Spider-Man

^{Click here to see Peter Parker unmasked.}

Alter ego: Peter Benjamin Parker

Notable Aliases: Bombastic Bag-Man, Ricochet, Dusk, Prodigy, Hornet, Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider, Captain Universe, Liar

Editorial Names: Amazing Spider-Man; formerly Sensational Spider-Man, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Avenging Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Super Spider-Man, Astonishing Spider-Man

Species: Human mutate

First appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962)

Team Affiliations: The Avengers, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Secret Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Fantastic Four, The Defenders, Future Foundation, Daily Bugle, Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, League of Realms, S.H.I.E.L.D., Spider-Army / Web-Warriors

"Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man!"

Peter Parker was a shy, timid, asocial and bullied science genius, described as "Midtown High's Professional Wallflower". During a science exhibition with some isotope generators, a little spider was hit by radioactive rays generated in the middle of two arcs. This spider crawled away and bit Peter Parker before dying. In a short while, Peter found out, to his initial delight, that he had gained super-strength, the ability to crawl on walls and other abilities. He was also able to use his genius to create a special web fluid and a pair of web shooters. Peter, who lived with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, attempted to use these abilities to get some money for his poor family, but he chose to do so by courting fame and celebrity as a professional wrestler and TV showman. His success went to his head and one night after a performance, he let a burglar escape after one of his shows, only for this same burglar to kill his Uncle Ben a few days later. After this tragic event, he vowed to dedicate his life to helping innocent people with his powers to atone for his big mistake and to honor his uncle's beliefs in justice and responsibility.

Peter's life since then has been full of ups and downs. He graduated from high school to college, he worked at the Daily Bugle as a freelance photographer for his boss J. Jonah Jameson who just happens to despise Spider-Man. He has fallen in love with a few girls, dating Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and Felicia Hardy, before marrying Mary Jane for twenty real-time years until a retcon. He has graduated college but has yet to fully escape grad school and complete his thesis. In addition to photographer, Peter has worked several small time jobs, before working for extensive periods of time as a high school teacher, a scientist for Horizon Labs, business owner of Parker Industries.

He has even been dead a few times, one of which involved him getting organic webbing for a while. More recently (2010-2019), he had a "death" with the Superior Spider-Man hijacking his body for a year and a half during which Otto, in Peter's body, started a company called Parker Industries and completed his graduate thesis under false circumstances. This company offered Peter success and fame for a while, though typically, Peter refused to draw a big salary from the venture, and eventually said period of success was overturned, and Peter returned to his mid-20s struggling self around the time of The Amazing Spider-Man (2018).

