Being Spider-Man had never been a glamorous job, but lately, it's been ripping Peter Parker's life apart. Along with having no money, a ruined social life and having lost his internship at ESU (again), now Spider-Man has to deal with a machine that Doc Ock's trying to steal. Everything goes pretty normal... until he realized that the lab Doc Ock had invaded was the exact same one that Gwen was interviewing for a job at. One thing leads to another and, to protect his best friend, Spider-Man finds himself sucked into a portal...
Written by WeirdScribe95
, The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham is a crossover fic between The Spectacular Spider-Man and Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. It explores what would happen if Spectacular's Peter Parker wound up in Gotham. The fic is completed as of January 2024. It can be read on Archive of Our Own right here.
The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Seeing as how he's The Stoic, Batman rarely laughs at the jokes some of the other Bats make. However, he admits that Spider-Man's joke about Joker's face cracking mirrors was pretty good.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Spectacular Spider-Man already had enough angst to deal with (many of his traumas are listed in the first full paragraph of the fic). Now, he not only has to deal with the remaining trauma from those events, but he now has to face the fact that he's in another dimension with no way to send a message to his loved ones, as well as the fact that, with him gone, villains like the Sinister Six can rampage New York, and he can't stop them. He's also shown a few times to still be dealing with all of the traumas caused by the symbiote.
- Adaptational Secrecy Downgrade: Spectacular's Spider-Man did a fairly good job of keeping his Secret Identity safe (by the end of the show, the only people who knew his true identity were Eddie Brock/Venom, Mary Jane (according to
Word of God), and (possibly) Captain Stacy.) In the fic, he ends up in Gotham and a member of the Bats (and thus, by association, the Justice League). Seeing as how many superheroes in the League are more-or-less okay with revealing their identities to one another, Peter has trouble adjusting to the fact that he doesn't have to keep his identity a secret 24/7 anymore (most notably when he learns that pretty much the whole Kent family knows who he is). - Adoption Conflict: Completely averted. Peter tells Bruce and the other Bats fairly early on that he lived with his aunt, and he readily tells her about Bruce taking him in when he meets May in the dream world. Neither adult has any problem with the other, accepting that they both care about Peter and that Peter cares about them. May even gives Bruce a hug and a sincere thank you for taking Peter as his sixth son.
- Anger Born of Worry: Spider-Man runs off to fight Killer Croc without telling Barbara what he's doing. When Peter Parker comes back, Barbara's ticked off. Once they're in the car, though, she explains that he scared her when he ran off without telling her, as it's a rule in the Bat family to tell one of them before they go off to do hero work. She promises not to go off at him again if he, from then on, tells her or Batman before he goes off to fight villains. Peter agrees.
- Awesome by Analysis: It only takes Spider-Man five minutes to realize that he was sent to another dimension. All he needed was a newspaper and a look at Gotham's skyline.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Peter has one of these after he's exposed to Fear Toxin.
- Becoming the Mask: Superman's grown so used to doing silly things as Clark to maintain the latter's image as a clumsy average citizen that he sometimes does them without thinking, even when he doesn't need to (such as accidentally leaving his phone in Gotham when he went to pick up Peter for a visit to Smallville, resulting in three missed calls from Lois and a very amused Superboy).
- Beware the Nice Ones: A lot of the Bats qualify as this trope, but Peter/Spider-Man plays it for all that it's worth in the chapter "Not That Kind of Venom". When facing Bane, Spidey starts their confrontation by telling jokes and mocking the villain's fashion sense. Then Bane threatens to kill Robin. Spider-Man stops telling jokes and delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that leaves Robin shocked/impressed.
- Big Damn Reunion: Thanks to J'onn's telepathic/dreamwalker abilities, Peter reunites in the dream world with both Aunt May and Gwen Stacy. It happens again in the last chapter when Doctor Fate brings Aunt May to Gotham for a visit, allowing her and Peter to see each other, for real, for the first time in months.
- Big Eater:
- Peter's superhuman metabolism is brought up a few times.
- When the Flashes appear, Barry and Wally explain that they need to eat roughly ten thousand calories a day or they risk starving.
