Line #6 ComicBook/SpiderHam


1	[[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spiderham12.PNG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:255: [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie Does whatever a Spider-Ham does.]]]]
3	->''"This is astounding! Am I a spider with the limitations of a pig? Or a pig with the proportionate strength and agility of a spider? I've become something greater than either spider or pig... I've become a Spider-Ham!"''
4	-->-- '''Peter Porker''', ''Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #15''
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6	Debuting in a comedic one-shot comic entitled ''Marvel Tails'' in 1983, Spider-Ham was created by writer Creator/TomDeFalco and artist Mark Armstrong as an animal-based parody of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. Hailing from [[AlternateUniverse Earth-8311]], Peter Porker is a common house spider [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext who was bitten by a radioactive pig scientist after an atomic-powered hairdryer accident]]. The bite transformed the spider into an anthropomorphic pig, whereupon he found that he retained all his spider abilities in addition to gaining the genius of scientist May Porker, who now believes herself to be Peter's absent-minded aunt. After coming to terms with these changes, the arachnid-turned-pig decided to become a superhero and use these talents to fight crime. Spider-Ham proved popular enough to get his own series published by Creator/MarvelComics subsidiary Creator/StarComics, a short-lived imprint of the company focused on children's comics, with this solo series lasting for 17 issues and featuring back-up material starring anthropomorphic animal versions of other Marvel heroes. After that, Spider-Ham made a few appearances in ''Marvel Tales'' and humor magazine ''What The--?!'' before fading into obscurity during the 1990s.
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8	Spider-Ham gained newfound prominence during the 2010s thanks to an unexpected cameo in the video game ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions''. He would return to comics as a supporting character in the ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse'' crossover event a few years later, after which he became a main member of the dimension-hopping ''ComicBook/WebWarriors'' team. The character's popularity was further bolstered by his cinematic debut in 2018's ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', where he is transformed into a ''Franchise/LooneyTunes''-inspired character voiced by Creator/JohnMulaney; Mulaney would reprise the role in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderHamCaughtInAHam'', a short included as a special feature in the film's home release. At the tail end of 2019, he got a new miniseries, and in 2021, a graphic novel called ''Spider-Ham: Great Power, No Responsibility'' was released under Scholastic's "Graphix" imprint. This later got two sequels, ''Spider-Ham: Hollywood May-Ham'' (2022) and ''Spider-Ham: A Pig in Time'' (2024).
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10	----
11	!!Tropes:
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13	* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: In his new mini at the end of 2019, he's developed a very swelled head from working to save the multiverse in Web-Warriors. It's long since gotten on every other hero's last nerve and they can barely tolerate his company, to his total obliviousness.
14	* AlternateSpeciesCounterpart: Spider-Ham is ComicBook/SpiderMan as a cartoon pig.
15	* AnthropomorphicAnimalAdaptation: The basic premise of the comic is that it takes place in a version of the Marvel universe where everyone is an anthropomorphic animal.
16	* CanonForeigner: Aside from anthropomorphic animal versions of traditional Marvel characters, there were some original characters created for this continuity as well, such as the villains Bullfrog and Dragon Lassie and the three junior reporters Bunsen, Upton, and J. Jeremiah Jackal, Jr. (J. Jonah Jackal's nephew).
17	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Peter Porker eventually in his own series gained a love interest named Mary Jane Waterbuffalo, this reality's version of Mary Jane Watson. She hasn't been seen since the story "The Pig from Porker's Past, Part 1" from the 224th issue of the second volume of ''Marvel Tales'', being replaced in the stories from ''Amazing Spider-Man Family'' and the ''Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special'' one-shot by a different character named Mary Crane Watson. She did return, however, in the recent graphic novel ''Great Power, No Responsibility''.
18	* DecompositeCharacter: Some Marvel characters have more than one counterpart in this reality. For instance, the Kingpin has appeared in the series as the Kingpig and the Pinhead.
