10 Disturbing Backstories Behind Your Favourite Movie Characters

9. Spider-Man Is A Sexual Abuse Survivor

Now to be clear, the various cinematic iterations of Peter Parker have drawn many disparate influences from the comics over the years, and it's fair to say that there's not one distinct comic book through-line for the superhero - beyond losing Uncle Ben, of course.

But the web-slinger received an especially eyebrow-raising fleshing-out in a 1984 PSA comic, Spider-Man and Power Pack Vol 1 #1.

The comic sees Peter rescuing a young boy, Tony, from sexual abuse at the hands of his babysitter, before revealing to him that he himself was molested as a child by a man named Steven "Skip" Wescott.

Granted, many Spidey fans insist that the comic isn't canon and was simply an earnest attempt to inform children about a serious issue, but for many, it's an aspect of Peter Parker's origins that's impossible to forget.