I got some great responses on my last superhero question regarding Wolverine [sub](chicks obviously dig guys with deep comic book knowledge)[/sub] so I thought I’d pick all your brains again for another question…
Nursing a hangover Saturday morning I was channel surfing and came across a Spiderman cartoon at the beginning where they show Peter Parker getting bit by the radiactive spider (thus conferring its powers on Peter).
I seem to remember a friend who was into comics saying that the original Spiderman actually got his powers from the suit he wore. This Spiderman wore a black spandex suit that had a yellow (red?) spider emblazoned on the front. The suit gave him the spidey powers we are all familiar with (walking on walls, super strength, shooting web) but there was a catch. The suit was of extraterrestrial origin and was alive in its own right. This caused a battle of wills to go on between the wearer and the suit and while the wearer usually won occasionally the suit would assert itself and cause mayhem.
So…
A) Is this a legitimate Spiderman? Who has the title of the ‘real’ (or original) Spiderman?
B) Was Peter Parker in both or was a different character in the black suit?
C) Was there any difference in the two Spidermen’s powers?
D) What was the deal with the suit? Was it alive? Was it good, evil or indifferent?
The origin of Spiderman is as you remember, radioactive spider bite and all. There was a bit of retcon (retroactive continuity) that talks about it was a mutation in PP that allowed the radioactive spider bite to do its magic, so PP is a mutant too. Whatever.
In the Secret Wars mini-series (bleh!) at one point PP gets a new uniform to replace his damaged one from a machine on the planet where SW took place. Unknown to him, this machine wasn’t a simple uniform dispencer, and the new uniform was infact semi-intelligent entity that tried to take over PP, and eventually took over someone else after PP discarded it back home after SW.
I forget who it took over, but the person became Venom, and there was a series of fights with PPtASM until it was vanquished eventually. There were plenty of bizarre occurances of SM during this time, and it’s generally looked on as a low point in the history of PPtASM. Venom lived on in a few incarnations but I think it’s Really Dead Now.
Your friend has some of the “facts” mixed up. The original Spiderman was Peter Parker and he got his powers by being bitten by a radioative spider. Around 1985, Marvel came out with the 12 book mini-series Secret Wars. The premise of this series was that a godlike alien called the Beyonder created a planet and grabbed Earth’s most powerful heroes and villains in order to watch them duke it out. Spiderman was one of these heroes. The planet created by the Beyonder was made up of existing planets from all over the universe. Some of these planet fragments had alien technology on them. Spiderman’s suit was damaged and he used alien technology to build a new suit. The aforementioned blck suit with a white spider on the chest. This suit also enhanced Spiderman’s powers a bit. At first all went well and Spiderman was better than ever. The Beyonder eventually returned everyone to Earth. As time passed the new suit started trying to take over Peter Parker’s mind. A battle of wills began. Eventually Peter Parker rid himself of the suit, but that’s not the end of it. The suit eventually became a supervillain in its own right. Venom. Also it could possibly be part of the origin of Carnage, but I’m not sure of that.
I just previewed and I see that Telemark has beaten me to the punch, but I’m posting this anyway.
AAAaaaaaAAaargh! It’s not ‘Spiderman’, it’s ‘Spider**-**Man’. This drives me nuts.
[sub]But I’ll get over it.[/sub]
Neither. There’s no such character as Spiderman. However, the legit Spider-Man is Peter Parker, in the red and blue suit with the webs under the armpits. (Radioactive spider bite, etc).
Peter was in both at one point or another. (other posters have already explained Venom). Carnage (sort of a skinny Venom in red) was the “child” of the living alien suit.
**
Venom was stronger, the webs weren’t as tough and the Venom suit is allergic to loud sounds.
Indifferent, at first, then “fell in love with” Peter (don’t blame me, I didn’t write it!). It became the ultimate clingy girlfriend. When Peter got it removed from him, it’s love turned to hate ("Hell hath no fury like sentient spandex scorn’d) and merged with Eddie Brock a mediocre reporter who blew his credentials by trying to expose Peter’s secret identity (and failing). The two merged and Venom was born!
