History Comicbook / UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan

* CallForward: One issue sees Spidey facing Hawkeye, who was an ComicBook/IronMan villain at the time. Spidey realizes that Hawkeye is just being used by Black Widow and tries to convince him that he can be a hero.

* {{Expy}}: In keeping with the high school focus, two of the new characters are analogues for characters from Franchise/ArchieComics: Tiny is a big dumb blonde jock like Moose, and Jason Ionello is a sneering dark-haired [[TheFriendNobodyLikes friend nobody likes]] just like Reggie. Some of the later issues also play up Flash and Liz's resemblance to Archie and Betty. They're also something like morally inverted counterparts to Flash and Peter: Tiny being a big BookDumb athletic guy who proves not to be just another JerkJock like Flash once Peter gets to know him a little better; and Jason being an embittered brainy guy who craves fame and fortune much as Peter did when he first got his powers, but is not as ethical and honest, and his tragic loss (of Sally Avril) due to his irresponsibility does ''not'' morally reform him the way Peter's loss of his uncle Ben did.

* ConfrontingYourImposter: Averted, Spider-Man never bothers going after the fake Spider-Man running around Forest Hills committing minor vandalism to smear him, he's too busy dealing with Batwing. Flash Thompson ends up stopping him instead, revealing him to be a mentally ill Jason.

* TheLoad: Sally Avril/[=BlueBird=], whose crime-fighting zeal is surpassed by her inexperience and poorly developed gadgets. Spider-Man even allows one villain to hurt her quite badly in an attempt to dissuade her from crime-fighting.

* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: ExaggeratedTrope. Sally Avril was an awful person to Peter Parker in her life. She mocked and bullied him, didn't care about his uncle's death, and when she saw Liz talking to him (she was offering him her condolences) she coaxed Liz away rather than offer her own sympathy to Peter. When Jason Ionello attempted to prank Peter by stealing all the clothes in his gym bag while he's showering, she was the only one who approved of the prank when all of her friends thought Jason crossed the line from funny to overly cruel. She even tried to blackmail Peter when she became the superhero Bluebird to take her pictures. But when she died in a car accident trying to take pictures of a Spider-Man fight, Peter acted like he lost a good friend and wonderful person in his life. He talked about how she was vital and alive and fun to be around. While it's understandable why her friends miss her because they were also unpleasant people, Peter had no reason to mourn her. However, Peter blames himself for her death and it was implied that his guilt was causing him to project Sally as a better person than she was. It was only while talking with Johnny Storm, who pointed out that her death was not his fault and given her behavior she was likely to get herself killed sooner or later no matter what Spider-Man did or didn't do, did he let go of his guilt.
* PreviouslyOn: To help out readers without encyclopedic knowledge of Spider-Man history, most issues include a one-page summary of recent events, both from ''Untold Tales'' and from the original [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManLeeAndDitko the Lee-Ditko run]].
* ThePowerOfHate: Jason embraces this as a way of dealing with the guilt of Sally's death and targets Spider-Man. Unusual for this trope, he isn't effective at it, being limited to try and framing Spider-Man for petty vandalism and theft, and is eventually caught by Flash Thompson, and revealed to be legitimately unbalanced due to the guilt and in need of professional help. Spider-Man himself never even bothered to go after him.

** He also saves The Kingpin from The Vulture in #20, though he has no idea he's doing it, he never actually saw who Vulture was going after, and even if he had, this was before the two had met.

* TooDumbToLive: Sally Avril. While she does (grudgingly) get the message that she's in way over her head trying to be a superhero when Spider-Man lets a mook punch the shit out of her before stopping him, she decides there's another way to get the action and excitement she craves, namely by running around town trying to take pictures of superhero battles and be a part of the action that way. So she bullies a friend into driving her at breakneck speed towards one such battle, hanging out the window and not wearing a seatbelt, while goading her friend so incessantly that he ignores all the rules of the road. Naturally there's a massive accident and she's killed. Spidey ''somehow'' finds a way to blame himself, and is mourning at her grave when the Human Torch shows up. Upon hearing the story, Johnny shows a surprising amount of insight and knowledge of human nature by cutting through Spidey's guilt bullshit and putting all of the blame on Sally, pointing out that her behavior proved she was an adrenaline junkie who was going to get herself killed sooner or later no matter what Spider-Man did or didn't do. Spidey realizes that Johnny is right, and both of them depart the cemetery.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Spacemen are four astronauts who got their powers from a secret space mission, and are immediately lauded as honest heroes by renown anti-vigilante J. Jonah Jameson. In reality, they're washout trainees who used their powers to steal money while blaming Spider-Man along the way.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: As shown in ''Amazing Fantasy'' #17, Peter was actually close friends with Liz, Jason, Sally, and Tiny when they were all children, but as they got older and they began showing different interests from him they gradually drifted apart, which finished happening around the time Flash started becoming popular and became the "cool" kid.

