Quote Originally Posted by gregpersons View Post
Yeah, nothing in common... well, besides the color scheme, general tone, an "S-man" name, and...

--Both alter egos defined by nebbishness (and Peter Parker wears Clark Kent-like spectacles in the original Ditko run)

--Both work at a newspaper called "Daily..."

--Original girlfriends work with hero at newspaper job; have alliterative names -- Lois Lane / Betty Brant

--Both work for gruff-but-lovable editors

--Both characters had big special Wedding issues in the same era

--Both characters had their marriages ret-conned in the same era

--Both characters became the face of their publisher

--Both characters were adopted by elderly saintly people who taught the hero their morality

--Both characters have a bald big bad kingpin -- Lex and Fisk (with the '80s reinvention of Lex very much borrowing from Kingpin)


To prove how common these tropes are, let's name all of the other superheroes who fit these descriptions besides these two, who have nothing in common.
They're pretty common tropes, but I've seen nothing to suggest that one was aping the other intentionally. Stan Lee used a lot of alliterative names to start with. Spider-Man and Superman's weddings were 9 years apart. Initially, Superman's parents died prior to Action Comics #1 while Aunt May stayed a constant presence. Hell, Uncle Ben dying was Peter's inciting incident to become a superhero, while with Superman it was just something that happened. Peter's nebbishness is basically who he is, while with Superman it's a mask. Hell, some of these examples are of it happening to Spider-Man first, so they can't be an answer to Superman.

Obviously, Spider-Man owes his existence to Superman's success as much as any other superhero does, but to claim that Lee and Ditko set out to create their own Superman is a stretch. That stuff just ended up happening. Spider-Man was one of many characters that Lee, Kirby, and Ditko threw at a wall and ended up sticking.