ICW 4

One would assume that Spiderman is something that would not be too hard at all to place in terms of genre. After all, most would assume that her would fall under the superhero genre, grouped right alongside Superman, Captain America, and Batman. The problem with this assumption is that it does not take into consideration the vast differences that have sprung from the superhero genre. Comics books, and by the definition the characters that inhabit the pages have grown tremendously since their conception. We now find that the term Superhero is much to broad to describe every single character. After all, while characters such as Spiderman and Batman can be call superheroes and certainly share some similar traits, they also differ in many ways.
Another difficulty in placing Spiderman in just one genre is that a a comic book character that has existed for almost half a century, he has had many writers and artists, all of them sending him into a variety of adventures. He's traveled to time, both into the far reaching future, or sword wielding past, has faced off against monsters and serial killers, and has even had adventures revolve solely around his school days.
Nonetheless, if we critically look at his stories, as well as the character of Spiderman himself, I believe that one type of genre is explore more than any other, that of the underdog story. The underdog story is one we are familar one, going as far back as the bible and the story of David and Goliath. Is the story of someone facing unsurmontable odds and somehow winning. We see this story replayed in movies such as Rudy, and sports announcers always makes a point of bringing it up when a stronger team faces off against a weaker one.
With Spiderman, the idea of the underdog is constantly played with. While the idea of a superhero being consider an underdog might seem strange, more often than not Spiderman is forced to fight against villains that are stronger and more powerful than him. The underdog theme also carries into Spiderman's alter ego, Peter Parker. "The Parker Luck" is reference heavily through the comics, and it deals with the idea that things will never go well for Peter Parker. If he wins against the villian, he finds himself late for a date. Or his webshooters will run out at the most inoportune time.
It's not hard see why Spiderman's genre theme has been consumed and referenced so often. In a way, he has become the tentpole character for Marvel publishing, all because of his everyman quaility. When compared to Batman and Spiderman, who are both millionares with many 'toys' to play with, or a character like Captain America, who is always so sure of himself, Spiderman, with his doubts and missteps, rings the most true.