In those days, it seemed obvious to me that he must have been pulling his punches when fighting the gangsters and bank robbers he so often fought in the early issues, but I had a hard time, initially, wrapping my head around those very same gangsters and bank robbers knocking him out cold when I had just seen him go toe-to-toe with a super powered enemy in a comic bought off the spinner rack.

Of course it didn't take long, even as a twelve-year-old, to realize that he was depicted, for whatever reason, as more powerful as time passed, and it was as simple as that. But that brings me back to my question...do you prefer the Spider-man who could get knocked out by a non-powered gangster, or the Spider-man who could defeat the X-Men (for example). And why? 

He went from getting knocked out by street level criminals to being able to knock out a herald of Galactus if you beleive what you read in the funny books (LOL, sorry, couldn't resist).

It is always up to the writer and editor to keep the character within their limits, but when they are as much fans as they are the guys controlling his fate, they are going to keep pumping him up to higher levels.

-------------------------------

That's an interesting in-world ethics question I've never considered before. I wonder if that is a consideration creators ask themselves when creating a new hero. At the end of the day, though, I hope it wouldn't be applied across the board, because I sure wouldn't want to miss out on the possibility of the Thing and Terrax trading punches in Downtown Manhattan.