Stan Lee has created many iconic superheroes during his illustrious life, but there was a time in the eighties when he did something very heroic himself. Whether he knew it at the time or not, the comic book writer may have saved his creations from disaster. In order to understand the situation, one must go back to the eighties. Cannon Films was in control of the Spider-Man property at the time and tapped the late Tobe Hooper to direct a movie fronted by the web-slinger.
Yes, the very same man who was fresh off of a gory slasher flick called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was currently in the midst of directing a sequel to the classic horror feature when he was approached to take on this new project penned by Leslie Stevens. The movie would not’ve been anything like the Peter Parker films audiences have been blessed with in the decades since. In fact, it would’ve given the public quite a different image of the wall crawler.
In this film, Parker wouldn’t have been a student or a journalist who gets bitten by a radioactive spider. Instead, the New Yorker is an ID photographer who finds himself getting purposefully attacked with radiation by a warped scientist named Dr. Zork. The poor guy ends up morphing into a monstrous spider creature who’s so disgusting that he contemplates taking his own life. That’s definitely a far cry from the wise-cracking hero fans have come to love.
Parker is then encouraged to become the leader of Dr. Zork’s other mutants. The photographer refuses and instead elects to fight the beasts instead.
Stan Lee was understandably dissatisfied with these changes to his beloved creation. He quickly rejected the idea and convicted Cannon to do the same. The film never came to fruition, thus rescuing moviegoers from what surely would’ve been a horrible introduction to Spider-Man.
Fast forward a couple decades later and the superhero is now one of Marvel’s most popular. Lee did himself, his characters and the world at large a huge service by not allowing his ideas to get warped by anyone else. For that, and for so much else, MCU fans will always owe the late innovator a great deal of thanks.
