Steve Ditko is Johnstown, PAs most famous author and illustrator. He co-created Spider Man with Stan Lee in the 1950s. I admit I had never heard of him until I started my book. According to his Wikipedia page he was born here in 1927 and died in 2018 in New York City at age 90 which was a few months before Stan Lee passed away.
His page says that he split with Lee in the 1960s and did not speak to him for years. Ditko seldom did interviews but his page says he was influenced by Ayn Rand's objectivist ideas which he expressed in his comic Dr. A. She was interviewed by Phil Donahue in 1979.
It seems to me that Spiderman is at odds with Ayn Rand's objectivism. I confess I'm not an avid reader of Spider-Man but in the movie with Tobey Maguire, Peter Parker (Spider-Man's alter ego) is told that "with great power comes great responsibility" by his uncle. Spider-man becomes very altruistic leaving a note after his escapades saying "from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."
I don't know Stan Lee's philosophy but many of his other comic book heroes could be thought of as altruistic. I never read Mr. A but Ditko's page says he embodies Rand's philosophy. Is Ayn Rand the reason Ditko and Lee parted ways? Neither of them really ever said or ever will.
