- [Scott] This video is
sponsored by Brilliant. (objects clanking) Thwip. That was meant to be much
cooler than it ended up being. So I know a lot of people
have mixed opinions on the MCU Spider-Man movies. Specifically, I think "Far From Home" gets a lot of hate thrown its way for doubling down on the
problems that "Homecoming" had and backtracking on the
things that it got right. Right, like at least "Homecoming" tried to have some heartfelt
scenes with Aunt May to establish Peter's home life and his outlook on the world through the person who raised him. "Far From Home" didn't want to even try to attempt that again,
for whatever reason. "Homecoming" had that fun sequence where New York felt like a
character in Peter's story, helping cement him as a
friendly neighborhood superhero. "Far From Home" put him in Europe. But I think probably worst of all, "Homecoming" had a villain
who was really just angry at Tony Stark more than anyone, and then "Far from Home"
did the exact same thing to the point where now it is like a joke that every MCU Spidey villain doesn't actually care about Spider-Man and really just detests
that Stark character. Follow me on Twitter. With that being said, the
villain from "Far from Home" was Mysterio, who's my favorite
Spider-Man villain ever. So I actually really liked the
movie on those grounds alone, and your criticisms will never
be able to change my mind. Oh, he was played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and Taylor Swift said I'm not
allowed to like him anymore. Dang it! My point is I feel these
films are divisive. Even the previous Spider-Man
franchises have had their fair share of fans and detractors. And I think that's because Spider-Man is supposed to be Marvel's
everyman superhero. He's a hero we're supposed to relate to. We're meant to see ourselves
in that webbed onesie. - Can I return it if it doesn't fit? - It always fits. - Peter Parker is just some guy. He struggles with his job and
finances and personal life and alien symbiotes,
just like the rest of us. Really got to get that looked at. He was one of the first
teenage superheroes who stood on his own at a time
when most teenagers in comics were relegated to the role of sidekick. And the entire point of having
sidekicks in the first place was to give the young
readers someone to relate to. With Spider-Man, the kid is the hero. It was revolutionary. I mean, sure, we did have
characters like Billy Batson, but he physically had to
transform into an adult to become a superhero. Peter Parker doesn't gotta do that. Do you think I could eat this and be okay? And, hey, look, not every superhero is supposed to be relatable, and that's okay. Sometimes it's refreshing to read a story about a moral paragon like
Superman or Steve Rogers, characters who are unattainably good. Other times we like the escapist fiction of characters like Batman
and Ironman, you know, billionaires who actually
wanna help people, but Spider-Man is relatable,
he reminds me of me. (objects clanking) He reminds me of a slightly
more coordinated me, and I want his stories to be
good so that I will feel good. And with an entire
Spider-Verse of Spider-people, no Spider-Man has felt
less relatable to me than the original. Peter Parker used to be
a selfish, self-absorbed, ghoulish buffoon of a human back during his debut in the 1960s. Don't get me wrong. It makes total sense
for Peter Parker to be an annoying little incel at
the start of his origin story. He faces constant humiliation
at the hands of his classmates that sows the seeds of his vengeful ego. "Someday I'll show 'em! Someday they'll be sorry
they laughed at me." So when he finally gets bitten
by that radioactive spider and gains super powers, Peter sees it as a
turning point in his life where he'll never be bullied
or pushed around ever again. He finally has the power
to stand up for himself and he doesn't care about anyone else. So he lets a thief pass by, because, hey, it's not his job to stop anyone, but, uh-oh, that thief kills Uncle Ben, and Peter learns his lesson. - With great power,
there must also always be great responsibility. - Oh, or does he? We're gonna put a pin in that, but you can see that Peter
Parker's self obsessed attitude was set up so that he could
fall hard later in the story and learn a lesson that will serve as his personal superhero creed, so that's fine, I'm
totally fine with that, but you would think then that
after this whole tragedy, Peter would be kinder to those around him to not put himself at
the center of the world and to have more empathy toward others, and to be fair for the
first dozen or so issues, that is what happens, but then something weird happens. Slowly, Peter Parker starts to progress to his former angry, egotistical self, not so he can learn a lesson again, but so he could teach readers the lesson that yeah, with great power
comes great responsibility, but that responsibility
isn't to help others, it's to help yourself. Your self-interest is
your number one priority, which sounds like what a
super villain would say, but no, this weird backward lesson was being preached in Spider-Man comics by Spider-Man himself unironically. And it makes them so
annoying to go back and read. In issue number 30, for example, Peter rips into Betty Brant with rage when she tells him that
Ned Leeds proposed to her. "I get the picture, Ned
Leeds is the guy for you. I guess it was always him. Just what you want, a plain,
hardworking average Joe. Well, goody for both of
you, go ahead and marry him. You probably deserve each other. What difference does it make for me?" A couple of issues later, Betty sees Peter with bruises that he got
fighting as Spider-Man, and she's visibly distraught and concerned for his safety because she loves him, but Pete's like, "Stop
making a big deal of this. Things happen, whatever,
I'm not complaining." But I think probably
the most famous example of Peter being an obnoxious
twerp during this period was in issue number 38. He walks past a group of protesters who are protesting a protest meeting. Everyone involved is a
caricature of student protestors. They don't actually care about what they're protesting about. They just wanna be part of a group. Obviously, Peter doesn't
care for these strawmen, and very intentionally