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A-F

10-Minute Retirement: Occasionally Spidey will get sick and tired of juggling the demands of heroics and ordinary life for the benefit of an unappreciative world and hang up the web-shooters until something spurs him into action again.
Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: One of Spidey's lesser-known powers, famously emphasized by Todd McFarlane during his run.
The Ace: As far as street level heroes go in the Marvel universe, Spider-Man is one of if not the best. An extremely adaptable tactician, immensely strong combatant, friendly and easy-going to a fault, and an utterly brilliant scientist and engineer, there’s a very good reason why he’s often stated to be the greatest hero of all.
Action Hero: Spider-Man has seen his fair share of action throughout his career.
Accidental Murder: He killed Wolverine's girlfriend Charlie unintentionally, trying to stop Wolverine from performing a Mercy Kill on her.
The Adjectival Superhero: Spidey might have the most adjectives. He has Amazing, Spectacular, Sensational, and his favorite, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. He was called the Bombastic Bag-Man, when he borrowed a Fantastic Four costume with a Brown Bag Mask. When Venom acted as him during Dark Reign, Venom was called the Sinister Spider-Man. He is also the Avenging Spider-Man, as a member of the Avengers. And the Fantastic Spider-Man as a member of the FF.
Aesop Amnesia: He's repeatedly tried to ditch super heroics to be a normal guy with a normal family, only to have it drilled into him again that "with great power equals great responsibility".
Aesop Collateral Damage: The origin of Spider-Man is all about this: he refuses to stop a fleeing criminal, and subsequently Uncle Ben is killed by that criminal, teaching our hero that valuable lesson that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.
Affectionate Nickname:
- He's called "Tiger" by Mary Jane and "Pete" or "Petey" by many of his friends.
- The people of NYC and various other heroes call him "Spidey" or "Web-head" at times.
Afraid of Their Own Strength: He has some shades of this. Notably, he carefully controls the force of his punches so as to not unduly injure the normal humans he fights, he doesn't drink out of fear of losing control of his Super-Strength, and after a certain incident involving Gwen Stacy, he's very cautious about calculating the force necessary to safely catch someone with a webline.
- This is reinforced when Doc Ock takes over his body as the Superior Spider-Man. During a fight with the Scorpion, Ock-Spidey punches Scorpion's jaw clean off, and Otto realizes that Spidey has been pulling his punches in every fight they've ever had.
Alertness Blink: Most times the Spider-Sense activates. The thick, tapering wavy lines around his head are one of the most famous examples of this in the West.
Allegedly Dateless: He was married to one of the most beautiful women in the Marvel Universe. And before MJ, he had Betty Brant and Liz Allan fight over him and dated Gwen Stacy and the Black Cat. Even his least overtly attractive love interest, Debra Whitman, looked like a Hot Librarian. This despite him being described as a poor nebbish nerd who would have trouble getting dates (though Depending on the Artist not really looking like one). His friend the Human Torch even called him on it, as did the Chameleon while impersonating him.
Chameleon: Does Parker know anyone who isn't a stunningly beautiful woman?
Alliterative Name: Peter Parker. Both his first and last name begin with the letter P. Middle name's "Benjamin", though — not that it comes up often.
All-Loving Hero: He is ultimately the most lovable human being in Marvel and is the prolific easy-going superhero. Throughout the entire Marvel community, he has teamed up and allied with almost every character based on his modesty, compassion, his sense of humor, and his devotion to being responsible. Plus, most stories about him when he's all grown up (considering even the main continuity Spidey, the oldest mainstream depiction, is still only about 24) depict him as "the greatest hero of all".
- This trait is something that's actually saved both his life and the life of others. In the War of the Realms, his sense of empathy and compassion convinced the Angel of Heven, Fernande, to make a Heel–Face Turn and later save both Fernande and Lady Waziria (Kurse) from performing a mutual Suicide by Cop.
- The Progenitor Celestial is outright amazed with how all-loving Peter is. With it alright calling it "beautiful" and even going as far as to momentarily bring back Gwen Stacy to see his heart open up even more.
All of the Other Reindeer: Peter got bullied in high school because he was a nerd; meanwhile, Spider-Man gets treated like a criminal by the same media that worships all of the other super-heroes, especially in the case of J. Jonah Jameson, who even treats mutants (the feared and hated minority of the Marvel Universe) better than he does Spider-Man. Ironically because of this, Spider-Man has traditionally been a huge supporter and ally of the X-Men.
All Webbed Up: Peter created a set of wrist-mounted web shooters on his own in one of the clearest displays of scientific genius on his part. The formula for his webs in particular is nothing short of miraculous, given its tensile strength and adhesive properties. It disappears after a couple of hours or so, so he doesn't even leave a mess.
- For a time after his first encounter with the Queen up to One More Day, Peter underwent a secondary mutation that gave him organic web shooters that functioned in much the same way as his artificial ones. There is little he can't do with his webs. Possibly justified — in real life, spiders do tend to be pretty brilliant with them.
Almighty Janitor: He is a freelance photographer who constantly struggles to pay rent. He is also a superhero who regularly saves the city, and sometimes the whole world, from danger. This gets eventually subverted during J. Michael Straczynski and Dan Slott's runs, though. During JMS's, Peter gets a job as a High School Science teacher, although that was one of the things that Civil War and One More Day put to an end. Slott then took it to the next level by making Peter get a serious full-time job as a scientist in Horizon Labs. And finally, he becomes CEO of Parker Industries, which eventually becomes a multi-national corporation. He eventually returned to the Status Quo of being a struggling hero.
Alternate Self: Almost every single AU Spider-Man is a version of Peter Parker, something Otto Octavius finds both annoying and disappointing. Even if he isn't he is usually somehow connected to a spider themed hero or there is someone who acts as a analogue to him with a similar backstory to his own. Also given how iconic the symbiote is, it's rare to find a retelling or adaptation that hasn't featured Symbiote Spider-Man, and a few What If?s have asked the question of what would happen if the symbiote returned to Peter, or what would happen if they never separated to begin with.
- In What If the Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Man?, Peter is accidentally killed by the symbiote, which tries to atone for this by curing Bruce Banner of his Hulk problem but is killed by a vengeful Felicia Hardy.
- In What If? Brave New World, Peter is trapped on Battleworld with the other combatants. Over time, the symbiote assimilates his body until all that's left of him is a skeleton and his psyche, with the symbiote's biomass forming their body.
- In Marvel Comics 2, the symbiote rebonds to Peter, taking him over to create Spider-Venom (a black and grey Spider-Man with Venom's face). After bonding to Normie Osborn to become the heroic Dusk, it later bonds to his daughter May and sacrifices itself to save her life.
- In the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, the Black Suit is a cancer cure-turned-bioweapon created by Richard Parker that Peter accidentally exposes himself to. While he initially has the time of his life, he almost eats a burglar who reminds him of his Uncle's killer and realizes too late that the Suit is too dangerous to use. While he manages to rid himself of it and destroy the sample, Eddie Brock exposes himself to a second sample to become Venom. Said second sample later leaves Eddie to take over Peter until it's suppressed by the Ultimates.
- In Marvel Mangaverse, Peter finds a cursed amulet belonging to the evil Shadow Clan, which turns his costume black-and-white and amplifies his powers, but starts corrupting him at the same time. The cursed amulet is removed by Venom, who mysteriously returns with full control of the amulet's powers.
- In the Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) cartoon, the symbiote was created from a sample of Peter's blood and seeks to return to him. While it briefly bonds with him, it's notable that Harry Osborn is the one who becomes Symbiote Spider-Man, at least until he loses control of the symbiote.
- Venomverse has an alternate version of Symbiote Spider-Man who reclaimed the Venom symbiote from his villainous version of Eddie Brock. As such, he has a dim view of Earth-616 Venom; and just when it looks like they'll become Fire-Forged Friends, Venomized Spider-Man is consumed by a Poison and becomes Poison Spider-Man.
Always Save the Girl: He tries. Doesn't always work out, but he tries.
Amazon Chaser: Has shown an interest in heroines he's worked with, especially the kind who can fight as well, if not better, than he can. He had a one-sided interest in Black Widow when she had amnesia, he was instantly attracted to beautiful jungle girl Shanna O’Hara, he seems to have an attraction to Jessica Drew, went out with and had a budding relationship with Carol Danvers and briefly dated Mockingbird. There is also Black Cat, who is also a pretty scrappy fighter like him. Even Mary Jane, whom he eventually married, has shown that she is capable of taking care of herself and has even saved Peter on a few occasions.
Amicable Exes:
- Peter Parker has remained good friends with his high school girlfriend Betty Brant for decades since their breakup.
- Post-One More Day, Peter and Mary Jane remained best friends throughout The Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott), albeit with the ship repeatedly being teased and sunk. However, in The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), their lingering feelings for each other proved unignorable and they finally got back together, with recent issues hinting that their marriage may even be restored to continuity in the near future.
Animalistic Abilities: Spider strength, spider speed, spider agility and Wall Crawling. He also has a Spider-Sense which is loosely based on how spiders are alerted of danger. He usually lacks the ability to use organic webbing, however.
Animal Motifs: Getting spider-powers inspired him to get a spider motif in all of his gadgets and outfits. Most famously his spider-tracer, who have no real practical reason to be spider-shaped, and just clue-in whoever finds them that it was Spider-Man who planted them.
Animal-Themed Fighting Style: In Dan Slott's run, Spider-Man's Spider-Sense was temporarily disabled. To compensate for this, Peter underwent martial arts training from Shang Chi to develop a fighting style called "Way of the Spider" which focused on spider-like strength and reflexes.
Animal-Themed Superbeing: Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Getting bit by the radioactive spider gave him the "proportional strength of a spider", the agility and flexibility of a spider, the ability to crawl on walls and adhere to any surface at any angle, and the Spider-Sense. Played With in regards to the webs, since in most versions his body does not produce webs itself (he had to invent the web formula and the web-shooters), and as some fans never tire of pointing out, whether he has artificial or organic web-shooters the webs don't come out of his butt. His vaguely defined "Spider-sense" also puts him more into mythical territory, as it operates more like a "sixth sense" than anything encountered with real-life spiders.
- Over time, it has been established that Peter didn't entirely win the Superpower Lottery, and that's why he only has some spider-based powers and not the much larger library he could have. This has also been used to help differentiate some of his Legacy Characters, giving them certain unique powers whilst still preserving the fundamental theme of being a Spider-Hero.
The Anticipator: Spidey is fond of abusing his Spider-Sense for this purpose; he can sense when someone, especially an enemy someone, is coming, and can quickly set up a nice little alleyway confrontation with them. Or simply just not be surprised when someone's behind him; his Spider-Sense averts this trope happening fully to him for the same reason of his power being able to sense when someone hostile is lurking about (unless it's Venom, whom the Spider-Sense cannot detect).
Anti-Hero: While a Classical Anti-Hero or Knight in Sour Armour in most of his history and other adaptations, he surprisingly started off as an Unscrupulous Hero or Nominal Hero who did heroics mainly for the fame and fortune before Character Development matured him into a far more noble person.
Arachnid Appearance and Attire: Spider-Man is a notable example for being very colorful. Except when he's wearing his black costume. Notably, while Spider-Man is usually joking, laughing, and having a good time while fighting bad guys, when he stops quipping and gets serious, pissed, or seriously pissed, he becomes an absolutely terrifying opponent. When Peter's the "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," he defies this trope. When he drops the "friendly" part, he pretty much codifies it.
Arbitrary Scepticism: During the Spider Totem story arc, Ezekiel Sims tries to explain to Peter that the origin of his powers, the bite of a spider irradiated during an experiment, was not just an accident, but that a greater force personally chose him to be the next spider-man; Peter, however, refuses to believe it, even after Ezekiel reminds him that he has fought against and alongside gods, sorcerers, and cosmic entities.
Arch-Enemy: Three villains contest for the role: Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom. The reason for this is that the Green Goblin died in the '70s and spent a good 20-odd years dead before he came back to torment his foe, which is probably the record to beat for dead A-list villains. In the meantime, Doctor Octopus and Venom filled the roles in the '70s and '80s/'90s, respectively. However, in recent decades, Venom became more of an Anti-Hero figure with his hatred of Peter toned down. At the same time, both Osborn and Octavius really hurt the wall-crawler in their own nasty ways, so if there is a contest for a mantle of Spider-Man’s greatest enemy, it’s between these two. As Stan Lee put it himself: "The Green Goblin is Peter Parker's greatest enemy, while Doctor Octopus is Spider-Man's greatest enemy.”
- To elaborate on the quote: Doctor Octopus is the archenemy of Spider-Man in a very classic sense. Otto and Peter have a lot in common, both being scientists, who were bullied in school, and later got caught up in freak accidents that dramatically changed them forever. Both received a lot of power and both decided to channel that power by adopting an alter-ego based on an eight-legged animal. The difference is that Peter chose to be a superhero and use his powers for good, while Otto chose to become a criminal, who tries to get back at the world. Doctor Octopus is the most recurring villain of the franchise, challenging the very idea of Spider-Man and being responsible for some of the most dramatic incidents in Peter’s career as a superhero: his first defeat, near death, death of Captain Stacey, the establishment of Sinister Six and outright identity theft. At the same time, Otto never really cared about the man behind the mask and kept his rivalry with Spider-Man on sort of “gentlemanly” level, actually making a point of trying not to hurt Peter’s loved ones.
- Norman Osborn is a different story. For him, being a supervillain with a secret identity has never really carried any pragmatic benefits and has not served any goal aside from channeling his psychopathic and sadistic urges while maintaining a façade of respectful businessman. Since his very motivation as the Goblin (and later as Osborn himself) is to play out power fantasies, he was angry that someone stood up against him and swiftly decided to punish the person behind the mask. This dynamic between the characters eventually led to a lot of tragedy and pain in Peter’s life over the years as he saw numerous deaths and tortures of his loved ones, starting with Gwen Stacy, at the hands of Norman. Needless to say it’s a very personal conflict between the two and Peter hates no one as much as he hates Osborn. He even had to stop himself from killing the latter several times. If Otto challenges the idea of Spider-Man as a superhero, Norman Osborn challenges Peter’s morality itself.
Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: Spider-Man, pretty much an archetypal skintight-suit superhero, periodically though not invariably goes up against armored opponents of various kinds, such as the Rhino or assorted Spider-Slayer robots. Though he averts this on occasion, building specialized suits or even Power Armor to deal with specific foes.
Artificial Animal People: Downplayed. While he's still considered human after the spider bite which gave him his powers, his genetic code has a very small percentage of spider DNA.
Ascended Fanboy: In recent events, he's finally able to use his technical skills to make a living — and a good one at that. Peter is now the CEO of his own company, Parker Industries — employing most of his former colleagues from Horizon Labs — and gets paid a very sizable salary to develop new technologies. When he started at Horizon, Aunt May recalls him asserting his dreams of working as a scientist to Ben as seen in one of the older comics.
Attention Whore: Peter's original Fatal Flaw in Amazing Fantasy #15 which he overcomes gradually but it still shows up from time to time, since Peter does indeed define himself and is conditioned by what other people think of him to a very great deal:
- After becoming superhuman, he uses his abilities and skills to become a media sensation and celebrity out of a craving for the acceptance and respect that was denied to Peter by his peers in high school. He earns money for his Uncle and Aunt but it's clear that his main motivation was respect. When the fame and approval goes to his head and he makes the Tragic Mistake that led to Uncle Ben's death he mellows out, albeit he still has some flirtations with celebrity in the early issues. Working as a street performer, trying to join the Fantastic Four so he can ride their coattails, and getting more than a little bothered by Jameson's scandalmongering.
- In Roger Stern's "The Daydreamers" written in Amazing Spider-Man #246 in Peter's early middle-career, Peter's ideal fantasy world is beating up his entire Rogues Gallery in single combat, Jameson apologizing and literally kissing his boots, winning both the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize for his scientific papers, having the Avengers and the Fantastic Four kiss up to him and fight for him to exclusively join either one of the two top teams. The fantasy punctures itself, or as per the story logic, his defense mechanism kicks in, when the Avengers realize he's Just a Kid and everyone leaves him.
The Atoner: His main motivation for doing good is that no one will have to suffer like he did when he inadvertently got his Uncle killed. As he makes it clear in "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man", Peter will never forgive himself for letting the burglar get away.
Timothy Harrison: Geez, do ya have to be so hard on yourself? I know you messed up... but at least you've tried to make up for it.
Spider-Man: I'll be making up for it, for a long, long time.

