We could be Spider-Man

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Andrew Garfield stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' "The Amazing Spider-Man" THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Andrew Garfield stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' "The Amazing Spider-Man" Photo: Columbia Pictures Photo: Columbia Pictures Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close We could be Spider-Man 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

What makes Spidey so amazing at 50? A winning formula for such a lovable loser.

"Amazing Spider-Man" writer Dan Slott breaks down the highs and lows of being the wondrous Webhead.

1 We are him: Slott says Superman is the hero you can't be while Batman is the hero you could be if you tried really hard. Spider-Man is simply the hero you would be.

"If we got super powers we would be Spider-Man," Slott says. "We would make all the same mistakes, all the screw-ups. It would totally mess up our social life and create all kinds of soap opera problems."

2 The beauty of the mask: Spidey may be a Caucasian science geek, but anyone of any race can picture himself behind his webbed mask.

"When you see that face mask, he could be Latino, he could be Japanese, he could be anything in the world," Slott says.

3 It's about the man, not the spider: Spidey's tale is really about Peter Parker, a man who happens to be a superhero.

"That was the magic of (Spider-Man creators) Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, that no one had really done that," Slott says. "You are reading a romance comic. You are reading a soap opera. And you didn't know it because he would put on tights and fight the Sandman."

4 Woe is he. Talk about never catching a break. Peter's frail Aunt May often knocks at death's door, while law enforcement often mistrusts Spider-Man no matter how many thugs and super-villains he takes off the streets. Heck, Spidey even does his own laundry. As Slott puts it, it's never just Spider-Man swinging on a web. "It's Spider-Man got pooped on by a pigeon," he says. "This doesn't happen to anybody else."

5 But there's great fun, too. Spidey shoulders a ton of great responsibility, but Slott says he also finds moments to relish in his great power. And who wouldn't love to scale buildings and swing from rooftops - with the proportionate strength of a spider and plenty of web fluid, of course. "Here's everything that life is throwing at you, and for as much as (it's) suddenly, 'Oh no, I HAVE to turn into Spider-Man,' there's also that level of 'I GET to turn into Spider-Man,' " Slott says. "And THAT'S the escape. That's why we plunk down the money and peel back the cover. Because we WANT to escape into that world."

René A. Guzman