tries to separate himself, standing away from the group. And now I would like
to flash back with you to the opening splash page
of Spider-Man's origin comic, Peter Parker, standing alone, away from his peers is meant to be sad. We're supposed to pity him. He's an outcast, he
doesn't belong anywhere. Maybe someday he will
though, that's the hope, but now a couple dozen
issues down the line, being alone makes you strong, having friends and caring
about what they think and what they say and helping them with what they find important, well, that makes you weak. I hate this Spider-Man. This scene was so infamously bad that even modern comics made
fun of how terrible it was. But this video is not
going to be me sitting here and saying, "Thing bad!" I feel like I've done that a lot recently, and I don't want that to be
the vibe of this channel. I don't wanna be Mister Negative, even though I would look
stellar in that suit. Instead, I wanna talk about why Peter Parker's personality
profoundly changed so much during this initial run of comics. Why did he go from angry loner kid to actually selflessly helping
others might be morally good to (beep) the world and
everyone in it except me, baby. Why did Spider-Man suck? Unsurprisingly, it comes down
to Spider-Man's co-creator, Steve Ditko. Ditko was an incredibly
influential comics artists, but maybe not as beloved
as Stan Lee or Jack Kirby, and he'd probably want it that way. He notoriously despised comic book fans. If you like Steve Ditko's work, you are nothing more than a
grubby pack animal in his eyes. If you are critical of
his work, then, clearly, you were trying to censor
his a brilliant mind! Much like Spider-Man, Steve
Ditko wasn't always this awful, at least I hope he wasn't. I'm not sure if he ever admitted to having his real life experiences inform his creation of Spider-Man, but it's not hard to
notice the similarities. Peter Parker was a lower middle-class kid who was bullied for being a nerd, so was Ditko. Peter didn't have many friends, but he had a deep love for his family. Ditko only ever felt comfortable around his parents and siblings, and was perceived as cold to anyone else. Peter Parker even looks
like a young Steve Ditko. It's not hard to imagine
that Steve saw Peter as a stand-in for himself. So when Ditko's entire worldview started to change during the mid 1960s, so too did Spider-Man's, but while Marvel
eventually course-corrected their beloved hero to be a
friendly face once again, Steve Ditko held onto his pessimism until his lonely death. (low electronic music) How are you doing, you wonderful nerds? Scott here. And this is gonna be another chill video with very light visual editing. So treat this one like you would treat a Hallmark Christmas movie. Just sort of have the
audio on in the background while you wrap presents or
obsessively clean your house because you don't think
your family will like you if your place isn't spotless. You're correct, by the way. Let's start with some brief
history about Steve Ditko. And I promise, I tried to
make this as brief as I could. Steve Ditko grew up in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a town with a massive disparity between the upper-class and middle-class. The Ditkos were part of the latter, only made worse thanks
to the Great Depression. They couldn't afford
much for entertainment, so Steve and his siblings were taught to be creative with what they did have. And their creativity was inspired by the cheapest forms of pop culture around, at the time,
newspaper comic strips, but the 1940s comic strips
had evolved into comic books, and one of the premiere characters was Bill finger and Bob Keyne's,
but mostly Bill Finger's, Batman! The art for that book
was eventually passed on to Jerry Robinson who became an instant creative idol for Steve. He loved the cape crusader,
and even had his mom sew him a fully-detailed
Batman costume from scratch, so he could re-enact his
favorite comic book stories, making Steve Ditko one of the world's first cosplayers, I think, which is fun, but he was bullied for
being a dork because of it, which is less fun, but, look, nobody should be bullied simply
for liking superhero comics. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to bully Steve Ditko
and I will get to them. When he grew up, he served a
little bit of time in the Army, but he never lost sight of
the magic of comic books. Ditko knew that he wanted to have a career as a comic book artist. A thing that nobody else wanted to do. The pay was low, the job
security was non-existent. And because of this, most
artists didn't put in a lot of time or effort into their craft, because why bother? It's just like YouTube! Oh, man! But, like this terrible hell site, there were people who
poured their heart and soul into their artistry compelled
to make something special in an industry most people
wanted to escape from. Steve Ditko was one of those people. (camera rewinding) Side note, I don't actually hate YouTube, that's just a bit that I do sometimes. I'm genuinely constantly inspired by what artists make on this website. One day, I hope to be as good as the people that I look up to. And Steve Ditko is
actually incredibly lucky because he had the fortune of working directly under his biggest inspiration. In 1950, he left his
small town in Pennsylvania for the Big Apple to attend
the School of Visual Arts, where he honed his artistic skill under Jerry Robinson, his idol. Robinson noted though that Ditko wasn't particularly gifted at drawing, but he was super focused
on improving his art and he would get to do just
that a couple of years later when Steve Ditko was offered the deal of a lifetime at Charlton comics. Here at Charlton, Steve Ditko was given full creative freedom to
explore the comic book medium to the fullest in any way he wanted, writing and drawing any story he wanted with no editorial oversight whatsoever. (stuttering) That's incredible. Charlton must have had a lot of faith in what Ditko would create- No, they just didn't care. Charlton comics didn't even like comics, at least not initially, their
bread and butter at the time was printing magazines
and song lyric sheets. And they found that it was less expensive to keep their giant presses
