Versions of Spider-Man You Never Knew Existed

When someone talks about Spider-Man, they’re typically referring to Peter Parker. You know, the kid who was bitten by a radioactive spider, watched his uncle die in the street and swings around New York in a red suit.

What most people don’t know however, is that Peter Parker is just one of many versions of Spider-Man in the comics.

Miles Morales’ Ultimate Spider-Man and Ben Reilly’s Scarlet Spider are fairly well-known takes on the character, but the Spider-Verse contains dozens upon dozens of Spider-Men, many of which you’ve probably never heard of.

From futuristic suits to two extra sets of arms, these different versions of Spider-Man are all over the place.

Here are 10 of the most unique from over the years:

The Spider

Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert created the Marvel 1602 series in 2003, showing fans what their favorite superheroes would have looked like if they existed 300 years ago. Peter Parquagh was one such character.

Parquagh worked for Sir Nicholas Fury, but he didn’t have any of the classic Spider-Man powers that fans were accustomed to. 

The readers complained about the lack of Spider-Man so, in the 1602 sequel, Parquagh was given his powers and operated under the name The Spider.

Spider-Man: India

In 2004, Marvel created a Spider-Man that was strictly for comic fans in India. The comic was originally printed in the country, and was later reprinted for sale in the U.S.

This version of Spider-Man, called Pavitr Prabhakar, wasn’t much different from the one we know and love, other than the fact that he represents the culture of India, rather than the culture of America.

Webslinger

On Planet Eurth, which is essentially a medieval version of the Earth we live on, Peter Parker was nothing short of a monstrosity. 

In 2000, the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield comics took readers to Eurth and created alternate, medieval versions of popular characters. Spider-Man became the Webslinger, a creature that closely resembled an actual spider, and no one wanted to come across.

This was definitely one of the scariest iterations of Spider-Man in Marvel history.

Spider-Boy

In 1996, Marvel and DC worked together to form Almalgam Comics, an imprint that mashed characters from each company together to make new ones.

While Spider-Man could’ve been paired with anyone in the DC universe, he drew the short straw. Spider-Man + Superboy = Spider-Boy.

The Amalgam Universe isn’t talked about all that often and it’s for good reason. These creations weren’t exactly what fans were looking for. The only character from the experiment that’s worth revisiting is Logan Wayne, a.k.a. Dark Claw, a mash-up of Wolverine and Batman.

Spider-Monkey

Any chance you remember the ill-conceived Marvel Apes series?

The publisher attempted to create a universe where all of the popular heroes, including Spider-Man, were ape-like versions of themselves.

Spider-Man was a chimp, Wolverine was a Baboon, Captain America was a gorilla – none of it really made any sense.

Man-Spider

Marvel’s Mutant X Universe saw a reality where the mutant gene was spread all around the world, causing many popular heroes to undergo certain changes.

The Man-Spider was essentially the exact same as Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, and even donned a very similar suit. The only difference here is that this character had six arms, thanks to the mutant gene.

Other than that, this guy wasn’t too different from the original version.

Gerry Drew Spider-Man

Out of the pages of the “What If?” line of Marvel, the MC2 was created, taking place in an alternate future where heroes made vastly different decisions.

In the MC2 universe, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) had a child named Gerry, who was dying of a rare blood disease. While the disease was slowly killing Gerry, it also gave him superhuman abilities.

After fighting crime for a while, Gerry met Reed Richards who promised to heal him of his fatal disease.

Spidercide

Spider-Man had a lot of clones, but none quite like Spidercide.

The super-sized version of the character was able to change his size at will, as well as grow random blades out of his body. Sure, it was beyond bizarre, but it lined up with pretty much everything else Marvel as doing in the ’90s (See Spider-Monkey).

The strange powers made Spidercide one of the weirdest iterations of Spider-man in memory, and that’s certainly saying something.

Spider-Man 2211

Max Borne, a.k.a. Spider-Man 2211, was a cross between Spider-Man and Doc Ock, utilizing the character’s classic powers while also harnessing four robotic arms.

In this alternate future, Hobgoblin was actually Borne’s daughter, Robin. In his attempt to stop her from killing innocent people, Borne accidentally took Robin’s life, causing him an unrecognizable amount of pain.

Things didn’t get better for Max, as he was eventually killed by Chameleon who had disguised himself as Uncle Ben.

Spider Doppleganger

Along with the Webslinger, Spider Doppelganger was someone you certainly didn’t want to come across.

Back during the Infinity War in 1992, Magus created a clone of Spider-Man to set loose on the rest of the Marvel heroes. This version had six arms, sharp teeth and an awful temper.

A few years later, the clone showed up during Maximum Carnage and worked a little too closely with Cletus Kasady.