Alan Kistler - The Unofficial Spider-Man Trivia Challenge: Test Your Knowledge and Prove Youre a Real Fan!

A book like this cannot be put together alone. Family and friends must be there to help provide breaks when the brain needs to recharge and to enforce the solitude one needs when work needs to be completed in a timely fashion. Lisa McMullan was very helpful in her support and in being understanding of the occasional irritability that rears up when Ive had little sleep and deadlines still to meet. Dan Slott was helpful in reminding me to touch on some aspects of the Spider-Man history that I had forgotten to bring up.

Jennifer Ewing was a fine taskmaster as usual, reminding me to get back to work and helping me make this book as clear and widespread as I could. Brandi Bowles is a spectacular agent who helped bring this book into being. The contributions of Victoria Sandbrook and Katie Corcoran Lytle cannot be overlooked, and it was great working with such professionals over at Adams Media. And finally, thanks to the many artists, writers, directors, producers, and storytellers who have continually shaped and brought new life into Spider-Man, ensuring that hes still interesting decades after he first came into our lives.

C onsider this: Youre walking down the street and you see something move out of the corner of your eye. Youre startled by the movement and look up to see, of all things, a man with the body of an Olympic gymnast, wrapped up in a red and midnight blue bodysuit, flying through the air at least 30 feet above you, moving at nearly 40 mph.

As he gets closer, his body arcs toward the ground; he looks like hes going to crash hard against the pavement. But then his arm twists and theres a rope in his hand where before there was only air. The rope yanks him skyward like a bungee chord, rocketing him another 50 feet into the air, until he slingshots onto the side of a building and, defying gravity, he simply skitters up to the rooftop, moving as quickly and as calmly as any household bug, not caring that everyone around him is hearing their brain scream This cant be happening! This is Spider-Man. Hes strange and creepy and hes not entirely human, something that comes to mind every time he clings to the side of a building or crouches down in that unnatural way. Yet who doesnt envy the freedom he has to practically fly over skyscrapers, to be able to soar above the people (and perhaps the problems) of the world below? But despite his great power, Spidey is actually an incredibly relatable superhero. Just like mere mortals, Peter Parker gets into moods and bouts of depression, but inevitably he picks himself up again and chooses to believe that tomorrow might be a better day.

Hes a New Yorker, after all, and hes used to laughing at whatever ego bruises and emotional scrapes he may suffer as he just tries to power though life. His constant stream of jokes provides release for his own fears and tensions while also amusing us to no end. How can one not enjoy a superhero who listens to a super-villain pontificate about his divine right to rule the human race and then makes fun of his clothes? Because of all this, Spider-Man has stood the test of timebut now its time to prove how much you really know about this wall-crawling wonder. And theres a lot of trivia to keep track of! Spideys first appearance in 1962 was so successful that he got his own series months later, and hes been going strong since then. He keeps showing up on television and in novels, in comic books and in movies, in cartoons and live-action shows, as a guest star in other superhero books and major crossovers, and more! And Spideys not alone out there, either. Theres also a whole world of colorfully clad villains, awesome allies, and alternate universe counterparts to keep in mind as well.

So pull on your mask, strap on your web-shooters, and see how you stack up against this collection of Spider-Man triviabut remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

Test your own knowledge or go up against your friends to see whose fandom reigns supreme. Either way, once youve put yourself through your web-slinging paces, itll be time to tally up your score. Do you have what it takes to entertain Stan Lee himself? Or are you still a newbie who needs a bit more practice? Answer the questions in one of the quizzes, and check your answers in the key at the end of every chapter. Each correct answer is worth one point. That means that while most questions are just worth one point, matching questions can earn you up to 6 points if you pair the answers correctly! Tally your points and see how well you did in the scorecard at the end of the chapter.

Once youve taken all nine quizzes, flip to the Fan Scorecard at the end of the book. Add your scores for each chapter and see if you have the Spidey-smarts to call yourself a True Fan!

T he Web-Spinner. The Wall-Crawler. The Web-Slinger. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. In the end though, this amazing and spectacular hero will always think of himself as Peter Parker, just a science nerd from Forest Hills.

Though his initial reasons for becoming a superhero involved guilt and tragedy, Peter has come to enjoy his role as a protector and has often taken great joy in exercising his powers. He is the hard-luck kid of New York City who constantly suffers loss but inevitably brings himself out of the dumps and decides to continue looking forward because tomorrow just might be a better day. With his combination of superpowers, scientific intellect, and improvisational comedy skills, Spider-Man has become one of the most famous superheroes in the world. Now test how much you know about him, his love life, his strange powers, and his weapons. What is Peter Parkers middle name? At one point, Peter ingested a chemical of his own creation and it caused four extra arms to sprout. What had Peter been trying to accomplish with the formula? In the mainstream comics, what school grade was Peter in when he first met Mary Jane Watson? In high school, Peter had a teacher named Professor Warren.

In college, Peter had a teacher named Professor Warren. What was the relationship between the two teachers?

One of the strange things about Spidey was that he was a teenage superhero who operated alone. Commonly, teen heroes in comics were either sidekicks to older heroes or they at least had someone as backup. In fact, the Legion of Super-Heroes was a team comprised entirely of teenagers who usually seemed to travel in groups of three at least. Spider-Man was a kid who had no one looking out for him, much less an experienced adult mentor. It made his world seem more dangerous.