running continuously rather than turning them
on and off, and on and off. It was just more economical
to just have them running all the time. They just needed more material to print, any material whatsoever. They didn't care what it was, and as we know, comic book artists worked for almost nothing. So just to restate this,
because I think it's funny, it was cheaper for
Charlton to print comics than it was to not print anything. And that is the only reason they got into the comic book business. To Charlton, comics were just filler necessary to run their
printing presses efficiently and nothing more than that. The higher ups did not care what the writers and artists came up with, providing no editorial
oversight nor concern if a book was selling well. This meant that Steve Ditko
and all of the other artists that were working at Charlton
had full, unhindered, creative freedom to explore and experiment with the medium of comics
for about six months. Then they had to stop. Oh, that's right, nerds. Did you think I'd ever make a video that touches on the comics
industry during the 1950s without bringing up this thing? It's important context, I swear. So by the early 1950s, the most
popular comics being printed were not superhero comics, but shocking and lurid
horror and crime comics. I love that word, lurid, I've got to use that more often. And Ditko aided this trend
by pioneering spooky, richly, atmospheric
art at Charlton Comics. There's a quote that I
always use by Blake Bell when discussing Ditko's art style, because it's a very good quote, "His stories were scar y
regardless of what he drew." His effortlessly eerie style would become an incredible asset, because, by 1954, the public was worried about the effects crime and horror comics would have on their impressionable young children who are only one comic away
from murdering their friends in a ritual sacrifice in the woods. So the comics code
authority was established, with publishers coming
together to self-regulate their comic book stories
and make them more suitable to readers of all ages through
overly strict guidelines of what artists could,
but mostly couldn't do. This tamed and nearly wiped out horror and suspense comic book
genres almost overnight. The lurid tales that
people bought them for no longer packed that same punch. Steve Ditko had been working at Charlton Comics for less than a year when these massive changes
to the industry occurred, but it didn't seem to deter him too much. He was still able to tell
truly unnerving tales without breaking the comics code. His artwork was inherently
scary, and he showed it off in titles like "Tales of
the Mysterious Traveler" and "This Magazine is Haunted". Fantastic names. Look, I know people are gonna complain about, like, the clickbaitiness of the title I chose for this video, but back then they called a comic book "This Magazine is Haunted". Despite massive odds, Steve Ditko was one of the only horror artists who truly made a name for himself after the comics code was put in place. And thanks to this, in the late 1950s, Ditko found work at Marvel Comics. He was tired of the low pay at Charlton and wanted to work with people who actually cared about the craft. Thankfully, the editor of Marvel, a man named Stan Lee, seemed
to be genuinely enthusiastic about storytelling through comics. As we'll see later,
this will turn out to be a bit of a monkey's paw situation. Now working full time at Marvel, Ditko would illustrate stories
in suspense anthologies, like "Strange Tales",
"Journey into Mystery", and "Tales of Suspense". While these comics often featured dynamic monster-filled covers
and stories by Jack Kirby, there'd almost always be a Ditko story tucked away in its pages. One of my personal favorites
from this period at Marvel is from "Tales to Astonish" number 21, a four-page collaboration with Stan Lee, called "It Happened on the Silent Screen". The comic tells a simple story about a monster named The Hulk, no relation to the big green boy. This monster may or may
not have the ability to emerge from movie screens and terrorize the audiences watching it. The story is left intentionally unclear. The monster comes out of the screen, but, no, wait, that's
just part of the movie. No, wait, it's actually coming to attack the audience for
real this time, but, no, I guess it was just a movie
within a movie, or was it? What's real and what's fantasy? This comic is so simple on the surface, but it is a brilliant use of the medium. There's almost no dialogue, an extreme rarity in this era of comics, especially for Stan Lee. It is pure visual storytelling,
not just through the images, but through the use of
patterned-panel layouts to create perfect timing, controlling your sense of fear. (sighs) I could talk about this comic book for an entire hour and
maybe one day I will, but while this video is already so long, so at the very end of this story, it asks the readers to write in if they want to see
more stories like this, if they want to see more collaborations between Stanley and Steve Ditko. And I just want you to appreciate here how rare it was at this
time that Stan even wanted to work with another artist
who wasn't Jack Kirby. The late comic book
artist Don Heck once said that during this time in
the '60s at Marvel, quote, "Stan wanted Kirby to be Kirby, Ditko to be Ditko and
everyone else to be Kirby." And just think about that for a second. Yes, this sentiment obviously
speaks to Jack Kirby's talent, but I'd argue it speaks
to Steve Ditko even more. Ditko was the only
Marvel artist at the time who Stan Lee didn't want to emulate Kirby. Steve Ditko's artwork was
allowed to be his own, but the question still lingers, right? Did fans actually want to
see more collaborations between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko? The response was an
overwhelming yeah, obviously! Leading Marvel to launch a new comic book consisting entirely of
stories by Lee and Ditko, called "Amazing Adult Fantasy". Now the book only lasted 15 issues, but that final issue, ooh, what a banger. (Scott grunting) Sitting down normally this time. I had to stop and make
myself some herbal tea, because I was talking so much and my throat was already getting sore, and we got a while to go in this video. So I guess this is a Sarah Z video now. (lips smacking) Now, the story goes that around 1962, Stan Lee approached then