Awesomeness by Analysis: An absolute master at this. While part of it is due to his enhanced perception, Peter possesses an uncanny ability to make observations and calculations on the fly. One such example is when he calculates the force needed to stop a jetliner from crashing into the ground.
Back from the Dead:
- Was killed by Morlun, but was reborn by embracing the supernatural side of his powers.
- He lingered on in Superior Spider-Man as a spirit after seemingly dying in Doc Ock's body. Peter can exert enough control over Otto to keep him from killing a helpless foe with Otto none the wiser. Peter also vows to take control of his body back, but gets erased for good this time... at least until Otto's desperation to remember something of Peter's past brings him back. And now he's back for real.
Badass Adorable: Despite being incredibly agile and a super-powered daredevil, he's just so damn cute and fun when being in any situation with his life as a hero and a normal guy. The guy defines Moral Pureness for the entire Marvel community.
Badass Bookworm: Spider-Man is a superhumanly skilled acrobat with danger-based precognition and superhuman strength and resiliency (including an ability to block out pain better than ordinary humans). He's also got a high I.Q. and a natural affinity for science.
Bare-Fisted Monk: After his Kung Fu Lessons for Spider-Man.
Battle in the Center of the Mind: When Spider-Man bonds to a symbiote to fight Deathbird and S.W.O.R.D. after they're overtaken, he enlists No-Girl to help him control it as proof that she's not the traitor within the X-Men. No-Girl has a showdown with the symbiote's will in the middle of Peter's inner replica of Queens and manages to hold it off for a while. She is ultimately no match for it and her consciousness is expelled, with Spider-Man being taken over and briefly turned into a copy of classic Venom.
Becoming the Mask: Swings in and out of this, but Peter can get so caught up in his persona that he forgets that Spider-Man is the mask Peter wears, not the other way around.
Being Good Sucks: Also the Marvel Trope Codifier for this, as no matter how much good he does, many people are freaked out by him and he loses friends and love interests.
Benevolent Boss: He took over as CEO of Parker Industries, but his happy-go-lucky attitude ended up working against him. Following Parker Industries being established as a global conglomerate, it's finally caught on and he's hired some of his former enemies, including Clash, the Prowler, and the second Green Goblin.
Betty and Veronica:
- When Peter ("Archie") was in high school it was a choice between "mature" brunette secretary Betty Brant ("Betty") and the more girlish, flighty blonde Liz Allen ("Veronica").
- In university, Peter ("Archie") was caught in between Gwen Stacy ("Betty") and Mary Jane Watson ("Veronica"). Gwen seemed to have won... until she died.
- Later on, he was in a triangle with Mary Jane Watson ("Betty") and Felicia Hardy ("Veronica"). Then Spidey hitched up with MJ.
Beware the Nice Ones: Spider-Man is entirely well-meaning, but in times of severe stress and/or provocation (such as Gwen Stacy's death), he will often fly into Unstoppable Rage, which invariably ends very painfully for the target of that rage. Basically, when he's not wisecracking, the villains had best watch out.
- Logan once made some insensitive remarks about Mary Jane. In response, Pete put Logan through Mr. Stark's "unbreakable" glass windows from the umpteenth floor. Good Thing You Can Heal indeed.
- Super Power Beatdown showed perfectly how dangerous Spidey can be. During his fight with Darth Maul, he uses his Spider-Sense and agility to constantly dodge a Force user's lightsaber attacks. However, when the Symbiote bonds with Spidey again, The Gloves Come Off and it doesn't take Spidey three seconds to use his senses and agility to have Maul cut off his own head.
Beware the Quiet Ones: When Peter stops cracking jokes, you know he's seriously pissed off. Poked fun at in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual, where D-list villainess Ruby Thursday remarks that as long as Spider-Man is cracking jokes the world is all right. Seconds later Spider-Man shows up and doesn't respond to their prompts, causing Thursday to mutter Uh-oh. He just had laryngitis.
Big Brother Mentor: Peter's never taken any long-term sidekicks, but if he runs into any new teen heroes, he usually tries to act like this.
Big Damn Heroes: Spider-Man has been on both sides of this trope, either showing up at the last minute to pull off an amazing rescue or being bailed out by his superhero buddies.
Big Good: Downplayed. Although Captain America is the Marvel Universe's Big Good, Spider-Man has proven to have the potential to be as effective a leader as he is and on rare occasions shows more innocence and purity than Steve. If Steve is the Marvel Universe's Soul, then Peter is definitely the Heart. His idealism, which often rivals Cap's obviously, is powerful enough to unite the most cynical of heroes and loathsome villains together and/or bring out the best in them. If he wasn't a Hero with Bad Publicity, he might have fulfilled this trope a long time ago.
- Very much downplayed in the greater scheme of things since he tends to be one of the younger heroes on display. To make up for that fact, it is commonly acknowledged that he is extraordinarily experienced as a superhero, especially so for his age. Since he started at 15-16 or so, he has spent at least a decade, including his formative years, fighting evil on a nearly constant basis. Hence comes the wisdom of handing him the reins in a pinch.
- In any series that takes place in the future — particularly if it's one that involves successor superheroes, this is taken to its logical conclusion. Most of these timelines depict any heroes' response to Peter as one of reverence — a living legend whose only equal is MU's other living legend (Captain America). And as in his nature, he downplays his importance, though with enough wisdom to use that respect to help younger heroes.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Following The Other, he had retractile stingers in his forearms, but lost them following One More Day.
Blood Knight: It doesn't always seem obvious, but especially in his adulthood Peter doesn't shy away from enjoying a fight when it becomes clear no other option is available.
Body Horror: In The Six Arms Saga, Spidey created a formula to rid himself of his spider-powers which instead caused him to sprout four extra arms, and on no less than three separate occasions he has been forcibly turned into a monstrous humanoid arachnid called Man-Spider. As if the poor guy didn't have enough to deal with...
Born Unlucky: Poor Peter tends to see himself as being very unlucky, so much so that he would complain that it's taken this long for him to be mentioned. He's even mumbled the page quote more than a few times. It should be noted his poor luck has been both Played for Laughs and done seriously. A good deal of the ol' Parker luck is self-inflicted due to his secret identity as Spider-Man, whose duties often interfere with his civilian life, and despite his bad luck he has a loving family, a circle of friends, and as a few supervillains have enviously noted, a love-life entirely filled with gorgeous women.
Boxing Lessons for Superman:
- Peter spent a bit of time as a successful show-wrestler, learning how to fight using his powers and his webs before ever trying to fight crime.
- During one of the (many) times he briefly lost his Spider-Sense, Spider-Man found himself seriously handicapped without it. After struggling to defeat enemies who he'd normally have no problems handling he realized just how much he'd relied on it in battle and decided to get training in martial arts from Shang-Chi, The Master of Kung-fu. Together they created "The Way of the Spider", a unique martial art based around Spider-Man's unique combination of superpowered strength, speed, and agility to compensate for the loss of his Spider-Sense. When Spider-Man regained his Spider-Sense he was able to combine his Spider-Sense with The Way of the Spider to make him an even more dangerous opponent than he was before the loss.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Not quite as much as Marvel's usual examples, but occasionally.
Breakout Character: Originally the star of a story in an issue of a Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi anthology, he proved popular enough to get his own series a few months later and quickly became one of the most popular superheroes ever.
Break the Comedian: One of the main traits of Spider-Man is that he often jokes a lot when in combat, both as a way to trip up his opponents and try to show civilians he means no harm. But likewise as a coping mechanism to keep himself focused in any situation he gets into. Needless to say, if he's really affected by something personal or horrific, he loses the jokes instantly. A few of his opponents have noted if he isn't joking, then he's taking things very seriously and likely isn't going to hold back in a fight.
Break the Cutie: Happens to him on a depressingly regular basis.
Break Them by Talking: If pushed too far, or if sufficiently pissed, Peter can demolish people. During Avengers: The Initiative, he gets into a fight with Komodo, who was sent to try and depower and arrest him. While he's still dealing with Aunt May being in critical condition in hospital. He proceeds to tear Komodo down, reducing her to a terrified wreck.
Brilliant, but Lazy: [[Invoked]]. In modern stories, Peter is often perceived this way because everyone knows how smart he is, reasonably comparing him to the likes of Hank Pym, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Reed Richards, but not why he doesn't put more energy into his work (the trope is even stated by name in the second movie). They specifically point out that he made something as revolutionary as the web-fluid formula at fifteen, on limited resources and funding, but since then he's only made minor upgrades and gadgets while not developing his original work.
- However, rather than simply being a case of Reed Richards Is Useless, the reason for this is that he spends most of his time fighting bad guys rather than doing sciencey stuff, which he usually only employs to fight whatever bad guy is making trouble on any particular day.
- After he regained his body from Doctor Octopus, he was left with his own company, Parker Industries, which was created by Doc Ock while in Peter's body. While Parker Industries does quite well as a company, since Peter has taken over the reins (of the body and the company), he's usually much more interested in getting away and Spider-Manning rather than being a scientist or businessman. Even when PI produces nifty gadgets or socially-conscious initiatives, it's more a case of Peter saying "Invent this thing, anonymous science lackeys."
Broken Ace: Despite being one of Marvel’s most successful superheroes with impressive feats of strength and intelligence (not to mention his incredible Chick Magnet status), he is still riddled with self doubt and guilt for letting important people like Gwen Stacy and Uncle Ben die.
Brooklyn Rage: The quintessential New York superhero.
Leo Zelinsky: Ask me again in that Queens accent how I know you're from around here.
- Subverted, in that — largely because of his "everyman" aspect — he's rarely depicted with a New York accent in media where it could actually be heard. The Amazing Spider-Man Series is a notable exception, where Andrew Garfield affects a Brooklyn accent for him. TheMCU's Tom Holland gives Peter a proper Queens accent.