19	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: This reality's version of Ant-Man is known as Ant-Ant.
20	* DependingOnTheArtist: While Ham's design is consistent for obvious reasons, alongside May Porker and Ham's rogues, the other characters whose species are kept consistent across titles often vary in design.
21	* DependingOnTheWriter: While Ham (obviously) and the Scavengers have stayed consistent in what animal they are, what animal counterparts to certain Marvel characters are is constantly fluctuating. In some stories, Mary Jane is a water buffalo, in others she's also a pig, and the "Swiney-Girl'' stories make her a crane. The counterparts of the X-Men were initially all bugs, but in more modern times they are of various species.
22	* DestructiveSavior: Captain Americat freely admits that the Scavengers destroy buildings in their fights.
23	* ExpospeakGag: Bunsen often says overly complicated versions of simple phrases, like saying "Do my audio receptors deceive me?" instead of "Do my ears deceive me?"
24	* FailureHero: Awful Flight, this universe's version of ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', who are shown to be completely inept and easily distracted from their mission. The ending narration even snarks that the reader shouldn't count on them ever saving the day.
25	* HumanityEnsues: A rare anthropomorphic animal example. Peter Porker used to be a spider, but became an anthropomorphic pig after an eccentric and elderly scientist named May Porker bit him after being exposed to radiation. The accident damaged May's brain and caused her to believe that she was Peter's aunt. Peter Porker chose not to tell her the truth out of fear that she'd die of shock.
26	* InterspeciesRomance:
27	** Peter Porker, a spider mutated into an anthropomorphic pig, has fallen for a bat named Batty Brant, a water buffalo named Mary Jane Waterbuffalo, a catfish named Black Catfish, and a crane named Mary Crane Watsow.
28	** One of the back-up stories in ''Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham'' featured a relationship between Ant-Ant, an ant, and Waspbunny, a bunny.
29	* JiveTurkey: Upton tends to describe everything using urban slang.
30	* LeftHanging: There were some stories that ended abruptly with no proper conclusion.
31	** "Secret Furs", a take-off of ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984'' where the Bee-yonder forced several characters to fight each other to promote profitable merchandise, ended on a cliffhanger in the 17th and final issue of ''Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham'', with the Bee-yonder still not punished for exploiting the heroes and villains.
32	** The 224th issue of the second volume of ''Marvel Tales'' had a story entitled "The Pig from Porker's Past, Part 1". The story had Porker and Mary Jane Waterbuffalo go on a date and meet [[NewOldFlame an until then unestablished love interest]] known as Sylvia Sowmeister, alias the Silver Sow. Peter Porker eventually left to change into Spider-Ham while some thugs were threatening Sylvia at gunpoint, ending the tale on a cliffhanger that was never resolved.
33	* LegacyCharacter: One ''What The--?'' story introduced Piguel O'Malley, [[Comicbook/SpiderMan2099 Spider-Ham 2099]]. It also featured [[Comicbook/ThePunisher2099 The Punfisher 2099]].
34	* LighterAndSofter: Due to being aimed more at children, the comic was definitely more lighthearted than regular Marvel comics.
35	* LiteralBookworm: The Bookworm is an enemy of Spider-Ham that appears in "TV or Not TV, [[EitherOrTitle Or... Read a Good Book Lately?]]". He's an earthworm whose parents were librarians and instilled him with a deep love for books. He became a librarian himself, but had to close down the library when television sets became a household standard. Some time thereafter, a book fell on his head and The Bookworm became a low-key RealityWarper with the skill to summon literary figures into existence, order them around, and dismiss them out of existence. In order, he summons [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers The Three Muskrateers]], Literature/TheRaven, and [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Quasidodo]] to ruin the [[MediaNotes/EmmyAward Eggy Awards]], destroy the state-of-the-art dish of a new television network, and kill Spider-Ham. Spider-Ham defeats The Bookworm by dropping another book on his head to remove his powers.