publisher of Marvel Comics, Martin Goodman, about
a brand new superhero that he was concocting called Spider-Man. Flat-out, Goodman didn't like the idea of Spider-Man for many reasons. He was a teenager, which,
as we already discussed, was actually an asset. He had too many real life problems, which, again, is a
thing that Stan Lee used to make him relatable, and,
number three, most importantly, you can't have a superhero about spiders, 'cause spiders are scary! Which is ridiculous, spiders are awesome. Paid for by the spider in
the corner of your bedroom. "Please just let me live here." Still, Goodman wouldn't let Spider-Man just have his own comic. At least not without proving that readers would actually like him. Now, Stan knew that the title
he was working on with Ditko, "Amazing Adult Fantasy",
that was gonna end around issue 15 or so. So he asked Goodman if the
final issue could be dedicated to trying out this new
perspective superhero, Spider-Man, just to, you know, see what happens. But here's the frustrating thing, Stan enjoyed working with Ditko on horror and suspense comics, but didn't really see him as
much of a superhero artist. So, even though "Amazing
Adult Fantasy" was a comic series created specifically so Stan and Ditko could work together, Stan's first instinct was to ask Jack Kirby to draw up Spider-Man, just sort of slapping Ditko
in the face a little bit, like he wasn't allowed to work on the final issue of his own series. Not that it mattered much though. Stan wasn't impressed with Kirby's initial concept and design of Spider-Man. It involved a kid with a magic ring that turned him into a
superhero, it is weird. And Ditko noted that the idea was perhaps a little too close to a superhero from another publisher named The Fly. So maybe it's best if Jack doesn't take the lead on this one, so, hey! Hey, Steve, Steve Ditko, bud,
I'm gonna need you again. You're my shiny silver metal, Steve. Always knew you were the
right person for the job. Never doubted you twice. And just like that, Ditko was, once again, allowed to work on the
comic that, I'll remind you, was created specifically
for him to work on. He drew the wall crawler's debut story in the final issue of
"Amazing Adult Fantasy", which had its name shortened
to simply "Amazing Fantasy". We all know the origin story,
I went over it earlier, and unfortunately that's
the last we ever saw of this Spider-Man character. No, obviously, fans loved him a whole lot and he quickly got his own
comic book series in 1963. And while that series continued to be a collaboration between
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, that partnership began
to crumble quite quickly. As Ditko grew more and more resistant to the creative inputs of
others, as Blake bell wrote in "Stranger and Stranger: The
World of Steve Ditko", quote, "Ditko became the first
work for hire artist of his generation to create and control the narrative arc of his series. Over the next four years, he
would fight tooth and nail to maintain the strip's integrity, before simply walking away from a multimillion-dollar franchise, approaching the peak of its popularity." Now look, I've already made several videos appreciating Ditko artwork on Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, so I'm not
gonna rehash much of it here. Suffice it to say, I
think it's spectacular. What I wanna focus on in this video is the writing behind Spider-Man, and the behind the scenes
drama surrounding the title. Now Stan Lee started out super
hands-on with this series, injecting it with a
typical Marvel grandiose. This made the first couple of stories seem a bit big for a brand
new teenage superhero. Rescuing an astronaut,
fighting space aliens. They just didn't seem as grounded in the life of a high schooler. I mean Stan Lee's initial
concept for Green Goblin was for him to be an ancient Egyptian demon that was released from
a cursed sarcophagus, which would have made it extremely awkward in the first Raimi Spider-Man movie, because that's Willem Defoe's
actual origin as a person. Ditko said no to that goblin idea. He had his own vision for
Spider-Man and his foes and was unwavering about it. He also insisted, to
the annoyance of Stan, that Spider-Man and
Peter Parker should get equal screen time in the comics. Now that didn't really
start until around issue 4, but that issue is the first one that feels like a Spider-Man comic to me. Peter, having to learn how to
sew his costume back together, pretending to be sick so Aunt
May doesn't get suspicious, getting in trouble at school, and having conflict with his peers. Those are all now hallmarks
of Spider-Man stories. And clearly Ditko was
right to fight for it. It was clear that Ditko
wasn't gonna back down from what he wanted to do with the book. And you can understand
why, he came to Marvel from Charlton Comics,
where he never had to deal with editors breathing down his neck, telling him to add
things and change things. Ditko wanted to work with people who cared about the art form, but he didn't think he'd
have to work with them. And a finger on the monkey's paw curls. He was not open to much
collaboration with others. He had his ideas and he was gonna do them, so around a dozen issues in, Stan Lee officially forfeited the role of plotting the Spider-Man
stories to Steve Ditko. He'd still work with Steve Ditko at least a little bit
with notes here and there, but by issue 25, they had
stopped communicating altogether. And this is when we start to see Ditko's worldview shift hard. Where once he wanted to be a part of a company who cared about comics, now he simply wanted to be left alone to create on his own terms. Where early Spider-Man
comics show Peter wanting to fit in and be respected
by his classmates, now he rejects them. One of Spider-Man's first stories was him attempting to join the Fantastic Four, wanting to be a part of
a superhero collective, but now Spider-Man
celebrates working alone. Steve Ditko's Spider-Man comics started implementing a philosophy
that he would embrace for the rest of his life, the individual versus the collective. And it happened because he
read an Ayn Rand book once and decided to base his
