Peter ParkerSpider-Man

With spider-like abilities, science genius Peter Parker swings above it all as Spider-Man, costumed champion of the innocent who lives and fights with the wisdom of “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility!”

Puny Parker

High school student and child prodigy Peter Parker submerged himself in his passion for science to avoid the taunts and threats of his fellow classmates and stumbled into a world beyond his imagination. While visiting a public exhibition of new breakthroughs in radiation manipulation and genetics, Parker feels the bite of a common house spider exposed to a particle beam and falls immediately ill from it, little realizing how much his life would change in the coming hours.

On the way home, the teenager unconsciously avoids a wayward automobile by making an incredible leap to the wall of a nearby building, finding himself miraculously able to stick to it by his hands and feet. Quickly realizing he had somehow acquired the abilities of a spider, he begins testing his newfound powers and marvels at their width and breadth. Parker tests his spider abilities in the ring of a local wrestling competition and, wearing a mask to hide his identity, easily bests the reigning champion.

Parker, an orphan, lives with his kindly Aunt May and Uncle Ben and becomes wary of exposing them to the public scrutiny that would surely ensue if he revealed his powers to the world. To protect them, he adopts a suitable costume and the name of “Spider-Man” to hide his true identity. He also designs and crafts two wrist-worn “web-shooters” to approximate a spider’s web-spinning capability, and with them swiftly becomes a smash television personality. Now with money to take care of his guardians and acclaim to salve puny Peter Parker’s wounds from classmates, the young man grows cold to everything but his media-darling career.

Everything changes when, in an act of selfishness, Parker allows a burglar to escape police arrest during a Spider-Man appearance rather than intervene. Later, when he returns home, he learns of his Uncle Ben’s murder at the hands of the very same burglar and instantly feels the weight of hubris upon his young shoulders. Vowing to never again use his powers for his own gain, he tracks down his uncle’s killer as Spider-Man and brings him to justice. From that moment on, he abandons his media star persona and spins his web solely to capture criminals of all kinds.

Great Power

Like his namesake, Spider-Man’s strength and agility stand far above those of the average human, allowing him to lift nearly 10 tons and to leap and move at incredible speeds with high accuracy. He also heals faster than normal when injured, though he is not completely immune to viruses and other human ailments.

An inner “spider-sense” allows him a high degree of awareness of impending danger and to gauge not only its level of threat to him personally, but also the general direction of its approach. Combined with his unique fighting style, this sense grants Spider-Man an edge in his battles that often defies logic.

Spider-Man designs and builds many devices to aid him in his crime fighting, but the stand-out invention among these are his web-shooters. Strapped to both his wrists and activated by finger pressure applied to touch pads on his palms, the shooters can spray a unique fluid of the hero’s creation, which solidifies to various thicknesses upon exposure to air and forms into “webbing.” The tensile strength of the substance may be modified with each activation of the shooters, but at its peak can stop a large vehicle and also hold several persons for nearly two hours, after which, the webbing begins to dissolve.

In addition, Spider-Man carries small “spider tracers” that once placed upon a person or object transmit a specialized signal the hero may identify with his spider-sense and thus allow him to track to its origin point.

To Squash a Spider

With one of the most extensive and vile rogues gallery of any super hero, Spider-Man counts among his enemies and adversaries a collection of the world’s wickedest villains.

Many of Spider-Man’s foes stand as normal humans with extraordinary ambition who adopt themes and gimmicks to elevate themselves above others. Wealthy Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, crosses swords with the young hero in the early days of Peter Parker’s costumed career and taunts Spider-Man with his fearsome devices and hidden identity until his own mental instability drives him over the edge to his defeat. He returns time and time again, sometimes seemingly from death itself, to corrupt Parker’s life in every way imaginable, as either himself, or as a resurrected Green Goblin.

Osborn’s clashes with Spider-Man stand out as some of the most challenging of the hero’s career, including replacing May Parker with an actress, framing Peter for murder, attempting to mold Spider-Man into his heir, a brief affair with Gwen Stacy, becoming the “top cop” of American law-enforcement, his rebranding as the Goblin King, and his continuing recollection of his hated foe’s secret identity.

