Spider-Man is a comic book character with no shortage of reverence or praise, and given that “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is just a mere week away, it's clear that the character’s popularity outside of comics has not faltered in the slightest.
Yet, despite his various media exposures, there are quite a few interesting things about the webbed wonder that escape the non-comic-book-reading crowd. Today I’m collecting ten of those hidden factoids. Strap in and get ready to swing, true believers: here are the top 10 things you didn’t know about Spider-Man!
10. He Used To Have A Car
Behold the Spider-Buggy: a gimmicky, silly vehicle that no comic book reader ever asked for. For some bizarre reason, in the pages of “Amazing Spider Man #130,” a car company wanted to promote its new non-polluting car engine by slapping together with Spider-Man. Spidey, at the mercy of financial issues like he always is, thought it was a good idea to take the offer and make some good money.
The vehicle was crashed in a river thanks to the trickery of the villain Mysterio and then later repaired by the Tinkerer to battle Spidey. After that, Spidey ended up battling the damn thing and then returning it to the company, who was less than pleased with what happened. Well, we learned two things here. One: corporations, stop trying to aggressively plug your products by pairing up with superheroes. Two: Spider-Man belongs above ground, swinging around and wall-crawling; leave the fancy cars for Batman.
9. He Obtained Cosmic Powers
Poor Spidey is kinda outclassed when you compare him to the heavy-hitters like Hulk, Thor, the Juggernaut, Thanos, or any number of other super-powered individuals in the Marvel Universe. But in “Spectacular Spider-Man #358,” our hero gets a badass upgrade: the Uni-Power.
After a science experiment that goes wrong (What else could it be?), Spider-Man obtains godlike powers, including flight, cosmic rays, greatly enhanced strength on par with the Hulk’s, and invulnerability. For Spider-Man--a guy who’s constantly against the grain and down on his luck--this was one of the best things since sliced bread.
Unfortunately, however, the prospect of a god-mode Spider-Man was not to last, though he did lay the smackdown on some foolish supervillains for a good while. In a battle against one of the mutant-hunting Sentinels, Spider-Man is forced to expel the power from his body, which over time was causing him great pain. Many years after this story, in Dan Slott’s “Spider-Verse” arc, it was revealed that one of the alternate-universe Spideys in that story was a Spider-Man who never gave up the Uni-Power.
8. His Aunt Almost Married Doctor Octopus
No, this one is not from a parody comic, it’s 100% real. Aunt May and the multi-armed doctor hit it off when they connect via the former’s housekeeping job--nope, still not making this up. May decides to keep her marriage to the villain a secret, much to her nephew’s dismay when he finds out for himself. What’s even more hilarious is that there’s actually a priest who’s helping the wedding along and there are criminals loyal to Doc Ock in the pews! I mean, Jesus Christ, people: you’ve got a supervillain plus a bunch of henchmen in this church and nobody cares!?
This fanfic from hell thankfully doesn’t go much further, as the villain Hammerhead crashes the wedding with the intention of kidnapping Aunt May for one contrived reason or another. Long story short, Ock takes May with him to safety, Spidey gives chase, and beats the scientist for the 800th time. Man, 70’s Spider-Man comics got real stupid sometimes.
7. His Best Friend Became The Second Green Goblin
Harry Osborn was one of Peter Parker’s best friends until the shock of his father’s death hit him hard. Spiraling out of control and turning to drugs, he was dumped by Mary Jane Watson, who didn’t want anything to do with his self-harm; worse yet, he deduced that Spider-Man was indeed Peter, and erroneously attributed his father’s death to Peter. These were the catalysts for his transformation into the Green Goblin--the very same supervillain identity that his late father, Norman, had taken on before dying in a confrontation with Spider-Man.
Harry ultimately met his end after injecting himself with an experimental serum--but not before snapping out of his insanity temporarily to save the life of Mary Jane, whom he’d unknowingly caught in a trap meant for Spider-Man. Harry dies as a side effect of the serum, which was largely untested, and Spidey had yet another period of anguish and sorrow on his hands.
6. He Founded His Own Company
In the series “Superior Spider-Man,” Peter Parker was a very different person--more on that later in this list. He was so different, in fact, that he’d used his intellect to start his own company, called Parker Industries. He replaced Aunt May’s hip, gave war vet Flash Thompson a pair of prosthetic legs, and basically removed the whole “Peter Parker is always in debt” thing from existence. The company was managed directly by him to boot.
Peter currently still holds ties to the company, which makes its own special tech for his superhero escapades (effectively making Peter a younger, non-alcoholic Tony Stark). No telling whether or not this new direction for the character could show up in some upcoming movie or something, but it very well could.
