The Real Origin Of Spider-Man's Most Iconic Quote Emerges After 78 Years, And It's Not From Marvel

Aug 11, 2026 - 04:11

0 0

The Real Origin Of Spider-Man's Most Iconic Quote Emerges After 78 Years, And It's Not From Marvel

Published Aug 10, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Derek is the Training Lead for ScreenRant. Before his current position, he spent 20 years working in games, TV, and film while also writing for several entertainment sites.
Derek is also the co-host of three pop culture podcasts: Across the Omniverse, The Bad Batch, and Watch Men.

When it comes to famous superhero quotes, arguably the most famous is what Uncle Ben said to a young Peter Parker before he became Spider-Man. "With great power comes great responsibility" doesn't just fit everyone's favorite wall-crawler, it is a perfect encapsulation of every superhero. These figures use their unbelievable abilities not to enrich themselves, but to make the world a better and safer place for those who can't defend themselves, be it from a basic mugger or an alien invasion.

The saying has escaped the comics and entered the lexicon of the world thanks in no small part to the massive success of the Spider-Man movies, and it will always be directly connected to the character, telling readers and audiences everything they need to know about Spider-Man's thought process. But it seems that Uncle Ben may not have come up with the legendary credo on his own. The loving father figure to the young hero may himself have been influenced by another father figure to another great superhero. One who comes from a different universe. It seems that Uncle Ben may have been giving his nephew some advice that had first shown up 14 years before he and Spider-Man made their debuts.

Pa Kent Told Superman A Very Similar Thing In 1948

Outside of a truly dedicated group of fans, not many people are watching the 1948 Superman serial that starred Kirk Alyn as the first live-action Man of Steel. The serial, consisting of 15 parts, showed the origin of Superman, starting with Jor-El striving to save his son on Krypton through the baby Kal-El being found by the Kents and growing up to be the hero everyone knows and loves today.

In one sequence, set before a young Clark Kent becomes Superman, Pa Kent presses his adopted son to use his amazing abilities to help people, breaking it down...

"You came to us out of the sky, from what distant place we can't even imagine. You're different from other people. Your unique abilities make you a kind of super man. Because of these great powers — your speed and strength, your x-ray vision and super sensitive hearing — you have a great responsibility."

Those words from Pa Kent aren't as concise or eloquent as what Uncle Ben said to Peter, but the meaning is the same: "Because of your great powers... you have a great responsibility." And while Stan Lee had his critiques about Superman, he also had great respect for the character, telling Larry King that the Last Son of Krypton was his favorite DC superhero...

When Siegel and Shuster created Superman, there had never been anything like that. A person who had all those powers and could do all those things and it was so imaginative. The only thing, they had to eventually create Krypton because they realized you wouldn’t worry about the hero if nothing could hurt them. And now you always have to worry about your hero.

With that in mind, it isn't hard to imagine a young Stan Lee sitting in his local movie theater with some popcorn, watching the Superman serial and being inspired by it. Perhaps Pa Kent's words stayed in his subconscious, ruminating as he worked on Spider-Man all those years later and coming out in the final panel of Spider-Man's origin in Amazing Fantasy #15 (where it isn't actually said by Uncle Ben!).

The Origins Of The Famous Quote Goes Even Further Back

Of course, Pa Kent wasn't the first person to think of the basic concept behind "with great power comes great responsibility." One of the earliest examples is in the take of the Sword of Damocles, which hangs over the head of the king, held up by nothing more than a single horsehair to serve as a constant reminder that a king's fortune is always a hairsbreadth away from collapse if they overuse their power.

The Parable of the Faithful Servant in the Bible, Jesus touches on the idea as well, stating, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." In the Islamic faith, Muhammad says something similar: "All of you are shepherds and each of you is responsible for his flock." And perhaps the first time someone said something that truly comes close sounding like the iconic quote was the Committee of Public Safety's Plan of Work, Surveillance, and Correspondence during the French Revolution, which stated, "[The Committee of Public Safety] must understand that a great responsibility is the inseparable result of a great power."

William Lamb, a member of the British Parliament in the early 1800s, used the line "the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility" during a debate. And, most on the nose was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, who told the House of Lords in 1898...

"But with great power comes great responsibility."

Clearly, Uncle Ben — via Stan Lee — wasn't the first to think of this, but he is certainly the person most acquainted with the saying. And as for when he first said it, it seems like the quote wasn't attributed to Uncle Ben until Christopher Priest had Spider-Man credit him with it in 1987's Spider-Man vs Wolverine #1 (with art by Mark Bright). Since then, it has been the lasting lesson an aging uncle gave to his young nephew.