During the first time Spider-Man believes him dead, Osborn’s son and Peter’s friend Harry, struggles with mental issues. These issues lead Harry to don the Goblin gear and continue his father’s horrific legacy. Other villains—most notably Roderick Kingsley, AKA Hobgoblin—have also patterned their villainous identities after the Green Goblin.

Dr. Otto Octavius became the dreaded Doctor Octopus when an accident merges a set of mechanical, robotic limbs to the nuclear scientist’s body and accentuates his antisocial personality. Spider-Man battles the eight-limbed villain multiple times, and like the Green Goblin before him, Octavius cheats death on more than one occasion to bedevil the world—and his spidey adversary—anew. Octavius goes on to make a last-ditch attempt at prolonging his life by transferring his mind into Parker’s body to twist Spider-Man’s career into his own “superior” world-view.

One of the wall-crawler’s first enemies, Dmitri Kravinoff, AKA Chameleon, uses his mastery of disguise and impersonation to make Spider-Man question the identity of everyone around him. Sergei Kravinoff, AKA Kraven the Hunter, takes big game hunting to evil extremes and turns Spider-Man’s very existence into a jungle of mystery and intrigue, not to mention immense danger. Kraven also replaces his foe for a short time, but loses his own life at the end of the twisted trail.

Not all of Spider-Man’s enemies hail from this planet. The threat of Venom begins when an alien parasite arrives on Earth as a replacement costume found on a far-off world by Spider-Man. The “symbiote” bides its time to subvert Spider-Man into a permanent host, but when Peter fights off its influence, it moves onto other humans to play out its violent desires, even to the point of splitting off parts of itself to create new menaces, like Eddie Brock, AKA Venom, and the murderous Cletus Kasady, AKA Carnage.

Other formidable foes Spider-Man faces over the years include memorable threats like the Adrian Toomes, AKA Vulture, Max Dillon, AKA Electro, William Baker, AKA Sandman, Aleksei Sytsevich, AKA Rhino, Mac Gargan, AKA Scorpion, Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, Herman Schultz, AKA Shocker, and Dr. Curt Connors, AKA the Lizard. While Spider-Man manages to fend them off numerous times, they’ve all been notably resilient, returning to fight him time after time.

The Web of Family

Strong ties to family and friends see Spider-Man through his ongoing trials and tribulations, providing him with a lifeline when things seem darkest.

The presence of Parker’s aunt, May Parker, in his life cannot be understated for its importance. Raising her nephew as her own after the death of his parents provides him with a foundation of love and wisdom that he carries with him to this day. May’s advanced years and shaky health brings turmoil to Parker’s young life, but also drives him to strive for success and often gives him something to fight on for. Most importantly, together the two survive the murder of May’s husband Ben, and their relationship strengthens because of it.

Parker’s college girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, also acts as a catalyst in his life. Peter and Gwen have a turbulent relationship–much of it due to his secret identity as Spider-Man, which she never learns the truth about–but they also share a close bond and Peter envisions his future with her. Her death at the hands of the Green Goblin impacts him severely, but reminds him of the sanctity of life and how easily it may slip away.

Peter grows close to his good friend Mary Jane Watson following Gwen’s death, and the friendship eventually blossoms into a romance. The two marry, but after a time of happiness balanced with tragedy, the Parker’s marriage gets wiped from history by the demonic figure Mephisto, who offers to spare the life of a dying May Parker in exchange for Peter and Mary Jane’s nuptials. However, the young woman remains his good friend and strong ally when Spider-Man needs her most.

In the Super Hero community, the webslinger counts Johnny Storm, AKA Human Torch, of the Fantastic Four, as one of his best friends and frequent foil. The two heroes share many adventures and their well-known bickering and insults hide a deep mutual respect and camaraderie. While often dismissed as an annoyance by other costumed heroes, Spider-Man’s alliance with the Avengers at various times in his career sometimes elevates him in the eyes of his fellow champions.

While perhaps far from a friend, J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of New York’s Daily Bugle newspaper, also exists as a prominent figure in Parker’s life. The young man acts as photographer for the Bugle for several years, feeding shots of Spider-Man in action to Jameson, but also providing fuel for the man’s fire in his campaign to rid the city of the wall-crawler’s “menace.” He, too, grows to respect Parker as a person, though his cantankerous attitude usually serves to drive his employee out of his office more often than not.