entire personality around it. Oh, I have tricked you for you see, this is not merely a video
about Spider-Man comics. No, it is in fact, a video about politics in Spider-Man comics. Wee! Okay, so a little history about Ayn Rand. Apologies. Ayn Rand was a 20th century writer, who developed the philosophical
system of objectivism. Now, to state the obvious,
I am not a philosopher. I am a YouTuber and those
are mutually exclusive. My apologies, Abigail. So I'm going to condense objectivism down to its core ideas, and I promise I am not trying to
intentionally misrepresent it or make it out to be some sort of weird strawman argument or something. It just always sounds fake to me. So in an extreme nutshell, objectivism states that there
is no greater moral goal than achieving one's own happiness. Putting yourself first above all others is the greatest moral way to live your life. Being selfish is a virtue. And I know, I know that that
sounds like I'm exaggerating, but it was literally the title of a book that Ayn Rand wrote. And to double down on it,
objectivism rejects altruism. To go out of your way to help others, to be selfless is exactly that,
you become less of yourself, less of an individual, less of a person. As her character John Galt said, in a book that really
isn't anything of note. "I swear by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for
the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Don't live your life to help others, you don't owe them anything, which, again, is a really strange idea for Ditko to put into his comics about superheroes who fight for others. There's a fun theory floating around that Steve Ditko might have
first discovered Ayn Rand's work due to an interview that
she did in Playboy magazine, because Ditko was sharing a studio space with fetish artist Eric
Stanton at the time, and he often had Playboy on
hand as reference material. If this idea is true, then that means Steve Ditko might be one of the only people in history who could claim he read Playboy, but only for the articles. But you can see this
self-centered thinking starting to creep up
into Ditko's Spider-Man. Over the first two
issues, when Stan Lee was still mostly in charge of
the plotting and dialogue, Peter wanted desperately to find a job so he could help Aunt May pay the bills. He agonized over this. It's both heartbreaking and sweet that he would sacrifice
anything to help her, but then, in issue number 18, right as Ditko starts taking over more of the plotting duties, Peter wonders if he should give up being Spider-Man to protect Aunt May. He specifically says he
wants to be the kind of kid that Aunt May wants him to be, effectively shaping his
life around someone else. But Aunt May says, "Don't
concern yourself with me. I'll worry about myself,
you worry about yourself. And Peter's like, "Yeah, you're right. Only a weakling quits when times are hard. Sure I've had my share of
bad breaks, but who hasn't? But I've been wasting too
much time in self-pity. I won't worry about Aunt May anymore, nor do I care what Jameson has to say. I'm Spider-Man, I'm special!" I feel like the voice of
Peter Parker that I do has changed every time that
I've done it in this video, but you can see what made Peter return to the superhero role
wasn't the responsibility he felt he had to protect others, but the conviction he felt
to live up to the hero he believed he was born to be. Who cares what others
think as long as you are stalwart in your own principles? Being a superhero isn't
about other people, it's about what I want. Ayn Rand's focus with
objectivist philosophy was to emphasize the individual rather than any kind of collective. And maybe, just maybe, that has to do with the fact that her very wealthy family became slightly less wealthy during the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, but, you know, like Ditko, she denied that her life had any
influence on her work. Sure. Rand pursued this theme in
one of her two famous novels, "The Fountainhead". And you know that Rand is a good writer because at the end of this story, she has the main character
give a big speech about what the themes of the book are, and everyone nods like,
"Oh yeah, good point." - I came here to say
that I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. - Which is just an amazing line to say after you've been taking
up everyone else's time by monologuing for no less
than a full five minutes. - It is an ancient conflict
that has another name, the individual against the collective. The world is perishing from
an orgy of self sacrificing. My terms are a man's right
to exist for his own sake. - And this is why Spider-Man went from wanting to join the
Fantastic Four in ASM number one, to insisting that he could
handle everything himself. He went from wanting to be
in a relationship with Betty, to coldly pushing her away. And, most infamously, this is why we have that protest scene in issue number 38. This was the final Spider-Man
comic of Ditko's initial run, and he used it to just scream
about his objectivist ideas. (camera rumbling) For some context, this
comic came out in 1966. American support for the Vietnam war had already been declining, while the anti-war
movement was only growing. Massive protests were being
held all across the country, from California to New York. Living and working in New York, it's likely that Ditko
witnessed some of these protests that happened in Central Park. In addition, civil rights protests had been happening throughout the decade. The march from Selma to Montgomery, where Alabama state and local police violently beat and brutalized protestors, happened just a year
before this comic came out. Now here's the fun thing about Ayn Rand that isn't fun at all. Rand believed the
government's only job was to provide three things. Two of those things were
armed forces and the police. So, of course, wanting to be an individual with his own free thought
like objectivism treasures, Steve Ditko believed anything
that Ayn Rand believed. Did Ditko care that the
police were violently beating and hospitalizing black
civil rights protestors? I don't know for sure, but my
guess would be probably not. In fact, he began to deify the
police in his Spidey comics, having them catch the bad
