SAO PAULO — Alexandrae Tavares has a mostly normal life in his modest home, tucked away in a hillside outside of Brazil’s largest city. He’s blonde, wears blue jeans most of the time and looks far younger than his 56 years would suggest. But he keeps to himself, and some would say for good reason: The upper half of his body is that of giant spider’s.
Though Tavares would say his mutation is a gift, many would prefer him to stay out of public. But it was one of those rare times that Tavares ventured into the world that he encountered a young Stan Lee, as a child on his only trip to New York City. Tavares says he remembers one person who didn’t run away in fear on a fateful tour of the Statue of Liberty.
That person actually introduced himself. His said his name was “Stan,” and that he writes comic books. It took decades for Tavares to put the pieces together, and now, like another of Lee’s creations, he’s finding himself very, very angry.
“I just saw this poster for a movie called ‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’” Tavares said, speaking through an interpreter. “And that’s me — I’m the Spider-Man.”
Tavares has filed a high-profile lawsuit that claims Lee and artist Steve Ditko robbed him of his likeness to create the Marvel Comics flagship character. Though an initial comparison between the fictional Spider-Man and the real-life Tavares holds no weight, he insists there are several aspects of the character that have been lifted from his actual attributes.
“The wall-crawling, the Spider-Sense, the swinging around — that’s all me,” Tavares said. “Hollywood, Marvel Comics and the world need to listen: I deserve my royalties!”
Weekly World News will be following the lawsuit as it progresses.
If he's the real Spiderman, I'm Captain America! Avengers assemble! ;-P
WTF??? I can't say a-s-s-emble?