Other important figures in Parker’s day-to-day life include former high school bully turned close friend Flash Thompson Jameson’s right-hand man at the Bugle—and staunch supporter of Parker—Robbie Robertson, hard-hitting investigative reporter Ben Urich, and eager high school student Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man. Parker meets the latter on a sojourn to a parallel Earth, one that has since been wiped from existence, but leaves Morales on Parker’s Earth to continue his costumed career as he learns the ropes from other costumed champions, chief among them the original Spider-Man.

Along Came a Spider

Throughout his high school years, Peter Parker earned enemies and allies alike while he established Spider-Man as a wise-cracking, smart-aleck Super Hero, everything he was not as himself. As his costumed career progressed, his adventures grew stranger and more intense.

After graduating from Midtown High, Parker’s romance with Gwen Stacy became a big part of his life. A fellow science major at Empire State University (ESU), Gwen dated Parker’s friend Harry Osborn after Peter initially rebuffed the girl during a time when his Aunt May was in the hospital, but the two eventually found each other. It seemed to be the love story of a lifetime, but when tragedy struck in the form of Gwen’s father, Captain Stacy, being killed in the middle of a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, Gwen placed all the blame on the webslinger. Not long after, Gwen herself died as a result of the Green Goblin’s hatred for Peter Parker, whom he’d discovered was secretly Spider-Man.

Life continued for Parker. He attended ESU, fought his best friend Harry as a new Green Goblin, clashed with a clone of himself created by one of his professors Dr. Miles Warren, AKA Jackal, and finally graduated from college. A new romance blossomed between Spider-Man and thief Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat, but she only had eyes for her “Spider,” not for Peter Parker. Then, in the middle of the everyday insanity, the wall-crawler found himself kidnapped, along with many of Earth’s other heroes, to fight selected villains on a faraway planet. There, Spider-Man claimed a new costume from a strange device and returned to Earth with it.

In short order, the costume was revealed to be an alien parasite, a “symbiote,” that attempted to attach itself permanently to Parker, but the young hero discovered its weakness to sonic bombardment and divested himself of it. It later bonded with another human, Eddie Brock, and transformed into Venom, one of Spider-Man’s most horrific adversaries. Meanwhile, Parker’s bond with Mary Jane strengthened through hard times and he proposed to her. MJ admitted her knowledge of his Spider-Man identity, and the two were wed, but shortly thereafter, the webslinger’s old enemy Kraven waylaid Spider-Man, buried him alive, and took his place until Parker managed to throw off the death-like state he’d been placed in and take his life back.

Spider-Man became an on-call Avengers reservist, at first believing himself too busy with his own life to be a full-time member, but later accepting a formal place on more than one Avengers team and even financing the group for a brief time. Spider-Man fought serial killer Cletus Kasady, who became a menace dubbed Carnage—an off-shoot of the Venom symbiote— who rampaged on several occasions and proved himself even more violent and unpredictable than his “father.” As a married couple, the Parkers muddled through ups and downs, including Mary Jane’s revival of her modeling career and a dark time when her husband believed she’d died in a fiery plane explosion.

Also thought to be dead by Parker, the Jackal’s original clone returned as “Ben Reilly” and took on a costumed career of his own as the Scarlet Spider. This was until Parker believed his days as Spider-Man were over and Reilly accepted the mantle for a brief time, which eventually ended in his supposed death. With renewed vigor, the original wall-crawler made a comeback in the face of new and old challenges, including adopting four new Super Hero personas upon being accused of murder, the return of Norman Osborn, separation from Mary Jane, learning his Aunt May knew his secret identity, enhanced powers, and full Avengers membership.

A stranger named Ezekiel Simms approached Parker to inform him that his spider powers were also mystical in nature, not just science-based, and that as the spider “totem” of his reality, he’d attract the attention of a totem-hunter called Morlun. The interdimensional being nearly defeated Spider-Man for good, but the webslinger deduced a way to defeat Morlun, though he’d later return to spread further chaos. Whether Ezekiel’s declaration of Parker’s abilities has any basis in fact is still unclear.

