Who said 'With Great Power comes Great Responsibility'?

If you are a comic book fan or a superhero movie fan, then ‘With Great Power comes Great Responsibility' must be something that you would have heard sometimes. It means that those who have been bestowed with the power or ability to do something must do it for the good of others.

But, as much as you may love this quote, do you know the real origin of it? Well, that is what we are here for today. Let’s delve into the geek wisdom and find out what the real origin of the phrase it. Here we go.

The quote undoubtedly became popular owing to the Spiderman. It is often read and heard in comics as well as movies on the superhero. While most people believe that it was Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben who said this line, it is not exactly true. The original version of this phrase appeared in the Amazing Fantasy #15 in a narrative caption in its last panel, and not as a dialogue spoken by any of the characters. As a matter of fact, Ben had only two lines in this entire comic.

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Hence, this was a moral lesson for Peter Parker that he understood when the mugger he let get away killed his Uncle Ben; that only if he had stopped the criminal, his uncle would have been alive. In addition to that, this is not the original quote. The original saying was “with Great power; there also must also come… great responsibility.”

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However, the later comics saw a revised origin of the phrase as it became a lesson that Ben would usually teach Peter. Also, now, rather than the long quote, a shorter and more poetic version of it is used which has become widely popular. In the several recent reiterations of the phrase like the Spiderman movie and the Ultimate Spiderman comic, Ben says it to Peter during their last conversation.

Many people do not know this but the origin of the phrase dates back before the Stan Lee comics even existed. In 1906, Winston Churchill, the Under-Secretary of the Colonial office uttered, “where there is great power there is great responsibility”. Almost a century before that, in the year 1817, William Lamb, a member of the British parliament was also recorded saying, “the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility”.

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The list does not end just there as there is another source attributed with this sentiment, which is older than all of the rest. The phrase is attributed to the Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 12:48 states, “everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required.” Therefore, all the other iterations are believed to have been derived from here.

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Tell us what you think about the topic? Are you a Spiderman fan? What do you love more, the comics or the movies? Share your thoughts and opinions with us through your comments in the dedicated section below. We always love to hear from you.

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