Spider-Man is facing his biggest challenge in 40 years as a crime-busting superhero - he has been kidnapped by corporate America and held to ransom in a Hollywood courtroom.
But this is no adventure from the pages of the Marvel comics that entertain millions of children around the world with his superhuman exploits every month.
The half-human, half-arachnid in the bright red suit is tangled up in a sticky web of real-life legal intrigue that pits Marvel against Sony, the entertainment giant which produced the Spider-Man movie - last year's biggest box-office hit.
Marvel claims Sony Pictures is marketing Spider-Man as its own character in contravention of a 1999 licensing agreement and is illegally withholding merchandising revenue owed from the success of the film that grossed more than $820 million (£525m) worldwide and has sold 40 million videos and DVDs.
The publisher is seeking $50 million (£32m) in damages and also wants the court to terminate its licensing deal with Sony once the in-production sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, is released next summer.
Sony dismisses the allegations, accuses Marvel of seeking to renegotiate the deal on better terms and wants contempt of court charges levelled at its partner after details from previously secret documents appeared prematurely on The Drudge Report, an American news website.
'This is a pathetic attempt by Marvel to renegotiate their Spider-Man agreement with Sony,' said attorney Patricia Glaser, who represents the studio.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge opened most of the documents to public scrutiny last week at the request of two Hollywood newspapers and will decide next month whether to send the case for full jury trial.
Carole Handler, a lawyer for New York-based Marvel Enterprises, said: 'This is not a renegotiating ploy. Instead of treating Marvel as its partner, Sony has tried to take Spider-Man for itself in merchandising to the detriment of Marvel.'
Merchandising of the Spider-Man brand is complicated. Marvel continues to sell its classic Spider-Man characters unrelated to the film, but Sony takes some of the profits on the basis that sales are boosted by the film's success. Conversely, under the 1999 agreement, Sony has to pass back to Marvel a proportion of its own merchandising revenue from Spider-Man promotions linked to the film.
In 2002 the film's success nearly doubled Marvel's licensing income to $79.6 million, including $10.4 million from Spider-Man 's box-office, DVD and video revenue, as well as a $5 million advance from Sony to begin production on the sequel.