- Bittersweet Ending: Peter learns from Doctor Fate that he can't ever return to his home dimension, as the portal that sent him to Gotham made it impossible for him to exist in any other dimension. Meaning that he'll never see Mary Jane, Harry, his friends at the Bugle, or his New York City again. Luckily, he knows that Spider-Gwen is defending the city (and that he can still visit her in her dreams), he has his new family, and Doctor Fate brings Aunt May to Gotham for a visit, with the possibility of more visits in the future.
- Blatant Lies: Peter jumped onto the ceiling because it would better help him search the cabinets for pie tins, and definitely not because Kate Kane/Batwoman (who terrifies him) had just walked in.
- Call-Back: Episodes of Spectacular, Batman: The Animated Series, and the Web Toons comic are mentioned fairly often. For example, in the Spectacular episode "Gangland", Spider-Man fought Doctor Octopus, Silvermane, and Tombstone in front of an opera house. When Commissioner Gordon asks him if he thinks he can handle being a crime scene photographer, he mentions that he took pictures during the aforementioned fight.
- The Cameo: A lot of characters from the extended Bat family or the Justice League appear for one chapter or are mentioned. Because of the sheer size of the Bat family, a lot of characters are only mentioned.
- Catapult Nightmare: Peter's guilt at leaving his dimension behind causes him to have nightmares that result in this trope.
- Chekhov's Gun: In Chapter 9, Peter finds a square piece of paper in his bag, and simply tells himself not to think about it. Several chapters later, he shows it to Bruce, revealing that it's a photograph of himself, Gwen, and Eddie, ostensibly before Eddie graduated high school. He uses it to explain to Batman what happened with the symbiote.
- Cliffhanger: Chapter 38 ends with Spider-Gwen contacting Martian Manhunter while he's meditating, warning him that one of Spider-Man's villains may have ended up in Gotham...
- Commonality Connection: Peter spends a lot of time comparing people he meets in his new universe to people from his old one:
- He grows comfortable around Barbara after meeting her in the library because her kindness and cheerfulness reminds him of a younger Aunt May.
- He spends an entire chapter noting similarities between his rogues gallery and Batman's.
- Duke and Peter bond over the two of them being the Bat family's only meta humans, along with the fact that they both have precognitive powers.
- Superman grows curious about Peter fairly quickly, noting that they have similar color schemes and similar powers (heightened senses, speed, and strength). On a sadder note, he also points out that the two of them have both lost the worlds they once called home.
- Cool Aunt: Kate Kane, despite technically being the kids' first cousin once removed, is this for all of the Bat kids. Peter finds her terrifying at first, but eventually warms up to her. It's also quickly shown that, despite being a no-nonsense former soldier, she can be as immature at the kids.
- Cry into Chest:
- After the fight at sting (which almost got Spider-Man, Commissioner Gordon, and several cops killed), Barbara breaks down. Peter lets her cry into his shoulder before he explains that he knows how it feels to see the people you love in danger.
- While thanking/hugging Bruce Wayne for taking in Peter, May cries Tears of Joy into his shoulder.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Spider-Man versus Killer Croc. Guess who wins?
- Orphan versus Cold Virus.
- Spider-Man versus Joker.
- Batman versus Rupert Thorne.
- Spider-Man versus Bane
- Batman and Spider-Man (but mostly Batman) versus Doctor Octopus.
- Deducing the Secret Identity: Oracle learns Spider-Man's after talking to him for a few minutes. Justified, in that she had met his civilian identity earlier that day and he (as Spidey) let slip that he'd been to the library that morning. Red Hood takes a little time to tease a shocked Peter about how the family as a whole is that good at deducing hero identities.
- Didn't See That Coming: The Bats (and Gotham) knew very little about Spider-Man when he first appeared. So seeing him stop a runaway train with nothing but his webs and strength is this trope for pretty much everyone.
- Drives Like Crazy: Spider-Man with the Bat-Mobile. In his defense, he'd never driven a car before that night. Even with Oracle controlling the car remotely, the Bat-Mobile is one of the most complex vehicles in the DC Universe.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Peter tells Gwen as he's going through the portal that he loves her. While the portal didn't kill him, he didn't know that and wanted to tell Gwen how he felt before he went through.
