What you list as "misconceptions" about Spider-Man are in fact axiomatic truths about the character that make up the Status Quo that the character should be reset to at the beginning of each adventure.

Donald Duck is an everyman, a loser etc., too. Yet it is a well used gimmick for Donald Duck to start an episode being the "World's Greatest Expert" at something, only to be undone by his own hubris. And not in stories by some hack who didn't know any better, but in celebrated and "canonical" stories by Carl Barks, the greatest Disney Duck Writer/Artist ever.

The thing is: at the beginning of each episode he's reset to a Status Quo of being a loser. Or an everyman. Struggling to get by.

Take any action show built around a handsome male lead, and in the course of 5-6 seasons there will be a story at least once a season about "the love of his life who somehow slipped away", and it will be a different woman each time. It's a reset.

This is how serial fiction like this works: Every single part of the backstory, continuity etc is seen through the prism of the current comic. Spider-Man is not succesful, a ladies man, experienced, a winner etc. any more than he's 65 years old. He never lived and fought in New York in the 60s. If any part of his backstory contradicts the claim that he's a nerdy, unlucky guy who gets in over his head, you're supposed to ignore it.

The only misconception here is that you don't seem to understand how to read a superhero comic. Or read or watch serial fiction.

Adrenaline surge Hulk?

Frantz...

Wow, finally someone on this board who makes ME comes across as a conservative Spider-Man fan... (and thanks for that, by the way).

Trimming/paraphrasing, but hopefully not to the point of changing your meaning.

#1 - Peter as popular guy.  Not quite.  He certainly did a little better in the friend department as the series progressed (hard to go anywhere but up given where he started), but he was hardly ever the BMOC.  If he seemed like the center of attention sometimes, well, it WAS his book, after all.

#2 - PP and his hotties.  I wouldn't count the Black Cat as an example of Peter Parker's attractiveness to hot women.  She was into Spider-Man; once she discovered Peter Parker she was turned off.  She grew to at least accept him, but she was never thrilled about it.  I do agree that the "Peter, you're just not my type when dreamboats like Flash Thompson are around" period was over by ASM #7.  Heck, during the Stan Lee period more often than not he had one girl he was close to and another waiting in the wings wishing for the failure of his current relationship (Betty/Liz in #12-30; Gwen/MJ from #47 to the end).  His bigger problem was keeping the girl, and that wasn't because of his inherent undesirability but rather because he was always breaking dates in order to save the city from some baddie or another (not that he could tell them that).

#3 - PP's smarts.  Disagree.  He is a genius, but genius is not the same as not having to learn things.  He has the potential to be at least at the Hank Pym level, possibly even Tony Stark, but he needs to apply himself.  Unfortunately, other responsibilities pull him away from that and don't give him the change to reach his potential.

The uhhh, second #3 - Hard luck hero.  While other superheroes have their fair share of drama, he does have issues most characters don't seem to worry about.  (Cap may have worried about deadlines and such during the period he tried to give Steve Rogers a life of his own, but he never seemed to be at risk of losing his house.)  Thing is, he rarely has "clean" wins.  He beats the bad guy, but he ends up blamed for what the bad guy did or his time spent taking out the bad guy meant he wasn't there for someone he cared about when they wanted/needed him to be there.  His grades suffered because he wasn't able to study.  Stuff like that.

#4/5 - Spider-Man's power levels (heroes) - I can't tell if I agree or disagree (in principle; I do disagree with the Hulk comparison).  I think one of the appeals of the character is that his power set enables him to be a street level guy when the situation calls for it, and yet still hold his own when the more powerful folks show up.  Increases the amount of stories he can appear in.  Either way, while he can dodge things, they still hurt if they hit him.  So characters like Kraven may have to try a little harder, but they can still do damage.

#6 - Spider-Man's experience - Okay, here's one I'm with you on, although I actually like him in "the middle."  Folks like Nova, Speedball, etc., would look up to him, while Thing, Captain America, etc. would think of him as a kid.  But yes, as Spider-Man, he knows what he's doing by now (and has known for quite awhile).  Not that he doesn't occasionally make mistakes.  But any stories treating him as "new at the game" are absurd.  Stan and Steve didn't do that when he actually WAS new at the game.  His problem wasn't beating the bad guy; it was all the stuff he had to let slide while he was taking care of business.

#7 - Spider-Man skilled - Ehhh... yes and no.  His powers and spider-sense give him a leg up, but there's always room for improvement.  He tends to rely on instinct as much as anything.

#8 - Spider-Man as a winner.  See second #3.  Yeah, he wins battles, but generally at a cost others don't seem to have to pay.

I feel like I'm seeing both extremes at work here...

Knut, "This is how serial fiction like this works: Every single part of the backstory, continuity etc is seen through the prism of the current comic. Spider-Man is not succesful, a ladies man, experienced, a winner etc. any more than he's 65 years old. He never lived and fought in New York in the 60s. If any part of his backstory contradicts the claim that he's a nerdy, unlucky who gets in over his head, you're supposed to ignore it."

That means ignoring a LOT of Spider-Man stories...  (Including a bunch of the ones by folks like Stan, Steve, Roger Stern, and others who tend to be universally lauded around these parts.) 

The central conflict of the series is that he can't be in two places at the same time, and when lives are at stake, Peter Parker's business has to wait.  Virtually all of his problems stem from that.  His grades suffer because he doesn't have time to study.  His relationships suffer because he's not where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there.  He's worried about rent because he can't keep a stable good paying job.  I suppose luck plays a role in that so maybe we're in violent agreement on that one, but as to the rest of your points I think the majority of the published material disagrees with you, from almost the beginning. 

He's nerdy in that he'd rather tinker around in a lab than go clubbing, but he's hardly socially awkward and hasn't been since the single digit days.  He got off to bad start in college not because he was shy, but because the first day of class he was completely focused on his ailing aunt and didn't realize what was going on around him.  And that just made the "Beauty Queen of Standard High" want him all the more (at first, anyway).  While there are times he can get in over his head, that's hardly always the case.  (Beyond the standard superhero level anyway - there's supposed to be some sense of danger after all).  He has ups AND downs.  More than enough downs to make him stand out in a genre where most characters don't really have them beyond the "villain initially has the upperhand" period of a story, but not to the point where he's never had a good day in his life and doesn't know what he's doing in the costume.