Brought Down to Badass:
- Spider-Man lost his powers once or twice, notably in the '70s; when tricked to drink a potion that nullified his spider-powers, he manages to burst out of several lengths of rope tying him up on a chair by flexing his muscles and getting pissed off — looks like playing super-hero daily helps building up upper body strength. On top of that, he remains a skilled chemist and physicist, good enough to show up the likes of Reed Richards, Doom and Tony Stark. He has, more than once, used his intellect to escape baddies while preserving his secret identity.
- When he lost his Spider-Sense, he compensated by learning martial arts under Shang Chi, to the point where his skill at fighting enabled him to fight as effectively as he had before he lost it. When he regained his Spider-Sense the combination of his training and the returned ability took his fighting ability to another level. Unless writers start to forget about this ability.
Building Swing: Spider-Man's usual mode of travel around the city, natch.
The Bus Came Back:
- After years of being apart - not counting the "Superior Venom" incident - and moments where it looked like it would choose him again, the symbiote rebonded with Peter during his fight with Agent Venom during Civil War II. However, rather than take him over, it used the opportunity to have a long-overdue heart-to-heart with Peter and clarify a number of misconceptions.
- In Go Down Swinging, Eddie Brock lends the symbiote to Spider-Man so that he'll be able to fight evenly with the Red Goblin; the symbiote taking on an altered appearance with different spider-emblems and eyespots that stick out the side of his head.
Butt-Monkey: He started out as a poor nerd bullied at school. But as Spider-Man too, he often suffers humiliation and bad publicity from the media. Peter has come to jokingly call the tendency for his life to go awry "the Parker luck". In the first issue of Marvel NOW! Amazing Spider-Man, after finally regaining his body from Otto Octavius, he hasn't even been Spider-Man again for ten minutes before he has his suit unraveled by a villain's power and ends up in a Naked People Trapped Outside situation. Pictures of him nude except for his mask and hastily-made web underwear get posted all over the internet. While his making quips again had people wondering if he really had returned, this incident convinces everyone that the real Spider-Man is back.
Jessica Drew: Okay, Cap. I'm convinced. That's Parker. And he's completely back to normal.
Bystander Syndrome: In his origin story, he let a burglar who he could have easily stopped run right by, because he didn't think it was his problem. That same burglar would go on to kill his Uncle Ben.
Cannot Talk to Women: During his early years, he was an awkward nerdy teenager before being bitten by a spider. He grew out of it after that, and then started dating Betty Brant. By the time he came to college, he never really has difficulty finding dates. Keeping them and maintaining relationships is what he finds hard to do.
Camera Sniper: Common, but most of the time it's Peter Parker's own camera on auto-shutter taking the pictures of Spidey in action. But not always.
Can Always Spot a Cop: Spidey goes hot and cold with this trope. He doesn't really encounter police officers except when they're trying to arrest him, or when he's swinging in to give them a hand. Peter is observant and intelligent enough to pick up subtle clues that someone is a cop, but not consistently. His Spider-Sense does sometimes warn him that someone is carrying a gun, but that's only when they have hostile intentions toward him. Therefore it normally doesn't ping on undercover cops that he's around either in his civilian identity or as Spider-Man, since they don't usually have any hostile intentions towards him in either guise.
Can't Catch Up: Although it may seem incredible, when the character was originally created he was considered one of the physically strongest heroes, only surpassed in strength by a small number of heroes. But as other characters with super strength achieved more exaggerated feats such as lifting thousands of tons or even mountains, Spider-Man stopped being so special in terms of physical strength, being demoted to being a Mid Tier.
The Cape: He's second place to Captain America as The Cape of the Marvel universe, radiating the ideals of responsibility. Unsurprisingly they are usually shown to get along pretty well and respect each other, and while Cap is shown to be the Big Good Peter falls into the role of The Heart.
Cartesian Karma: This is Peter's problem after he gets his body back following the Superior Spider-Man arc, in which Doctor Octopus controls his body. Many of his prior relationships are strained, especially that with his former lover, Black Cat, who has made a Face–Heel Turn and doesn't care that it was Octavius in Peter's body when she was attacked.
Cat Smile: He does this frequently.
Characterization Marches On: A hallmark of Peter Parker's development was dynamic growth, at least until later retcons and so on made him a Static Character:
- Peter originally was The Everyman in the classical sense, in that he was flawed, a little quick to anger, and had a fixation on fame and celebrity, and said that he only cared about the people he loved (and who loved him back) such as Uncle Ben and Aunt May, while the rest as he says it in Amazing Fantasy #15, "can go hang for all I care". When his Tragic Mistake leads to the death of his beloved Uncle Ben precisely because of his selfishness, he slowly starts maturing into a more moral and selfless person, and someone who never ceases to help out even those he dislikes such as Flash Thompson (in the early issues).
- Peter in The Amazing Spider-Man had an independent and self-righteous streak (which he, arguably, never entirely loses) and a tendency to distrust others. This was toned down in Romita's era, where after he realizes that Harry had a difficult life with Norman, he and Harry (who started out as enemies) become friendlier, though this creates new problems since Peter is constantly tempted to tell people his secret identity and dislikes lying to his friends but feels it's better for everyone to keep his double life from them. His constant disappearances, lengthy absences, and erratic behavior makes him neurotic, and many of his friends and social circle find him a little weird, with Gwen in particular being constantly worried about him.
- After he and Mary Jane become confidants and later get married, Peter now having someone with whom he could share his identity with, starts mellowing out and relaxing albeit his period of marriage also coincides with issues of a young struggling couple starting a two-income household where MJ earns more than him. The issues of being a superhero while having a wife and negotiating different responsibilities as an adult also makes Peter think more and more about his long-term future prospects then as a young man. During JMS' run, when Aunt May finds out that Peter is Spider-Man, and also becomes his confidant, Peter opens up even more, and this also makes him more trusting and open to joining teams and sharing his private life with other heroes (with Mary Jane citing how little a part she has in Spider-Man's life as opposed to Peter's which she as his wife has a right to share), leading him to join New Avengers, which ends tragically with Civil War.
- Originally, the symbiote did not boost Spidey's powers or turn him evil and he simply tried to kill the symbiote when he found out that it was alive and trying to bond with him. When later writers decided to use revist that era, they gave the previous story a quick Retcon based on the symbiote's portrayal in the 1994 animated series, (though instead of outright making Peter evil, it instead made him more agressive) giving Peter a better excuse. However, this later became Depending on the Writer where some writers would return to using the orginal depection of it not affecting his behavior but with addition of it boosting his powers.
- After OMD, Peter's made into a Static Character, flanderized from different eras of his high school, college and grad school periods. His new characterization is as a funny, unlucky Butt-Monkey, who easily lets a little success to go to his head, is a bit of a Manchild. Once he and Mary Jane (now his long-time live-in girlfriend and ex rather than his wife) break up, he starts a new relationship with Carlie but refuses to tell her his secret once it gets serious because he wants to be liked as "plain ol' Pete" an entirely new wrinkle since in the classical era his biggest problem with relationships was precisely that his girlfriends (Betty and Gwen) hated Spider-Man. This ends up blowing on his face in Spider-Island when she finds out and dumps him for lying to her (which MJ warned him about before).
Character Tic:
- Will often crouch as a means for writers to show his super agility and flexibility.
- Likewise, he has a distinct way of hanging from the end of a web, and extreme contortion is second nature to him.
Cheap Costume: Black Cat, who thought the Black Suit was sexier than Spidey's classic red-and-blues, made him a synthetic version that he wore until Venom attacked Mary-Jane. He still wears it from time to time, usually as an indicator of how pissed off he is.
Chick Magnet: His lovers' gallery is really long. In fact, the Human Torch "snaps" when he learns that his best bud Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker, whom he was extremely envious of for his ability to attract women. Johnny even labeled Peter's ability the "Parker Luck", much to Spidey's amusement, who uses the same term to describe his bad luck. If you still need proof, take a look at the Love Interest section. He even nabbed Hercules' former wife!
The Chosen One: He has an odd tendency to discover there are ancient prophecies about him. He was, for instance, destined to stop the "Bend Sinister" (alongside Dr. Strange), and no less a pair of personages than Lord Chaos and Master Order claimed to have guided his life to defeat Thanos. The Uni-Power chose him as its host to stop the Tri-Sentinel, and he's also the one destined to train Hope Summers. Then there's the whole "totemic spider god" thing with Ezekiel, Ero, and Morlun...
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Justified in that he blames himself for his inaction with Uncle Ben when he could have saved him just by stopping the robber earlier, he takes this to the logical extreme and even other superheroes think he needs a vacation at times. The Venom symbiote has stated that it effectively learned how to feel guilt from sharing a mind and body with Peter.
- Sometimes he takes it to dangerous extremes. During a prison riot and escape in the supervillain prison Raft, the other Avengers are waiting for backup since they are totally outnumbered. Spidey, not one to let innocent people die on his watch, leaps down anyway. He gets his arm broken, gets the stuffing beat out of him and his mask torn off. The only reason his Secret Identity was not exposed was because they had been beating on him so bad that by the time the mask came off, his face was an unrecognizable mess. Good thing he has accelerated healing.
Clark Kent Outfit: Numerous people are surprised to note that the scrawny-looking 'Puny Parker' has "muscles like a weightlifter's" under his clothes.