guys before Spidey could. Effectively communicating that
altruistic superheroes are not as good or valuable as cops are. They're the real heroes, you know? Which makes sense. I suspect most cops are
fans of the objectivist idea of never having to be held accountable to anyone but yourself. And seeing people protest the war, especially young people, almost
certainly ticked Ditko off. Yeah, he was a veteran himself, but that's probably not why
he hated anti-war protests. Tons of veterans opposed
the Vietnam war at the time. I think what annoyed Ditko the most was that the Vietnam war was marketed. That feels like a wrong
word, we're gonna go for it. The Vietnam war was
marketed as the US trying to stop the spread of communism. Once again, we have the objectivist stance of valuing the individual
over the collective. So Ditko made the protesters out to be a mindless horde of people, people with no actual values. They want to protest to save the world, but also they just wanna use protests as a way to cut class and maybe get a picture of them in the newspaper. If Peter joins their protest meeting, they'll join one of his sometime. It doesn't matter what it
is, they'll protest anything. Heck, they'll protest nothing. I mean, right now they're
protesting a meeting about having another protest. They just like to be part of a group. I mean, look how angry
Peter's face is here. He's supposed to be a lovable underdog, but he just comes across as a jerk. I mean, don't get me wrong. If these exact protesters
existed in real life, I would be a little annoyed with them too, but they don't exist. Steve Ditko made up
completely fictional people to get angry at, a classic tactic. (burping) I ran out of tea. Can you send me more please? I have a PO box. To return to Ayn Rand for a second, I know, I'm sorry, but we have to. I think this line from
"The Fountainhead" is probably what stuck out
the most to Steve Ditko. - The creator stands on his own judgment. The parasite follows
the opinions of others. - Something that Ditko
fought Stan Lee on constantly was how much sway readers
should have on the story. Remember how Ditko insisted
that Peter Parker should have as much screen time as Spider-Man? Well, Stan Lee wasn't super
happy about that at first, but to try and satiate
Stan's desire to see Spider-Man in costume more,
Ditko cleverly came up with the split-face spider-sense gimmick. It's truly iconic. So initially Stan thought
that was a super clever idea 'cause it is, but a
couple of fans wrote in saying that they hated it, which made Stan second
guess the visual gimmick and challenge Ditko to remove it. Fans also complained that
the way Steve Ditko drew characters like Aunt
May and J. Jonah Jameson made them too ugly to look at,
prompting Stan to ask Steve if he could just beautify everyone, put it through Facetune, you know? But Ditko fought Stan on
every front, recalling, quote, "Stan had the tendency to take write-in complaints too literally. Stan was too unsure of his own judgements. He felt he had to appease
the others, outsiders, the complainers, because
they knew what was best, ideas, values, et cetera in Spider-Man." So just to spite readers who
complained about his artwork, Ditko would purposely play up
the things that they hated. Oh, Jameson is too ugly for you? I'm sorry, here, I've made him bigger. I have to imagine Ditko enjoyed drawing Jameson with an unpleasing appearance, because the character was
almost like a stand-in for what he thought of
the dissenting readers. Spider-Man could save the day
against unbelievable odds, but the Daily Bugle would
always smear him regardless. Peter just had to stand by his own beliefs and ignore the bad press. In much the same way,
Ditko was doing this book the way that he wanted, he
held on to his convictions. And no amount of Stan's interference, or people writing in to tell him how much they didn't like him or his work would make him waiver
from what he believed was the right way of making Spider-Man. He didn't care what others thought. Ah, just kidding, he did. In his later years, Ditko
would regularly write essays about his thoughts and beliefs
about the comic book industry and specifically his unbridled detest for comic book fans. Those essays were compiled in a book called "The Complete Four-Page
Series And Other Essays" by Steve Ditko. But one review on Amazon
helpfully described it as libertarian rantings
you can get for free from any libertarian on the internet. So of course I bought it because I thought making fun of it would be
good content, and I was right. He has a two-page essay in
here about anti-Ditko fans. It seems to be targeted directly at me making this video right now. It's amazing, it's about
how comic book fans, who oppose Ditko's Randian views are literally censoring him! Quote, "Certain thoughts, ideas,
themes, free will choices, story ideas, art and
dialogue are to be forbidden. Violators like me must
be abused, punished, stopped silenced for the good of all. I have no right to offer,
do, my created idea material in the marketplace where
potentially interested buyers are free to buy or pass it
by, go their own way. Some higher authority, fan group, power, will, must, decide what is fit for all." So first off my apologies to the comma key on Ditko's keyboard, you
have unfairly suffered the brunt of his rantings. Secondly, and I hope this is obvious, I'm not here to cancel
or silence Steve Ditko. I've said a lot of nice things
about him in this video. I just think his views
on life and politics are extremely bad. Well, I guess that makes me one of the titular anti-Ditko
fans all in air quotes. Well, these are real quotes. Their printed quotes. I would have done air quote, you get it. If it wasn't already clear,
Ditko loathed comic book fans, he went to very few
conventions, and when he did, he recoiled at the sight
of mass hoards of fans that he referred to as no
more than pack animals. He felt utterly repulsed by people who based their entire personality around fictional storybooks. Unless those books were
written by Ayn Rand, I guess. I mean, just listen to how he responds to fans who simply wanted more information about a Spider-Man comic he wrote. "One CBF," comic book fan,
"wanted some information about a specific idea I had