- Embarrassing Alibi: Bruce has an entire list of these ready for whenever he needs an excuse for why he's suddenly out of commission; they're all either mundane or embarrassing, and they all make him look stupid to further Bruce Wayne's reputation as an idiot. One of them includes "hurt his back when he was singing in the shower and slipped."
- Embarrassing Nickname:
- After being introduced to/adopted into the Bat family, Nightwing reveals to Peter that his name is Richard Grayson, or Dick for short. Peter is surprised, and immediately concludes that it's worse than what his old bullies called him ("Puny Parker"). Dick, being impossible to embarrass, doesn't seem upset at Peter's reaction.
- Becomes a plot point for the chapter "A Matter of Utmost Importance", as Robin requests Spider-Man join him and Harley Quinn on a mission because he hoped his older foster brother could help him shake Harley's nickname for him ("Baby Bat").
- Epic Fail: A group of Lethal Chefs try to bake pies. Somehow, when they pulled them out of the oven, the fillings were burnt mush and the crust was still raw. Not even Ace would eat them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: According to Batman, many of Gotham's rogues are motivated by money or revenge. Thus, there are several who hold low opinions of crimes such as human trafficking.
- Familial Chiding: Alfred, as the butler, usually isn't direct when calling out the children (or man-children) for their behavior (unless they do something really stupid). Usually, if he scolds Peter for anything (like covering his room in spider-webs), it will be in this way.
- Family of Choice: The Bats consist of a terrifying vigilante detective with a heart of gold, his son who's a nine-year-old assassin, a former acrobat, a librarian with incalculable hacking skills, a kid who came back to life, a teen CEO, a ballerina raised as a living weapon, the kindhearted biological daughter of a supervillain, a teenager who can see the past/future, an English butler who ages like wine, and a snarky spider-child from another dimension. Despite their differences (and the fact that most of them have been through traumas normal people couldn't fathom), they all chose to find a family in each other (or, in Spider-Man's case, were basically abducted and adopted without being given much choice).
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: At the start of Chapter 13, Peter (as a crime scene photographer) is called to a bank robbery. The bank in question was the Second National Bank, the amount stolen was twenty-two thousand two hundred twenty-two dollars and twenty-two cents, and only half of the bank was wrecked. While it's confirmed in the chapter's fourth paragraph, any dedicated Batman fan instantly knows that Two-Face was the thief.
- Friend to All Children:
- Spider-Man is forced to introduce himself to Batman and Robin V when he saves Robin from falling off of a building.
- Batman's kindness towards/protectiveness of children and teenagers is a very important part of his character.
- Barbara notices the second Peter comes into the library that he's homeless, and spends her morning checking on him while he works and bringing him snacks from the library's communal snack table.
- Red Hood, though he doesn't want to admit it, becomes pretty fond of Spider-Man pretty fast (and admits to himself in Chapter 15 that he hates it when he scares kids).
- Gilded Cage: Barbara's clock tower has a spare room that the Bats use as a holding cell whenever necessary. While it's definitely a cell, Stephanie, Duke, Jason, and Cassandra tried to make it more hospitable for any captive, having put in a bed, a lamp, a chair, and a vintage Gray Ghost poster. Downplayed in that the room is still very much a cell; the decor helps them calm down a little bit.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Spider-Man's healing factor comes in handy a few times; Oracle admits to Spidey that she thinks Batman's a little jealous that the teen has this ability.
- Happily Adopted: While it came as a bit of a surprise, Peter adjusts pretty quickly to being a member of the Bat family. Likewise, the Bats quickly accept him as one of their own. Peter notes, on the same night the Bats take him in, that he's technically been this trope before, as his aunt and uncle took him in back when his parents died.
- Heel–Face Turn: Harley's and Ivy's criminal pasts are mentioned, but the story shows them both after they've pulled this trope, with Harley working with the Bat family as a vigilante and Ivy trying to start a normal life.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: Several chapters in the fic include scenes of the Bat family simply relaxing or having fun, with the events of the chapter "Second Chance" starting with Red Hood and Spider-Man getting takeout from Bat Burger.
- Heroic Red Ring of Death: After stopping the monorail, Spider-Man passes out from exhaustion and the pain of a badly strained back.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Peter went through the portal to save Gwen from going through it. It's a sacrifice because he didn't know that it was a portal, and knew there was a chance he'd die.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Played straight with Peter's home dimension, as Jameson made sure that he was rarely seen by the public as anything but a threat/menace. Averted, however, in Gotham; Spider-Man introduces himself to the public by stopping a runaway monorail and preventing a disaster. From that moment on, the press is singing his praises.
