Some history of Spidey’s black costume

, a Chicago comics fan who was the author behind the scenes for Spider-Man’s black costume 25 years ago:

Back in 1982, Schueller was a 22-year-old comic-book fan living in Chicago. Marvel, the publisher of “Spider-Man,” asked readers to send in ideas for the hero, and Schueller jumped at the chance. He spent two weeks crafting a story in which Spidey dons a new costume.

A black costume. Like in a certain movie currently in theaters.

“It occurred to me that Spider-Man is this character that creeps around in the shadows looking for bad guys, so why is he wearing this bright red and blue costume?” Schueller says.

“It seemed like he should have more of a stealth mode.”

He mailed the pitch to Marvel, and a few months later, he got a letter from then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter telling Schueller he liked his idea and wanted to buy it for $220. Shooter also offered to let the novice write the story.

As far as I know, Schueller didn’t actually write the resulting story himself; David Michelinie was probably the one who did the actual story that came out (and also Tom de Falco). But there you have it, that’s how the black costume came to be, as it debuted two years after the man who pitched the original idea came up with it.

Like many other Spider-Fans though, I like the red-and-blue costume much better.