Classical Anti-Hero: Originally pitched as a "superhero with problems", Spider-Man was revolutionary in his time for depicting a comicbook hero whose life didn't magically get better after receiving super-powers — if anything, his life got worse as he was essentially robbed of his youth by being saddled with poverty, responsibilities, duties, and his superhero work. Peter Parker is perpetually living paycheck-to-paycheck, his heroing is detrimental to his personal life, he constantly battles a rogues gallery of super-powered killers that he's secretly terrified of, lacks guidance and support, and he rarely, if ever, gets a "thank you" for all of the sacrifices he performs for the greater good. The temptation of quitting is forever in the back of his mind, but the guilt he feels over his uncle's death will never allow him to stay out of the fight for long.
Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb: Ordinarily, this never happens to Spider-Man for obvious reasons, but it does turn up in stories where he loses one or more of his powers and has to fake it.
Cloning Blues: Peter has a lot of angst regarding his "brothers" Ben Reilly and Kaine, and tends to react very negatively regarding clones in general.
Clothes Make the Legend: Even the black suit retained the form.
Clothes Make the Superman:
- Spider-Man's symbiote costume (and subsequently, Venom and the other symbiotes) was retconned to have enhanced his powers at a price.
- Spidey has outfitted himself with several technologically-advanced suits:
  - The first Spider-Armor was made from a silvery pseudo-metallic compound to face the New Enforcers, but was destroyed by acid.
  - The "Iron Spider" suit was built by Tony Stark, had retractable spider-legs, and was one of his most versatile suits. He lost it after defecting during Civil War, but has since rebuilt it at Parker Industries.
  - The second Spider-Armor was a black-and-yellow bulletproof suit intended to compensate for his lack of a Spider-Sense, and was equipped with built-in web shooters and magnetic webbing.
  - The Stealth Suit was a black costume with Tron Lines made from Unstable Molecules. The Tron Lines are white in its default mode, green in its stealth mode, and red in its anti-sonics mode. Madame Web later altered it into Kaine's Scarlet Spider costume, and Otto Octavius as the Superior Spider-Man rebuilt it.
  - The third Spider-Armor was built to combat the entire Sinister Six, and was equipped with a variety of gadgets intended to facilitate this.
  - The fourth Spider-Armor is made from a light-weight but bulletproof metallic material, an infrared vision mode, and built-in web-shooters.
Cloudcuckoolander: He's more than a little odd, and is seen as creepy by many other heroes at first.
Clueless Chick-Magnet: He sees himself as a guy who can't attract a date, despite having never gone an extended period without a relationship, having long-term relationships with some of the most beautiful women in comics and being married to arguably the most beautiful woman in the MU. Post-OMD, when Peter's supposed to be "unlucky", he has had 5 new relationships (Michelle, Carlie, Silk, Lian, Mockingbird), and all of them openly sexual relationships (with him and Felicia being friends-with-benefits), making him essentially a womanizer.
Combat Parkour: This is Spider-Man's specialty. As a consequence of his powers, he fights reflexively. However, he is extraordinarily limber and agile, so by reflex he jumps, twirls, twists, and contorts all over the place to dodge blows and missiles. His only real weapons are his hands and feet. It should be noted, however, that this doesn't really stop Spider-Man from taking severe blows. Indeed, almost every videogame starring him features a costume selection that is torn up and ravaged from all the damage he takes during the game. Because of his Spider-Sense, he's never really blind-sided, but his enemies just tend to be that fast and powerful.
Combat Pragmatist: While the way he fights isn't exactly dirty per se, if he can exploit a weakness you have or use whatever is available in the nearby environment to beat you, best believe he won't pass it up.
Comes Great Responsibility: invoked The Trope Namer, as it's part of his catchphrase. Though Uncle Ben never actually said it, it was a realization that Peter came to on his own.
Comic-Book Time: Peter was 15 when he got his spider powers in 1962. Come 2023, he's 30 in-universe.
Confusion Fu: One of the prolific examples in comic books, or at least the most famous. Spidey fights with self-taught moves, superhuman speed and agility, and pure reflex, giving him fluid freedom in combat that few others can match. Those who come close include Deadpool, Nightcrawler, and cosmic-powered martial artists like Gamora.
Cool Loser: In high school, he was mocked and bullied relentlessly, and was scrawny, poor, and friendless. After being bit by a spider, he no longer needs glasses, he becomes more muscular and actually starts looking attractive.
- By the time he hits college, he becomes a handsome, good-looking, and muscled guy (and indeed is often called a hunk by many girls) but he still remembers and defines himself in the time he was a nerd. He also has little difficulty in attracting girlfriends but a hard time holding on to them.
Costume Copycat:
- Spider-Man assumed that the Black Suit's appearance was based off of the second Spider-Woman's costume, which Peter had been admiring at the time.^note
- Eddie Brock, Mac Gargan, and Peter himself have invoked this, the former two by impersonating Symbiote Spider-Man to discredit Peter, and Peter to impersonate Mac Gargan and infiltrate the Dark Avengers.
Costume Evolution: Spider-Man's first costume, as drawn by Steve Ditko in 1962, was red and black with under-arm webbing. In 1966, John Romita Sr. changed Peter's costume to what is considered his classic look: red and blue with no underarm webbing. In 1984, Peter acquired the black suit but returned to his classic look. In 1989 he became the host of the Uni-Power and became Captain Universe, with the lower part of his mask staying the same. In 1990, Todd McFarlane made the blue parts of Spider-Man's costume darker and re-added the under-arm webbing, though in the wake of the Clone Saga he returned to his classic look. His 2004 Secret War outfit was black with blue spider-leg like stripes, his 2006 Iron Spider costume was red and metallic gold with a large spider-emblem, and his 2010 Future Foundation outfit was white with black sides, eye-pieces, and spider-emblems. His 2011 "Big Time" Stealth Suit was black with white/green/red Tron Lines. From 2015 to 2017, he wore the Spider-Armor Mark IV, which is metallic red and blue with underarm webbing and a glowing outline around the spider-emblem before returning to the ole’ red and blues.
Covert Pervert: Even though he's normally a rather respectful and mild-mannered fellow, a sleep-hazed Spider-Man once more or less admitted to dreaming of threesomes with MJ and Black Cat, with Mary Jane wearing Black Cat's costume to boot. While recovering from a near Career-Ending Injury and partially waking up to find MJ - in Cat's costume - and Felicia standing before his hospital bed, Peter believed he was still sleeping and had the following to say:
Peter: Oh, okay. It's this dream again. Be gentle, please.
Cowardly Lion: Downplayed; Peter is normally fearless and determined in his stance as a hero. That said, there are moments where he does genuinely express fear and unease about the safety of his loved ones and himself, though never to the point of selfish abandonment. This is best shown with Thanos, who not only defeats a superhero team but scares Peter into fleeing at one point, something that Thanos personally takes offense at. Regardless, Peter still holds onto his belief in Great Responsibility and challenges Thanos again without fear when he realizes he's the only hero left standing.
Crazy-Prepared: During his tiff with Iron Man in Civil War, Tony reveals he (being deeply paranoid) installed safeguards in the Iron Spider armor in case Peter ever turned on him. Then Peter reveals he knew about the safeguards already, and worked in a countermeasure.
Create Your Own Villain: Venom never would've existed if Peter didn't try to kill the Venom symbiote after finding out that it was alive and wanted to bond with him. Even after Venom's Heel–Face Turn, it took nigh-on thirty years for Eddie and Peter to fully bury the hatchet thanks to Peter holding a grudge.
Creepy Good: He was often seen as creepy by many fellow heroes in the Marvel Universe, even as recently as The '90s, as seen when he and Nova fought the Tri-Sentinel. Also, while it isn't canon, Wonder Woman mentioned he was creepy during his second Crossover with Superman. This is often due to Spidey's costume, his ability to cling to any surface, and his knack for showing up out of the blue, to say nothing of the fact that he is often a Hero with Bad Publicity. His aforementioned tendencies, coupled with a knack for often frightening contortions and a face concealing bug-eyed mask, were likely what led to his becoming a Hero with Bad Publicity, after which it just became a vicious cycle. It probably doesn't help that many people have a phobia of spiders in general.
Crisis of Faith: The Amazing Grace storyline shows Peter having (mostly) renounced his previous Protestant Christian views for a staunch atheist outlook, which he is called out on by Beast and the Santerians. By the end of the mini-arc an encounter with Uncle Ben's ghost leaves him unsure about this, and the Santerians push him to renew his faith, which he does by going to a Confession.
- A more secular version happens when Aunt May is dying from a bullet wound and Peter ends up meeting and getting encouragement from The One Above All. The One Above All takes Peter out to lunch and then shows him that being Spider-Man, for all its heartache and hardships, was monumentally important when be brings Peter to Robert Moses beach and conjures the thousands upon thousands of people Peter saved during the course of his superhero career. Realizing just how many people he helped and are alive today because of his actions helps renew his faith in the world.
Curb-Stomp Battle: While Spider-Man's strength is not on the high end of the scale, he is a lot stronger than he was originally, and his mix of speed, agility, and reflexes are debatably the best outside of speedsters. His webs, jumping, and wall-crawling give him mobility only surpassed by flyers and teleporters, with his webbing also providing surprisingly versatile ranged combat options. When you combine all that with his Spider-Sense (which gives him an enormous advantage in battle), you've pretty much got a nearly unbeatable combination. He holds back so much because he probably spends more time than any other hero except Daredevil just dealing with ordinary criminals committing street crimes, and he's genuinely afraid of killing someone. That being said, most of the people who know him are fully aware of how dangerous he can be when he's really pissed off. Daredevil was nearly unable to prevent him from beating the Sin Eater to death, and the sight of Spider-Man (whom he had always known beforehand as being lighthearted and easygoing) being so brutal left a serious impression on Daredevil. In the 80s, Peter gives Doctor Octopus a beating so brutal that Doc has developed a fear of spiders and Spider-Man, one that would last for a few years. In Secret Wars (1984), he outfought the entire starting line-up of the X-Men. Later in that same series, he gave such a vicious beating to Titania that she avoided any chance of coming into contact with him for years. Even Wolverine, a close-quarters combat expert with literally decades of experience and adamantium claws that can slice through flesh and bone with barely any effort, once observed that he would not want to fight Peter in a serious match-up.