- Hidden Depths: Like in the web comic, Jason is fond of classic romance novels like Pride and Prejudice. He gets Peter into them, too (and Damian, although the nine-year-old makes him swear he'll never tell anyone).note
- Honorary Uncle: Luke Fox/Batwing, despite his limited appearances in the fic, is shown to be this to most of the Bat kids in all but name, with the chapter "Secret Identity" having him give Duke some advice on maintaining a secret identity. Peter thinks that Luke is one of the coolest people he's ever met.
- I Can Still Fight!: As usual, Batman tries to go on a mission despite having gotten his foot crushed in a fight with Bane. Later deconstructed, however, when Peter points out how selfish it is for Bruce to endanger himself via this trope when there are not only several heroes and vigilantes who can take his place while he's incapacitated, but when he has an entire family of people (many of whom have lost parents before) that need him.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: Alfred's cookies are worth getting into fist/pillow fights over. Peter thinks his food is almost as good as Aunt May's (though he might be biased).
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Yes, everyone, Batman adopted another teen vigilante. He was curious about/wanted to recruit Spider-Man shortly after meeting him, and later instructed his oldest sons to bring the unconscious Spider-Man to the Bat Cave for medical treatment. He's thoroughly convinced to take him in when Spider-Man reveals that he's an orphan who lost a family member to a punk with a gun and that he's on his own in another dimension. Dick, Jason, and Tim realized this was happening before Bruce would admit it, and the only one who was surprised at the adoption was Peter.
- Innocently Insensitive: When the family starts asking Peter about his dimension, Spoiler says that his parents must be worried about him. Spider-Man is forced to admit that his parents are gone. The entire family sympathizes while Spoiler looks horrified.
- Inside Joke: Bruce Wayne/Batman's orphan collecting problem is an inside joke in the Bat family, the Justice League (and all of its subsidiaries), and even the GCPD (although they don't know about the Batman part).
- Internal Reveal:
- Knowing that he likely won't see her again, Peter reveals to Gwen that he's Spider-Man... and that he loves her.
- Spider-Man, once the Bats start questioning him, tells an (edited) version of how he got his powers and why he became Spider-Man. This leads to a group Dramatic Unmasking, ending with Batman revealing his identity as Bruce Wayne.
- The events of episodes from the Spectacular series are discussed a few times, often so Peter can connect with/help a Bat in need.
- I Shall Taunt You: Spider-Man (as usual) pulls this on every villain he fights. It's Joker's Berserk Button.
- I Taste Delicious: Downplayed. Bat Burger, once Spider-Man become a well-known/liked figure in Gotham, introduced the Spider-Shake to its menu. Peter thinks it's actually pretty good (while Jason thinks it's really funny).
- It's Personal: The Joker hates Spider-Man because, unlike him, Spider-Man's actually funny.
- The Kindnapper: After Spider-Man passes out from exhaustion/pain from stopping the monorail, Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Signal basically kidnap him and take him to the Bat Cave for medical treatment (and so Batman can figure out who/what the heck he is).
- Laser-Guided Karma: After spending nine months risking his life and facing trauma after trauma defending New York (and receiving little to no thanks for it), Spider-Man ends up in a dimension where he's loved/praised by the people, has a loving/supportive adoptive family, and he's gets to be a part of a large community of superheroes (many of whom give him praise and support).
- Like Brother and Sister: The author has confirmed that Peter sees Stephanie and Cassandra this way, and Peter admits to himself in "Crush(ed)" that after all the relationship drama he's been through in the last year, he wants to take a small break from romance (something he's even more dead set on when he learns how the Bats react to one of their own getting a boy/girlfriend).
- Major Injury Underreaction: Stopping the monorail left Spider-Man with a severely strained back. The Bats (especially Bruce) are very concerned for him (to them, such an injury would require several weeks' recovery at least). Spidey, however, doesn't see his injury as anything more than an inconvenience. Spider-Man's reaction, due to his healing factor, was the justified one.
