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According to Marvel Comics, Spider-Man's webbing has a tensile strength of "120 pounds per square millimeter of cross section."

Good thing, too. You try carrying around $1.6 billion.

Since 2002, when ol' Webhead first swung into the multiplex, he's been nothing but a box office hero. Now comes Spider-Man 3 which swings back onto screens today.

But Spider-Man is a comic book icon with 45 years of history under his suit — black suit and liquid metal suit included.

So get ready for the new movie with our A to Z guide to all things Spidey.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

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Amazing Fantasy No. 15: Here's where it all started back in 1962. In an 11-page story, the world meets Peter Parker, wallflower turned wall-crawling superhero (thanks, of course, to a bite from a radioactive arachnid). Back in the day, the issue would have set you back 12 cents. It's now worth 42 grand.

Black suit: In the comics, there's only so much crime to fight in New York. Sometimes, you gotta go into space. And in Marvel's 1984 miniseries Secret Wars, Spider-Man returned home from another planet with a cool souvenir — a black costume. But talk about a bummer. Turns out Spidey's new suit was an alien shape-shifter called a symbiote that bonded with him and, way worse, fed off him.

Chameleon: In the beginning, it wasn't the Green Goblin. It's the appearance-changing Chameleon who holds the honor of being Spider-Man's first costumed super-villain in Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 (1963). Years later, Chameleon tried to kill himself by jumping off a bridge. Hey, it's hard out there for a B-grade villain.

Ditko: Everybody knows comics writer Stan "The Man" Lee. But without artist Steve Ditko, Spider-Man would have just been a bunch of exclamation points. Ditko, according to Peter Sanderson's book The Marvel Universe, got the Spidey assignment over Fantastic Four artist Jack Kirby because Kirby made him look "too conventionally heroic."

Empire State University: In the comics, Parker graduated from Midtown High, then went to Empire State and earned a degree in biophysics. ESU is your typical college &151; friend Harry Osborn dropped acid there in '71 and random professors have become super-villains.

Fight the man! In 1971, Stan and Marvel stood up to the Comics Code Authority with an anti-drug story in Amazing Spider-Man No. 96-98. The Code, which had governed the content of comic books since the '50s, said no to any reference to drugs. But Marvel believed in its anti-drug morality tale and went to print without the Code's seal of approval.

Goblin: Since the early 1960s, Spider-Man has been up to his web-shooters in goblin-themed villains, from three Green Goblins to the Hobgoblin and the Gray Goblin.

Hermey: Yeah, as in the elf. Canadian actor Paul Soles, who voiced the misfit dentist in 1964's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, also voiced Peter Parker in Spider-Man's first foray into cartoons. The 1967 TV series made Spider-Man the king of all media — and gave him a super catchy theme song to boot.

Iron Man: In 2006, Spider-Man got a new suit courtesy of Iron Man (aka Tony Stark). Made of "liquid metal nanofiber," the red and gold get-up has three mechanical arms and short-range GPS, but no CD player.

J. Jonah Jameson: A staple of the Spider-Man universe as far back as 1963, Jameson is the crusading publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper. Big surprise: Flat-Top has had several heart attacks.

Kraven: In 1964, Kraven the Hunter was a big game hunter who wore a lion's hide and planned to make Spidey his next trophy. By 1987, he still hadn't succeeded. So, as a dying man, Kraven just ended up shooting Spider-Man and burying him. But wait! It was only a tranquilizer. At the end of the fan-favorite story arc known as Kraven's Last Hunt, the Hunter ended up shooting himself. And not with a tranquilizer, either. Basically, these weren't your father's Spider-Man comics anymore.

Loner: Spider-Man doesn't play well with others. Maybe it has something to do with the time he tried to join the Fantastic Four back in 1963, bragging, "I figure I'm worth your top salary!" The FF had to explain to him they're a non-profit organization. (No joke.) But in 2005, Spidey joined Marvel's all-star superhero team the Avengers. Not sure how much he makes.

Maguire: Actor Tobey Maguire is back, probably for the last time, as Parker in Spider-Man 3. Really, can you picture anybody else in the role? Of course, with so much money pouring in, it's sadly only a matter of time before Sony brings in Joel Schumacher to put nipples on the Spider suit.