36	* MythologyGag: A scene in the 2019 mini is based on the climatic battle of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', although with the BigDamnHeroes moment made ''somewhat'' less dramatic by Spider-Ham [[YourOtherLeft getting his left and right mixed up]]. It even riffs on Movie Cap's SignatureLine, with Captain Americat saying he could do this all day, if they stopped for a catnap first.
37	* NegativeContinuity: Some stories seemed to contradict Spider-Ham's origins of being a spider mutated into his current state from being bitten by a radioactive pig. For example, the aforementioned "The Pig from Porker's Past, Part 1" established that Peter and Sylvia Sowmeister knew each other when they were 12 years old and met in school, which is at odds with Spider-Ham's origin having him state that being bitten by the irradiated May Porker caused him to become a full-grown pig. And that's not getting into how some Marvel characters' Larval Earth counterparts lack a consistency on what animal they are.
38	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Some of the anthropomorphic animal characters were named after and based on famous celebrities. One particular example was an ostrich rock star named [[Music/OzzyOsbourne Ozzy Ostrich]].
39	* OneSteveLimit: Averted. May Porker refers both to Peter Porker's "aunt" and his daughter in the "Swiney-Girl" stories from ''Amazing Spider-Man Family'' and the ''Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special'' one-shot.
40	* APigNamedPorkchop: Peter Porker is obviously named after pork, the food product from a pig.
41	* PunnyName: Quite a lot of the characters have names consisting of puns on their species. For example, Magneto's counterpart is named Magsquito, and this reality's version of the Beyonder is called the Bee-yonder.
42	* SpeciesSurname: Several characters have surnames consisting of their species. J. Jonah Jameson's counterpart, for instance, is named J. Jonah Jackal.
43	* SpinOffspring: The 4th issue of ''Amazing Spider-Man Family'' and the ''Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special'' both featured a story focusing on a take-off of ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'' called Swiney-Girl, where Peter Porker had a daughter named May "Mayday" Porker who decides to become a superheroine after learning that she's inherited her dad's powers.
44	* TailfinWalking: The Pun-fisher, the version of ComicBook/ThePunisher in this universe, walks around on his tailfins.
45	* TakeThat:
46	** It's made evident that whoever wrote the "Awful Flight" story doesn't have a high opinion of ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'', since they're portrayed as incompetent and useless.
47	*** Or it’s an AffectionateParody
48	** At the end of the 2019 mini, Mojo decides Larval Earth needs to be more "edgy" and puts the characters in pastiches of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman''. Spider-Ham complains that this just isn't funny, and Mojo acknowledges that it's "More ''wry'' than funny. In a ''depressing'' way." Spider-Man, meanwhile is reinvented as Creator/JoaquinPhoenix's ''Film/{{Joker}}'', with Mojo explaining "Now I can use him to explore ''complex'', ''mature'' themes like ''violence'' and ''mental illness''. No idea what I'm actually saying about them, but still ... ''pretty cool''."
49	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: When Spider-Ham asks [[Comicbook/TheIlluminati The Inhumanati]] why they didn't call him for a multiversal mission, they take turns explaining ''exactly'' why they didn't call him, and would ''never'' call him.
50	* UltimateUniverse: Miles Morhames of Ultimate Larval Earth is introduced in the finale arc of ''Comicbook/UltimateFF''. That universe is a darker and grimmer universe where the characters have relatively more realistic proportions and anatomy, juxtaposed against everybody still being an anthropomorphic animal with a pun-based codename.
51	* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: Just about everyone in this universe is an anthropomorphic animal with humanoid limbs and torsos. (Usually, they are all different animals — e.g., Hulk Bunny, Captain Americat, Deerdevil, etc — but in ''Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham'' they're all pigs with "Ham" in their names, like Green Ham and Captain Hamerica)

Context ComicBook / SpiderHam