"In the earliest material, Peter Parker was a dick, and that went on long after the mugger got turned in. His immediate response after Ben was killed? Keep on going with the show business until Jameson starts going after him. His first couple saves are at least in part about His Good Name, whether saving Jameson’s son with the idea that it would get him on the old man’s good side, or going after the Chameleon for impersonating him, and even once he starts going after criminals on a consistent basis it’s initially only for photography money. He takes stupid chances. He’s desperate for cash. He insults and attacks undeserving people. He fakes pictures of Sandman and Electro with the flimsiest of moral justifications. He’s got a chip on his shoulder the size of Queens and can barely begin to control his temper. He’ll lash out at people on suspicion or anger alone, and in some early stories he just plain gave up or ran away until he learned his lesson or circumstances changed. He’s a bitter, arrogant know-it-all who looks down on virtually everyone around him, and even if we can’t blame him with all he goes through, he’s often far afield of anything resembling ''likeable''...But he changes, so completely many seem to forget he was ever anything other than the official co-saint of the Marvel Universe alongside Steve Rogers...He grows, he shifts, he learns lessons and forgets them and falls and picks himself back up, and he never stops pushing forward. He takes on the responsibility of becoming the Man he claims to be, that others need him to be, even if he doesn’t consciously realize it at first. That’s how he was built, and how he was visibly meant to keep going at first. That’s the "in", that’s what makes him an everyman we can all relate to, because no one ever stops growing up. It’s what differentiates him, makes him real, compared to Superman or Batman or the FF or Captain America."
— David Mann, Spider-Man Was Never Just the “Loveable Loser” Fri, 2 May 2014, Sequart Organization
