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A spectacular showdown as the hero in the spandex suit takes to the rooftops to do battle with the villainous Dr Octopus.

Spider Man 2

Tobey Maguire (Seabiscuit) returns as Peter Parker (AKA: your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man) in a sequel to the phenomenally successful first feature. Once again playing the mild-mannered, long-suffering college student who leads a double life, juggling his love life, job and school work, while all the while battling those super villains on the rooftops of New York.

Pictured (right): Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) rescues the girl of his dreams Mary Jane (Kristen Dunst) once again.

The latest instalment in the blockbuster Spider-Man series - based on the classic Marvel hero created by comics’ uber-genius Stan Lee – sees Tobey Maguire return as Peter Parker, juggling the delicate balance of his life as a college student and as a superhuman crime fighter.

Get set for a spectacular summer showdown as the webbed wonder takes on a new nemesis, the brilliant Otto Octavius, (played by British actor Alfred Molina) – a scientist who has become the maniacal and multi-tentacled Dr Octopus - ‘Doc Ock’.

The Webbed Wonder first appeared in the 1960s. In 1962, the Marvel comic, Amazing Fantasy was ready to fold. It wasn't selling very well, and kept undergoing changes in title, to try and attract readers. It became Amazing Adventures, Amazing Adult Fantasy, and for its planned last issue, Amazing Fantasy.

For that last issue, the powers at Marvel, which included Stan Lee, decided to test-run a character deemed 'too scary' for young readers, as the publisher thought that people would never relate to a superhero who is a spider as people hate spiders. As nobody seemed that fussed about the last issue anyway, Stan Lee decided to give the character a go.

Talented designer Steve Ditko was given the job of defining the 'look' and 'feel' of Spider-Man. When Amazing Fantasy, featuring the first adventures of Spider-Man arrived on the stands, people loved what they read.

The Marvel mailbag was suddenly full of letters, demanding to see more of this new, different hero named Spider-Man, and so, in March 1963, the 'Amazing' was back, in the form of the newly titled Amazing Spider-Man!

Amazing

Readers began to relate to the adventures on two levels. They loved the web-weaving world of the superhero, but they also related to Peter Parker and his realistic teenage problems like peer pressure and girls. He may be a superhero, but Peter Parker was not superhuman. He was a bit of a misfit.

A collection of villains was introduced for our webbed hero to battle with. The Rogues Gallery for the first ten issues of Spidey’s adventures included ‘The Burglar’, ‘The Chameleon’, ‘The Vulture’, ‘Terrible Tinkerer’, ‘Doctor Octopus’, ‘Sandman’, ‘The Lizard’, ‘Electro’, the ‘Fantastic Four’s’, ‘Doctor Doom’, and ‘The Enforcers’.

The magazine, Amazing Spider-Man, quickly gained cult status! It went to a monthly release, after initially coming out every two months. The creators had fun with it - as well as pitting Spider-Man against a host of evil criminals; they also teamed him up with the ‘Human Torch’. The introduction of three of ‘Spider-Man’s’ greatest foes: ‘Mysterio’, ‘Green Goblin’, and ‘Kraven the Hunter’ came at the end of 1963.

Gwendoline Stacy

The following year, ‘Spider-Man's’ first Special was published, and introduced the ‘Sinister Six’. Even more foes were introduced, to see which characters proved the most popular – ‘The Scorpion’, ‘The Spider-Slayer’, ‘The Beetle’, ‘Princess Python’ and the ‘Molten Man’. Shortly after this, we were also introduced to Peter's future girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, who was later killed by the ‘Green Goblin’, and Peter's friend and roommate Harry Osborn, the second ‘Green Goblin’, who later died.

The 1970s saw Spider-Man gain even more popularity, as he was featured in his second monthly comic, Marvel Team-Up... The title teamed our hero, with another Marvel Hero to combat a villain or villains each issue. Bad guys such as ‘Tarantula’, ‘Mindworm’, ‘The Grizzly’, ‘Mirage’, ‘Cyclone’, ‘Will O' The Wisp’, ‘The Human Fly’, ‘Hydro-Man’, ‘Speed Demon’ featured, as well as introductions to ‘The Basilisk’, ‘Stegron’, ‘The Griffin’, ‘The Wraith’, ‘Arcade’, and ‘Professor Power’.

During the course of the Spider-Man comic, the web-slinger has teamed up with a whole host of other Marvel characters during his crime-fighting career too, such as ‘The Incredible Hulk’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Ant-Man’, ‘Wolverine’ and ‘Iceman’.

TV Heroics

Peter Parker's be-webbed alter ego has been a TV star several times over, both in live action and animated series. 9 September 1967 was a big day for Marvel fans, as two of their favourite comic series reached the small screen within the same hour.

The Fantastic Four premiered first; followed shortly by the all-new Spider-Man. Bernard Cowan played the webbed wonder for the first season, while Peter Soles voiced him for the second season.

With the comics as reference, the show featured all-new Spidey adventures. Established villains such as ‘Doctor Octopus’, ‘Electro’, ‘The Green Goblin’ and ‘The Lizard’ featured, alongside new foes created especially for the series. The show was a big hit, and ran until September 1970. It has been a huge success in syndication markets ever since.

In September 1977, Spider-Man (the live-action TV movie version) premiered in the US, with a two-hour pilot. The film starred Nicholas Hammond – who had played one of the children in The Sound of Music - as Peter Parker. The show was a hit in the ratings, and eventually became a series called The Amazing Spider-Man. Five episodes ran during 1978, all getting good ratings. CBS ordered eight more episodes, and showed them between September 1978 and July 1979. Sadly it then got the chop.

Spider Woman

The webbed one next appeared as a guest star, this time in a fellow superhero’s show. Spider-Woman had been launched on TV, but bosses wanted Spider-Man to guest star to attract viewers. He did so in late 1979.

Spider-Woman only lasted one season. In September 1981, the animated series Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends premiered. The programme teamed Spidey with Iceman and the glamorous Firestar, a character created especially for the show. The show also often guest starred other super heroes, such as the X-Men, Captain America, Sunfire, the Sub-Mariner, Dr Strange, and Shanna The She-Devil!

Spidey Goes To Hollywood

In one episode, Spidey Goes To Hollywood, our hero even met the Incredible Hulk, and his evil robot double. Pretty appropriate, seeing as in 1983, Spidey sharing billing with the green one as the show was expanded to an hour, to become The Incredible Hulk And The Amazing Spider-Man. The third and final season of the series found the billing reversed, and the show became The Amazing Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk.

Arguably the success of the first Spider-Man film paved the way for a whole new generation of super hero films (of, it has to be said, varying quality). These include: X-Men sequel X-Men 2, the Ang Lee version of The Hulk, Daredevil and the forthcoming Electra, Catwoman and Batman feature: Batman Begins.

Directed once again by Sam Raimi, Spider-Man 2 sees the return of some familiar faces from the first feature, alongside the appearance of such an iconic villain from the comic. Peter Parker’s love interest from the original film: girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson (played once again by Kirsten Dunst) appears alongside James Franco as Peter’s roommate Harry Osborn (son and heir of the defeated Green Goblin, in more ways than one), Rosemary Harris, as Aunt May Parker and J.K. Simmons as Peter’s boss, the Spidey-hating, cigar chomping newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson.

Spider-Man 2 is out as a 2-disc on DVD now - on its own and as part of the Spider-Man 1 & 2 4-disc boxed set.

More information available in DVD / Home Video