Cursed with Awesome: Peter often laments his powers and has made the occasional attempt to get rid of him.
Cute and Psycho: He is typically a very lovable individual, but when pushed too far he can demonstrate Batman levels of ruthlessness and efficiency. He's also a bit of a Blood Knight.
Darker and Edgier: Black Cat thought Peter's black costume was sexy and made him a copy out of regular fabric after he got rid of the symbiote. He wore it for a while, until Mary-Jane was traumatized by Venom and begged Peter to stop wearing it. Peter started wearing it again during his Darkest Hour in Back in Black.
Dark and Troubled Past: Besides losing his parents at a young age, canonically Peter was sexually abused as a child by his babysitter Steven "Skip" Westcott though this has never been acknowledged since it was introduced in a 1984 comic. Also no adaption of the character even alludes to this part of the comic version's history, meaning they lack this part of his backstory.
A Darker Me: Following the inconsistent retcon, Peter became increasingly aggressive under the symbiote's influence, especially when it was in complete control of his body. Spider-Man himself invokes this, as when he's pushed too far he puts on the synthetic black suit Black Cat gave him, stops cracking jokes, and stops pulling his punches. Just ask Wilson Fisk.
Dating Catwoman: Literally, with the Black Cat becoming Spider-Man's girlfriend for a couple of years before he married Mary Jane, and on-and-off lover after One More Day.
Deader than Dead: Subverted. Not only is he killed once in Amazing Spider-Man #700, but his spirit/ghost was also erased in Superior Spider-Man #9. He returned thanks to Otto's desperate attempts to remember something that could help him prevent a crisis.
Deadpan Snarker: To the point of deserving to have the trope named after him. Though really, he spends a lot of time in incredibly-energetic-snarker mode too.
- His snarkiness is well known even in-universe. In an issue of Excalibur, the members of the Wrecking Crew briefly mentioned Spider-Man's name, eliciting a "I hate Spider-Man" from one of the members. The response: "Everyone hates Spider-Man."
- In the Secret War miniseries, Spidey met Black Widow out of costume and made a quick joke. Widow suddenly realized who she was speaking with.
  Black Widow: Oh God, I recognize that voice.
- Played for Drama in the final issue of the 2013 run of Superior Spider-Man, because Green Goblin instantly knew Peter was back when he declared he was going to leave Otto with nothing, and Spider-Man responds with:
  Spider-Man: Except the dignity of knowing I never carried a man-purse.
  (Beat)
  Green Goblin: It's you.
  Spider-Man: The one and only.
Deconstructed Character Archetype: Spider-Man was actually one of the earliest Superhero deconstructions, showing just how much being a superhero could have an effect on someone's personal life. Specifically, he showed what would happen if a teenager became a superhero without an adult mentor or any confidant with whom he could share his Secret Identity and private issues (no Robin, no Alfred, no Ma or Pa Kent), and actually faced the consequences of his actions without the help of the social validation, and police immunity that was given to both Superman and Batman (via a supportive Daily Planet and The Commissioner Gordon giving a blank check on vigilante activities respectively). His stories removed the "training wheels" that had always made the black-and-white and good-versus-evil stories of Superman and Batman possible making his stories about something more mundane and difficult than simply defeating the bad guy du jour.
Defector from Decadence: During Civil War, he initially sides with Iron Man's pro-registration faction, going so far as to reveal his Secret Identity on national television. He defected when he found out that the unregistered supers Iron Man's faction were capturing were being imprisoned without trial in the Negative Zone.
Depending on the Writer: Just how strong is Spider-Man? Current canon says he can lift about 25 tons, previously it was 10 tons, but he's been regularly shown struggling with weights that were far lower than that (such as being unable to fully lift a passenger car off the ground) or being physically outmatched by the Kingpin (who's only a Badass Normal). The latter is usually explained as Spider-Man holding back so as not to injure Kingpin, but that doesn't explain why he's shown being unable to escape being grappled. On other occasions, Spider-Man has been shown performing feats of strength that greatly exceed his state limit, like holding up an entire building.
Determinator: The flagship hero represents this for the entire Marvel Universe and beyond. Surpassing Captain America in every way, no matter how hard he gets beaten down, or how bad his life can get, Peter never gives up. The source of his strong will? "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility". He's the page image for the Comic Book section of this trope for a reason.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He once beat up Firelord. Firelord, a former Herald of Galactus, and therefore completely out of Peter's weight class. Admittedly, part of this was because Spidey had taken him by surprise, and just wouldn't stop.
Distaff Counterpart: At last count, Spider-Man has had no less than five of them, including his own daughter from an alternate timeline. Unlike most versions, none of them had any major connections to Peter and stood on their own. In fact, in an odd inversion, when the second Spider-Woman was introduced in Secret Wars, the Marvel EIC at the time wanted him to have a black costume similar to hers. Thus the black costume was made, leading to the creation of Venom years later.
Distracted by the Sexy: When he first meets Mary Jane at a dinner (Amazing Spider-Man #43):
Aunt May: Would you mind passing the butter, Peter?
Peter: [staring at Mary Jane] No—not at all!
Aunt May: Then why don't you pass it, dear?
Peter: Pass what?
Distressed Dude: He's been captured more than any of his girlfriends. Sometimes he breaks out on his own, sometimes it's another hero who swoops in to help, and sometimes it's the one you'd expect to get kidnapped who does the rescuing.
Don't Think, Feel: invoked Subverted. His powers work very well, if not even better, purely on instinct, but Spidey's most powerful foes tend to be exceedingly dangerous, and in very many cases more than a physical match for him. Usually, Spider-Man has to out-think or out-smart his enemies, pulling almost as many Batman Gambits as the Trope Namer. Additionally, his live-saving reflexes and Spider-Sense will generally kick-in whether or not he's thinking or distracted.
Doom Magnet: Nothing goes right for Peter. Whether he's wearing the mask or not, his life always ends up being a downward spiral of misery, something he dubs "Parker luck". He currently provides the page quote AND picture.
Dork in a Sweater: Peter Parker often wore sweaters before being bitten by the spider. He rarely does after until it gets cold (New York remember).
Dork Knight: Peter is socially awkward, nerdy, and quirky, but he's one of the best heroes in the Marvel Universe.
The Dreaded:
- The sheer number of villains he's defeated, the longevity of his career and his versatile power set have all made him one of New York's most feared street-level heroes to many criminals.
- During Spider-Verse, Morlun is terrified of him to the point where he refuses to set foot in Earth-616, even long enough to nab a shocked Miguel O'Hara who was only a few feet away. Considering he was eaten by Man-Spider the last time they fought, who can blame him?
Driving Up a Wall: Spidey briefly possessed a Thememobile called the Spider-Mobile: a Spider-Man themed dune buggy. Amongst its abilities was the ability to cling to, and drive along walls. Exactly how it did this was never really explained, but it seems to have been something the Human Torch installed, so possibly it was Reed Richards's technology. Although the Spider-Mobile was short-lived, various writers have brought it back from time to time. It eventually wound up in the hands of Deadpool.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: He's arguably Marvel's poster boy for this trope, to the extent that some (including other superheroes) joke that it's one of his superpowers.
Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
- During Steve Ditko's run, the wall-crawler had noticeable, dramatic webs under his armpits. These mostly disappeared over time as other artists took over, though they do show up again every once in a while.
- His costume was originally red and black; the black areas gradually turned to blue over the first few years.
Easily Condemned: It happens to him all the freakin' time. No matter how many times Spidey saves the city, it only takes one smear campaign or mistaken action seen by the public to turn New York against him and declare he's a criminal.
Eccentric Mentor: Has come across as this when acting as a teacher in his heroic identity;
- During Avengers vs. X-Men a vision resulted in him being appointed the teacher to Hope Summers as the Avengers prepared for the battle against the Phoenix Five. While neither side was sure what he had to teach Hope, his lesson about great power and great responsibility ultimately had a profound effect on her.
- He ended up running a "special class" at the Jean Grey School as part of Wolverine's posthumous request to find a traitor in the school, but at the end of his time there his students all praised his efforts, and even Storm noted that for a bunch of teenagers to face Mister Sinister and the only "casualty" to be an empty mall was certainly impressive.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Peter's friendly and mostly laid-back nature means that he doesn't really hold animosities towards others, up to and including Carnage, who he simply sees as a major threat to take down. However, Peter has three individuals he utterly despises; Norman Osborn for killing Gwen Stacy, manipulating and tormenting him during the Clone Saga, and generally making attempts to ruin Peter's life for the hell of it, Venom for trying to kill him and Peter blames himself for being the cause of all symbiote problems on Earth due to being the Venom symbiote's original host (none of it which is true) and Carl King, who was Peter's biggest bully in school and reveled in antagonizing him even before Carl became the supervillain known as The Thousand. The latter is notable in that not only does Peter really bother to act snarky, but he bluntly calls out on how pathetic Carl is, back in the past and in the present. Peter would eventually forgive Venom but it took Flash calling his behavior out multiple times, Venom saving MJ and helping out with the Red Goblin before Peter would finally let go of his grudge.
The Everyman: Perhaps the poster child of the Marvel Universe. He is often held up as the epitome of this within superhero comics, and possibly the key to the franchise success. Admittedly, he's not a strict example, as he's consistently portrayed as responsible, hardworking, highly intelligent, and when the going gets tough, a wiseass. However, compare him to his contemporaries: he's the average working stiff where the others include super-scientists, a millionaire playboy, an idolized war hero, and a god. Some writers (Joe Quesada especially) tend to turn this into This Loser Is You. He fills the role so perfectly, many other attempts to make an Everyman superhero wind up compared to him.
