Fanfic / Fighting Crime, Spinning Webs

"Webs, check. Costume, check. Witty repertoire, check. Finally, the fun part of the day can start. I'll stop some petty thieves, get crucified by the media, fight for my life with animal-themed supervillains... it'll be a hoot!"

— Spidey

A complete Continuation fanfic of The Spectacular Spider-Man TV series by troper thebandragoness. It rather ambitiously follows up on every last one of the show's myriad characters and plot points while also adding in other famous elements of the Spider-Man mythos, plus a handful of other iconic Marvel characters who weren't allowed to appear in the cartoon since it was owned by Sony.

Has the honor of being one of the longest-running and most popular Spectacular Spidey sequel fic to date (which are a dime-a-dozen thanks to the show's early cancellation). One draft clocked in at over 580,000 words, though the current version online has been edited down to a slightly more manageable 448,000. And that's not counting the 20,000 word timeline at the end!

Like the author's other fanfics, this one balances lighthearted humor with serious drama. It's generally Darker and Edgier than the cartoon but Lighter and Softer than the original Spider-Man comics.

Read it here or on AO3.

Note that many of the tropes found on this page may only apply to older drafts of the story and not the current, more streamlined one.

An earlier draft of this fanfic inspired a short one-shot called "Standing Up" by Leaper.

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Fighting Crime, Spinning Webs provides examples of:

Tropes that Apply to All Drafts

• Abusive Parents: Emily Osborn is not winning Mother of the Year anytime soon. And Mary Jane's father is verbally abusive, much like in the Raimi films and comics.
  • Norman Osborn also qualifies. Even worse, it's implied that most of Emily's abuse of Harry was spurred on by Norman.
• Achilles' Heel: Scorpion's suit is similar to Rhino's, so Spider-Man uses a similar tactic to defeat him: he gets the villain to chase him to the mall's sauna.
• Action Girl: Susan Storm, Black Cat, and Ms. Marvel, among others.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Carnage and Shriek have a more-or-less stable relationship in the comics. Here, Carnage decides to be a Pragmatic Villain for once and kill Shriek because she can't go incognito like him.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: The Venom symbiote is given a Freudian Excuse for its previous actions and is rehabilitated by Mr. Fantastic.
• Adapted Out: No versions of Miles Morales or Scarlet Spider (whether Ben or Kaine) appear in the final draft, along with many other side characters and villains that didn't make the cut.
  • Due to the current version of the fic being trimmed down from its original size, characters that appeared in previous versions are also Adapted Out.
  • Some characters also never get to use their comicverse costumed identities - Bart Hamilton never becomes a Green Goblin, for instance.
• All Men Are Perverts: Being both male and a teenager, Peter falls into this from time to time.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Peter starts as this, but reality slowly erodes his disbelief over time, both in aliens existing and the supernatural.
• Arrested for Heroism: Frank Castle got committed to Ravencroft after going on a rampage against the criminal underworld instead of being allowed to run amok.
