Nothing spices up a blog like controversy, so here comes a blockbuster!

It’s been debated for years exactly who created the Amazing Spider-Man. Smiling Stan Lee certainly deserves much of the credit, but most would agree not all the credit.

Sturdy Steve Ditko had a hand in Spidey’s creation, since he drew the first adventure. But do we give Steve 50% of the credit as co-creator?

It was Jack “King” Kirby who drew the cover to Amazing Fantasy 15, along with a few discarded pages of a story before Ditko landed the assignment. So how much credit do we give Jack? 33 1/3%?

Then again, there’s the story of how Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created a character called the Silver Spider and that Jack brought the spider concept to Stan. That makes Joe and Jack at least co-creators, along with Stan and Steve. The list of co-creators has grown to four making each man 25% responsible for Spider-Man. And where does that leave Artie Simek?

Well, I can settle this controversy once and for all. Let’s give 100% of the credit to a woman by the name of Bessie Smith. The consummate blues woman, Bessie sang “Spider Man Blues” in 1928, long before super-hero comic books even existed, never mind the four-color adventures of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

There! It’s settled. Bessie Smith created Spider Man and Stan Lee added the hyphen. Now let’s move on to debate whether Siegel and Shuster created Superman, or whether Friedrich Nietzsche deserves all the credit.

To hear Bessie Smith’s original Spider Man, click the link below.

Spider Man Blues - Bessie Smith