New and improved: In Spider-Man 3, look for Peter's buddy Harry Osborn (James Franco) to assume the mantle of Green Goblin. It's in keeping with the comics. In 1973, Harry watched dad and original Goblin Norman Osborn get impaled by his own jet-glider during a fight with Spider-Man. Harry soon became the second Green Goblin.

Obituary: Death is no stranger to Spider-Man. After all, Parker was urged to use his great power for good after the murder of his uncle, Ben Parker, clear back in Amazing Fantasy No. 15. In the years since, the death toll has included Peter's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. In 1973, the Green Goblin knocked her off the George Washington Bridge. Said Goblin, Norman Osborn, was killed himself during a fight with Spidey in the next issue, but he's now believed to be alive. (Naturally.) The second Goblin, son Harry, died in 1993, the result of, don't laugh, experimental goblin serum poisoning. Spider-Man himself died in battle in 2006, only to be resurrected a short time later and with new powers, too. Then there's Aunt May, who's only looked dead since 1962. But, no, she's still hanging on — only barely nowadays after a sniper came calling.

Powerful: In the 1980s, Spider-Man was listed by Marvel as being able to press 10 tons. That's been upped to 20 tons. So is Spider-Man the Barry Bonds of comics? Well now, does Barry have the proportional strength of a spider?

The Queen: In a 2004 issue of Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man became no man and all spider. Extra arms, extra eyes, the works. That's what a kiss from the human-insect hybrid the Queen gets you. Spider-Man eventually returned to his normal self, and with some extra powers.

Robertson: 81-year-old Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson ("Charly") again will pop up in Spider-Man 3 as the still-dead Uncle Ben. As a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs in the 1940s, Robertson was an intern at the Springfield Sun.

Sandman: One of Spider-Man's earliest foes, convict Flint Marko, gets his due in the new movie. In his 1963 comics debut, Marko (an alias for William Baker) escaped the clink and wound up hiding out at an atomic testing site. Dumb move, Flint. But the blast gave him the ability to turn to sand. In 1981, the Sandman briefly became Mud-Thing after, get ready, merging with Hydro-Man. Only in comics.

Tying the knot: In the comics, Parker and Mary Jane Watson celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary this year. Peter first popped the question in 1978, but got the guts to ask again in 1987. That time, she said yes. By 1995, Mary Jane was pregnant, but lost the baby thanks to original Goblin Norman Osborn.

Unmasked: In Amazing Spider-Man No. 12, the unthinkable happens to Spidey &151; first he gets a Doc Ock beat-down, then he gets unmasked right in front of Jameson. Luckily, nobody buys the fact that Parker is Spider-Man. In 2006, as part of Marvel's Civil War, Congress passed the Superhuman Registration Act and Parker voluntarily revealed his identity once and for all. The reaction? The Kingpin promptly sent somebody out to whack Aunt May.

Venom: Since his comics debut in 1988, Venom has become one of the all-time favorite bad guys. Remember the alien symbiote that once bonded with Parker? Well, once it tired of him, it found disgraced reporter Eddie Brock (Topher Grace in the movie) and attached itself.

It brought along Spider-Man's powers and, mixed with Brock's hate for Spidey, created the scary-as-heck Venom. In current comics, Brock is dying of cancer, and the Venom symbiote since has bonded with Mac Gargan, formerly known as the old '60s villain Scorpion.

Webbing: At first, Spider-Man's web fluid was homemade, and was fired from web-shooters worn on both wrists. But like the first Spider-Man movie in 2002, the webbing now is fired organically from the wrists.

X-Men: Marvel also has found box office gold with another of its properties, the X-Men.

So it seemed like a producer's dream come true when Marvel shook up its Avengers roster in 2005. Spider-Man joined the team, as did Wolverine, the most popular X-Man of 'em all.

Youth: Spider-Man helped the nation's youngest learn to read when he made live-action cameos on The Electric Company back in the 1970s. Airing on public television, Spidey showed up and spoke only in word balloons. (Just look it up on YouTube.) A comic book series, Spidey Super Stories, spun off from the show and featured "easy-to-read" adventures.

Zero: OK, it's sort of generic, but really, Parker was the ultimate zero. It wasn't bad enough he was a dweeb. Besides that, he never had any money and he lived with an old lady who practically was dying every other issue. But he became the ultimate hero. If only we could all encounter a radioactive spider.

Sources: The Marvel Universe encyclopedia at Marvel.com, "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" and Peter Sanderson's "The Marvel Universe."