Over on his weblog, my pal Doug Pratt links to a video of the opening credits of Spider-Man 2 and notes…
Spider-Man was not created solely by writer Stan Lee. As correctly credited in all three movies, artist Steve Ditko co-created the character.
Doug is a smart guy but he, like many, has missed a key distinction in those credits. They do not say "Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko," which is the form DC has used for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster on the Superman movies, Bob Kane on the Batman movies and others. What it says on the Spider-Man movies is, "Based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko." Unless something has changed — and I don't think it has — Marvel's recent position is that Stan Lee created Spider-Man. What they are acknowledging with the credit is that Steve Ditko worked on issues of the comic from which the movie drew material.