Meaning
What does With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility mean?
Origin
What's the origin of With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility?
The idea that “with great power comes great responsibility” has been around since antiquity, appearing in a different form in the Bible.
One of the earliest cases of the phrase in a similar form originate from a series of decrees from the French Revolution, published on May 9th, 1793, attributed to Voltaire by many, however, this connection was debated by others, due to a lack of clear evidence.
The most widely known origin of “With great power comes great responsibility” can be linked to the 2002 Spider-Man, uttered by Uncle Ben (portrayed by Cliff Robertson), moments before his death.
Spread & Usage
How did With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility spread?
Demotivational Posters started appearing on the internet as early as 2004, with image macros spreading more rapidly in the second half of the decades.
The scene from the Spider-Man movie was uploaded to YouTube on March 9th, 2010, by men4chatting.
Starting in 2011, image macro memes, depicting Uncle Ben started emerging online, paired with the caption “With great power comes great responsibility”.
With the same message, as Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, the meme spread on sites like 9GAG, Reddit, Facebook and iFunny, gaining a large audience in the early 2010’s, and experiencing a massive resurgence in 2021, with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.