Everyone Went to School Together: Averted with pretty much all of Pete's supporting cast. Of them, the only ones from his highschool are Liz Allen and Flash Thompson. Retcons established Jessica Jones as one of his classmates, who even had a crush on Peter (who had no idea who she was at the time), Peter even trying to console her after her family died (thanks to the Parker Luck, it didn't work).
Evil Costume Switch: On special occasions, like when Wilson Fisk hired a sniper who almost shot Aunt May and when Kraven the Hunter's family killed Kaine, Peter puts his synthetic Black Suit on and invokes this by not joking around and not holding back.
Expressive Mask: Sometimes, the shape of his mask's eye-lenses will change to express what he's feeling. This is also incorporated into animated adaptations, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the 2018 video game, although the latter two justify this in that the eyes incorporate a mechanical shutter design.
Failed a Spot Check: Rarely, Spider-Man himself can fall victim to this, being too preoccupied with his own thoughts to pay attention to his Spider-Sense warning him he's about to get blind-sided. Those times he's been deprived of his Spider-Sense, he falls into this fairly constantly, since he's come to rely on it so much, even in his everyday life.
Peter: I haven't had to look both ways before crossing the street since I was a sophomore!
Failure Hero:
- Peter defines himself by his failure to save Uncle Ben, and later Gwen Stacy, and later instances of Peter trying and failing to save people he cared about (such as Jean DeWolff) triggered a violent No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from him. Marvel also tried to back away somewhat, noting that after killing off Gwen Stacy, Marvel realized that they could not do that to Peter's other Love Interest, since they felt it would make him too much of a failure that Spider-Man's fun quippy personality would not be possible to maintain.
- He can't even escape it in other Marvel Comics; take one appearance in She-Hulk, where he managed to take Jameson to court for libel, but had to call the whole proceeding off because if Jameson went down, Peter Parker would have to go next, as he had supplied Jameson with the pictures the Daily Bugle had used for their slanderous stories.
- For long term readers, One More Day more than The Night Gwen Stacy Died has made Peter this for all time. Noting that Peter's run after that is more or less of a guy stuck in a Lotus-Eater Machine as a result of a pact with Mephisto that he is not even aware of.
Fantastic Racism: Due to his experiences with Venom and Carnage, Peter truly loathes Klyntar. He vehemently believes that the symbiotes are irredeemably evil by nature and refuses to listen to anyone who says otherwise. His hatred for the species is so strong that Peter is more than willing to make them an exception to his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy.
Fatal Flaw: His sense of responsibility sometimes lapses into borderline martyrdom. This leads to him leaping into situations easily handled by the police or other heroes, and often costs him personal relationships and financial opportunities.
The Fettered: After losing Uncle Ben through negligence, Peter swore to never abandon his responsibilities again.
Fiction 500: Parker Industries is now a global phenomenon, but people consider him a "Poor man's Tony Stark". He later sold the company but he's still rich and for the first time doesn't have to worry for rent for the immediate future.
Fighting Irish: He is of Irish-American descent (given his Protestant affiliation, probably Scots-Irish) he's not particularly hot-blooded and is generally one of the nicer heroes in the Marvel Universe. That being said, as mentioned multiple times throughout this page, when he's actually angry, he's terrifying and quite fond of handing out a curbstomping to those who harmed his loved ones. He also was a pretty angry kid in his early days, but this has since been downplayed as he became more of an everyman character.
Fire-Forged Friends: With Daredevil. In fact, many of Spidey's superhero friendships arguably fall into this trope.
First Girl Wins: Depending on how you define this.
- Spider-Man's earliest love interest Betty Brant didn't become his long-term love and the two characters have basically settled into being "best friends".
- Gwen Stacy was Peter's first serious relationship, and the first girl he really fell in love with, and who loved him back.
- Mary Jane was first mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man #15 and Aunt May kept insisting that she and Peter should be together and set up many Blind Date between them which Peter kept passing because he believed she would have to be uncool to be suggested for him by his Aunt. She made a few early appearances where her face was covered but by the time her first real appearance. This makes the MJ v. Gwen pretty hard to untangle, because while Gwen showed up before MJ, the latter was mentioned and built-up for more than twenty issues before her. In either case, MJ while second to Gwen's first love was Peter's first mature relationship (canonically she's the one who deflowered him at the end of Issue 149, and the first and only girl Peter proposed to, and who said yes (which is true for both Pre and Post OMD).
Flat-Earth Atheist: In contrast to his previous Protestant Christian outlook, in the Amazing Grace mini-arc Peter scorns the notion of God and deities in general, even when Beast points out that superheroes in general are essentially Physical Gods unto themselves, to say nothing of those who were actually worshipped or have divine parentage like Thor and Hercules.
- Subverted when Peter meets The One Above All who is offially the undisputed creator and almighty of the Marvel Multiverse. When Peter first meets him he doesn't realize who he is. Then The One Above All reveals himself and Peter is not only shocked but openly acknowledges that this is the big G.
  Peter: You... you snuck up on me without my Spider-Sense going off. Who are you?
  The One Above All: C'mon, Peter. You know who I am. [cue bright aura surrounding his mortal body and divine revelation dawning on Peter]
  Peter: Ye... yes.
  The One Above All: All righty, then. Lunch? Some food? My treat?
For Want of a Nail: Some alternate universe versions of Peter Parker have him becoming other characters entirely. In one universe, he's a Composite Character of his traditional Spider-Man identity and Iron Man. In another universe, he's imbued with radiation and becomes the Hulk. In yet another universe, Peter never gets any superpowers but develops his own mechanical weapons to become that universe's version of the Steel Spider to deal with Flash Thompson, who was the one bitten by the spider and became a supervillain.
"Freaky Friday" Flip: His "death" from 2012-2014 was caused by this placing him into the dying body of Doctor Octopus. A part of him remained to try and at least convince Otto to go straight, but was purged for a spell. Obviously, he got better.
- A recent team-up series saw him get hit with this again, at least with a much more friendly face in Kamala Khan.
Friendless Background; In his original appearances, he had no friends, unless you count Liz who was nice to him on occasion, and Betty who was his girlfriend until he got to college. This made Uncle Ben's death more devastating because as a kid bullied at school, he especially depended on his guardians for love and companionship, and Uncle Ben was as much Peter's best friend as he was his surrogate father.
- He notably never really had a confidant to share his secret identity with, unlike Batman (who had Alfred and Robin) or Superman (who had Ma and Pa Kent). For a long time, it was only his villains (the Osborns, Miles Warren) who knew his secret, which increased Peter's sense of vulnerability and isolation, and made his social life tense and painful (since people around him inevitably saw him as aloof, distant, slightly asocial and undependable).
Friendly Neighborhood Spider: Invoked with Spider-Man, a superhero with a spider-theme, who also has the Red Baron of being "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", usually being nice to people and being the savior of New York countless times. Also, this is extended to various of his spider-allies as well as his Alternate Continuities alter-ego (as well as his allies like Spider-Gwen).
Friends with Benefits: Shortly after One More Day, Spidey tried having this with the Black Cat. It didn't last long.
Friend to All Children: Spider-Man has to deal with a lot of crap from adults, but not kids. Kids love their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. He also finds himself serving as a mentor for inexperienced young superheroes, like Kamala Khan. He's also considered an honorary uncle of sorts by Franklin Richards, who considers him way cooler than his actual uncle, the Human Torch.
From Shame, Heroism: Peter Parker tried to turn his newfound powers into a means of making money. But when the fight promoter stiffs him on the payout, Peter turns his back when the promoter is robbed, letting the thief escape. This comes back to bite him hard, when he comes home to find his Uncle Ben murdered. Enraged, Peter dons his Spider-Man costume and pursues the robber, only to find that the man who murdered Uncle Ben is the same robber he chose not to stop, earlier. Now, Peter serves as Spider-Man because he fears that not acting to help others could cost him even more.
From Zero to Hero: Spider-Man was just a scrawny teenager named Peter Parker until he was bitten by a radioactive spider. Gifted with a platter of spider-based powers, he eventually becomes one of the most recognized (if not always respected) superheroes in the world.
Fun Personified: You don't see many iconic superheroes like Batman or Superman lighten the mood with funny quips and antics like Spider-Man does. Because of these characteristics, only Spidey could get antiheroes like Wolverine and Deadpool to hang out with him.
Future Badass: Several different future continuities show Spider-Man being remembered as a great hero.
- When Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 pays a trip to the present day he says as much... to Jonah's face.
- Cable has also mentioned that Spider-Man was remembered in his time as the greatest hero in the history of the world. On some occasions; he's also remembered as the only hero of his time, because of how often he helped the average citizen compared to every other hero of his time.
- The version of Days of Future Past Wolverine who turns up in Earth X says that it took an army of Sentinels to bring Spider-Man down.
Future Loser: Some of the potential futures has him being killed anti-climactically. Most notably there's the case of "Last Stand", a future version of him that went vigilante and was gunned down fighting the police, and Spider-Man: Reign which paints a very bleak version of his future before making a possible comeback.
Fuzzball Spider: Depending on the Artist, Spidey's costume usually has a sharply defined spider as the chest emblem, but the spider on the back is much less anatomically correct as the legs are shown attached to the abdomen instead of the cephalothorax.