Avengers status would also come with a downside for Spider-Man. A so-called “Civil War” between Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, after the Superhuman Registration Act passed in the United States, led Parker to reveal his identity on national television, shocking the nation and those closest to him who never knew his secret. To make matters far worse, his aunt May was gravely wounded from being shot, and as she lay dying, the demonic Mephisto visited the Parkers and made them an offer: May’s life for Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. After deep debate, the couple accepted the deal and their wedded union was undone. To all but Peter and Mary Jane, their wedding never occurred and Parker never revealed his identity to the world, and they returned to their separate, individual lives.

Norman Osborn’s machinations after the Super Hero Civil War and an alien Skrull invasion catapulted him to the position of “top cop” in the country and his twisted version of federal law enforcement. Spider-Man and his fellow heroes brought him down eventually, but not without several battles against Osborn’s forces. Later, a dying Doctor Octopus manipulated Parker into a position for the evil genius to switch minds with his enemy, thus granting him Spider-Man’s youthful power and Parker a swift death in a decrepit frame. Octopus became a “superior” Spider-Man for a time, but Parker’s spirit lived on within his mind and fought for dominance. Octopus as Parker started Parker Industries, a worldwide Fortune 500 company, and while that was a success, Octopus strained Parker and Spider-Man’s relationships with his respective friends and fellow Super Heroes. Parker ultimately overcame his foe and as himself once more, started to mend things that Octopus had broken, and took over Parker Industries.

Around this time, Parker discovered the existence of Cindy Moon, a former classmate that was also bitten by the radioactive spider that gave him his abilities. He liberated her from a bunker that fellow Spider-Totem Ezekiel had put her in 10 years prior to keep her safe from the vampiric Inheritors, such as Morlun who would consume her. With Morlun no longer a threat, Moon became the hero Silk, inspired by Spider-Man. Moon and Parker’s connection was strong, leading them into a passionate albeit brief relationship. 

Following Moon’s release, the revelation of multiple other Spider-Man-type heroes, from parallel universes occurred, and they were all connected by the Web of Life and Destiny. This “Spider-Verse” encompassed both male and female versions of the wall-crawler as well as animal incarnations, and a time-displaced Otto Octavius inhabiting Spider-Man’s body who led a group of Spider-Heroes. Together, they formed a Spider-Army and defeated the ruthless Inheritors who fed on Spider-Totems, including Morlun who had somehow survived.

After Octavius’ interference, the notorious “Parker Luck” kicked in and he lost his business and his wealth, and returned to his former hand-to-mouth existence. 

When Norman Osborn merged with the Carnage symbiote, becoming the Red Goblin, he discovered  Spider-Man’s secret identity from Parker's most recent confidant, J. Jonah Jameson. Spider-Man fought the Red Goblin, suffering an injury that led other Spider-Heroes to join in but they too suffered grave injuries. Only Flash Thompson, who had become Agent Anti-Venom, could heal them all. With Parker healed, Eddie Brock as Venom joined the fight, but had to tap out and loaned Peter his symbiote. Playing to Osborn’s ego, Parker challenged him to fight him as the Green Goblin so he’d get credit for defeating Spider-Man. With both of them free of their respective symbiote’s assistance, Parker came out victorious and Osborn was locked up, succumbing to madness and believing he was Kasady, the original host of the Carnage symbiote. After that, Spider-Man wasn’t too worried about Osborn revealing his identity.

Parker’s bad luck returned when he lost his job at the Daily Bugle, became the target for the demonic Kindred, who appeared to be Harry Osborn, and was one of many animal-themed heroes and villains hunted by Kraven the Hunter. He also aided the Multiversal Spider-Army against the returned Inheritors. 

Spider-Man again faced a crazed Norman/Carnage, who still thought himself to be Kasady. Despite defeating Norman, Kindred resurrected Stanley Carter, AKA Sin-Eater, who removed the villainy from Super Villains, with the exception of Norman who was restored to his Green Goblin self. Norman still sought Spider-Man’s demise, leaving Peter to leave him to the Sin-Eater’s mercy. Sin-Eater purified Norman while Spider-Man, with Mary Jane and Kingpin’s help, trapped Kindred. Kindred ended up being the amalgam of Sarah and Gabriel Stacy, clones of Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, and controlled by Mephisto. Though they killed a clone of Harry Osborn prior to their capture, they failed in their mission to slay Spider-Man, so Mephisto had them killed.

