Films of comic book heroes were dead until along came a Spider-Man who didn't frighten audiences away. Film writer Steve Pratt discovers the webbed wonder's secret.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - and it's not Superman either. The caped crusader has been eclipsed by another high-flying superhero, Spider-Man. He's spinning his web worldwide in a record-breaking new movie based on the Marvel Comics character. As a result of his soaraway success, a succession of comic book heroes are making the switch from the page to the screen.

Spider-Man isn't the first superhero to find his way on to film. But the failure of the most recent screen instalments of the Superman and Batman franchises, to generate either sufficient box office revenue or favourable critical or fan reaction, had brought screen adaptations to a halt.

Two years ago, X-Men was a big enough hit to convince producers that films featuring comic book heroes still had some life left in them. Then, along came a Spider-Man...

No one, though, anticipated the scale of his appeal which has seen the movie smash record after record. An all-time opening weekend take of $114m was the first barrier broken.

The current US total take of $334m reflects that Spider-Man has, to use a phrase beloved by the industry bible Variety, "got legs". That staying power has already seen it reach sixth place in the list of the all-time highest grossing movies.

The film is climbing the charts as surely and swiftly as Spider-Man himself scales the outside of buildings. This can only encourage other producers and studios to bring more comic book heroes to the big screen.

Before Spider-Man revitalised the genre, films featuring Alec Baldwin as The Shadow and Billy Zane as The Phantom failed to find favour. Batman, one of the most profitable film franchises of all time, was put into retirement following adverse reaction to the most recent lacklustre entry Batman And Robin.

Superman, too, was forced to hang up his cape and tights after the cheap and not very cheerful Superman 4 failed to impress, although he's made a comeback of sorts in Smallville, the hit TV series about Superman/Clark Kent's teenage years.

Everything has changed in the wake of Spider-Man's success. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon director Ang Lee is at the helm of The Hulk, and Ben Affleck plays a blind lawyer-turned-superhero in Daredevil. Sandra Bullock has been tipped to give us a twirl as a cinema version of Wonder Woman, while Nicolas Cage's desire to play Ghost Rider on screen is nearer reality in the wake of Spider-Man.

Catwoman, a Batman spin-off, may finally go before the cameras with Ashley Judd slipping into the leather catsuit worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns.

Film versions of Iron Fist, The Sub-Mariner and The Fantastic Four are being talked about. In the wake of Spider-Man, there's not a Marvel or DC superhero who isn't being considered for the big screen.

Some will hit the spot with cinema-goers, others will disappear quicker than the invisible man. Few bother to contemplate that Spider-Man is doing so well because director Sam Raimi, a fan of the webbed wonder since childhood, has made a near-perfect adaptation of the comic strip hero's adventures.

For starters, he cast an actor, Tobey Maguire, rather than an action man as Peter Parker, the nerdy brainbox who acquires superpowers after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider.

Here, at last, is a superhero to whom teenagers, who make up the bulk of today's cinema-going audience, can relate. The result is an adventure where you care about the hero rather than just gaze in awe at his powers without actually worrying whether he lives or dies.

Another reason Spider-Man works so well is that advances in computer-generated special effects means that virtually anything is possible on screen these days. A few years ago, the makers would have been struggling to show convincingly a hero swinging on his web through the skyscrapers of New York, like Tarzan travelling through the jungle on vines.

America's need for heroes in the post-September 11 atmosphere may have contributed to some small degree, but those who attribute Spider-Man's success to that are exaggerating that aspect.

More likely, it has to do with Hollywood's lack of ideas and a leaning to go with something familiar rather than risk money on an original idea. Comic strip superheroes come complete with already familiar brand names and their own logos. They also attract all ages, as people have been reading Spider-Man for 40 years. Add Peter Parker's unrequited love for classmate Mary Jane, and you have a story that appeals to women too.

"What Marvel does very well is spend time on the human drama," says executive producer and Marvel Studios president Avi Arad. "Whatever powers Peter Parker has are also his Achilles heel. That makes good literature, good scripts, good movies. They are people who, like most of us, are trying to get on with their life and be happy."

American professor of pop culture Dr Jeff Brown goes further, describing Spider-Man as the perfect childhood fantasy. "Spider-Man is clearly a fictionalised fantasy of heroism," he explains.

"He embodies all of the desirable traits of a hero, but he looks like an average guy. He's not Rambo, he's not the Terminator, he's lean, he's plain. He shows that you can become something great, something extraordinary."

Yet, Spider-Man the movie nearly didn't happen. There was a TV series in the 1970s and an animated series but the film rights have been in legal and development hell for the past decade. Establishing who owned the rights led to five lawsuits involving three major companies.

At one point James Cameron was developing the project. He eventually went off to make a little film called Titanic. After Sony/Columbia acquired the rights, Evil Dead director Sam Raimi was signed to direct - a good choice as he's a big Spider-Man fan. For his twelfth birthday, his parents had an artist paint a picture of the superhero which is still hanging above his bed in the house where he grew up.

Like Maguire as Peter Parker, Raimi was perfect to direct because he was sympathetic to the material, which dates back to reading the comic as a schoolboy.

"The creators made it unique by coming up with a character that was one of us - a kid in high school who was kind of introvert, very intelligent and a pleasant kid. But he was somewhat self-centred, a little selfish. He didn't quite have the guts to talk to girls, and came from a broken home" he says.

"There's a lot I could relate to. So when he becomes a superhero you really get to become it with him, to identify with him. Unlike Superman from the planet Krypton, Peter Parker was a kid with real problems. After getting back from a day of being Spider-Man, he still had to do his homework."

* There are preview screenings of Spider-Man (12) in cinemas today, tomorrow and Thursday in advance of the film's general release on June 14.