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Artist Steve Ditko filled his Spider-Man comics with Ayn Rand’s controversial ideology, Objectivism – beliefs he might’ve discovered reading Playboy!
Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and the character’s debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 changed the permanently changed the trajectory of superhero comics. The early Spider-Man stories presented its protagonist, Peter Parker, as a relatable teenaged boy who was bullied at school, struggled with money and concealed his identity with a costume to protect his loved ones.
However, Lee and Ditko did not always agree on how to tell stories together – or on much of anything else. When Ditko was given full narrative control, the stories began to center on Peter Parker espousing the controversial philosophy of Objectivism, which Ditko had recently embraced. What makes this even more sensational is that it seems likely that this change was actually inspired by Ditko reading the adult magazine Playboy.
Stan Lee is often credited as the mastermind who turned Marvel Comics into the powerhouse that it has become. However, he did not work alone, and many of the artists who collaborated with Lee often felt like he took all the credit for their work. Ditko was particularly vocal about resenting this – feelings that intensified when he became influenced by Objectivism, a belief system created by author Ayn Rand.
While there are many facets to Objectivism, some of its core tenants include the beliefs that governments should not interfere with private businesses (known as laissez-faire capitalism) and that people should advocate for their own needs above all else, a belief perhaps best exemplified by her essay collection The Virtue of Selfishness. Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged divides the world into categories of people: producers who make products and looters/parasites who leech off of the producers by using their products or taxing their wealth.
Youtuber Scott Niswander (AKA Nerdsync) recently made a video essay that explores the ways in which Ditko put his Objectivist beliefs into Spider-Man comics, including the fact that Ditko saw himself as a producer and likely viewed Stan Lee – who claimed most of the credit for creating the character – as a parasitic looter. The video also addresses an interesting theory that Ditko himself might have discovered Objectivism in the pages of Playboy.
For roughly a decade, Ditko was in the same office as the acclaimed fetish artist Eric Stanton, who frequently kept copies of Playboy on his desk. Ditko might have first encountered Rand’s beliefs while reading the adult magazine, as the author was interviewed for their March 1964 issue. Several months later, Ditko assumed more responsibilities for plotting Amazing Spider-Man, beginning in issue #18, released in August of that year. Here, Aunt May advises Peter to focus less on her needs and embrace his own self-interest, saying “You listen to me, Peter Parker…A person needs gumption, the will to live, to fight! You mustn’t worry about me so much, Peter dear!” This is a blatantly Objectivist talking point, and May cites similar ones half-dozen times throughout that issue alone.
Valuing himself above others, Ditko eventually refused to even step into the Marvel offices except to deliver his finished art. He completely took over plotting Amazing Spider-Man, and while his art continued to be fantastic, fans reacted poorly as an increasingly selfish Peter Parker acted like a jerk toward others. This culminated in Ditko’s final issue in which Parker lambasts his fellow college students for staging a protest, becoming so enraged that he storms off, raging against his classmates. This scene is so famously bad that in more recent stories, Spider-Man has looked back on it in embarrassment.
After Ditko quit, Spider-Man stories improved dramatically as the hero began actually caring about others again. Ditko remained an Objectivist for the rest of his life. He was a masterful artist with a distinct style, but his beliefs were so simplistic that they came across as childish tantrums, which is ironic when one realizes he may very well have gotten them from an adult magazine.
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