used in Spider-Man in the 1960s. Some, many, CBFs were publicly
irritated, upset, annoyed, complaining, angry about
my poor inadequate evasive, not fully detailed documented answer." Why does he write like that? Oh my God! "So I have a duty a write
to completely detailed, day-by-day, hour-by-hour,
thought-by-thought, factually comprehensive,
fully documented answer. It must always be done. When any CBF asks,
wants, needs, must know, is entitled to, owed, some wish, want, need or curiosity, whatever. Everything should have
been dutifully, accurately, properly recorded, filed, available, and all to be judged by
the CBF's infallible, absolute standards." Ditko is one of those
people who would write in his Tinder bio that
he's fluent in sarcasm. I mean, he wrote this and published it, because some fans wanted
to know more about him. And the rants, I mean, they just, they continue page after page of this. You could've just kept this
all to yourself, Steve. If you like comic books, Steve Ditko spent the last years of his
life passionately writing about how much he hates you. And when people try to comment, not even criticize, just comment the fact that Ditko is
clearly a fan of Ayn Rand, he neither confirm nor denies it, instead choosing to devolve into pedantry. "One truth in an article about me claims that I am a lifelong admirer of Ayn Rand. Lifelong implies, means what? From the first day of my life, the first day I could speak, read, write, draw, first day in school." First Playboy I read, no, I'm
kidding, it doesn't say that. And with that, I have
had enough of this book. Now look, I get it. Reading negative opinions on your work is not exactly encouraging or
motivating to keep at it. I tend to only read the
comments on my videos for like the first hour
after it goes live, because those come from the people who have notifications turned on, just so they can say nice things about me and prove that they can write
funnier jokes than I can. After about a day, the
comments become complaints about the way I look and talk and think. And you know, maybe at least
a little bit of that is on me. Sometimes I antagonize
the comment section, which gives the negative
commenters more attention while discouraging people who would have otherwise left nice comments
from writing anything at all. For whatever cruel, psychological reason, hurtful comments stand
out more than nice ones, but you can check the letters section of any Spider-Man comic from Ditko's run, and so many fans were writing in about how much they loved his art, but one person hated the way he drew feet, so he had to subtweet them. So Steve Ditko definitely did care about what others thought
about him and his work, at least enough that any complaints would annoy and anger him, but that's not what a good
objectivist is supposed to feel. Don't concern yourself
with what others think, just stay true to your own beliefs, because the opinions
of others don't matter, right, Ayn Rand? Uh-oh! Yeah, turns out the person
who trumpeted individualism and originality detesting those
who can form to collectives and hating people who always
sought the approval of others, hated being around people who disagreed with her politically and philosophically so much that her close
circle of friends, cult, literally called
themselves the collective, and anyone who expressed views that even a little bit
opposed objectivist thinking was interrogated, cult, and
anyone who displeased Rand by not being loyal enough to her ideas was ex-communicated from the cult. It was a cult. The great individualist
thinker ran a cult, but perhaps the end of this
line from the fountain head hit Ditko, especially hard, and I can understand why. - The creator stands on his own judgment. The parasite follows
the opinions of others. Creator thinks, the parasite copies. The creator produces, the parasite loots. - Now, this rhetoric was used by Rand to promote and glorify
laissez-faire capitalism. So to be clear, I definitely
don't agree with that part. Looting was terminology
that Rand used to describe things like taxes and anyone who benefits from anything that those taxes pay for is themself a looter, like,
just for a random example, a person who receives financial assistance from government welfare programs. If I had to give that
hypothetical person a name, I guess I'd call them Ayn Rand, because Ayn Rand did that while condemning others who did the same thing. Go away. She's dead, go more away somehow. Also worth noting that
Steve Ditko was only able to pursue comic book
artistry because he received financing from the government's
G.I. Bill of Rights, which provided academic
assistance to veterans, which he used to take art classes under his idol, Jerry Robinson. Remember that detail I told
you about like an hour ago? And, like, good, you know? I'm not saying either
of these two shouldn't have taken financial assistance. I'm glad that there are systems in place to help out the elderly and veterans. I think those systems should
be more robust, to be honest. And we should also have more
ways to help all people, but the hypocritical attitude of it's okay for me, but not for thee, that's just ridiculous. But okay, back to the actual
point I was trying to make, can you tell a big reason
I wanted to make this video is so I could dunk on Ayn Rand? Not only was some of this
looter and producer terminology used explicitly in
Spider-Man comics, I mean, one of Spidey's villains
from Ditko's run was literally called the Looter,
a bit on the nose, Steve. But I also think it's something
that Ditko saw about himself compared to the others
that he worked with. During his run on Spider-Man, Steve Ditko unquestionably
defined the character and his world for better or worse. He plotted the stories long
before he was even given credit as the series plotter. He came up with iconic characters and story beats and powerful moments that Stan Lee would take
credit for for decades. - He had complained to
me a number of times when there were articles
written about Spider-Man, which called me the creator of Spider-Man. And I had always thought I was, because I'm the guy who said, "I have an idea for a
strip called Spider-Man." So I said to him, "Well, I think
the person with the idea is the person who creates it." And he said, "No, because I drew it." - And worst of all,
