By David Germain
The Associated Press

CULVER CITY, Calif. - With great power comes great responsibility, both for Spider-Man and the dapper director who orchestrates the superhero's big-screen adventures.

Can't get enough about The Amazing one? Scope out these Web sites for pictures, news, rumors and chat:

Official movie site: www.spiderman.sonypictures.com Internet Movie Database page: www.imdb.com Official comic books site: www.marvel.com Official video game site: www.activision.com Unofficial fan site: www.spiderfan.org For online sales, find your local theater at www.movietickets.com or www.fandango.com.

Much like Peter Parker was transformed from gangly teen into the web-slinging crime-fighter, Sam Raimi was catapulted from cult-filmmaker status to master of one of Hollywood's largest franchises.

Raimi, the filmmaker behind 2002's blockbuster Spider-Man and the upcoming sequel Spider-Man 2, compares adapting Stan Lee's Marvel Comics hero to being one of the oral storytellers of ancient times, entrusted with passing on the legends of Hercules or Achilles.

"With great power comes great responsibility is the theme of Stan Lee's comic book, and it is what I've tried to push through with these pictures. And I do feel that I have a responsibility to protect it," said Raimi, 44.

"I look at Spider-Man as a great American myth that is almost wrapped in a flag and being handed to me, and I better not drop it. I better not sully it. I better retell it with as much honor and greatness as I can muster from my voice to do it justice before I hand it to the next storyteller."

Peter's commitment tested

Spider-Man 2 (opening Wednesday) tests Peter Parker's commitment to the superhero profession. Peter's working two jobs, falling behind in college and perpetually exhausted swinging from building to building to catch bad guys.

His Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) faces foreclosure on her house. Peter's best pal, Harry Osborn (James Franco), is obsessed with revenge on Spider-Man, whom he blames for the death of his father, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, in the first movie.

And Peter continues to pine for his dream girl, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), who's about to marry another man.

When Raimi was picked by Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios to tell the story of Spider-Man, he was a daring choice for Hollywood, where the really big jobs usually go to filmmakers whose movies have put wads of cash in studio vaults.

Hitles career, so far

Raimi had never had a major hit. He had a zealous following among horror fans for his 1983 cult classic The Evil Dead and its two follow-ups, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, along with 1990's Darkman. Other filmmakers worshipped Raimi, whose frantic camera movements on The Evil Dead have influenced two decades of action pictures.

Respect and modest box-office success came Raimi's way for 1998's A Simple Plan, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda and Bill Paxton, and 2000's The Gift, with Cate Blanchett and Keanu Reeves.

But Raimi's big-budget movies - Sharon Stone's Western The Quick and the Dead and Kevin Costner's baseball flick For Love of the Game - were duds.

His big financial successes had come from television with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, which he and college chum and producing partner Robert Tapert brought to the small screen.

Raimi was as surprised as anyone when he got the Spider-Man gig over bigger-name directors. With that $400 million success behind him, it's hard now to imagine a Spider-Man movie without him.

Raimi grew up near Detroit and attended Michigan State University but dropped out to make movies, collaborating with Tapert and older brother Ivan Raimi.

The filmmaker maintains many early ties. He helped launch the career of the Coen brothers (Joel Coen was an assistant editor on The Evil Dead), and Raimi had a bit part in the Coens' Miller's Crossing and co-wrote The Hudsucker Proxy with them.

By necessity, Raimi never relied on commercial success for validation as a filmmaker.

Art, audience important

"I spent 22 years making movies in Hollywood before I had a chance to make a hit like Spider-Man. So to survive, I had to convince myself that box-office success is not how I'm ever going to gauge my own success. I had to say the artistic success of the movie, how much the audience liked it, that's all that I care about, that's all that I'm going to judge my success by."

So Spider-Man has left him a bit flummoxed.

The top-grossing movie of 2002, Spider-Man shattered box-office records for best opening weekend ever with $114.8 million.

Raimi went into Spider-Man 2 knowing if its receipts did not live up to the first one, it might be considered a failure.

He tried to put the bottom line out of his mind.

"I just said, 'I'm going to make the best picture I can,' " Raimi said.

"I know they need it to make money, but I don't have a secret equation for that. I'm just going to put in what I love, and hopefully, because I'm a human being, other people will love it, too."