Just gotta chime in here with a completely unrelated message, since the OP has been well and truly answered …
Spider-Man is my all-time favorite superhero. Partially for his wit, but mostly because he constantly battles the real-life setbacks that hit us all. Case in point: One issue, many years ago, Peter decided to whomp up some homemade detergent to clean his suit. (He was a chemistry major, doncha know.) Unfortunately, he got the proportions wrong, and wound up bleaching his suit into a sky-blue/pink monstrosity. He didn’t have a spare, so he had to swing into action in a pastel costume. He was swinging through the skyscrapers, thinking to himself, “Other superheroes probably have spare uniforms, but do I? Noooooo!” Tickled me no end.
OK, that seems to answer the OP so I’m going to hijack this thread.
Can anyone explain to me what ended up happening with all the clone stuff? Is Peter actually the legitimate Spiderman or was it Ben Reilly or that third clone?
They hit that story-line with a big dose of “Clone-b-gone”.
Ended up with Ben’s time running out, and him turning to dust. the real Spidey dons suit again, and whomps up on bad guys, saving the day. Kinda like the revisionist crap Terry Cavanaugh tried to pull with Iron Man.
It turns out that Norman (Green Goblin) Osborn was behind the clone thing. One of Norm’s heretofore undisclosed superpowers was “Getting better from being dead”. He’s been working behind the scenes all this time to drive Peter insaaaaaaane.
Then Aunt May comes back. See, she’d been kidnapped by Norman and an actress put in her place. An actress willing to die to make Norman happy(?). Oh, and Peter and MJ’s baby has been kidnapped/murdered(?) by the Goblin. Because no-one can empathise with Spidey if he’s a dad.
Then it turns out that the Sandman (not DC’s albino guy, or gas-mask guy, the burly fellow who turns into dirt) is Norm’s cousin…because they have the same haircut.(?!)
Then it turns out that the 20 year struggle that Sandman went through to reform was a big act. He actually just pretended to reform for 20 years (becoming a member of the Avengers, briefly) in the process, so he could pull off his master plan: to knock over a jewlery store.
Then it turns out that Peter didn’t get his power from a random radio-active spider-bite. It turns out that Doc Ock was the guy running the experiment, and accidentally set of a thermonuclear device in downtown Manhattan, killing thousands. During the explosion, a spider bit Peter. But it was the nuke and the explosion that did it.
Then MJ had a stalker (we still don’t know who). The stalker and MJ got on a plane together. The plane blowed up. MJ died, maybe. Petey doesn’t believe it until Aunt May shows him a box (about 1.5 feet square). He looks in the box. Suddenly he’s convinced. What’s in the box? None of your business. (My guess: A note saying “Dear Pete, either you act like she’s dead, or we bring back the clones. Love, the guys at Marvel”). The whole reason they got rid of MJ is that “No one can identify with a hero who’s married”
Spider-Man was once one of my favorite characters, mainly because he grew and aged with me. I watched him (through reprints) graduate high school, enter college, stop being a shy, bookwormy recluse, and in original issues, watched his first love die, his college graduation, his new love and marraige to MJ, the touching and beautiful death of his aunt, and the impending birth of his new daughter.
About 6 months ago (the “box” incident) I finally quit. I couldn’t stand the desperation of aging creators who wanted Peter Parker to be exactly like he was when they were growing up. Undoing the main thing that made Peter different from every other super-hero: the fact that he grows. Now Peter is a swingin’ batchelor hangin’ out in a small apartment outside of Grenitch(sp) Village with Randy Robertson his roommate. And his sickly aunt is constantly worrying about him and he’s having trouble making ends meet and they’ve lost me as a reader.
Sorry. This turned into a bit of a rant, but…I miss reading Spider-Man. My only consolation is that the new Editor in Chief of Marvel fired everyone related to the Spider books and is (early next year) handing them over to new creators (one of whom is the Babylon 5 guy). Strwinksi(sp) has said that he’s going to try to undo most of the mess and move Spider-Man forward again. I hope so. I really’d like to buy Spider-Man again.