This thread's for the Spider-Man comics and spin-offs, whether they're decades old or brand new.
- Apart from the main Marvel Universe titles, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man "What If?" stories, crossovers, guest appearances in other books, Alternate Universe tales and things like Marvel's manga adaptations are all on-topic here.
- Spider-Man 'family' books are on-topic (as are their own crossovers, guest appearances etc.) - e.g. Spider-Man 2099, Miles Morales, Spider-Woman, Silk, Spider-Gwen, Venom, Carnage, Black Cat, Red Goblin and Spider-Verse.
- Characters and comics that originated in Spider-Man but are no longer directly connected to the spider-franchise (e.g. Punisher, Silver Sable) are not on-topic, unless you're discussing historical connections and crossovers. If in doubt, check before you write a long post. If this isn't the right place, there's a more general Marvel Comics thread
which covers them.
Technically, Marvel's Infinity Comics (and their predecessors, Infinite Comics) are webcomics, not comic books, but it's fine to talk about their Spider-Man stories here.
Discussions that are only about Spider-Man adaptations in other media (films, video games etc.) are off-topic, but discussing the differences between the adaptations and the original comics is fine - as long as spoilers for the adaptations are tagged.
Please follow the spoiler policy rules
- tag spoilers for the latest issues, for any previews or content leaks, and for off-topic comics. When including spoiler tags, try to write so that tropers can make an informed decision before viewing them (e.g. which series and issue will they spoil?).
Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 10th 2023 at 10:58:13 AM
I liked that The Spectacular Spider-Man had Betty tell Peter that she was too old for him.
Was Peter becoming Spider-Man at 15 something that Civil War set in stone, or had it been established before that 616 Peter was 15? I know he was 15 at the beginning of Ultimate Spider-Man and turned 16 at some point.
Edited by RedM on Jan 15th 2023 at 3:55:18 AM
The very best, like no one ever was. Check out my Spider-Man fanfic here! [1]It was Civil War. I've tried looking into this, but now everyone refers to the Civil War comic which makes it hard to pin down.
In the early comics he seemed more like 17, I've read he was described as a high-school senior, and I believe he said Richard Rider was the same age as him when he started crime-fighting (17).
It makes a lot of those earlier chapters make more sense, frankly, then him being 15.
edit: Oh yeah, JMS' run references Peter being 17 years old when he got bit.
Edited by Saiga on Jan 15th 2023 at 5:38:53 AM
The early Spider-Man comics had Peter age in more-or-less real time. So if Peter was fifteen when they got their powers in Amazing Fantasy #15 (released in August of 1962), they may very well have turned sixteen by the time Amazing Spider-Man #1 came out in March of '63.
Edited by RavenWilder on Jan 15th 2023 at 6:22:34 AM
Okay, issue 8 of ASM said he was a senior - so there you go. And that was still months after Ben's death.
So he was pretty consistently 17 until USM had him become Spider-man at 15, and shortly after that Millar had him say he was 15 in Civil War.
I think people have worked backwards to assume he was aging in real time for his high school comics, because that clearly doesn't line up with dates mentioned in them - several issues take place days after the other, or immediately following, for example.
edit: He's a science major in issue 2! From what I can tell, this is only available to senior students.
Edited by Saiga on Jan 15th 2023 at 6:30:48 AM
He was fifteen when he started in the Ultimate universe so maybe readers and writers conflated 616 Peter with Ultimate Peter. Or maybe he started at 15 in the ultimate universe because that mistake was already prevalent.
Edit:
Whoops.
Edited by Bocaj on Jan 15th 2023 at 9:30:52 AM
Forever liveblogging the Avengers![]()
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I feel there's a good chance Ultimate started it because I can't find any talk on forums and the like from prior to Ultimate that said he was 15 in 616 when he got bit.
Kind of interesting!
Admittedly, I can't find much discourse in general from that period.
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It was mentioned in the issue that it was a minor stroke and he can recover with physical therapy, so that I guess.
Edited by Saiga on Jan 15th 2023 at 6:53:31 AM
Huh.
I recall Peter being 17 in EMH, but I assumed he'd been Spiderman for a while in that universe.
17 makes a bit more sense. a 17 year old might be able to better pass themselves off as an adult (as I believe a lot of people have no clue how old Pete was back then, and many likely think he's a lot older than he is because of how long he's been at the job).
One Strip! One Strip!Yeah, a lot of people thought Spider-man was an adult in those early days. Sue flirted with him and even went on a date with him!
Also, that storyline with Vulture and Deb was fun. I'm sad we didn't get to see more of Peter and Deb interacting, but the scene where Peter starts fucking smothering Toomes to prove he still has an instinct to live is great.
The funniest part was that Debra's book was actually a ploy by Jameson to smear Peter, and Betty exposes Jameson right under his nose. To the point Jameson asks Betty to find out who leaked the story.
Considering this was during Jameson's more asshole days, yeah it was awesome to see him outplayed like this.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"It's a bit weird to bring Deb back, remind everyone that Peter was super unhealthy for her, and then imply that nah that's just libel he's fine don't worry about it
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYeah, that's why I wish there was an actual conversation between Deb and Peter. There's a lot that can be unpacked there.
Instead, both Flash and Betty tell off Deb, and in the end it's only when Deb confides in Betty about her problems (and how the whole thing was exaggerated) that Betty sympathizes with her.
I wish they'd done something with the very legitimate problems Peter created for her.
Looking back on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon
Essentially not terrible, has plenty of good parts but its not that great either and its flaws really make it hard to defend.
Interesting to note that the best parts are when Peter guest-stars with other heroes who generally get the best writing and interaction. By contrast Peter's relationship with his "team" is very badly written and poorly developed.
For instance whenever Peter teams up with a hero there he has a unique way of interacting with them (he looks up to Iron Man, respects Cap, is sympathetic to Hulk, thinks Moon Knight is a lunatic, etc.) but none of that complexity is seen with the team who bizarrely are given very little character and are just universally terrible to him.
To sum how bad it is, Iron Fist and Luke Cage are in this yet they never have a single scene of them just hanging out together. 2 famous for being best friends and they never get individual scenes of them being friends away from the rest of the team. They are either an amorphous blob constantly bullying Spidey or they get individual spotlight episodes with Spidey that don't really develop them as characters but more just explain their origins.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Also that, he's a terrible voice actor.
Its especially noticeable with the mind-swap episodes with showcases the talent gap. So we have seasoned veterans like Fred Tatasciore and Steven Blum managing to change the inflections of of Hulk and Wolverine to sound like Peter is talking in their bodies, while Bell struggles to make his Peter voice sound like Hulk or Wolverine.
His casting becomes even more unfortunate with the recent child endangerment charges Bell has gotten.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."It is unfortunate indeed
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Sheeesh, well there's no official conviction and the dude is pleading not-guilty.
But I legit shudder at how he was a former Nickelodeon AND Disney star. That would give him access to kids during promotional and social media events.
EDIT: Aaahhh read more up to date stuff and he's def guilty. Fuck that asshole.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Jan 16th 2023 at 6:55:27 AM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Spider-Man 2099: Dark Genesis
announced for May.
A weekly miniseries written by Steve Orlando, including a Carnage 2099 and a bunch of familiar 2099 characters.

Betty's backstory of dropping out to take care of her sick mother is still canon. We even see her brother who got into gambling debt over it, Bennett, again years later in Remender's Venom run.
It's Peter whose age got retconned when civil war happened, so they went from around the same age to Betty being a few years older.