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Frederick Foswell

Frederick Foswell

117 appearances · Silver Age · 1964–2025 · 7 key issues
Who is Frederick Foswell?

Frederick Foswell was a Daily Bugle reporter who secretly built a criminal empire as the masked mob boss known as the Big Man, using his exceptional organizational talents and skill at disguise to coordinate the Enforcers while maintaining his respectable journalistic cover.

Frederick Foswell is one of those quietly compelling figures who has haunted the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man since 1964, born from the legendary Silver Age partnership of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko at Marvel. With seven key-issue appearances to his name, he's far more than a background player — he's a character who clearly mattered to the stories being told around him, rubbing shoulders across the decades with the likes of Betty Brant, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Flash Thompson, an ensemble that reads like a who's who of Spider-Man's most iconic supporting cast. His presence across 61 years of publication history, from those foundational early issues through Ultimate Spider-Man and beyond, speaks to a staying power that casual fans might overlook but seasoned collectors absolutely recognize. If you're digging into the deep roots of Marvel's most beloved corner of the universe, Foswell is a name worth knowing.

Identity

Real name. Frederick Foswell Sr.

Powers. Journalism: The Big Man was a superb reporter, with excellent organizational skills.; Disguise: The Big Man was adept at disguise.; Marksmanship: The Big Man was an excellent marksman.

Affiliations. Formerly: ; New U Technologies ; Daily Bugle ; Enforcers

★ First appearance
The Amazing Spider-Man #10
Mar 1964

Trivia

  • Stan Lee has written more of Frederick Foswell's comics than any other writer in our catalog — 40 issues.

Top series

Covers through the years — 1964–2021

The Amazing Spider-Man #10 1964
The Amazing Spider-Man #10
Marvel Tales #186 1986
Marvel Tales #186
Marvels #2 1994
Marvels #2
Ultimate Spider-Man #9 2001
Ultimate Spider-Man #9
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man - Barnes & Noble Edition #3 2004
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man - Barnes & Noble Edition #3
Spider-Man: Matters of Life and Death #[nn] 2011
Spider-Man: Matters of Life and Death #[nn]
Civil War II: Kingpin #[nn] 2016
Civil War II: Kingpin #[nn]
Prowler #5 2017
Prowler #5
Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #2 2021
Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man #2

Appearances

Hit Comics (1966)
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual (1964)
Pow! and Wham! (1968)
#69
Smash! (1966)
Capt. Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders (1968)
Marvel (1970)
Strange (1970)
#18
Spider-Man Comics Weekly (1973)
O Espectacular Homem-Aranha (1983)
Marvel Tales (1966)
A Teia do Aranha (1989)
#1
Marvel Masterworks (1987)
#10
The Exploits of Spider-Man (1992)
#9
Marvels (1994)
The Very Best of Spider-Man (1994)
The Essential Spider-Man (1996)
#2
Ultimate Spider-Man (2000)
Spider-Man : l'intégrale (2002)
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man - Barnes & Noble Edition (2003)
#3
Marvel Age Spider-Man (2004)
#9
Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko (2005)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2005 (2005)
Marvel : Les origines (2002)
#4
Marvel Kids : Spider-Man (2005)
#2
Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection (2007)
#1
Spider-Man: Matters of Life and Death (2011)
Marvel Comics - La collection (2014)
Civil War II: Kingpin (2016)
Prowler (2016)
#5
Spider-Man: Homecoming Prelude (2017)
Prowler: The Clone Conspiracy (2017)
Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection (2013)
#3
Marvels: The Remastered Edition (2018)
Deadpool by Joe Kelly: The Complete Collection (2019)
#1
Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man (2021)
The Amazing Spider-Man (Penguin Classics Marvel Collection) (2022)
The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus (2007)
Deadpool Epic Collection (2021)
#3
Marvel Origins (2023)
Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man (2025)
#1