* AssholeVictim: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. In the ''Amazing Fantasy'' follow-up issues #16-18 and ''ComicBook/UntoldTalesOfSpiderMan'', Sally Avril is shown to have been a somewhat callous and self-absorbed young gal who tended join in with the other students in their bullying and mockery of Peter Parker, and a budding young glory hound whose reckless seeking for fame and fortune ultimately got her killed. When she saw her friend Liz Allan offering Peter Parker condolences for Uncle Ben's untimely demise, she broke off the conversation by calling Liz away (to [[INeedToGoIronMyDog "that, ah, Social Studies thing"]]) while offering no condolences of her own. While ''Amazing Fantasy'' #17 reveals that she did have some history of being childhood friends with Peter Parker along with the rest of "the gang" before they drifted away from him and gravitated to Flash Thompson in high school, she doesn't ever seem to have been one of the closer ones. She was also more than willing to try to use both Peter Parker and Jason Ionello (to whom she seems to have been somewhat closer) as her stepping stones, at one point trying to blackmail Parker into helping her launch her career as Bluebird, and later pressuring Ionello to drive her around the city to newsworthy events to help launch her career as a news photographer even though he only had his learner's permit. Despite all her misbehavior, her death was every bit as devastating to Peter Parker as to the rest of her classmates, and Johnny Storm ([[TheRival of all people]]) ultimately had to talk Spider-Man out of feeling guilty for his incidental involvement in it.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: One of Sally Avril's gimmicks when she was trying to be a costumed crime-fighter were capsules filled with ether, which she called "ether eggs". If she threw it at someone it would break open and the ether was supposed to render him unconscious. (How an underage high school student got a supply of ether, which is classified as an extremely hazardous substance and therefore highly regulated, is never entirely explained, but Jason Ionello was shown to have some scientific skill, so it's possible he whipped some up for her; making the stuff mostly only requires some rudimentary knowledge of chemistry, alcohol, sulfuric acid, and some equipment that might well be available in a high school lab.) The first time she tried to use one—on Electro, no less—he mocked her as it smashed harmlessly against his chest, pointing out (quite accurately) that ether evaporates so quickly, you have to pour a large quantity on a cloth and hold it over the victim's mouth and nose for ''several minutes'' before it will render him unconscious. (To add insult to injury, Electro was ''never'' the smartest or most educated of Spidey's enemies, having been a blue-collar worker trained mostly only as an electrician; [[HiddenDepths so it's somewhat interesting that he happens to know about this]].) Naturally, Electro pretty quickly had Bluebird on the ropes, and Spidey had to come bail her out.

