There are few characters in modern fiction more popular and beloved than Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. The face of Marvel Comics, Spider-Man has been saving the day and fighting countless villains in New York City for over six decades. The story of a hapless, down-on-his-luck nerd getting bitten by a radioactive spider and learning that with great power comes great responsibility has resonated with countless people worldwide. He’s been featured in thousands of comics and in numerous movie, TV, and video game adaptations. Still, even with a character so recognizable, there are many facts that even the most die-hard Spider-Man fans may have a hard time believing are true.
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Given Spider-Man’s long and complicated history as a character, it’s unsurprising that there would be plenty of striking details that would go under the radar. These lesser-known and almost inconceivable facts concern his creation, abilities, and history.
7) Spider-Man Has a Spider-Mobile
With Spider-Man swinging across New York City, a car seems like the last thing he needs. However, the Web-Head found himself in possession of a bizarre spider-themed dune buggy called the Spider-Mobile. Unlike Batman’s Batmobile, the Spider-Mobile wasn’t made to help Spider-Man fight crime, but rather to serve as a publicity stunt and advertisement for a company called Corona Motors. Spider-Man, perennially broke, only agreed to use the Spider-Mobile when Corona Motors offered him a lot of money to promote their car line. Unfortunately, neither Spider-Man nor the company accounted for the fact that he didn’t know how to drive. The car was quickly totaled and has since made only sporadic cameos as a symbol of Spider-Man’s wackier adventures.
6) Bug Spray Is Spider-Man’s Kryptonite
Spider-Man isn’t a hero who people think of as having a straightforward weakness like Superman’s aversion to Kryptonite. However, just as Spider-Man inherited all of the powers of a spider, he also inherited its weaknesses. Specifically, Spider-Man is highly susceptible to ethyl chloride, a common compound found in many pesticides and bug sprays. If Spider-Man is exposed to this gas or inhales it, he becomes incredibly weak, leaving him vulnerable to attack. This weakness was primarily exploited by the villain Spencer Smythe and his Spider-Slayer robots. Many modern writers have moved away from using this weakness in storylines, as the idea of Spider-Man’s one weakness being bug spray is hard to take seriously.
5) Spider-Man Was an X-Man
Despite Spider-Man primarily being a solo act, he’s been known to team up with other superheroes and even join teams like the Avengers and Fantastic Four. However, perhaps the most unexpected group the Web-Slinger has been a part of was the X-Men. While the X-Men have occasionally recruited non-mutants into their ranks, Spider-Man is still a surprising addition. In the appropriately named Spider-Man and the X-Men miniseries, the Web-Head relocates to the mutant nation of Krakoa to become a Special Class Guidance Counselor for kids at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Teaching has always been one of Spider-Man’s best professions, so to see him educate the next generation of heroes is very rewarding.
4) Spider-Man Has His Own Martial Arts Style
Given Spider-Man’s near-constant state of poor finances, he usually doesn’t have the resources to travel the world and learn martial arts from a master as Batman has done. Normally, Spider-Man relies on his enhanced strength, agility, and Spider-Sense to make up for this lack of formal training. However, when Spider-Man lost his Spider-Sense during the “Spider-Island” storyline, he decided to compensate by learning martial arts under the tutelage of Marvel’s greatest fighter, Shang-Chi. Together, they created a new fighting style that fully leverages his super-strength, wall-crawling, and acrobatics. This style is known as the Way of the Spider or “Spider-Fu,” as Spider-Man humorously nicknamed it. When Spider-Man regained his Spider-Sense, his fighting prowess became even greater.
3) Spider-Man Wasn’t in High School Very Long
Whenever people think of Peter Parker, they tend to imagine a dweeby teenage nerd who’s practically trapped in high school. Almost every adaptation has supported this idea, continuously portraying Spider-Man as a young high school student trying to balance his school, job, and superhero life. However, in his nearly 65 years of publication, the Web-Head was in high school for only three years. Peter officially graduated from Midtown High School in Amazing Spider-Man #28 in 1965, just three years after his debut. In contrast, Peter spent 13 years as a college student before finally graduating in 1978’s Amazing Spider-Man #185. For a character who’s constantly viewed as the quintessential teenage and high schooler superhero, it’s certainly mindboggling that he actually spent only three years in high school.
2) Spider-Man Might Have a Sister
For most of Spider-Man’s history, the only family associated with Peter was his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Later comics would expand upon Peter’s deceased parents, Richard and Mary Parker, by revealing that they were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were killed by a Communist Red Skull. If that wasn’t strange enough, it was eventually revealed that Richard and Mary may have had a second child: Teresa Parker. As Peter’s supposed long-lost sister, Teresa was given up for adoption as a baby and grew up to become a spy. However, villains like Chameleon claim that this backstory is a lie, and that Teresa isn’t really Peter’s sister. Whether Teresa is Peter’s biological sister or not is intentionally left ambiguous and heavily dependent on the writer.
1) Spider-Man Was Nearly “Fly-Man”
Like Peter Parker himself, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man started with humble, if a bit unexpected, beginnings. After the Fantastic Four became a hit, Marvel legend Stan Lee spent the next year trying to think of the next big superhero. One day, a fly flew in and began crawling on the walls, and Stan Lee had his eureka moment. However, Stan Lee’s initial ideas for the hero’s name were less than ideal, as titles like Fly-Man, Insect-Man, and Mosquito-Man were all tossed around. Once Stan Lee realized how dumb those names were, he finally settled on the name we all know and love, Spider-Man. The idea that Marvel’s most iconic superhero was nearly called Fly-Man is equal parts shocking and hilarious.
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