Spider-Man was conceived as an ordinary person given great power, and the comics detail his civilian life, friends, family and romances as much as his super-heroic adventures.
Some of the more important and well-known members of his extensive supporting cast include:
- Aunt May – Peter Parker's loving aunt, who raises him after his parents die. After the murder of her husband, Peter's Uncle Ben, May is virtually his only family, and they are very close.
- Gwen Stacy – Peter's college girlfriend, who is tragically murdered by the Green Goblin.
- Betty Brant - Secretary at the Daily Bugle who was once in love with Peter
- J. Jonah Jameson – the irascible publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper. While he employs Peter Parker as a photographer, he is also Spider-Man's greatest critic and largely responsible for the public's distrust of the hero.
- Joseph "Robbie" Robertson – Editor-in-chief at the Daily Bugle, a moderating influence on Jameson, and a father figure to Peter after Uncle Ben's Death.
- Mary Jane Watson – originally merely Gwen Stacy's competition, MJ eventually became Peter's best friend and wife.
- Flash Thompson – Peter Parker's high school tormentor, later one of his closest friends. Due to brain damage, he suffers amnesia and regresses to his bullying personality.
- Harry Osborn – Peter's best friend in college, who eventually follows his father's footsteps and becomes the second Green Goblin, which destroys him.
- Black Cat, Felicia Hardy – a reformed cat burglar who was Spider-Man's lover and partner at one