• Ascended Meme: The "How Do I Shot Web?" meme gets mentioned several times for laughs during Spidey's fight with Venom
• Ax-Crazy: Carnage goes on two separate killing sprees, one of them complete with a theme song parody. Spider-Man is traumatized for weeks afterward.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The symbiotes (symbioti?) do this, of course. Even Eddie himself gets in on the act.
• Blatant Lies: Mary Jane insists to Gwen that she gives everyone nicknames and that she totally refers to both Spider-Man and Peter as Tiger (and Glory as Lion).
• Buried Alive: Spidey at the hands of Kraven the Hunter, of course. Luckily, he had a tracker on him and Gwen watching over him.
• Canon Welding: The timeline revealed in the final chapter merges elements of Spider-Girl, The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Spider-Man 2099 and the Last Stand universe.
• Catapult Nightmare: Happens to Peter during class in after fighting Carnage.
• Clone by Conversion: Miles Warren transforms Debra Whitman into a copy of Gwen, and plans to turn himself into Peter too.
• Damsel in Distress: MJ, Gwen, Aunt May and Madame Web all fill this role at various points.
• Dead Guy Junior: Peter's children, May Gwendolyn Parker, Anna Madeline Parker, and Benjamin Richard Parker, a trio whose dead-person-to-child name ratio would surely make even J.K. Rowling jealous.
• Deadpan Snarker: Many, many characters. Like always, Spider-Man is the king of deadpan snarking.
  • Alistair Smythe.
  • Sergeant DeWolff:
  Sgt. DeWolff: I know a criminal you can catch. There's this crazy guy running around Manhattan, wanted on over five hundred separate counts of assault since last summer.
  Spider-Man: Seriously?! I bet I can catch him! What's he look like?
• Death Seeker: This is what Peter becomes after Gwen's death, at least according to Death.
• De-power: After Gwen's death, Peter starts to lose his spider powers, due to Mary Jane spiking his drinks with gene cleanser.
• Didn't Think This Through: The subdermal armor Scorpion, Rhino, and Molten Man were outfitted with can actually regrow if there are any stray particles left in their bodies, and will regrow faster with adrenaline. Scorpion is eager to bust out of jail once he discovers this fact, but as Rhino points out, he has no outside man to help him get off the island, and his hands aren't exactly well-suited to piloting a boat out of there.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Peter punches Death in the face during his near-death experience at the Jackal's hands.
• Distressed Dude: Hobie Brown has to get rescued from his own ineptitude as Prowler at one point.
• The Dog Bites Back: Electro, sick of Otto's abuse, attacks May Parker to get to him.
• The Dreaded: Peter repeatedly has nightmares of Carnage due to the mass slaughter the serial killer gleefully dishes out.
• Driven to Suicide: Emily Osborn, after being cured of the Green.
• Enemy Mine: Much like in the original comics, Venom and Spider-Man must team up to stop Carnage.
• Ephebophile: Miles Warren, who else?
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his faults, Norman seems to genuinely love his wife Emily. When she kills herself, Norman blames Spider-Man and tries to make it even by going after Gwen Stacey.
• Faking the Dead: Norman Osborn, naturally, but also Matt Murdock and his loved ones.
• Heroic BSoD: Peter goes through one when Gwen dies.

• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Alistair and Norman make an agreement to troll Harry with the wrong instruction video.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Harry may be in full Jerkass mode, but he does have an understandable reason for disliking Spider-Man and it becomes especially poignant in later chapters.
• Kill and Replace: The Jackal's ultimate goal with Peter, so he can be with the Gwen Stacy clone he made out of Debra Whitman.
• Killed Off for Real: Michael Morbius, Captain Stacy, Hammerhead, Shriek, Emily Osborn, Gwen Stacy, Norman Osborn, Debra Whitman, the (original) carnage symbiote and Miles Warren over the course of the fic. The timeline adds Aunt May, MJ, and Peter himself to the list.
• Legacy Character: Peter is succeeded as a crime-fighter by his children, as well as Miguel O'Hara.
• Legacy Seeker: Norman Osborn reveals to Spider-Man during their final battle that this was his ultimate ambition, and seeks to attain this through his son Harry. To Norman, it doesn't matter if Harry will become the next Iron Man or Doctor Doom as long as the Osborn name endures.
• Loose Canon: The Greg Weisman-written Spectacular Spider-Man/Gargoyles Crossover 'Religious Studies 101: A Handful of Thorns' is considered semi-canonical, in the sense that events unrelated to Gargoyles still happened.
• Mind Control: Hypno Hustler, ladies and gentlemen! Also what Kingsley was using Madame Web for, and what Doctor Hamilton does for Oscorp.
• Mythology Gag: thebandragoness certainly knows her Spider-lore, and it shows:
  • The Statue of Liberty serves as Spider-Man and Human Torch's classic meeting spot.
  • It's implied that Jessica Jones frequents Peter's school in this continuity as well.
  MJ (referring to Gwen): Hey, you know that cute blonde with the glasses who
  follows Pete around like a lost puppy? Does she have a name?
  Rand: Jessica Jones-? No, wait, you said blonde? You must mean Gwen Stacy.
  • "It was like Venom was some sort of... lethal protector. No, wait, that sounded stupid."
  • Herman Schultz, the alter-ego of the Shocker from the comics, appears as the originator of Montana's Shocker tech; he builds a souped-up version of the gauntlets (that bear more than a passing resemblance to the Ultimate Comics' Shocker's gear) to exact vengeance on Montana and the Enforcers for stealing his creation.
  • Kraven steals the red-and-blue costume from Peter's beaten, unconscious body, so he takes revenge as the Bombastic Bag-Man.
  • Peter wishes that joining the Fantastic Four had been one of the first things he did upon becoming Spider-Man; 616!Peter attempted to join the FF in Amazing Spider-Man #1, the first issue of his first series.
• The Nicknamer: Spidey, at least in his internal monologue/narration.
  • The carnage-possessed dog from the second Carnage arc is briefly called Maim-aduke by Spidey, before he decides to stop.
• Overlord Jr.: Both Harry Osborn and Alistair Smythe.
• Painting the Medium: The Nothing After Death is represented by a screenful of ellipses.
• Polyamory: MJ is polyamorous and wants a threesome between herself, Peter and Gwen. While the two are initially freaked out about the idea, they eventually agree to have the three-way relationship.
• Papa Wolf: Tombstone towards his daughter, Janice.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The timeline given in the fifth-to-last chapter ends with one of these. Spider-Man is no more, everyone he loved is no more. Alchemax has won... But there's a new Spider-Man in town.
• Reread Bonus: Hey, notice how after Gwen Stacy is webbed up again they have no more dialogue?
• Running Gag:
  • People thinking Spider-Man's webs are organic (May also serve as a Take That! towards the Raimi films.)
    • Even becomes a Chekhov's Gag during the fight with Spider!Kraven
  • The "Peter Parker is SPIDER-MAN!" dance remix video
  • “BREAKING NEWS! YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T THINK THE SINGER'S BABY WOULD BE FOUND DRIVING THE CAR FOR A FIFTH TIME, BUT TUNE IT AT FOUR, AND YOU MIGHT JUST BE SUPR-”
• Sdrawkcab Name: Mysterio's M.O for making up his "alien" bits. Bonus points for his appearance as a member of the new Sinister Six
  Mysterio: I, the M.Y.S.T.E.R.I.O. hive mind of Planet Oiretsym from the Xisretsinis galaxy, have finally revealed my true form – or at least the closest your feeble human mind can come to comprehending it!
• Serial Killer: Cletus Kasady/Carnage, natch.
• Shout-Out: Peter is very pop-culture savvy, as are most of the other characters he spends any length of time with; as a result, many jokes are made at the expense of other fandoms and franchises.
  • Batman: Peter decides at one point that if he gets to brooding too much, he'll have to add pointy ears and a cape to his costume.
  • Death of a Salesman: Sha Shan thinks Flash would make a good Biff Loman
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Spidey calls Mysterio's bluff about teaching humans language, irrigation, and architecture with this one.
  Mysterio: Don't you dare speak of that atrocity in my presence! I was hired to do the practical effects for that movie! It was going to launch my career! I had the most convincing prairie dog puppet I'd ever built all ready to go, and then some IDIOT decided to replace it with CGI!
  • The Princess Bride: The mutated villain Vermin is referred to as an "R.O.U.S."
  • REO Speedwagon: One of Mysterio's gargoyles—sorry, winged aliens—screams "I've forgotten what I started fighting for!" as it attacks Spider-Man.
  • The Twilight Saga: Morbius might need human blood to survive, but at least he doesn't sparkle!
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Peter quips to the Rat King that if he destroys him, he gets to summon an earth monster with 1500 attack points or less
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: When asked by Harry Osborn how Alistair Smythe will kill Sandman, he responds with, "Nanomachines Son!"

• Take That!: To many Spider-Man stories, Marvel stories, and Indiana Jones.
  • Pete joking that his Spider-Powers are mystical in nature.
  • Mephisto is permanently barred from ever entering this dimension, thus saving marriages everywhere.
  • thebandragoness grumbles in the timeline about Spider-Verse killing all her favorite characters.
• Take Up My Sword: The final two points on the timeline imply this.
  2098: On December 31, 2098, Spider-Man is cornered by Alchemax law-enforcement officers in the Parker family cemetery, where rests the graves of his parents, aunt, uncle, wife, and even members of the Stacy family who were moved there at some point over the years. Spider-Man is given the chance to surrender, but he refuses, and so he is gunned down at exactly midnight. To the bitter end, he never stops fighting.
  
  Spider-Man no more.
  
  2099:
  Miguel O’Hara becomes Spider-Man.
• Theme Naming: The chapter titles are named for academic jargon, just like the TV shows' episodes.
  • For example, the return of the symbiote and resulting creation of Carnage is told in "Addition," "Subtraction," Multiplication," and "Division."
• Trauma Conga Line: Poor Gwen. She keeps on getting attacked by supervillains, indirectly or directly because of Spider-man.
• Unusual Euphemism: Regarding Silver Sable's previous paramour...
  Fancy Dan: She went steady with Hammerhead!
  Ox: Eww, forget it, I ain't touchin' nothin' that's touched his "hammer!"
• Urine Trouble: Played for laughs in the case of Electro, Rhino, and Scorpion
  Electro:“Come to think of it, how do you-?”
  Rhino: How do you?
  Electro: Touché.
• Voice Clip Song: Someone made one of Venom saying that Spider-man is Peter Parker.

• Wham Line:
  Carnage: I'm afraid we'll have to amputate.
• Wolf Man: After being seemingly cured of being "Colonel Jupiter," John Jameson demands that Dr. Miles Warren give him something to make him super-powerful again, resulting in a Man-Wolf doing battle with Spider-Man.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Featuring nods to Spider-Girl and Spider-Man 2099.

Tropes that Apply Only to Older Drafts

• Above Good and Evil: Homo Superior, at least according to Quicksilver
• Action Girl: Many, including Sophia "Chat" Sanduval, Jean Grey of the X-Men, Emma Frost, and Liz Allan
• Adaptational Heroism: Ultron: far from being the Avengers' arch-enemy, he's a full on Nice Guy.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Sophia's ex: Emma Frost
• Answers to the Name of God: Thor, naturally.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Spider-man fights mutated humans, alien symbionts, and mutant dictators... but draws the line at believing in Norse gods.
• Avengers Assemble: Played gloriously straight by Captain America, of course.
  Cap: Avengers-
  Electro: HE'S SAYING IT HE'S SAYING IT RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
  Cap: ...assemble!
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Played straight with Liz Allan, when using her fire powers
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Played for laughs when Marvel Girl and Emma Frost face off:
  There was probably a super epic mental battle going on in their heads, but from where Spidey was standing, they just looked constipated.
• Big Damn Heroes: Captain America and the Avengers
• Brainwashed: During the Clone Saga, Reilly. The Clone Saga also revealed that Harry and Emily Osborn are subject to this, although in the later case it's debatable how much of her actions are a result of this or their own volition. This also applies to Kaine.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Deadpool gets a short cameo, where he states that he just wanted to be in the fanfic.
• Female Gaze: When Rogue catches Kitty ogling the visiting "big name superhero" through a wall, we get this exchange:
  Rogue: He's wearin' a mask. He could look like Quasimodo for all ya know.
  Kitty: Okay, yeah, but the rest of his costume doesn't leave much to the imagination...
  Rogue: Touché.
• Gilligan Cut: No, Spidey, you don't get to ride in the jet.
  Iceman: What? I'm, like, sixteen. They don't let me fly that thing.
• Jailbait Wait: Mentioned by name by Quicksilver in reference to Emma Frost's denying anything physical going on between her and Sophia.
  • Also implied when Miles explains the young woman he's living with to Aaron. Of course, that's not the case...
• Keet: Janet Van Dyne/The Wasp. When a Ryker's guard is found bound to a flagpole, Janet sounds "uncannily like a kid at a carnival" at the prospect of capturing the bad guy responsible.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Spidey, upon meeting the Avengers
• Lampshade Hanging: When Kitty answers Iceman's cell phone, she tells Spidey she was just in the middle of writing a fanfic about him:
  Spidey: A fanfic, really? Aren't there better things to do with your time than-? [catches himself] Never mind.
• Mythology Gag: thebandragoness certainly knows her Spider-lore, and it shows:
  • Bing as Peter's go-to search engine, a la The Amazing Spider-Man
  • Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: Subject to much good-natured mockery throughout chapters 11 and 12, with Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar/Liz Allan meeting while battling Video-Man, then chasing the Genosha-bound Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
  Spidey: Spider-Friends, move out!
  Iceman: I'm not your friend.
  • A schoolmate of Peter's named Jessica survives a car crash.
  • H.E.R.B.I.E. provides Peter with a costume so he can go fight Kraven. Since the FF don't wear masks, however, Peter swings into battle as the Bombastic Bag-Man!
• The Nicknamer: Spidey again, with Special mention going to his monikers for Cyclops of the X-Men, with gems including "Grumpy Vizor Man," "Mr. Magoo," and "Vizory McVizor"
• Of Corsets Sexy: Subverted, in that while this iteration of Emma Frost still prefers her stripperific Hellfire Club attire, she isn't much older than Peter.
  She had flowing, golden hair, an equally flowing white cape, and a combination of leggings, thong, and corset all so small and so tight that they'd make the wildest of sorority girls say, "Whoa, put some clothes on!" The girl looked only a year or two older than Sophia. Barely legal.

• Parallel Porn Titles: This gem, upon first meeting the X-Men (in uniform).
  Jean Grey: We're the X-Men.
  Spidey: Ah, so you're one of those 'porn parody' superheroes. Got it.
• Playing with Fire: As in the Ultimate comics, Liz Allan is a mutant with fire-based powers.
• Shout-Out: Peter is very pop-culture savvy, as are most of the other characters he spends any length of time with; as a result, many jokes are made at the expense of other fandoms and franchises.
  • Avatar: Mystique is referred to in narration as "the Na'vi chick."
  • Batman: Peter decides at one point that if he gets to brooding too much, he'll have to add pointy ears and a cape to his costume.
  • Death of a Salesman: Sha Shan thinks Flash would make a good Biff Loman
  • Frozen
  • Harry Potter: Spidey name-drops Hogwarts when asking Marvel Girl where they shelter other mutants.
  • One of Mysterio and Spider-Man's conversations culminates in this beautifully self-referential exchange

    Spider-Man: At least Disney bought Lucasfilm, so the fifth one probably won't be terrible.
    Mysterio: Yes, but Disney's purchasing habits led to some REALLY GOOD CARTOONS getting canceled!

  • REO Speedwagon: One of Mysterio's gargoyles—sorry, winged aliens—screams "I've forgotten what I started fighting for!" as it attacks Spider-Man.
  • Spider-Man 2: Spidey notes that the unstable molecule costume he borrowed from the FF "doesn't ride up in the crotch."
  • Star Wars: Sophia compares Emma Frost's telepathy to a Jedi mind trick.
    • Reilly also makes a reference to Order 66.
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Referring to the rebuilt Statue of Liberty:
    Those must've been some fixing-powers that mutant good Samaritan had had. Y'know, like that arcade game guy from that one Disney movie.
• Shown Their Work: As noted within the fic, the top Google result for "bald mutant wheelchair guy" really is Professor X's page from The Other Wiki
• Trigger Phrase: Traveller will cause both Harry Osborn and Reilly Parker to believe and obey anything they are told by Emily Osborn, and for Reilly Miles Warren. This was used to make Reilly afraid of Peter and Gwen, and be unable to get help.
  • It also turns out to work for Emily Osborn
• You Are What You Hate: Sally Avril is a mutant with sky-blue angel wings, in a nod to her time as a vigilante named Bluebird in 616 continuity.