- Played for Drama in "R&R", when Bruce (despite almost bleeding out on the operating table the night before) tries to get back to work like normal. He has to be caught by his kids several times (and yelled at by Peter) before he finally agrees to rest.
- Mama Bear:
- Kate Kane can/will defend her nieces and nephews whenever they need her.
- Wonder Woman is one of the few people that Batman completely trusts to keep his kids safe. And (other than Spider-Man briefly turning into Man-Spider) she does a great job of protecting any of the League’s younger members.
- Harley Quinn might be a former villain, but she takes the safety of the younger Bats very seriously. After a mission, she goes out of her way to make sure Spider-Man and Robin get something to eat before they go home. During the same mission, Spider-Man learns that she has no mercy for anyone who would target children (something that the leader of a human trafficking ring learned the hard way).
- Mood Whiplash: In "R&R", the chapter starts out serious as Bruce is found severely injured after a fight, then funny when the Bat family try to keep him in bed. It turns serious once again when Peter tells Bruce why his refusing to let himself recover hurts the people around him, ending with him telling Bruce that the teen's already lost four parental figures in his life, and he's not ready to lose another one.
- Mundane Utility:
- After revealing his identity to the Bats and moving into the Manor, Peter regularly uses his powers to do things like having acrobatics contests with Dick, cleaning his room, and stealing the last cookie.
- Superman uses his heat vision to keep his coffee warm. Connor mentions that he and Jon regularly play football up in the air.
- To keep Bruce from escaping his room after he's injured, Peter begins webbing his door shut.
- My Greatest Failure: Peter views Eddie Brock/Venom as this, as he's mad at himself for not doing more to reach out to Eddie, he's mad at the symbiote for infecting his friend, and he's mad at Eddie for simply giving in to the symbiote and turning on all of his friends (being ready to kill Gwen if it would hurt Spider-Man).
- Mythology Gag: There are numerous references throughout the fic to bits of Batman or Spider-Man mythos:
- Spider-Man's saving the monorail is confirmed by Word of God to be a Shout-Out to the train scene in Sam Raimi's second Spider-Man film.
- In the same chapter where Spider-Man meets Wonder Woman, a magical Greek relic briefly turns Spider-Man into Man-Spider.
- To punish him for the Rainbow Batsuit prank, Batman forces Spider-Man to go out into the field dressed as the Bombastic Bag-Man. In the same chapter, some of Bruce's older suits are shown.
- In a serious example, Doctor Fate tells Peter he can never safely return to his home dimension because, due to the unstable portal he traveled through, any more dimension-hopping will result in Peter dying of cellular degradation. This is a problem faced by every Spider stuck in another dimension in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- Spider-Man's saving the monorail is confirmed by
- Naked People Are Funny: Jason falls to the floor laughing when he hears how Peter's old school bully got his nickname.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Spider-Man's Chronic Hero Syndrome led to him saving Robin and later the monorail. The first save put him on the Bats' radar, while the second left him hurt and exhausted enough that Nightwing, Hood, Red Robin, and Signal were able to easily kidnap him. Luckily, this worked out for him.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Spider-Man versus Bane. He starts the fight by ticking Bane off and telling jokes... but then Bane not only threatens Robin's life, but makes a snide remark about the death of the second Robin. Then Spider-Man shuts up and starts beating the crap out of him. Bane only lands one hit the whole fight, and that was when he simply threw Spidey (who used the momentum from being thrown to swing back and nail Bane in the chest). Once Bane's Venom pack is ripped out and he's webbed up, Spidey calms down and returns to his joking self.
- Noodle Incident:
- When he was younger, Dick stole some of Batman's smoke bombs. What he did with them isn't explained, but it took a while to get the smoke stains out of the hallway.
- Damian was once grounded for using forks as shurikens. All we know is that he tried to get out of being grounded with the excuse "Tim was being stupid."
- Dick and Peter got into a mop fight after trying to one-up each other in an acrobatics contest. We do not know who started the fight, nor do we know how the bucket of soapy water ended up all over Tim.
- Peter learned that his spider-sense can detect unsafe food after an incident with a hot dog cart back in New York.
- Spider-Man fought Condiment King sometime during the fic. All we know is that he won, but got completely covered in mustard.