5. His Parents Were CIA Agents
We hear all the time about Aunt May and especially Uncle Ben, but what of Peter’s parents? We are told they were killed in a plane crash, but there’s more to it than that. They were actually CIA agents operating in Algeria who were trying to investigate the third Red Skull and covertly put an end to his schemes. When they got found out, they attempted to escape, only to meet their untimely ends together.
The Chameleon later made robotic clones of Peter’s parents, but the ruse had too many flaws to fool Aunt May, who deduced something was not right about them. Peter suffered a nervous breakdown after confirming that his parents were indeed dead and did not survive their mission.
4. He Turned Into A Man-Spider
This one has strangely happened more than once, but for the sake of time I’m only going to go over the first time it happens, which is all the way back in “The Amazing Spider-Man #100-102.” In a story arc called “The Six Arms Saga,” a chemical serum intended to nullify Spidey’s powers only serves to give the hero extra arms and later mutate him into a human-spider hybrid. It’s only thanks to Dr. Curt Connors that Spidey is able to reverse his hideous condition.
This story arc hasn’t really shown up outside of the comics, but the most notable appearance is in the 1990s “Spider-Man: The Animated Series,” which more or less adapted the arc beat-by-beat. Don’t expect it to come to the Marvel Cinematic Universe any time soon, though.
3. He Died...
Sometime before “The Amazing Spider-Man #700,” a dying Doctor Octopus successfully kidnapped Spider-Man and switched bodies with him via a mind-swapping device. Despite Spidey’s best efforts in “#700,” he is ultimately defeated by the supervillain, who triumphantly declares that he will live on in the hero’s body while the hero himself perishes. But as it turns out, Spider-Man has one last trick up his sleeve; he forces Doc Ock to relive the numerous traumas in his life, from the death of his Uncle Ben to the death of Gwen Stacy. Ock, realizing the burden that he’s just placed on himself by “becoming” Spider-Man, promises Peter that he will not run away from the role he’s foolishly chosen and will become a “better” Spider-Man. A “superior” one, if you will.
This event, needless to say, was a huge game-changer for Spider-Man fans. Not only was the ending particular issue leaked due to the hype-fueled demand, but author Dan Slott actually received death threats for essentially killing off Peter Parker to give us Spider-Ock. Slott trucked on, however, and what we got was…
2. ...And Was Replaced By Doctor Octopus
…An entire series centered around a new Spider-Man with a totally new mindset. Titled “The Superior Spider-Man,” it gave to readers a new status quo for the Spider-Man character as Ock tried to fulfill his promise to the late Peter Parker. Short and to the point, it was actually quite interesting, showing how Ock’s ego, uncompromising nature, and lack of humor distanced him greatly from the old Spidey and served as a definite roadblock to his end goal. We even got to see Ock interact with other Marvel heroes, who instantly noticed something was up when they got a look at this more brutal, more cunning, and meaner Spider-Man.
Because comics are comics, “Superior” wasn’t here to stay. Peter--revealed to be still alive and kicking in his body’s consciousness--was able to erase Ock’s cognition from his brain and fully regain control of his body. Not coincidentally, this happened only about a month before “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” came out in theaters.
1. He Made A Literal Deal With The Devil
Whenever anyone asks a comic book reader why they stopped reading Spider-Man, it’s probably because of three words: “One More Day.” Spider-Man, wanting to save the life of a dying Aunt May (she’d been shot before this story), decides to make a deal with the devil, Mephisto.
Because no Faustian bargain is complete without some sort of crippling sacrifice, Mephisto demands that Spidey sacrifice his marriage to Mary Jane Watson--a significant Spider-Man mythos milestone that had been in continuity for years. The deal is made and Spidey’s relationship to the redhead is retconned out of existence; meanwhile, other changes were made, such as the resurrection of the long-dead Harry Osborn for no particular reason.
“One More Day” is a very poorly written story and a greasy, ugly stain on the otherwise brilliant “Amazing Spider-Man” run by writer J. Michael Straczynski. But besides that, look at the title of this entry. Spider-Man makes a deal with the ruler of Hell. If that doesn’t sound like the laziest, most nonsensical reason for a retcon/reboot in existence, I don’t know what is.
And then there’s the reason for the retcon itself; then-Marvel editor Joe Quesada reasoned that people couldn’t relate to a married Spider-Man and thought that that alone would rectify the change. If the angry Spider-fans who still loathe “One More Day” are any indication, I’d say that this reason isn’t a very good one.
