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All week long: Revisit the highlights and lowlights of 1987 with Popverse's Made in 87 week.

Spider-Man is more than a comic book superhero; he’s a Thanksgiving tradition. Since its debut in 1987, the Spider-Man balloon has been a staple of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While the Wall-Crawler has taken a few years off at times, his balloon has become one of the most iconic parts of the annual parade. However, this balloon almost didn’t take flight. Macy’s original design for the balloon looked more like a baby doing yoga than Spider-Man. It took a fired Marvel editor-in-chief, Ronald McDonald, and one of Spidey’s most iconic artists to fix the balloon and save Thanksgiving.

Balloons aren’t the only thing filled with hot air

1987 was a big year for Spider-Man. The Wall-Crawler got married, was buried alive, and debuted as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was also a big year for Jim Shooter. The former comic book writer had been Marvel’s editor-in-chief since 1978, and spearheaded some of the publisher’s most successful initiatives, including the 1984 limited series Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.

By 1987 the honeymoon was over, and Shooter’s aggressive editorial policies put him at odds with Marvel’s talent. In April of 1987, the longtime editor-in-chief was fired. However, Marvel wasn’t done with him yet. 

“I was fired by Marvel in April of 1987,” Jim Shooter writes on his blog in 2011. “Sometime in May Marvel’s business affairs veep, Joe Calamari called me to ask for help. Marvel’s new owners, New World Entertainment (it was New World Pictures when they acquired Marvel, but they’d changed the company name) wanted Marvel to have a balloon and a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Development of the balloon wasn’t going well. He wanted me to consult.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Spider-Man appeared in the parade. A costumed character version of the Wall-Crawler had marched in the parade in 1981-1983. However, this would be the first time Spidey would appear as a balloon. Unfortunately, the first version of the balloon left a lot to be desired.

In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:

Shooter and Calamari traveled to the balloon workshop in Ohio, where it quickly became apparent just how much work needed to be done. “The character chosen for the balloon was Spider-Man. Marvel had provided reference to the Macy’s balloonatics, but Joe didn’t like what they’d come up with. He’d brought John Romita, Sr. in to advise them, but he said that hadn’t helped. His assessment was that John (and comic book artists in general) were okay when it came to two-dimensional drawings, but just couldn’t deal with 3-D things, like balloons.”

Calamari told Shooter that since he was good with 3-D things (such as Marvel’s toys), he would be perfect for the project. However, Shooter would later learn that was only part of the reason he was called (more on that later).

“The balloon sculpture studio was amazing. There were clay sculptures of many past years’ balloons all around and several new ones in progress for 1987, among them Ronald McDonald, Snoopy on skates…and what appeared to be Spider-Baby in the midst of a strenuous bowel movement. How can I make the image clearer? Picture Richie Rich. Those proportions.”

“I was introduced to the sculptor. After complimenting the guy on the other sculptures, I told him, as politely as possible, that Spider-Man wasn’t quite on spec. How so, he asked. I started with the proportions. He flatly dismissed what I said. In patronizing fashion, he explained to me, as if I were as young as Spider-Baby appeared to be, that this was a balloon, you see? It has to work as a balloon. Then he launched into technical talk about ‘massing’ gas cells for lift distribution, aerial stability, blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH….”

At that moment it clicked for Shooter. He wasn’t only called in because he was good at 3-D things. Calamari remembered Shooter’s reputation with Marvel’s creators, and he wanted him to use that ‘bad cop energy’ on the balloon sculpture. It was the only way to save Thanksgiving. 

Saving Thanksgiving

Not satisfied with the balloons sculptor’s excuses, Shooter told him what needed to be done to fix the Spider-Man balloon.

“I told the guy firmly that the figure had to have adult proportions. Wider shoulders. Narrower waist and hips. Muscular, but not over-built. I showed him reference (which he already had been given). I demonstrated proper hand position. Foot position. And…you know. Probably everyone who reads this blog would give the guy the same instructions.”

Throughout this, the sculptor was fuming. I pressed on. ‘This arm forward, this leg back. He has to look like he’s crawling!’ ‘WHAT?!’ he yelped. ‘Absolutely not! I’d have to cut the steel framework!’ ‘Well, then,’ I said, ‘You’ll have to cut the framework,’ while thinking, ‘There’s a steel framework?’ He stridently insisted that what I was describing could not be done. Impossible! It won’t fly!”

This is where Ronald McDonald comes in.

Shooter had noticed a nearby Ronald McDonald balloon that was accurately proportioned and positioned in an acrobatic pose. If a fast food clown could do it, why not Spider-Man?

“I pointed at Ronald McDonald, who looked like Ronald McDonald and was doing a handstand. ‘If you can do that, you can do this!’ I suspect that John Romita told him more or less the same thing I did but wasn’t willing to be as fiercely obnoxious as I was. What, I should worry that my reputation might suffer? Hah!”

The balloon sculptor soon learned what many of Marvel’s writers and artists already knew – you can’t turn down a directive from Jim Shooter. The Spider-Man balloon was redesigned, with the finished version resembling John Romita Sr.’s cover for Amazing Spider-Man #100. 

While the balloon has been redesigned, and has taken a few years off now and then, it’s still a staple of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The balloon will be flying in the parade this year, but sadly Shooter won’t be able to see it. The legendary editor passed away on June 30, 2025, but he never forgot the Spider-Man balloon. Every year he watched the parade, and he always felt a swell of pride when Spider-Man flew over the New York streets.

Shooter’s legacy at Marvel will be felt for generations to come, but one of his biggest and most proudest contributions is the Spider-Man balloon.

“That was a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I still love seeing that balloon in the parade.”

Get your wide-shoulder blouses and your Members-Only jackets, and go back in time with Popverse's Made in 87. Highlights include:

• Inside the chaotic rise and fall of The Lost Boys TV series that never made it to air
• How Bart Simpson was quietly toned down from being "so mean" before The Simpsons' first episode, as revealed by his long-time voice actor Nancy Cartwright
• Marvel Comics killed the X-Men in 1987 to reset the franchise - but it didn’t stick
• Why the Princess Bride’s iconic duel is an even better swordfight than you remember
• How The Golden Girls became a staple at gay bars in the 80s
• Inside Spider-Man’s chaotic 1987 bachelor party that Marvel turned into a real-life spectacle