the success of Batman.
“Food for thought: Given the conceptual similarity of these two covers, what are the odds that somewhere in the process Martin Goodman said ‘make this guy like Batman,’ and got a hero based on a ‘creepy’ animal who swings on a thread and fights crime because of the random murder of a loved one?” Busiek wrote. “It would have to have been after Kirby was removed from the book, because his version didn’t sound like that at all. But Goodman was well known for wanting imitations of successes. And the Marvel talent pool of the early 60s was pretty good at giving him something that technically answered his demands, but had something new and different going on.”
Additionally, the Jack Kirby cover for Amazing Fantasy #15 was not the first version. Steve Ditko made a cover that was ultimately unused, though it did share the came core concept. Plus, it may be worth pointing out that there’s no web under Spidey’s armpits in this version. Take a look:
This cover would ultimately return as the ‘Ditko Variant’ for Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #700.