- Whatever happened at the bank that required Red Hood to save Tim (and why Tim is embarrassed when it's brought up).
- Some time between chapters, Batman and Spoiler fought the Mad Hatter, who had mind-controlled a professional wrestler to fight for him. We know nothing about the fight except that the wrestler broke the remote for the Bat Mobile and injured Stephanie’s arm.
- Stephanie's first time driving the Bat-Mobile almost caused a building to come down. Damian tells Peter that he doesn't want to know.
- Whatever happened with Metallo's attack on the Daily Planet. All we know is that he had a Kryptonite flail and it was only because of a super-charged industrial fan that Superman managed to beat him.
- Not So Above It All:
- Through Harley Quinn, Spider-Man learns that Damian is actually his biggest fan (later admitting that he finds Peter's powers and self-control impressive).
- After the Rainbow Batsuit prank, Peter goes to the Bat Cave to suit up and finds that Bruce hid all of his suits. Peter is forced to go help the police with a sting while dressed as the Bombastic Bag-Man.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Numerous moments are mentioned in the fic but never shown (see above). However, one noteworthy moment is Ghost Spider's first fight with the Vulture, who she beat before she even mastered her web shooters.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; when Peter brings up Flash (as in the school bully from his old dimension), Jason momentarily thinks that he's talking about one of the Speed Force users in the Justice League. Peter quickly explains.
- Papa Wolf: Batman. Spider-Man wins points in his book when he saves Robin's life, and he's concerned enough about the teen's safety to bring him to the Bat Cave when he passes out after stopping the monorail. Upon his adoption of Peter, he tells the Justice League enough about Spider-Man to keep them informed, but also makes it clear that he doesn't want any of them meeting Peter until he's adapted to living in a new dimension. Halfway through the fic, when Peter talks about how Venom tried to remove his powers and expose his identity, Bruce is both furious that someone would do something like that and horrified that Peter went through that despite only being sixteen. When Rupert Thorne makes the mistake of trying to kill Commissioner Gordon and Spider-Man, Batman lets him have it.
- Pass the Popcorn:
- During Peter and Dick's acrobatics contest, the other Batkids watch while eating popcorn, placing bets and getting a video of the contest.
- When Nightwing and the Flashes are testing out new ways for speedsters to carry non-speedsters, Spider-Man and Signal watch the whole thing while eating bagels and laughing themselves sick.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Batman/Bruce Wayne. While initially suspicious of who/what Spider-Man is, he recognizes that he's only a teenager and is trying to do good.
- Commissioner Gordon. He realizes that the Bats are the only ones keeping Gotham safe from some of it's crazier villains and gives them his full support. Plus, while he's hesitant to hire a teenager as a crime scene photographer, he's willing to give Peter a chance when he learns that the kid is an experienced photographer.
- Alfred is perfectly fine with another teenager living in the house (even if this one has spider powers and is from another dimension). He only asks that Peter take his shoes off before wall-crawling in the house and clean up any webs he shoots.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When he's doused with Fear Toxin, Peter's forced to face his fear of letting people down/failing the ones he loves. This fear is represented by numerous villains and friends giving him these.
- Say My Name: Gwen pulls this trope in Chapter One.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: When he visits her in the dream world, Aunt May admits to Peter that she's known about his work as Spider-Man almost since the beginning. She never told him she knew because she didn't want him to worry about her. She also says that she's proud of him for all he's done.
- On a lesser note, Word of God confirmed that Commissioner Gordon figured out a while ago that Barbara was the first Batgirl, but he doesn't know that she still works with the Bats as Oracle.
- On a lesser note,
- Seen It All:
- The fact that Peter is from another dimension doesn't shock anyone in the Bat family or Justice League. Most of them only address the fact that he can't return to it, and don't treat him any differently for it. The only thing about Spidey that surprises them is the fact that he has nigh-Kryptonian level strength.
- The next-to-last chapter shows that, whenever a costumed criminal shows up in Gotham, the police's first response is to just call Batman. They've seen this happen enough times to know that he (or any of his million sidekicks) is better equipped to handle it.
- Shout-Out: Chapter 10 has this little moment (during Peter and Duke's run) as a reference to the MCU:Duke: Don't say it, don't say it...
Peter: [running past] On your right!