* {{Expy}}: In keeping with the high school focus, two of the new characters are analogues for characters from Franchise/ArchieComics: Tiny is a big dumb blonde JerkJock like Moose, and Jason Ionello is a sneering dark-haired [[TheFriendNobodyLikes friend nobody likes]] just like Reggie. Some of the later issues also play up Flash and Liz's resemblance to Archie and Betty.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: AscendedExtra Sally Avril is basically the kind of KidHero Peter Parker might have turned out to be if Uncle Ben's death hadn't shaken him out of his own callous disdain for his classmates and self-absorbtion. Rather than true heroism, Sally's motivations for taking up first being the costumed vigilante Bluebird and then a career in news photography like Peter are [[ThrillSeeker fun]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe fame and fortune]]. Her weapons were all but useless in a fight (something Electro pointed out when he mocked her for trying to knock him out with one of her ether-filled eggs) and are broadly implied to have been something Jason Ionello developed for her, since he was the one with the scientific mind. When Spider-Man finally got tired of bailing her out from the sticky situations into which her own reckless posing as a superhero had gotten her, he had to stand back and let one of the {{Mooks}} she was fighting alongside him punch her in the stomach to convince her she was not cut out for superheroic work. Then [[TooDumbToLive her own recklessness and vanity got her killed anyway]] when she talked Jason Ionello into being her driver even though he only had a learner's permit, and pressured him into running a red light.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: One of Sally Avril's gimmicks when she was trying to be a costumed crime-fighter were capsules filled with ether, which she called "ether eggs". If she threw it at someone it would break open and the ether was supposed to render him unconscious. (How an underage high school student got a supply of ether, which is classified as an extremely hazardous substance and therefore highly regulated, is never entirely explained, but Jason Ionello was shown to have some scientific skill, so it's possible he whipped some up for her; making the stuff mostly only requires some rudimentary knowledge of chemistry, alcohol, sulfuric acid, and some equipment that might well be available in a high school lab.) The first time she tried to use one, the person she threw it at sarcastically told her (correctly) that ether evaporates so quickly you have to pour a large quantity on a cloth and hold it over their mouth and nose for ''several minutes'' in order for it to cause loss of consciousness. A few panels later, she's getting her ass kicked and Spidey has to save her.
* EveryoneHasStandards: In one early issue, Jason attempts to prank Peter by stealing all the clothes in his gym bag while he's showering. Most of the other teens think Jason just crossed the line from funny to overly cruel, and even Flash, usually the first to harass Peter, feels that was going overboard.

* ActionGirl: After discovering the thrill of helping Spider-Man, Peter Parker's classmate Sally Avril decides to use her acrobatic skills to fight crime. She creates a blue-and-white costume, calls herself Bluebird, and arms herself with various homemade egg-themed gadgets.

* AscendedExtra: Sally Avril was a bit-parter in ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15. She was made a major character in this series.
* AssholeVictim: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]]. Sally Avril was a cruel and uncaring jerkass who mocked and bullied Peter Parker and was desperate to be famous. When Peter's uncle dies, she does not care, and when she sees her friend Liz Allan talking to him (she is offering him her condolences), she coaxes Liz away rather than offer her own sympathy to Peter. Eventually, to become famous, Sally tried to become a superhero and called herself Bluebird, and even tried to blackmail Peter into taking pictures of her superhero identity by threatening to reveal his Spidey photography to the rest of her friends, which forced Peter to announce it himself at school. Sally failed as a superhero because she was not much of a fighter, and her gadgets didn't work most of the time. What causes Sally to quit being Bluebird is that Spider-Man lets thugs beat her as a warning and tells her she can't be a superhero. So Sally decides to try and get famous by becoming a photographer like Peter, only to end up dying in a car crash when she forces Jason Ionello to drive faster than he should to take pictures of a Spider-Man fight. Peter starts blaming himself for Sally's death and acts like she was a good friend whom he failed. It takes the Human Torch to get Peter out of his funk, calling out Sally as a careless thrill seeker who would've probably gotten herself killed much sooner if Spider-Man hadn't held her back. All in all, while Sally's death is sad, she wasn't a nice person, and her own stupidity led to her death.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: AscendedExtra Sally Avril serves as one for the KidHero in almost the exact opposite direction from Peter. Rather than some injustice, Sally is motivated by [[ThrillSeeker fun]] and [[ItsAllAboutMe glory]]. She uses weapons developed by her friend Jason, but despite him being of above-average intelligence, they either have no combat function or are so poorly conceived and useless that it earns her the mockery of villains. Finally, despite being a skilled gymnast and a decent fighter, when Spider-Man decides she needs to learn her lesson and refuses to help her, she ends up on the receiving end of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from a street thug who any other Kid Hero would have absolutely no problem with. When Spidey finally forces her to call it quits, she decides to get her adrenaline fix as a photographer, [[TooDumbToLive convinces the unlicensed driver Jason to run a red light]], and is killed in a car crash because she was hanging out a window.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: One of Sally Avril's gimmicks when she was trying to be a costumed crime-fighter were capsules filled with chloroform, which she called "ether eggs". If she threw it at someone it would break open and the chloroform was supposed to render them unconscious. (How an underage high school student got a supply of chloroform, which is classified as a extremely hazardous substance and therefore highly regulated, is never explained) The first time she tried to use one, the person she threw it at sarcastically told her (correctly) that chloroform evaporates so quickly you have to pour a large quantity on a cloth and hold it over their mouth and nose for ''several minutes'' in order for it to cause loss of consciousness. A few panels later, she's getting her ass kicked and Spidey has to save her.

