In 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in teenage demand for comic books, and the desire to create a character with whom teens could identify.[16]:1 In his autobiography, Lee cites the non-superhuman pulp magazine crime fighter the Spider as a great influence,[15]:130 and in a multitude of print and video interviews, Lee stated he was further inspired by seeing a spider climb up a wall—adding in his autobiography that he has told that story so often he has become unsure of whether or not this is true.[note 1] Although at the time teenage superheroes were usually given names ending with “boy”, Lee says he chose “Spider-Man” because he wanted the character to age as the series progressed, and moreover felt the name “Spider-Boy” would have made the character sound inferior to other superheroes.[17] He also decided to insert a hyphen in the name, as he felt it looked too similar to Superman, another superhero with a red and blue costume which starts with an “S” and ends with “man”.[18] At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the character’s approval. In a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodman’s objections.[note 2] Goodman eventually agreed to a Spider-Man tryout in what Lee in numerous interviews recalled as what would be the final issue of the science-fiction and supernatural anthology series Amazing Adult Fantasy, which was renamed Amazing Fantasy for that single issue, #15 (cover-dated August 1962, on sale June 5, 1962).[19] In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already been decided that Amazing Fantasy would be cancelled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man.[17] While this was indeed the final issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing and that “The Spiderman [sic] … will appear every month in Amazing.”[19][20]

Regardless, Lee received Goodman’s approval for the name Spider-Man and the “ordinary teen” concept and approached artist Jack Kirby. As comics historian Greg Theakston recounts, Kirby told Lee about an unpublished character on which he had collaborated with Joe Simon in the 1950s, in which an orphaned boy living with an old couple finds a magic ring that granted him superhuman powers. Lee and Kirby “immediately sat down for a story conference”, Theakston writes, and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages.[21] Steve Ditko would be the inker.[note 3] When Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, “I hated the way he was doing it! Not that he did it badly—it just wasn’t the character I wanted; it was too heroic”.[21]:12 Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled: