Spider Man / Tropes A to B

• Abomination Accusation Attack: Spider-Man is constantly a victim of this because of the Daily Bugle, which (because of Jonah Jameson) constantly accuses him of being a criminal despite everything he does to protect New York.
• Absurd Phobia:
  • Super-Villainess Titania had a crippling fear of Spider-Man, despite the fact that she is far stronger than him and routinely takes on stronger heroes (She-Hulk in particular) with gusto. Her debut story in Secret Wars (1984) has her get defeated in an embarrassing fashion by Spidey, and she fears he'll do it again every time she sees him. She gets over it when she realizes she's been in a battle with a disguised Spidey.
    Titania: S-S-Spider-Man? I can't fight you!
    Spider-Man: Really? You've been doing a pretty good job so far!
    Titania: [beat] You know, you're right! [goes on the attack]
    Spider-Man: Me and my big mouth.
  • Doctor Octopus also had, at one point, a fear of spiders. He needed psychiatric counseling to overcome it.
• Academy of Adventure:
  • Peter Parker went to both an Adventure High School and Adventure College, and generally continued to do so in every adaptation of the character. As a matter of fact, several of his most memorable villains and allies were either students (Harry Osborn, the second Green Goblin), introduced through students (for example, Molten Man), or as teachers/professors (for example, The Jackal), but even the everyday goings on of the school have a bit of adventure to them. Later on, he becomes a teacher at the same high school, which inevitably becomes an Adventure School again, even after he resigns.
  • In particular, his college Empire State University, is a huge Adventure School that has since extended far beyond involving just Peter Parker. Just look at the notable faculty/students list, which involves X-Men, villains of every kind, and the Human Torch! Things are rarely boring there.
• Accomplice by Inaction: A variation of this trope in Spider-Man's origin story — he stands by idly as the burglar who later would murder Uncle Ben escaped — of course continues to be the driving motivation for Spider-Man himself.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • The alien symbiotes, which created such creatures as black-suit Spider-Man, Venom, Carnage, and Toxin, are vulnerable to "sonics" — essentially, extremely loud or high-frequency noises. Extreme heat is also a notably unpleasant weakness of theirs. There's one time when Venom is been defeated by a lit zippo.
    • Conversely, Venom is Spider-Man's Achilles Heel. Since the Venom symbiote spent a good bit of time bonded to Spidey as his black costume, not only does it know all about the Spider-Sense (something that routinely saves Spidey's life by giving him a heads-up on an incoming sneak attack), but it's also immune to detection by it, an immunity that extends to any host the symbiote is bonded to.
  • Spider-Man himself has a little-known weakness. If he gets sick with a virus, his powers will stop working, making him just a sick, weak teen.
  • Norman Osborn has one rather serious Achilles Heel: he's a nutcase. As Osborn he's a twisted and brilliant sociopath. As the Goblin he's so batshit crazy that he makes his Osborn side look well-adjusted. As a result, it doesn't take much effort to get a Villainous Breakdown out of him. At one point, due to some "nudging" by imprisoned psychics, just being reminded of Spider-Man leads to Osborn pacing around in his office naked and ranting. And this is still saner than his Goblin persona.
• Acid Attack: The Scorpion has a stinger that can shoot acidic sprays.
• Action Dad:
  • Osborn himself, though in recent years he's more likely to strap a bomb to his kid and use them as a human shield than he is to protect them, but the original reason he truly came to hate Spider-Man, and why he killed Gwen Stacy, was because he blamed him for his son's second drug overdose, one that nearly killed him.
  • Peter Parker has his moments in Spider-Girl. Sure, he may be retired and missing a leg, but you shouldn't mess with his kids.
  • Kaine also shows this trait from time to time when his "niece" is in danger. Must be genetic.
  • Every incarnation of Peter Parker has this to some extent.... Granted, most versions don't have children, but they all have a big blinking button somewhere in their psyche labeled "someone hurt my loved ones", and the majority of the New York underworld can tell when some idiot has pressed it. Hint: the reason the motor-mouthed superhero hasn't talked in the last sixty seconds is because he's using all his superior intellect and enhanced nerve conduction velocity (i.e. ability to think faster than normal) to consider the merits of the 6,000 different ways he intends to hurt you.
  • There's also The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) #645. He's led to believe an infant he was trying to protect is killed. He then proceeds to go on a rampage. It's so bad, that some of his rogues gallery don't believe it...until he comes for them.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: Spider-Man seems to be developing an immunity to the gas used by the Green Goblin to nullify his Spider-Sense. Originally, the stuff rendered him unconscious and would make him unable to use the power for several days. Most recently, when the Hobgoblin used it in the "Revenge of the Sinister Six" story, he was able to stay conscious and recover in little over one day.
  • In Spider-Island, Mary-Jane is one of the last people to be infected with Spider Flu. Reed Richards theorizes that the delay was due to her having been sleeping with Peter Parker for years.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism:
  • This is part of Spider-Man's origin story in Amazing Fantasy #15. Upon using his powers to make himself a celebrity, he becomes a self-serving asshole. Karma bites him hard for this when he becomes indirectly responsible for the death of his uncle.
  • Fifty years later, this seems to be the case with the young "hero" Alpha in The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott), gaining superpowers by accident, instantly becoming a media darling... then cheating behind his girlfriend's back, emancipating himself from his parents and forcing Spidey (whose fault it was that he had powers in the first place) to declare it's going to end.
• Action Series: One of the most well-known bits of escapist fiction to date, and no doubt one of the most flagrant examples of the trope.
• Actually a Doombot:
  • Spider-Man's enemy Mysterio uses this trick a lot too. Seeing as Mysterio is also fond of holograms and illusions, Spider-Man often cannot tell if he facing the real Mysterio, an illusion, or a robot, and even worse, the same often goes for a lot of other stuff he has to fight when the villain is involved.
    • This has become more complex since the original Mysterio acquired a couple of imitators who also use this identity. And they don't really get along with each other. A storyline in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #11-13 (October-December, 2006) had all three Mysterios independently seeking a confrontation with Spidey, resulting in a rather complicated Mêlée à Trois scenario. Spidey has trouble telling which is which and is further confused because the original was supposed to be dead.
    • In Spider-Men, Mysterio doesn't actually have a Ultimate Marvel counterpart. "Ultimate Mysterio" is actually a robot double he was controlling all along.
    • One reason this trick works so often is that Mysterio is a well-established technical genius. His robots are incredibly realistic, so much so that in the Guardian Devil story arc by Kevin Smith, he manages to convince Daredevil, the man who can hear heartbeats, into believing that Mysterio is dead.
  • Perhaps the most infamous usage of this trick in Spider-Man history is the first "death" of Aunt May. She peacefully died of old age in a realistic and tasteful manner; Peter and the other characters mourned her and eventually moved on. However, later editor-in-chief Bob Harras demanded that she be brought back to life. So, Aunt May was found alive and it was revealed that Norman Osborn had hired an actress to impersonate Aunt May perfectly, and kept up the charade even on her deathbed, meaning Peter (and the readers) cried over a total stranger. Even worse it contraindicated the one-shot Osborn Journal, presented as Norman's private account detailing his plans behind the Clone Saga, which had Norman specifically state he had nothing to do with May's death even if he wished he had.
  • Another famed Spidey villain who does this trick in the Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley. Despite being souped up with the Goblin Formula, he isn't stupid — he'll send out random schmoes powered up and brainwashed to do his bidding and if they die, no skin off his back. If they do good, then he's more than willing to let them keep going, but if they screw up, he'll step in personally and kill the schmook himself. Just ask Jason Macendale... oh, wait...
    • And one early issue has Roderick send an actual robot, then a brainwashed dupe, to attack people.
  • In the storyline Hunted, it is suggested that all appearances of Kraven the Hunter since the end of Grim Hunt was actually one of his 87 clones. This seemingly includes an appearance in Scarlet Spider where he tried to force Kaine to kill him and his appearances in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl where she tried to help him along with a Heel–Face Turn.
• Affably Evil:
  • Otto Octavius, better known as Spider-Man's nemesis, Doctor Octopus, once rented a room from Aunt May, and behaved like a perfect gentleman, even helping her around the house. He also came very near to marrying her, after she somehow inherited a nuclear plant. May's inability to understand that he was a bad person was a running gag for a long while. It became Faux Affably Evil during The Ends of the Earth and the following Superior Spider-Man arc.
  • The Venom symbiote is like a lost sweet little kid who though bloodthirsty and arrogant wants to help its hosts unlike its corrupted kind who take complete control of their hosts than draining them of vitality killing them in the process and it can be very friendly to those who are innocent along with the ones that it cares about and loves the most like Spider-Man, Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson. It prefers to be honest with people instead of lying to them since it hates lying to them about things and it does not try to use lethal force unless it has to. It also likes being a superhero which makes it very adorable because it’s a fan of them.
• Alliterative Name: Stan Lee was the Trope Codifier for the trend because he found names easier to keep track of if he used alliteration as a mnemonic device.
  • Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Among others, he had to deal with J. Jonah Jameson and Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus. Jonah himself has a son named John Jameson from his first wife, Joan, he later married Marla Madison, his editor-in-chief is Joe "Robbie" Robertson (who has a son named Randy), and secretaries have included Betty Brant (whose brother was called Bennett) and Glory Grant. The Bugle staff absolutely adores alliteration. In fact, JJJ is actually J. Jonah Jameson, Junior. We have also Curt Connors/the Lizard, and Cletus Kasady/Carnage. This reached the height of absurdity with a splash page showing the characters attending a Bugle funeral. Of the ten characters named, nine had alliterative names, with only Aunt May not fitting in.
  • Based on this, there was a Funny Animal version, named Peter Porker, The Amazing Spider-Ham, who worked for J. Jonah Jackal.
  • The novelization of Spider-Man hung a lampshade on this, by having Jameson name the Green Goblin in a headline. This resulted in a brief discussion on alliteration between J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker, the Bugle's editor Robbie Robertson, and Jameson's secretary Betty Brant... none of whom seemed to notice they were examples. The same point is made in Spider-Man 3.
  • In the popular Ultimate Marvel line, Peter Parker's successor as Spider-Man is tiny thirteen-year-old Miles Morales.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Peter Parker is a more up-to-date take on Clark Kent, an orphaned kid raised by foster parents. A nerd who works at a daily newspaper office for a grumpy boss but secretly fights crime in a red and blue costume. Even the wisecracking nature of the character and being chased by the police have roots in Superman's early days. His love life and woes with him/Gwen/MJ/Felicia can also be sourced to Superman and the girls who had crushes on him (Lois and Lana). Likewise, Spider-Man and Superman both share the distinction of actually marrying their long-time girlfriends. Spidey was originally conceived as a teenager, so Peter Parker was essentially picking up where Billy Batson (who had been planned as a child and aged into his teens, and was out of print when Lee and Ditko created Spidey) left off. Whenever Spider-Man teams up with Daredevil, their dynamic echoes the World's Finest team-up albeit on a much smaller scale.
  • Virtue was basically an extended Take That! towards Superman for as long as he lasted, though his story was more Goku from Dragon Ball in that he was a member of a still active, if endangered, group of warmongers who did not know his true origins or purpose.
• Always Save the Girl: Subverted with Gwen Stacy in The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
• Always Someone Better:
  • The Human Torch played this role in early stories. No one character plays the role now. Torch and Spidey eventually switched the roles for awhile. Peter was smart enough that he could keep up with Reed's scientific lectures, developed a friendly rapport with Sue and Ben, and was even good with watching Franklin. There was a period where Johnny resented the fact that Peter was practically more of a member of his own family than he was. They eventually worked this out, though, and became best buddies, until One More Day caused an identity reset. While they're friends again, sort of, now that Peter's again revealed his identity to the Four, they aren't near as close as they once were.
  • The symbiotes appear to have this as a biological rule, as each symbiote inherits the powers of it's parent to a greater degree. Venom is outclassed by his spawn, Carnage, who in turn is outclassed by his spawn, Toxin. This element was downplayed and eventually phased out completely as the comics continue, however: While Toxin was Put on a Bus, Venom acquired several Superhuman hosts and mutations, while Carnage repeatedly tampered with Multiversal (well, microversal...) energy and Chtonic magic to power himself. Nowadays, whenever the Symbiotes brawl there never seems to be a "definitive" stronger one.
• Alpha Bitch: Liz Allan started as one of these before she was Put on a Bus. Like her ex-boyfriend Flash (see above and below), she becomes much more mature when Peter runs into her several years later. Then there's Gwen Stacy in the Ditko era before rewrites changed her personality.
• Amazonian Beauty: Stunner, looks like a bodybuilder wearing a skin-tight leotard. True to her name, she is described as breathtakingly beautiful, and in her first appearances, brags about how beautiful she is to some patrons at a bar, who judging by the smiles on their faces, didn't disagree.
  • The reason why Stunner is so beautiful is that she's a virtual reality construct (tangible hologram) controlled by Angelina Brancale. Angelina is an obese woman who wanted to be thin and beautiful, so Doctor Octopus, another Spider-Man villain and her lover at the time, gave her a machine that allowed her to be Stunner.
• Ambiguously Gay: Mysterio is sort of this. In the mainstream comics he's rarely, if ever, shown any interest in women and has had a few hints over the years. Some novels dropped the ambiguously part and made him explicitly gay; said novels are dubiously canon at best but pretty much everyone out-of-universe assumes he's gay at this point, even if the comics have yet to actually say it.
• Animal Motifs: The series is arguably the Trope Codifier since Spidey and a good portion of his rogues gallery are distinctly patterned on animals, to wit: the Vulture, the Chameleon, the Scorpion, the Rhino, the Beetle, the Jackal, Dr. Octopus. Likewise, Kraven the Hunter, while not having animal powers famously wears a jacket made out of lion fur.
  • Deliberately invoked in-universe with Scorpion, who received his powers and codename so he could hunt Spider-Man: in real life, scorpions prey on spiders.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) posited that Spidey is being assaulted by envious pretenders who subconsciously realize that he is a true totemic champion. Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours, a book by Jim Butcher based on this run, introduces the siblings of Morlun, an Implacable Man and Energy Vampire who feeds on this type, and it turns out that every Animal-Themed Superbeing has this connection even if it's not obvious. Black Cat is a Badass Normal; she wasn't bitten by a radioactive cat and given feline powers. Yet, if she wasn't cat enough to be delicious and nutritious to the likes of Morlun, she'd never have chosen the name. That's why Spidey, Cat, and even the Rhino must team up when Mortia, Thanis, and Malos come to town.
  • Hunted, the first story event from The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) Lampshades this when Spider-Man points out that it's "not hard to see the theme here" among the many animal-themed rogues being rounded for Kraven the Hunter's latest evil scheme. Two of the bad guys doing the rounding up, Taskmaster and Black Ant actually discuss in a dark comedic way whether Hammerhead, the mob boss with a metal plate in his skull fits given the shark name but they decide that he hadn't committed, i.e. actually dress up and use gadgets which fit his animal gimmick. When all the rounding up is done, Taskmaster gloats to Black Ant, when he betrays him, that hey an ant is also an animal.
• Animal-Themed Fighting Style:
  • Spider-Man's rogues gallery contains several enemies who follow this pattern to go with their animal motifs. In fact, for a time this was almost the only type of foe Spidey fought. Rhino, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Kangaroo, Scorpion, Leap Frog, Puma, and Razorback are a very short list of villains who, through one method or another, tend to fight using the same kinds of attacks and tactics as the animals they're patterned after. How effective this is varies.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott), Spider-Man's Spider-Sense was temporarily disabled. To compensate for this, Peter underwent martial arts training from Shang Chi to develop a fighting style called "Way of the Spider" which focused on spider-like strength and reflexes.
• Anti-Hero: Spider-Man himself originally could be quite the self-serving jerkass at times. In one comic he gatecrashed Johnny Storm’s house party and picked a fight with Johnny just because he was jealous of the attention the latter got. Fans however complained to Stan about Spidey’s jerky behaviour in the fan mail section and soon Spider-Man’s negative traits were dropped and he became the All-Loving Hero we know him as today. Although certain writers (such as Dan Slott) turn him into a flawed Anti-Hero and even a Anti-Villain when Doctor Octopus took over his body in Superior Spider-Man (2013).
• Anti-Hero Substitute:
  • Venom could count as a rare villain-to-villain example of this. Eddie Brock, the original Venom was certainly a homicidal maniac, but he eventually was tailored into a '90s Anti-Hero of sorts. The third Venom, Mac Gargan (the Scorpion) is more evil than Brock and thus since he pretends to be a hero as part of the Dark Avengers, he's both an Anti-Hero Substitute for Spider-Man (who he impersonates) and Venom. The second Venom (Angelo Fortunato) didn't last long enough to be considered a substitute. Once Flash Thompson became Venom, you could argue for it being an odd reverse villain-hero example; Flash being more heroic than Eddie at his very best. And then it went back to anti-hero again as Eddie.
  • Zig-zagged in The Clone Saga. The original aim of the series, itself a continuation of a Silver Age storyline, was an attempt to roll back the creeping cynicism of the nineties. Whilst Peter Parker continued to spiral ever downward into depression and anger, Ben Reilly was introduced as a Lighter and Softer Spider-Man with the same set of memories as the original, a powerful statement of just how far Peter had fallen.
  • The entire premise of Superior Spider-Man (2013), which sees Otto Octavius becoming a Darker and Edgier Spider-Man after performing a "Freaky Friday" Flip with Peter Parker and then leaving him to die in Ock's frail body. As Spider-Man, Otto spies on criminals 24/7 with automated "Spider-bots" equipped with cameras, employs a private mercenary army called "Spider-Patrol 7", and even has his own force of eight-legged Humongous Mecha decked out in Spider-Man's classic red and blue. Notably, where Peter was the classic Hero with Bad Publicity who was frequently treated as a criminal nuisance by the cops and the press, Otto frequently gives orders to the police and city hall.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Puma serves in many ways as a Punch-Clock Villain, only killing people he's hired to murder as a paid assassin. He originally crosses paths with Spidey after a mob boss hires him to murder the wall-crawler, but later on comes to Spider-Man's aid on several occasions. He only kills people he's paid to, and otherwise functions as a perfectly legitimate businessman in his day job, his major concerns being his own personal welfare and the needs of his people.
  • Mr. Negative is a ruthless crime lord who runs drugs, weapons, prostitutes, illegal immigrants, protection... His alter ego, Martin Li, is a saintly billionaire who has dedicated his life to charitable pursuits. He feels this is necessary for the sake of balance - if a man who does great evil doesn't also do great good, his spirit will never know peace.
  • Regent in The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. The reason he has taken the powers of every other hero in their slice of the Marvel multiverse is because he believes this is the only way to protect their Earth from destruction should the events of Secret Wars (2015) spill into their reality. When he tells this to our heroes, who are completely unaware of said multiverse war, they dismiss him as being completely insane.
• Arachnid Appearance and Attire: Spider-Man is a notable example in that unlike regular spider-themed characters, he's known for being very colorful, except when he's wearing his black costume. He and other spider-heroes also usually crack jokes or act silly when fighting bad guys, further subverting this trope. Peter Parker is "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", after all. However, when the situation becomes dire enough for these various Spideys to stop quipping, they become absolutely terrifying opponents that practically codify this trope.
  • There's also Venom, Carnage, and Toxin as symbiotes that copy Spidey's powers, and the various Spider-Women.
  • Madame Web also counts.
  • Lesser-known Spider-Man foes include Tarantula and Black Tarantula.
  • The two Scarlet Spiders, both clones of the original Spider-Man.
  • Silk and Spider-Gwen are similar in temperament to Peter, but their default costumes are much closer to the black-and-white color motif associated with this trope.
• Arch-Enemy: Three villains contest for the role: Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom. The reason for this is that the Green Goblin died in the '70s and spent a good 20-odd years dead before he came back to torment his foe, which is probably the record to beat for dead A-list villains. In the meantime, Doctor Octopus and Venom filled the roles in the '70s and '80s/'90s, respectively. However, in recent decades, Venom became more of an Anti-Hero figure with his hatred of Peter toned down. At the same time, both Osborn and Octavius really hurt the wall-crawler in their own nasty ways, so if there is a contest for a mantle of Spider-Man’s greatest enemy, it’s between these two. As Stan Lee put it himself: "The Green Goblin is Peter Parker's greatest enemy, while Doctor Octopus is Spider-Man's greatest enemy.”
  • To elaborate on the quote: Doctor Octopus is the archenemy of Spider-Man in a very classic sense. Otto and Peter have a lot in common, both being scientists, who were bullied in school, and later got caught up in freak accidents that dramatically changed them forever. Both received a lot of power and both decided to channel that power by adopting an alter-ego based on an eight-legged animal. The difference is that Peter chose to be a superhero and use his powers for good, while Otto chose to become a criminal, who tries to get back at the world. Doctor Octopus is the most recurring villain of the franchise, challenging the very idea of Spider-Man and being responsible for some of the most dramatic incidents in Peter’s career as a superhero: his first defeat, near death, death of Captain Stacey, the establishment of Sinister Six and outright identity theft. At the same time, Otto never really cared about the man behind the mask and kept his rivalry with Spider-Man on sort of “gentlemanly” level, actually making a point of trying not to hurt Peter’s loved ones.
  • Norman Osborn is a different story. For him, being a supervillain with a secret identity has never really carried any pragmatic benefits and has not served any goal aside from channeling his psychopathic and sadistic urges while maintaining a façade of respectful businessman. Since his very motivation as the Goblin (and later as Osborn himself) is to play out power fantasies, he was angry that someone stood up against him and swiftly decided to punish the person behind the mask. This dynamic between the characters eventually led to a lot of tragedy and pain in Peter’s life over the years as he saw numerous deaths and tortures of his loved ones, starting with Gwen Stacy, at the hands of Norman. Needless to say, it’s a very personal conflict between the two and Peter hates no one as much as he hates Osborn. He even had to stop himself from killing the latter several times. If Otto challenges the idea of Spider-Man as a superhero, Norman Osborn challenges Peter’s morality itself.
• Arc Welding:
  • A most notable case is Gerry Conway's Parallel Lives, which while often seen as a Retcon or Revision, was actually an attempt to merge different parts of Mary Jane Waton's characterization over the Spider-Man continuity in a way that made sense, while reconciling gaps in her characterization:
    • Originally Lee/Romita introduced Mary Jane as an insensitive airhead who was constantly flirting and chasing after Peter in a way that was both a little insensitive and mean to Harry and Gwen, and which annoyed Peter to no end. Then Conway himself in his run building on Lee-Romita's characterization tried to develop her into a more compassionate, and courageous, person, as well as a loyal friend and companion who genuinely cares for Peter and loves him, and with whom Peter can be truly happy and relaxed in a way he couldn't with Gwen. After Conway left, Len Wein generally kept the couple as static while occasionally for the sake of drama having MJ be mean to Peter by flirting with Flash in Operation: Jealousy type gambits that left him confused, with many noting that MJ was "Gwen with sarcasm and sass" in this period, rarely building on Conway's work. Marv Wolfman, who followed Wein, had Peter propose to her and MJ reject it a little callously, seeking to end the relationship and shake the status-quo, but the second series (The Spectacular Spider-Man), still keeping in line with Conway's characterization, had her say she still loved Peter and was a little worried about taking the next step, and later Wolfman said that she did it because her parents divorced and wrote her out of the book.
    • When Roger Stern came and brought Mary Jane back, as a little older and more successful version of her teenage self, he also created a backstory that hinted at both her origins (with Aunt May saying that both she and Peter "have lost so much") and later an outline that as per Stern, Tom Defalco followed correctly, namely that she had known Peter was Spider-Man for a while and it was out of fear for his life and herself that she rejected his proposal and left New York. This explanation contradicted the one given by Wolfman where it was fear about her repeating her parents' divorce, and it didn't explain when she learned the secret and why she chose Peter's proposal to get out, since Spider-Man's adventures didn't impinge on her life in that period to justify her leaving.
    • Conway, feeling that Mary Jane's new backstory explained and deepened her early behavior and characterization, decided to have Mary Jane know from the very beginning since it both demonstrated clearly to readers how much her Lee-Romita facade was clearly an act, it heightened her courage to stay at Peter's side, made her earlier interactions and behavior with Harry and Gwen a little less mean, if still sarcastic and trollish, and provided a better motivation for her rejecting Peter's first proposal (he proposed without telling her his identity which she would obviously feel was indicative that he didn't trust her) and why she chose to reveal her Secret Secret-Keeper status to Peter and her own origins so shortly after she came back when the Puma attacked (since originally she said "I thought I could handle it before", which two issues later became a justification for her leaving New York).
  • The Clone Saga had one moment where Peter is arrested for deaths that were connected to the clone Kaine. To his horror, the times those people were killed were during the time he was buried alive and he has no alibi without blowing his secret identity.
  • The Sins Past storyline infamously Ret Cons that Gwen Stacy secretly had twins with Norman Osborn, though it doesn't try to explain how. J.R. "Madgoblin" Fettinger, having pored over back issues, posted his theory online of when it could have happened: a certain period when she was on the outs with Peter but after Norman had recently saved her father's life. Maybe she went over to thank him and One Thing Led to Another? He conceded that this wasn't a perfect theory (for example, Gwen doesn't look pregnant when she logically should), but it made more sense than anything else, so the writers made it canon.^note Then a later storyline reveals that this was all false anyway, she never slept with Norman and the twins were clones. Comics!
  • The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) tied Mary Jane's miscarriage at the end of The Clone Saga and Peter's infamous Deal with the Devil in One More Day together with the revelation that they're both part of Mephisto's efforts to prevent Peter and Mary Jane's daughter from being born, as she's apparently destined to dethrone him when he conquers Earth in a possible future.
  • Sinister War revealed that Kindred had been behind Mysterio's revival after the seminal Daredevil storyline Guardian Devil and was behind other events such as Spider-Men. The controversial Sins Past also plays a central role in the story, with the revelation that Harry Osborn was behind it all in a mad attempt to give Norman "worthy" heirs. That didn't pan out because the Stacy twins' bodies were too unstable, but they did come in handy when Kindred needed a body...
  • In Ultimate Spider-Man, several Batman Cold Opens involving him fighting some villain who attacked "Roxxon Industries" were welded together when the CEO of that company (a person rather lacking in common sense) hired some mercenaries to bring him in for questioning about why he was fighting those people.
• Armed with Canon:
  • Years ago, Eric Larsen had Doctor Octopus deliver the Hulk a severe smackdown during the "Revenge of the Sinister Six" story arc. In the story, "Doc Ock" was given extremely powerful adamantium limbs which made him far more dangerous. Hulk writer Peter David accused Larsen of making a personal attack when he wrote that story and responded with a story written for the sole purpose of mocking Doctor Octopus. Larsen denied this, claiming he had used the Hulk to show how deadly Ock had become in a rather obvious demonstration of The Worf Effect. (And it made sense; what better way to prove a villain has Taken a Level in Badass than have him beat up the Hulk?)
    • This debate kicked up again years later in the letter-pages of Savage Dragon where David wrote in to accuse Larsen of making a personal attack when he wrote the Spider-Man story. Larsen explained that since Doc Ock was using Applied Phlebotinum in the story (he had much stronger adamantium limbs), it made sense to use the Hulk for the Worf Effect. David was not amused.
  • The What If? version of Spider-Man: The Other, by Peter David, basically starts with the Watcher explaining that the fundamental premise of the original story (by J. Michael Straczynski) is flawed, and this version is based on what was really going on.
  • Kurt Busiek's Untold Tales of Spider-Man featured stories set in between and around The Amazing Spider-Man. It stuck closely as possible to the old continuity of those issues. Many fans considered it the most entertaining Spider-Man book, especially since the series appeared around the time all the regular Spider titles were entangled in The Clone Saga mess. Then John Byrne came along. Spider-Man: Chapter One was his attempt to update the old Lee and Ditko stories and he pretty much disregarded most of what Busiek had done in his Untold Tales series.
    • Not too long afterwards, Paul Jenkins penned a Chameleon story-arc in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man - explicitly referencing his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #1 instead of Chapter One. Note that Jenkins didn't do so based on his own opinions. He simply asked editorial which story he should reference, and they answered with the original. To add insult to injury, this went down while Chapter One was still in progress - Byrne's mini-series being disregarded months before the final issue was on the stands. Additionally, events and characters from Untold Tales have since been mentioned or referenced.
  • When Nick Spencer took over writing The Amazing Spider-Man in 2018, the early issues had some noticeable potshots at former writer Dan Slott's portrayal of the character, with several characters even calling Peter out on irresponsible behavior made during Slott's run. Spencer's very first issue saw the long-awaited reunion of Peter and Mary Jane, with subsequent issues deconstructing their previous reasoning for not getting back together and ultimately refuting it. Unfortunately for Spencer, his efforts were for naught, as the two were immediately broken up again after Zeb Wells took over the comic.
  • In Mighty Avengers (following the conclusion of Superior Spider-Man (2013)), Peter mentions having an Ayn Rand phase in college and getting into shouting matches with protesters, which was a jab at Steve Ditko's fascination with Objectivism.
• Art Evolution: While Spider-Man's basic design has stayed pretty consistent, there have been a number of changes throughout the years. When he was first drawn by Steve Ditko, Spidey's eyes were much smaller, and he had web nets underneath his arms. When John Romita Sr. took over drawing the comic, the web wings grew smaller, and his eyes grew a little larger. By the '80s, the web wings were completely gone, and the eyes started being drawn absolutely huge compared to Ditko's art style. Today, the eye size still fluctuates from artist to artist, but hardly anyone includes the web wings. Also, his suit was red and black, rather than red and blue.
  • Steve Ditko's work noticeably improved further into his run. When he was plotting his own stories, his work became more visual.
  • John Romita Sr's work started out as a close copy of Ditko's, featuring nine-panel pages and such. But as Romita grew more confident with his work and as Ditko's run was further back in the memories of readers, Romita began to space out his work a bit more, allowing for more visual panels, and eventually, Romita adopted his own style.
  • John Romita Jr.'s work noticeably improved in the interim between his first run with Roger Stern and his second run after the reboot (mostly with J. Michael Straczynski).
  • Todd McFarlane's work started out fairly standard until proportions and anatomy became more and more exaggerated, some would say for the worse. Erik Larsen followed a similar trajectory.
  • Mark Bagley's issue as guest penciller, The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #345, was rather rough and the proportions were off and Bagley didn't quite have the character design right. But by the time he'd grown into his role as a regular penciller, his work was so iconic that it was featured on just about every piece of Spider-Man merchandise.
• The Artifact: On account of Marvel's decision to set Spider-Man in a Like Reality, Unless Noted New York (rather than DC's Fantasy Counterpart Culture approach) as well as its adoption of Comic-Book Time, some aspects of Spider-Man's lore have become a little anachronistic or dated (which only recently has started to change).
  • Spider-Man is fundamentally a street-level superhero like Daredevil and originally his adventures had a realism because The '60s to The '90s was The Big Rotten Apple era of New York City (where real events like the 1977 blackout occurred in the page), a time of high crime statistics when the idea of multiple street-level superheroes in a single city had a little verisimilitude. Since the era of Giuliani and gentrification, however, street crime level has dropped down while highly restrictive gun laws have been put into effect. Of course, the presence and activity of supervillains don't depend on that for explanation, but fundamentally the reduction of crime should mean that Spider-Man's hero duties putting demands on his personal and professional life needs more justification than "it's New York".
  • The issues of gentrification and high costs in New York, the challenges to print media by digital media, and the rise of cellphones and the internet have also meant that Peter's old job as a photographer for a newspaper, being the guy who "takes pictures of Spider-Man", making a sufficient livelihood off of that (despite being lowballed on the price by JJJ), and still living in New York was harder to accept. It was already dated in The Oughties, that Sam Raimi's adoption of the same in the Spider Man Trilgy came off to more than a few observers as Anachronism Stew (Raimi made it work however by artificially mixing different aspects of New York history). The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) had Jameson become the Mayor of New York, which essentially updated the dynamic between Peter and Jameson.
    • In the Ultimate Spider-Man series, Peter becomes a web designer (albeit initially entering the Daily Bugle with the photographs) and part of the plot had the Daily Bugle transition from a print to an online magazine. The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) then had Jameson become the Mayor of New York, which essentially updated their dynamic.
    • Likewise, the idea of "Peter taking pictures of Spider-Man" which is a beloved trope and central to his dynamic of JJJ suffers because Technology Marches On. In The '60s through The '80s, when all photography was done on film and professional photographs were shot manually with analog controls (i.e. selecting f-stop, exposure, ISO with fingers and in-camera in the middle of a shot), it was believable that a superhero like Spider-Man would be too fast to capture and needed an insider as it were to provide the pictures, which made it possible for Peter to gain exclusive rights to Spider-Man's still photographs. But this made it harder with the digital revolution and impossible in the smartphone age, as such the trope started fading in comics in The '90s and The Oughties and has disappeared in The New '10s.
  • Aunt May's original purpose was to be an unwitting obstruction in Peter's life for drama's sake: She was very frail so illness could strike at any moment, she didn't have much money so Peter had to get a job to support the family, and her constant worrying about Peter didn't mean sneaking out to be Spider-Man was tricky but kept Peter from telling her his secret (out of fear she'd die of shock). When Peter finally moved out of the house and was on his own he was free from her smothering while May herself was able to sell her house and move in with her friend, meaning she had a nest egg to live off of and had someone to take care of her. Later writers redefined her as a character. For example, The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) had her learn Peter's identity and provide him with much-needed advice and moral support throughout his run.
    • Uncle Ben and Aunt May belonged to "the Greatest Generation" and Ben was several years older than Richard, his younger brother (who is Peter's father). This kind of background made sense at that time owing to the trials of the Depression, the war years (Ben was a serviceman), and the generation gap, but after adopting Comic-Book Time, both Ben and May became older as Peter grew younger, making it more of a stretch, leading to recent comics to try and write May into a younger person.
  • Gwen Stacy being killed off is treated by comics fans and other creators as a bold gutsy move to really drive home personal stakes and shake up the status quo by getting rid of a prominent supporting character and Love Interest. The reality is that Gwen Stacy was killed off in an iconic story, The Night Gwen Stacy Died, because the writer and many of its fans saw her as a bland Love Interest, a wet blanket girlfriend, and as such someone who was disposable and fair-game (the original plan to kill off Aunt May was vetoed). She was someone who liked Peter but hated Spider-Man and whom the writer Gerry Conway thought would be more interesting as The Lost Lenore than if she was alive, while the more developed and interesting Mary Jane Watson was established as Peter's real love. The problem starts when other versions, such as Ultimate Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man Series decide to adapt the same story and situation, but depart from the original context (i.e. she was a bland character whose dynamic was more informed than visible) and make Gwen into a fleshed out and interesting supporting character, too valuable and attracting too much investment from the audience for her to be disposed of in a low-stakes story^note i.e. a story which is not intended to be Spider-Man's last adventure or major turning point a la Batman: The Dark Knight Returns or Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. In the Ultimate comics, they killed her off gratuitously and then brought her back again much later as a clone-but-not-clone-as-good-as-the-real-thing, while the decision to kill off the highly popular and beloved version played by Emma Stone was seen as a stupid move since it removed by far the most beloved and liked character in the film (the plans before the planned sequel was canceled were copying Ultimate in reviving her as Carnage... and also an alternate universe Spider-Woman Gwen, years before Spider-Gwen was actually a thing!).
  • Almost all versions of Venom tend to give the character a white spider emblem on his chest, even though it's been decades since the Venom symbiote got expelled from Peter Parker's body and chose Eddie Brock (and later Mac Gargan and Flash Thompson) as its host instead. In its initial appearance, the symbiote had the chest emblem because it bonded with Peter shortly after his costume was severely damaged, and it took on the appearance of his Spider-Man threads because it (mostly) responded to Peter's mental commands at the time. Nowadays, the design thematically fits with the idea of Venom being a Shadow Archetype/Evil Counterpart of Spider-Man, but he had no real in-universe reason to look like that until the 2018 retcon that it actually represented the symbiotic dragons used by the eldritch god Knull that created the symbiotes, only resembling a spider coincidentally.
• Artifact Domination:
  • When Spider-Man first came into possession of his symbiotic costume he was unaware that it was a living entity. The symbiote, coming from a fairly violent species, slowly twisted Spidey into a more violent version of himself until he realized what was going on and got rid of it. Several other symbiotes exist in the Marvel Universe and the symbiote is a danger to take over its host. However, most of these symbiotes have found sympathetic hosts, so it's not known how much influence they exert or how much is the host's own appetite for destruction.
  • After leaving Spider-Man the first symbiote found Eddie Brock whose own hatred of Spider-Man and violent temper were a better fit.
  • Another symbiote found violent serial killer Cletus Kasady and became Carnage, a mass-murdering supervillain.
  • After Eddie Brock rejected the symbiote, he auctioned it off to Don Fortunato who gives it to his under-achieving son Angelo, hoping the power of the symbiote will finally make him into something. However, when Angelo becomes frightened of his newfound power and refuses to kill a weakened Spider-Man, the symbiote abandons him.
  • Agent Venom (Flash Thompson) is only allowed to wear the suit for 48 hours at a time precisely so it cannot take control of his mind.
• Ascended Extra: Eugene "Flash" Thompson was once a Jerk Jock who bullied Peter Parker, but was a major fan of his web-slinging alter-ego. After the shift away from high school, Flash tended to stick to the background before becoming a soldier. After an accident cost him his legs, he got a second chance in serving his country. He became the Venom for a time, has been a member of the Secret Avengers, and even dated Valkyrie. Now, that's impressive.
• Asshole Victim:
  • After all the hell Sasha Kravinoff put Spider-Man through, including killing Mattie Franklin and Madame Web, not a single shit was given when Kraven snapped her neck.
  • Spider-Man 2099: Aaron Delgato's a huge jerk, and he dies after one of his own bullets makes a tank explode.
  • Spider-Verse: Very few people will miss Patton Parnel, an evil red-headed version of Peter Parker who mutated into a spider-monster before being killed by Morlun.
  • Superior Spider Man: The bullies that were picking on Anna Marconi for being a little person. Sure what Otto did was Disproportionate Retribution, but those guys were hardly innocents. Same goes for many of the bad guys that Otto has beaten up or killed.
  • Untold Tales of Spider-Man: 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.
• Author Avatar:
  • Stan Lee has said that Spider-Man was something of this for him. He also created J. Jonah Jameson based on other peoples' view of him, and as the EIC, Lee had a similar job as Jonah at Marvel. Both he and Ditko were children during the Depression and grew up with memories of poverty and having a hard luck life, which fed into the portrayal of poor working-class Peter, and the portrayal of Aunt May and Uncle Ben as Greatest Generation parental figures based on their memories of their families.
  • Since Ditko drew and designed the comics as per the Marvel Method, some argue that Peter is more reflective of Ditko himself. The original Peter Parker◊ in the comics bears a startling resemblance to Steve Ditko in his high school picture. Like Peter, Ditko was a loner, an outsider, a little aloof though also described as friendly and affable in one-on-one meetings, which mirrored the early Peter Parker to a great degree.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • Norman Osborn, but only when he's the Goblin. He's far more lucid out of costume, but still evil.
  • Back when Eddie Brock was a villain, Venom was unhinged and hellbent on vengeance against Spider-Man, even approaching some levels of homicidal urges. However, after character development, Eddie has grown out of this, to the point that as Venom he tries not to kill criminals anymore.
    • The Venom symbiote's first host Tel-Kar was hell-bent on genocide so it adopted that personality. As its corruption worsened, it became increasingly rage-filled and homicidal, even abandoning the twisted morality it had while bonded to Eddie. However, it can still be tamed by the right host and eventually gets better as it controls its bloodlust along with keeping its insanity in check — unlike its offspring Carnage, who enjoys senseless murder and is extremely bloodthirsty.
  • Carnage. He's the definition of Ax-Crazy, killing people and destroying things not because of any grand master plan on his part, but simply because he can. He's so much of an Ax Crazy that one of the most common manifestations of his ability to reform his arms into weapons is an ax. Not that he wasn't out of his gourd before bonding with the symbiote; Marvel Comics: Cletus Kasady he was]] a Serial Killer who had killed at least eleven people before being caught, and may have killed one or both of his parents.
• Back for the Dead:
  • The original Hobgoblin was absent from the main Spidey titles for more than a decade. The writers eventually bowed to fan demand and brought him back... just in time for him to be killed and his murderer to take his stuff and become the new Hobgoblin. Later subverted when it was revealed that it was Hobgoblin's brother who died, not the real deal.
  • Spider-Verse isn't holding back on this trope, killing off the Spider-Men from Marvel 1602, Spider-Man: Reign, Spider-Man Unlimited (and given Slott, like many people, holds the opinion of Unlimited being a sequel to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, this means that show's Spidey is dead, too), Bullet Points^note Marvel Comics: Bruce Banner Bruce Banner]] and Peter Parker having swapped roles, and House of M, as well as the Mary Jane Spider-Woman from Exiles and Twinkies-advertising Spider-Man from Howard the Duck, the Prince of Arachne from Marvel Fairy Tales, the Betty Brant Spider-Girl, Arachnosaur, and the Spidey from Marvel vs. Capcom. The Amazing Friends version of Iceman and Firestar, the Unlimited versions of the Knights of Wundagore, as well as Mayday Parker's father is also dead. The sequel Spider-Geddon also kills off Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Man UK. However, the sequel ends with The Other reviving Mayday's father and Noir is also later revived.
• Back from the Dead: Between Carnage and The Green Goblin, it would seem that death is more of an inconvenience than anything. Though the Goblin is notable for lasting twenty-odd years, which seeing as he is an Arch-Enemy is probably a record.
  • Averted in The Amazing Spider-Man (1963), when Peter's parents, Richard and Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker, claimed to not have been killed in an airplane crash, and ended up staying with Peter for a while. It turned out they were impostors. Robot impostors. Zig-zagged with Uncle Ben - he's never been permanently resurrected; however, in The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) #500, he was brought back to life, as a gift from Doctor Strange... for 5 minutes, to have a conversation with Peter. Since then, however, he's remained in the realm of the dead.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) attempted to be edgy when it devoted a 12-part series that ran across multiple Spider-Man titles and ended with Peter Parker getting his eye ripped out by Morlun before getting killed. Of course, no matter how much the arc attempted to convince the readers that Peter was truly dead, he ended up coming back with more organic powers, as well as a new suit built for him by Tony Stark.
• Backstab Backfire: After the Green Goblin killed Gwen Stacy in The Night Gwen Stacy Died, Spidey tracked him down and beat him nearly to death. Spidey was so angry that he wanted to kill the Goblin, but at the last minute stopped himself. He thought that Osborn was no longer a threat, but Osborn, who was still able to remotely control his goblin glider, positioned it behind Spider-Man and hit the gas, hoping to impale him. Spidey dodged the glider and it hit Osborn instead, killing him. At least, that's how the story originally went.
• Badass Bookworm:
  • Peter Parker. Science nerd. Photographer. Spider-Man. Once punched Wolverine through an unbreakable plate glass window to fall to the street 15 stories below when he was mad. The epitome of this trope due to being the first known teenage outcast super hero. He's the master of this trope because, despite being a nerd, he gets all sorts of awesome powers and is a straight up Chick Magnet. Second only to Tony Stark in that area (also a fellow Badass Bookworm), but Parker is the original Nerd Superman.
  • Spider-man's villain, The Shocker. Smart guy and puts up a good fight. Has updated and improved his costume and blast gauntlets based upon past encounters with Spider-Man. Also one of the most professional villains in the rogue's gallery, having an alright win-loss ratio considering that he fights Spider-Man.
  • Doctor Octopus is a highly trained nuclear physicist and roboticist who is a very dangerous physical threat to Spider-Man.
  • The Vulture is skilled in the fields of electronics and mechanical engineering which allowed him to create the suit that allows him to fly.
  • Then there's Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, who took a drug to boost his own intellect, becoming insane and super strong in the process. His successors (his son Harry Osborn and Roderick Kingsley, the first Hobgoblin) followed suit.
• Badass Family: The Parker family. Obviously, there's Peter Parker himself but it doesn't stop there:
  • His parents are Richard and Mary Parker, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who worked for Nick Fury and once saved Wolverine's life.
  • Peter's uncle Ben fought in World War II and told his nephew stories of Captain America (it's not certain if he met Cap personally or just knew of him). There is also the pre-Spidey story in which Ben and Peter escaped from a giant monster.
  • His Aunt May once poisoned the Chameleon and was gutsy enough to swipe Wolverine's cigar and tell him to smoke outside.
  • His wife Mary Jane was no slouch in the badass department either since she once handled a hostage crisis, another time beat up the Chameleon with a baseball bat, and still another time cold-cocked sleazy Daily Bugle reporter Nick Katzenburg.
  • Then there's the Marvel Comics 2 reality in which Peter has Plucky Girl daughter May (aka Spider-Girl). Ben Reilly, ex-killer clone Kaine, and Ben's son Reilly Tyne. And Baby Ben will probably go into the family business, too. In yet another alternate future, (Earth X timeline), Peter has another version of May who is no less badass and still takes up superheroing.
  • In the alternate universe series The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Mary Jane dons a special costume that allows her to use Spidey's powers, taking the codename "Spinneret" and their super-powered daughter in this universe, Annie May, is given the codename "Spiderling" (despite the girl begging for "Spider-Girl")
• Badass Normal:
  • Mary Jane Watson is the girlfriend of Spider-Man but she is no slouch in this department. Despite not being a Charles Atlas Superpower yet, she has been trained by Captain America and is Subverted in being a Damsel in Distress when dealing with Spider-Man's enemies. She's even saved Spider-Man himself in some instances. Averted at other times such as in Spider-Island where MJ becomes a web-slinging Spider-Woman herself.
  • J. Jonah Jameson. No seriously, name another middle-aged journalist who's survived dozens of encounters from some of the most deadly supervillains on the planet, journeyed through Savage Land, fought the new king of the Mole Men in combat and best of all yelled in Godzilla's face, because for all J.Jonah's faults the man has balls of pure Adamantium.
    • By extension the rest of the staff of The Daily Bugle such as Betty Brant (who knows martial arts and has Eidetic Memory) and Robbie Robertson (who's implied to be a military vet) are this. They've not only aided Peter/Spidey multiple times but frequently survived close encounters with every super psycho from Green Goblin to Carnage. Especially notable given how many other Marvel heroes have had their non-powered allies die in various deadly conflicts.
  • The Kingpin uses both his powerful brains and more powerful brawn to keep the costumed villains in their place, and screw over the heroes.
    • Oddly enough, when he started off as a Spider-Man villain it was specifically stated that he had super strength, the origin of which, was a mystery. It was to the point where it was all but stated he was stronger than Spidey who can lift roughly 10 tons. Once he shifted over to a Daredevil villain, he had a Retcon, explaining that he was just a really strong human. After that, whenever Kingpin showed up in Spidey comics, he curiously turned into a master-manipulator type instead of the brawler he once was.
    • The character also features a deconstruction of the trope, in that no matter how badass he is, a normal person can't be expected to fight highly powerful superhumans head-on and expect to come out on top. Kingpin is often able to fight Spider-Man man to man, but the reason for this is that Spidey has to hold back his full strength when fighting human enemies to avoid killing them. In "Back in Black," one of the Kingpin's henchmen has just shot Aunt May, and Spider-Man comes within an inch of killing the Kingpin in an utter Curb-Stomp Battle. This proves that Kingpin as a Badass Normal can only fight superheroes because they let him.
  • Tombstone originally had no powers, and was, in Spidey's words, "Just a guy." He was just a guy with a tendency to Neck Lift people while strangling them to death — one-handed. When he and Spider-Man finally fought after a several-issue storyline, Tombstone gave the overconfident superhero a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at first using just his hands and then a metal pipe. Once Spidey realized that he was actually dangerous, he got serious and served up a Curb-Stomp Battle to the mob enforcer. Eventually, he crossed over to become an Empowered Badass Normal with brick powers after his old "friend" Robbie Robertson trapped him in an airtight chamber filled with gaseous Applied Phlebotinum.
  • Chameleon and Mysterio are examples of supervillains that use guile, gadgets, and deception rather than fighting the hero head-on. Mysterio in particular uses psychological warfare, SFX skills, hypnosis, and custom-made gasses to challenge Spider-Man mentally.
  • Kraven the Hunter is a badass normal Super-Persistent Predator who uses both advanced and primitive hunting gear and guerilla warfare to hunt down Spidey as opposed to fighting him head-on. Kraven instead ingests a magical potion to give himself super strength when the time comes to fight Spidey head-on, recognizing that athleticism and advanced combat skills don't exactly cut it next to a guy who can bench press a truck and sense your every move.
  • Shocker, Living Wheel, Beetle, and others derive their powers from their technology rather than having superpowers themselves.
  • Doctor Octopus falls in the same category, although with Doc Ock the argument can be made that he at least has superhuman concentration as a result of his brain rewiring to accommodate four additional limbs. In his original appearances, his arms were stuck to his body and after they were removed he maintained a mental link to them, making him more of a real superhuman, but in modern comics, he basically uses replaceable sets of arms that he can attach and discard as he needs.
  • It's easy to forget but without his Venom Symbiote Eddie Brock still counts as one. Always an athletic prodigy, Eddie started working out obsessively after his career went down the drain. Canonically, Eddie is actually stronger than the aforementioned Kingpin and only a smidgen below Captain America. When separated from the symbiote he is often resourceful (being a former investigative reporter and all that), cunning, and strong enough to hold his own against superpowered menaces until they reunite.
• Bat People:
  • Batwing is a young boy who was exposed to toxic waste in Carlsbad Caverns, causing him to become bat-like. Despite his monstrous appearance, he's still just a child, and Spider-Man tries to protect him from those who hate and fear him.
  • Morbius is an Anti-Hero who became a genetically modified vampire, with bat genes and an Orlok-like appearance. However, in his 3rd solo series and some alternate universes — like in an Exiles story arc and in animated series — he was transformed into a half-man half-bat monster, looking more like an anthropomorphic bat with wings.
• Being Evil Sucks: The Sandman eventually got sick of all the grief that came from being a criminal, and tried to go straight. He stayed a good guy for twenty years, real world time (just a couple of years, comic book time). Then his old evil teammate the Wizard stuck him in a brainwashing machine to make him evil again, causing him more grief. Poor dude.
• Big Applesauce: While New York City is home to a lot of Marvel superheroes, this is his Neighborhood where he does his Friendly stuff. While he can battle the cosmic fights like Fantastic Four, the global fights like The Avengers, and the mystic fights like Doctor Strange, Spidey will always be seen webslinging across the Manhattan skyline.
• Big Brother Bully:
  • Kraven the Hunter was technically this towards his younger half-brother Dmitri (who would grow up to be the Chameleon, his occasional partner in crime) — "technically" because Dmitri didn't know they were brothers at the time, only learning this from Kraven's son Alyosha decades later.
  • The Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do miniseries introduces a minor supervillain named Francis Klum, whose slide into evil began after his older brother started sexually abusing him and then forced him to use his low-level teleportation abilities to help create a criminal empire.
• Big Brother Mentor: Spidey tends to act like this for the younger heroes, especially those who feel they can't really trust the adult superheroes. A large reason is that Spidey started his superheroics at their age so he can relate to the struggles of balancing superheroism and teenage life. As a result, a lot of the young superheroes look up to him and he in turn tries his best to advise them on what he has learned as a former teenage superhero.
• Body Horror:
  • Spider-Man himself, after all the mutations he's undergone, from gaining more arms, to transforming into a Giant Spider (with a description of his feelings in the process) and what happened to him when he was killed.
  • The alien symbiotes.
  • Swarm the Nazi-Made-Of-Bees was a Nazi scientist studying bees who exposed them to radiation, only for them to mutate and devour him down to his bones. These bees apparently had a Hive Mind, which he became, and lived on as a man made of bees, sometimes wrapped around his human skeleton, sometimes not. This has never really been explored, perhaps because of the absurdity of a colony of telepathic bees with Nazi sympathies but being devoured and becoming a colony of bees sounds like it would be pretty damn traumatic. Venom eventually ate the skeleton, but because you can't keep a good Bee-Nazi down, Swarm can now create new bodies by possessing a queen bee and using her hive. He's gone from horrific to pure Paranoia Fuel, a rather impressive feat for a fairly lame villain.
  • The Tarantula is subjected to an attempt to give him spider powers. It gradually turns him into a monstrous mutated tarantula and he commits Suicide by Cop.
  • Many Spider-Man villains in general to varying degrees. Doctor Octopus and the Scorpion's artificial appendages are fused to their spine physically and mentally. The Rhino's suit is permanently melded to his body. Sandman and Hydro-Man are living masses of earth and water who can only maintain human form for so long. The Lizard's mutation unwillingly turns him from a nice scientist into a feral, deformed reptile monster. Carrion is a failed clone resembling a living corpse with a touch that withers his victims to dust. And then there's the Thousand, a sentient swarm of spiders with the mind of a Psychopathic Manchild who eats his hosts from the inside out. Probably for the best he was a one-shot villain.
• Bragging Theme Tune: Sing along, kids! Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Spins a web, any size. Catches thieves, just like flies. Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man.
• Briefer Than They Think:
  • Spider-Man's origins as a Kid Hero in high school are given a huge amount of emphasis in the character's portrayal in various media, including recent movies and animated series. Considering this was one of the things that originally made him so unique and relatable, it makes sense to a degree. However, Peter actually graduated from high school and went to college (the fictitious Empire State University) in The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko) #28 — only two and a half years after his first appearance. The classic period of Spider-Man as Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World lasted a very short time indeed, and most of his comic exploits from then on were as an early 20s young man, with it taking thirteen years for him to graduate college.
  • The Betty and Veronica Love Triangle between Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane Watson that everyone remembers was actually very short, only lasting a few issues (The Amazing Spider-Man #44-#52) before Peter settled on Gwen and Mary Jane became Beta Couple with Harry Osborn, though she would still flirt with Peter and make passes at him later on, which Gwen usually replied with cutting barbs. Her teasing and flirting dialed down when she realized his commitment to Gwen was serious and then MJ was Put on a Bus returning semi-regularly starting in The Amazing Spider-Man #87 where her dynamic with Gwen was closer to Vitriolic Best Buds or "frenemies".
  • The alien costume period. Spider-Man started wearing the black costume in 1984 and wore it until 1988 and it is immortalized in notable stories like "The Death of Jean DeWolff" and "Kraven's Last Hunt," cementing it in fans' minds as a long-term thing. But in all of those stories, the costume was actually cloth. The actual alien costume was first worn in #252 and was removed in #258 before making a one-issue return in Web of Spider-Man #1. In fact, by the time Secret Wars #8 was published, which showed how he got the costume, he had already ditched the costume and was using the cloth copy.
  • Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, tends to be seen as Spider-Man's greatest foe, but his actual time in the spotlight was relatively short. He appeared in-costume in The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko) #14 (1964), and went on to show up in around three stories (one being a two-parter) before issue 40 (1966) revealed his true identity and had him suffer Easy Amnesia that made him forget his time as the Goblin. After that point, he didn't appear in-costume until ASM #96-98 in 1971, and his next story, #121-122 in 1973, had him killed off (taking Gwen Stacy with him). So that's around eight appearances, and he was only showing up regularly during a two-year period—and he was hardly the biggest fish in the pond at the time, with Doctor Octopus having a much better claim on the "Spider-Man's greatest foe" title. Much of the reason Gerry Conway made Norman the one to kill Gwen Stacy was that after the mystery of his identity had been solved and the question of "what if he comes back?" had been answered, there wasn't a lot left to do with the guy, meaning Conway felt he could kill him off without too many issues. After that point, the role was carried on by a number of Legacy Characters, many of whom had considerably longer tenures, before Norman was brought back in The Clone Saga... at which point he'd been dead far longer than he'd been alive.
• The Bully:
  • Flash Thompson. The Ultimate Spider-Man version of Flash is even worse, having none of the depth as his mainstream counterpart and taking far more pleasure in seeing Peter humiliated for no good reason. While the Flash Thompson of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is quite different inasmuch as he gives Peter Parker a wedgie in the second issue but stops engaging in that kind of behaviour shortly thereafter due to character development.
  • Tombstone was one as a teenager and only got worse as an adult, becoming a hitman by trade, with his tendency to bully people weaker than himself still obvious.
  • In the comic book Spider-Man’s Tangled Web, Schoolyard Bully all Grown Up Carl King, now the supervillain The Thousand, mentioned that he made the loser protagonist Peter Parker his homework slave and punished for him for messing up his math paper by giving him a swirlie, dangling him from the Williamsburg bridge, pointing a knife towards his crotch and forcing him to eat dog poop.
• Butt-Monkey: Some writers seem to think that the biggest appeal of Spider-Man is that things constantly go wrong for him. As a result, we get countless stories of Peter suffering humiliation, lack of money, sickly aunt, girl trouble, and just all around unpleasantness, to the point that reading the stories can actually get a little depressing. Note that after John Romita Sr. started working on the title with Stan Lee, the book became much Lighter and Softer than it had been recently, a move which led most fans to label it as the golden age of Spider-Man.
  • Originally, Peter Parker and Scott Summers of the X-Men had something in common, their characters were supposed to be guys whom things often tended to go wrong for, but not just for the sake of that, and they were impressive, each in his own way, in how they dealt with it. But too many writers just can't grasp the difference between that and 'kick them harder!'
  • J. Jonah Jameson, the Shocker, the Jason Macendale Hobgoblin, and others have all shared this role at different times over the years. Jason Macendale had it worse as it seemed he couldn't do anything right, up to getting a power boost from a demon. He was ultimately put down by the Roderick Kingsley Hobgoblin, who thought Jason was an embarrassment to the moniker.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott) #1, it hasn't even been ten minutes since being Spider-Man again before he has his suit unraveled by a villain's power, and having him nude except for his mask being posted all over the internet. This convinces '''everyone''' that the real Spider-Man is back.
  • This seems to apply to anyone who takes on the Spider mantle. Gwen Stacy has it even rougher in the alternate reality where she's bitten by the radioactive spider rather than Peter Parker. Her life is so bad that she has to travel to an alternate universe to improve her situation.