* SeriesContinuityError: In the final issue of Untold Tales of Spider-Man #25, Liz Allan and Flash Thompson are at Empire State University as part of Midtown High's week-long visit to colleges around the city. It implied that the two of them are still friends and keep in contact even those they will not go to the same college. In Amazing Spider-Man #28, Liz cut Flash and all their other friends out of her life because she was ashamed of the person she was in high school, a ditzy blonde, and plan to move on with her life.

* AscendedExtra: The Headsman first appeared in several issues of ''Untold Tales'', before being promoted to a main .

* WaterTowerDown: Spider-Man uses it in issue #1 to defeat the Scorcher.

* AssholeVictim: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]]. Sally Avril was something of a {{Jerkass}} who bullied Peter Parker and was desperate to be famous. First she tried to be a superhero and called herself Bluebird, but she wasn't much of a fighter and her gadgets didn't work most of the time. So she decides to try and get famous by becoming a photographer like Peter, only to end up dying in a car crash when she forces Jason Ionello to drive faster than he should. Peter starts blaming himself for Sally's death and acts like she was a good friend whom he failed. It takes the Human Torch to get Peter out of his funk, calling out Sally as a careless thrill seeker who would've probably gotten herself killed much sooner if Spider-Man hadn't held her back. All in all, while Sally's death is sad, she herself wasn't a nice person and it was her own stupidity that led to her death.

* AssholeVictim: Played with. Sally Avril was something of a {{Jerkass}} who bullied Peter Parker and was desperate to be famous. First she tried to be a superhero and called herself Bluebird, but she wasn't much of a fighter and her gadgets didn't work most of the time. So she decides to try and get famous by becoming a photographer like Peter, only to end up dying in a car crash when she forces Jason Ionello to drive faster than he should. Peter starts blaming himself for Sally's death and acts like she was a good friend whom he failed. It takes the Human Torch to get Peter out of his funk, calling out Sally as a careless thrill seeker who would've probably gotten herself killed much sooner if Spider-Man hadn't held her back. All in all, while Sally's death is sad, she herself wasn't a nice person and it was her own stupidity that led to her death.

* AscendedExtra: The Headsman first appeared in several issues of ''Untold Tales'', before being promoted to a main character on ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}''.
* AssholeVictim: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]]. Sally Avril was a deeply unpleasant person. She mocked and bullied Peter Parker, she didn't care about his uncle's death, and when she saw Liz talking to him (she was offering him her condolences) she coaxed Liz away rather than offer her own sympathy to Peter. She even tried to blackmail Peter when she became the superhero Bluebird to take her pictures. But when she died in a car accident trying to take pictures of a Spider-Man fight, Peter acted like he lost a good friend and wonderful person in his life. However, Peter acting like Sally was a good person could be seen as him feeling guilty that he did not save her. Talking with Johnny Storm, who told him that Sally's death was her own fault, allowed Peter to let go of the guilt he had for her death.

* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Sally Avril was an awful person to Peter Parker in her life. She mocked and bullied him, didn't care about his uncle's death, and when she saw Liz talking to him (she was offering him her condolences) she coaxed Liz away rather than offer her own sympathy to Peter. When Jason Ionello attempted to prank Peter by stealing all the clothes in his gym bag while he's showering, she was the only one who approved of the prank when all of her friends thought Jason crossed the line from funny to overly cruel. She even tried to blackmail Peter when she became the superhero Bluebird to take her pictures. But when she died in a car accident trying to take pictures of a Spider-Man fight, Peter acted like he lost a good friend and wonderful person in his life. He talked about how she was vital and alive and fun to be around. While it's understandable why her friends miss her because they were also unpleasant people, Peter had no reason to mourn her. However, Peter blames himself for her death and it was implied that his guilt was causing him to project Sally as a better person than she was. It was only while talking with Johnny Storm, who pointed out that her death was not his fault and given her behavior she was likely to get herself killed sooner or later no matter what Spider-Man did or didn't do, did he let go of his guilt.