Duke: Dang it! - Slap-Slap-Kiss: What Gwen does to Peter when they reunite in the dream world. Results in a Big Damn Kiss between them.
- Spotting the Thread: When Spider-Man admits to Oracle that he'd been in the library earlier that day and asked for quantum physics books, Barbara (who was the librarian who helped Peter Parker) realizes that Peter is Spider-Man.
- Take Care of the Kids: Inverted; before he goes through the portal, Peter asks Gwen to look after Aunt May for him.
- Take That!: Jason Todd doesn't think highly of the Twilight books, and mocks Tim when he learns that he read them.
- Taking Up the Mantle: After Spider-Man disappeared, Gwen Stacy was accidentally bitten by the same spider that bit Peter, and developed the same powers. She decided to fight back against the Sinister Six when they started wreaking havoc on the city. During her first fight with Vulture, people said that it was like watching Spider-Man's ghost. Thus the press started calling her Ghost Spider, and she ended up adopting it as her alias. The new Spider is given Peter's blessing to carry on his legacy.
- Teen Genius: Most of the Bat kids apply. Tim is only seventeen and is currently running Wayne Enterprises, while Peter (due both to his own intellect and the Marvel universe being more technologically advanced that the DC universe) is on par with most high school graduates at only sixteen.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Spectacular, Gwen Stacy was a smart, kind girl who was occasionally a Damsel in Distress that Spider-Man needed to save. Here, after Spider-Man disappeared, she was bitten by the same spider that created him and started acting as a Spider-Hero in Peter's stead, becoming Ghost Spider and the defender of NYC.
- Trademark Favorite Food: All of the Bat kids like eating at Bat Burger, and the entire family loves Alfred's award-winning cookies. Peter's thought process regularly admits that he doesn't think any food tops Aunt May's (a sentiment that the rest of the Bats share when they taste May's pies for themselves).
- Trapped in Another World: Peter Parker ends up in Gotham after a trip through a portal.
- Trauma Button:
- When Clark takes him to visit the Kent farm, Peter flinches at the mention of aliens, likely because the only alien he'd ever met was the symbiote.
- Peter innocently asking about Jason's white hair almost sends Jason into a rage/panic attack (as he's reminded of his death, the Lazarus Pit, and everything that followed it).
- Ungrateful Bastard:
- Zig-zagged with Damian. When Spider-Man saves him from falling off a building (which is also how he first makes his presence in Gotham known), Robin V's first response after they land is to pull his katanas on Spidey and try to interrogate him. A few chapters later, however, Robin sincerely thanks Spider-Man for saving him... then pulls his katana out again and tells Spider-Man to never tell anyone that he thanked him. In later chapters, though, they seem to be on fairly good terms.
- Implied with the people of New York to Spider-Man. When he sees the people of Gotham singing his praises for stopping the monorail crash, he's shocked into silence, having dealt with bad press from Jameson for so long that people thanking/praising him is a practically a foreign concept.
- Unnecessarily Cruel Rejection: Invoked. In "Crush(ed)", Duke becomes interested in a girl at his school named Ana. Dick asks him why he doesn't just ask her out. Duke invokes this trope. Given how badly Sally Avril rejected him when he asked her out, Peter agrees with Duke. The trope ends up averted when Ana clearly has feelings for Duke as well, and they date for a while. Unfortunately, they've broken up by the end of the chapter.
- What You Are in the Dark: When an unconscious Spider-Man is brought to the Bat Cave, it's briefly debated whether or not they should unmask him (so they can make sure he's breathing regularly). Seeing as how he's unconscious, they could take it off, see his face, and put it back on without him ever knowing. After Duke points out that they wouldn't want anyone to do that to them if they were in such a position, the family decides to simply pull his mask up to his nose, allowing him to breathe easily while preserving his identity.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: You have three guesses who says this.
- Written-In Absence: It will sometimes be stated that other family members don't appear in a chapter because they were on patrol, at work/school, or on a mission.
- You Fight Like a Cow: Naturally, Spider-Man uses this trope mercilessly. It's essential to his fight with the Joker.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Spider-Man, after passing out from exhaustion, wakes up on a cot in the Bat Cave. He freaks out a little bit until Alfred (and the Bats) tell him that he isn't a prisoner and they won't hurt him.