Spider-Man was popular. Officially licensed merchandise was sprouting up all over the place. There was even talk of a
series of Marvel cartoons that were about to head into production. I wish someone made a video about those. Those sound fun. I did, I made some, please go watch them. They gave me an anxiety attack. All the way back during
Spider-Man's creation, Marvel's publisher Martin
Goodman promised Ditko a percentage of the royalties, if the character ever got popular. Spider-Man became Marvel's
most popular superhero probably ever. And Ditko saw nothing from it. All of that merchandising money, most likely went to Goodman. The artist saw nothing. - The creator produces,
the parasite loots. - Rand probably didn't
intend for that quote to rightfully label workers as producers and company heads as looters, but this is as unintentionally based as Ayn Rand will ever be. And look, Ditko was
right to be angry here. Marvel has a long history
of not properly crediting or paying their artists. It's still going on today. I hate it. And if the constant
squabbles that Ditko had with Stan Lee weren't enough, the lack of promised royalties
for his characters was the final straw. If he wasn't going to be fairly
compensated for his ideas, then he'd take his ideas
somewhere else, somewhere new, just kidding, he went
back to Charlton Comics. Hey, remember, earlier when I said that Ayn Rand only thought
the government should be used for three things
and two of them were the military and the police? Well, the third one was objective judges. Judges who knew that right and wrong was a simple matter of black and white. There's never any moral gray area. All actions are either
fully right or fully wrong. And we need people who can reinforce, ah, dang, this guy's cool! Look, this video is just supposed to be about Ditko's run on Spider-Man. I can't write another
five pages about Mr. A or The Question or how
Rorschach was created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons as a parody of Steve
Ditko's objectivist ideals, do you get it? His mask is literally a thing
that everyone interprets differently using their own subjectivity. There is no objective view of it. Rorschach is a joke, and if you like him, you've missed the entire point. All of that could be and should be, and probably is already its
own video somewhere on YouTube. We are exclusively talking about Ditko's run on Spider-Man here. And I want to clarify one last time that I don't think it's all bad. A lot of the stories from
this era were phenomenal. Steve was a tremendous
artist who understood the medium of comics more
than most at the time. And the ideas Steve Ditko
pushed back on against Stan Lee were incredibly formative
to the character, but Spider-Man wasn't wholly
a product of Steve Ditko. Stan Lee also pushed back
against Ditko's ideas. Most famously, Steve Ditko
wanted the reveal of Green Goblin to be just like some
random criminal, somewhere, no name or anything. They had been building up the reveal, the identity of this character for months, and Ditko wanted it to be
intentionally unsatisfying. Stan said no. In a grand twist, Green
Goblin was going to be Norman Osborn. And I think we can all agree that Stan had the right call here. And again, recall that Stan's
original idea for Gobby was supposed to be an
ancient supernatural entity instead of a person in a costume. It's almost like when the
two of them worked together and listened to each other's ideas, even if they did so begrudgingly, they made good art. (soft sad music) Steve Ditko died in June of
2018 due to a heart condition. He had shut himself out
of the world for decades. He refused to give interviews
or make public appearances or let any details about his personal life be known to the public. As far as we know, he didn't have any close
friends or family left. We don't know the exact date of his death, because no one was there when it happened. Officials reported that he
may have been dead for days before his body was found. An individual to the lonely end. (gentle music) If there's one thing that I hope you can take away from this video, it's that working with others to create more good in the world doesn't
make you less of a person. Caring about others doesn't make you weak. And that's what we need
superheroes to embody. I adore the Peter Parker who's kind, and who worries about
his friends and family. I admire the Spider-Man who
sacrifices himself for others, not because it's what he wants to do, but because he feels that
call of responsibility to help his community. That's the Spider-Man I loved as a kid. That's the Spider-Man who feels relatable. And without that, under Ditko's
Randian objective views, we might technically have a Spider-Man, but he could never ever be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Are you happy, Rand?
(dramatic music) I explicitly and bluntly
stated the entire message of my video at the end. I'm a good writer, just like you. (soft music) And you know, diving
back into these comics about a young, school-aged Peter Parker made me reflect on my school days. I had no idea growing
up, how much of my life and career was gonna be
sitting at a computer. Those were just machines
that teachers let us play games on sometimes. Nowadays, obviously
computers are everywhere. I'm sitting in front of one right now, and I only occasionally play games on it, but I regret not learning
more about computer science when I had the chance. I'm actually in the process of learning a new editing software
right now, and it is wild. How much coding there is
in editing and animation. Genuinely, so much of my
job would be much easier if I understood how computers speak and that's where today's
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premium subscription, link in the description. Thank you to brilliant
for sponsoring this video and for helping me
finally learn how to code. If you want an analysis
of Steve Ditko's artwork, here's a video I made about why Spider-Man and Dr. Strange make
the same hand gesture, or here's a playlist analyzing
the 1966 Marvel cartoons. They're wacky! Once again, my name is Scott, reminding you to explore your favorite art through curiosity and vulnerability. See ya.