Spider-Man then faced a legal issue with his own alias thanks to the Beyond Corporation who had bought his trademark. Beyond sicced the U-Foes on him, landing Parker in a coma with radiation poisoning to the point where Beyond’s Spider-Man and Parker’s clone, Ben Reilly, took up his mantle. Parker was finally cured thanks to Doc Ock’s intervention, an anonymous act to spare Aunt May the loss of her nephew. Peter recovered with the help of Mary Jane, Black Cat, and Captain America, and soon faced a memory-altered Reilly. Beyond had taken Reilly’s memories and he sought to retrieve them from Parker, but Parker overcame his clone’s attack as Beyond destroyed the location where they fought to hide their involvement.

Mary Jane invited Peter to move in with her, but an empowered Dr. Benjamin Rabin, AKA Emissary, marked them both to bring forth his god Wayep and sent them to another Earth to make it happen. There, the son of that world’s Rabin, Paul, rescued them and possessed a device that could send them home. Though Wayep’s attack prompted Mary Jane to use the device and send Spider-Man home, leaving her stranded. Parker became inconsolable and began exhibiting desperate behavior to get Mary Jane back, asking help from Norman and alienating himself from the Super Hero community. Six months passed and Mary Jane returned with Paul, now her husband, and their two adopted children.

When Mary Jane was held hostage by Moira X at the Mutant Hellfire Gala, Spider-Man teamed up with James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, to rescue her. Parker and Mary Jane reunited but she couldn’t leave Paul due to her responsibility to him.

Parker went on to face Ned Leeds, who had become the Hobgoblin again and teamed up with the original Hobgoblin, Kingsley. The pair had Spider-Man cornered but the reformed Norman saved him. 

Spider-Man then came up against Reilly, who was struggling mentally and going by Chasm. With the X-Men and Goblin Queen’s help, Spider-Man helped liberate Chasm’s captives, Robbie Robertson and Jameson, from being trapped in Limbo. In the process, Chasm became King Chasm and partnered with Elizabeth Tyne, AKA Hallows’ Eve, to destroy New York with an army of demons and a stolen scythe from Madelyne Pryor in tow. Spider-Man teamed up with Pryor and with the other heroes, they stopped King Chasm and Madelyn kept Ben under lock and key in Limbo.

Parkerthen started dating Black Cat, but while on a trip where they fought Super Villains, he revealed that he still harbored feelings for Mary Jane. When Mary Jane sought Parker’s help against a returned Emissary, Parker joined Norman, who was going by Gold Goblin, and Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel, and the Fantastic Four against their enemy. Though Emissary killed Ms. Marvel, who had posed as Mary Jane in an effort to defeat the villain, sending the heroes into mourning for their lost comrade.

Spider-Man again joined his spider-allies against Morlun, the vampiric Inheritor, but their true enemy was an ancient Wasp-Totem, Shathra, who quested to dominate the Web of Life and Destiny. With one sting from Shathra’s wasps, the Spiders from across the Spider-Verse became part of her hive known as the Great Nest. Shathra’s forces also possessed the Totem Dagger, which severed one’s ties to the Web, erasing them from reality—a fate suffered by Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman, and even Parker.

Parker’s severance from the Web resulted in an altered reality that replaced the original, where Peter was never bitten by a radioactive spider, and he even saved Uncle Ben from a robber. Meanwhile, Shathra remained unchallenged and began remolding the Multiverse into a single hive with her as its Queen. Peter designed a Great Web-Shooter and aiming it at Shathra, he defeated her, sending her to another ethereal plane. Suddenly, the first Spider-Totem and Goddess Nieth, appeared to them with a talisman that when combined with the Totem Dagger, helped bring back their fallen spiders, including Parker. The Web was then rewoven and the events of Parker's life were restored along with the previously erased spiders.