G-L

The Gadfly: The Ultimate Superheroic Troll for Marvel, which is why his Marvel Team ups with Marvel's greatest characters are great and memorable. Peter basically pokes fun and teases his friends and foes for the tongue in cheek obviousness we as fans would get.
Genetic Memory: Every clone of Peter will invariably have his memories.
Genius Bruiser: Spider-Man is one of the highest skilled students in his schools, and with spider-DNA in his blood he can beat the piss out of foes. In fact, he's a rare case of the genius Lightning Bruiser but without the size.
The Glasses Gotta Go: He started out wearing Nerd Glasses, but eventually lost them as he grew up and developed more confidence in his civilian identity. The interesting thing about how Peter learned he didn't need glasses in the comics was because of a boxing match. He agreed to a match with Flash Thompson, Flash got in one good blow that broke his glasses and Peter countered with a knockout. Once Pete realized the spider-bite fixed his vision, he really saw no need to buy a new pair or keep up the charade at that point.
The Gimmick: Spidey possesses several: The Spider theme, the quick wit, and, out of universe, being One of Us.
Going Commando: Per an early issue of New Avengers, the team gets knocked out and undressed by the villains, with Spider-Woman lamenting that they could have at least let them keep their underwear, only for Spidey to reply it wouldn't matter to him since he doesn't wear any under his costume. It should be noted, however, that this remains the only mention of Spidey ever going commando under his costume. He's been consistently shown wearing underwear when putting his costume since the 60s.
Spider-Man: I chafe.
[Beat]
Spider-Woman: I want off the team.
Good Is Not Dumb: He certainly has his flaws; he's hot-headed, neurotic and can occasionally descend into bouts of self-pity, yet he's still extremely loyal to his loved ones, lives by a very strict Thou Shalt Not Kill code and above all else, he values responsibility. He also happens to be a genius scientist.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Before his Kung Fu Lessons for Spider-Man.
Guilt Complex: His guilty conscience makes him his own worst enemy at times. Otto says this is what separates him and Peter the most. Deep down, Peter knows he's better and smarter than other people, but it came at such a high cost that he willingly sabotages himself to ease the horrible guilt he feels.
A Handful for an Eye: Spider-Man gives his opponent a faceful of webbing to temporarily blind them, he does it so much it’s practically his Signature Attack. He first used this tactic during his first rematch against Doctor Octopus.
- And basically every subsequent encounter with him, to the point that the good doctor began treating his goggles with a special solvent.
- No villain is safe from this attack, even Thanos who got a facefull of webbing in The Infinity Gauntlet as part of Spidey’s Dynamic Entry into the scene. Another time Spider-Man was ballsy enough to do it to one of Thanos’s replicants who was in the shape of Galactus◊.
- Subverted when Spider-Man does it to Iron Man, Tony just uses the vents in his helmet to burn the webbing off.
- It's also mostly useless against those who can simply tear it off, a la Incredible Hulk and Hercules. Mister Hyde also attempted this, but it turns out his Super-Toughness is not up to mark, resulting in him tearing the skin off his face.
Happily Married: He was (for about twenty years real-time) to Mary Jane Watson. But then Joe Quesada decided that made him feel too old and boring and retconned the marriage. The backlash of ending the marriage was so bad that even Stan Lee didn't fully agree with the new direction, and kept him married in the newspaper strip. In either case, Spider-Man's marriage in both the comic-strip and the main continuity, and in other continuities made him for a long time, and for some still does, the most prominent example of a superhero who was also married, and many cited that as one of his most unique qualities as compared to Batman and Superman, the latter of whom got married ten years later, and today has taken the crown from Peter as the most prominent superhero who is a married man.
Headache of Doom: His Spider-Sense will sometimes trigger when something really wrong or awful is about to happen, such as in The Infinity Gauntlet. In the Ultimate Universe, Venom triggers this automatically - his approach causing the Spider-Sense to go into overdrive. Spidey compares such occasions to a bad migraine.
Healing Factor: Peter heals A LOT faster than normal people, though it's pretty slow one by Marvel standards. An example would be that any time he gets his bones broken, expect them to heal in less than a week. He also one time had his eyes completely burned out... and woke up with 20/20 vision the next day. He was also able to heal from third-degree burns after a few days.
The Heart: Of the Marvel Universe, Steve Rogers, Jean Grey, Jen Walters, Kurt Wagner, Sue Richards, and possibly, Kamala Khan are very close contenders.
The Hero: The Marvel U's best after Captain America. See Big Good.
The Hero Dies:
- During The Other, he sheds his body and gets a new one out of a cocoon, with many teammates and his loved ones believing he had died.
- Following Doc Ock's "Freaky Friday" Flip, Peter tries to get his body back but fails, though in his dying moments he convinces Octavius to pull a Heel–Face Turn. However, given that Death Is Cheap in the Marvel Universe, he came Back from the Dead albeit about a year and a half later during his longest absence in regular Marvel books ever.
Heroes Want Redheads: The woman Peter eventually married and his most prominent love interest to date, is the redheaded Mary Jane. However, if you look at his list of girlfriends you will find that a lot of them tend to be blonde (Liz Allan, Gwen Stacy, Felicia Hardy, Carlie Cooper according to some artists).
Heroic Host:
- He was the first host of the Venom symbiote until he found out what it was and rejected it out of fear and disgust. He reluctantly rebonds to it during Going Down Swinging in order to be able to fight the Red Goblin evenly, and begrudgingly admits they make a good team.
- In the mid-2000's he was revealed to be the avatar of a totemic spider-god, though he later lost his connection to it and the powers it bestowed, which was acquired by his antiheroic clone, Kaine.
Heroic Fatigue: He's gone through this more than once. Peter got his powers as a teen, had no adult guidance and was trying to fight crime, help Aunt May with bills, keep up school work and try to have something resembling a social life all while being the quintessential Hero with Bad Publicity. He's been shown quitting, trying to get rid of his powers and even resorting to crime (albeit influenced by a malevolent being or force) to get a form of compensation.
Heroic Spirit: Spider-Man is capable of pushing himself far beyond his normal limits when he's motivated enough. It could be argued his greatest superpower isn't his strength, Spider-Sense, or agility, but that he simply will not stay down no matter how hard you try to break his spirit, mind and body. Peter Parker always gets back up one more time.
- Notably, his Marvel Zombies incarnation was the only infected character who refused to accept his Horror Hunger, even when Colonel America had completely given in.
- Even dying doesn't stop him from being a hero. After his supposed death in Ock's body, he shows up later as an apparition, preventing Ock from killing the supervillain Boomerang, and then vowed to regain control of his body from Octavius.
- If being killed once wasn't enough, having most of his essence and willpower erased by Ock after being found out he was still tagging along in his body still does not kill him, just buries him until he gains the strength to rise up again. Even when there's barely anything left of Peter Parker left in his body, he comes back swinging to regain control of his body and his life.
Heroes Want Redheads: Pete's love interests have varied quite a bit in hair color over the years (although two of the runners' up Gwen and Felicia are blonde). But the woman he eventually married and his most prominent love interest to date, was the redheaded Mary Jane.
Hero with Bad Publicity: He's a Trope Codifier for a reason.
- He saves countless people, the entire city, and even the entire universe many, many, many, times, but he will still not get the credit he deserves. That being said, he does have a number of fans (how often they show up depends on the writer, however), and most of the other heroes, at least nowadays, do show him considerable respect, enough that he was made an honorary member of the Fantastic Four and was offered a spot on two teams of the Avengers.
- This has dialed down in recent years since while JJJ continues to harbor an irrational (almost obsessive) hatred for Spider-Man, the average New Yorker is as likely to think of Spider-Man as a great, if not the greatest, hero as they are to think of him as a menace. Even JJJ has admitted, at times and usually under extreme duress, that Spider-Man is at least trying to do good.
- A villainous example also occurs with Thanos when Peter sees the Mad Titan decimating a superhero team and he responds by fleeing, too scared to fight. Although Peter would eventually come back to fight him alone, the damage to his reputation is done. As far as Thanos is concerned, Spider-Man is a Dirty Coward and not worth his attention.
- Deconstructed during The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), where J. Jonah Jameson points out that all Spider-Man had to do to clear this up was talk, and that his constantly harassing JJ didn’t help matters at all.
Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: A regular source of angst for him, being a full-time student, a part-time photographer, and a more than full-time superhero.
He's Back!: Peter got his body back from Doc Ock in March 2014, just in time to save New York from the Green Goblin in-universe and for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie in real life.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: Initially he was totally friendless, but in college after bad first impressions, he became best friends with Harry Osborn, albeit that friendship faded thanks to Norman. Among the superhero community, his longest and most endearing friendship is with Johnny Storm who was originally his Big Brother Mentor (a speech Johnny gave in college basically served as his Heroic Second Wind in his first fight with Dr. Octopus), and Johnny nominated him as his successor in his will during his brief "death". He also became pals with Daredevil in The '80s and The '90s. Years after they got over the whole bullying thing, Peter has become good friends with Flash Thompson surprisingly enough.
His Own Worst Enemy: It's pretty much his central character flaw, as for all of Peter's intelligence and amazing powers he could never truly become greater for all of the constant mishaps that happen in his life, whether if it was out of his control or not. As Otto can attest in Superior Spider-Man, it is that Peter secretly acknowledges his superiority to other people, but willingly sabotages himself to ease the horrible guilt he feels from the price that came with it.
Home Nudist: He's been shown a couple of times that he enjoys walking around in the buff in the privacy of his home. Him being a Butt-Monkey though, it usually ends up with someone walking in on him. Glory Grant, Randy Robertson, Caryn Earle and Michele Gonzales have all accidentally found him naked at his apartment at different times. Cindy Moon also went into his bedroom one morning, only to find out he Sleeps in the Nude sometimes too. His ensuing Naked Freak Outs reactions are played for laughs, although most of the girls didn't mind the view.
Honest Corporate Executive: When Parker Industries becomes a successful multi-national corporation, he's determined to keep his principles. When he opens a new branch in China, a journalist asks him point-blank if he just did it "for cheap Chinese labor". Peter responds that he's paying a fair salary to all of his workers, and even cuts his own salary down to the middle-management level to make up for the loss of potential profit.
Honorary True Companion: His relationship with the Fantastic Four for years. He initially tried to join them because he thought there'd be money in it (Aunt May was strapped for cash), but a close bond formed all the same. He finally joined them for real when Johnny Storm briefly died and he has the status of "fifth Beatle" with them in any case with them and the Future Foundation.
Hope Bringer: Despite his bad reputation, he can still manage to inspire hope in others, particularly children. Venom displays serious envy of Spider-Man for this trait.
Hurting Hero: Some writers seem to think that the biggest appeal of Spider-Man is that things constantly go wrong for him. As a result, we get countless stories of Peter suffering humiliation, lack of money, sickly aunt, girl trouble and just all-around unpleasantness, to the point that reading the stories can actually get a little depressing. Note that after John Romita Sr started working on the title with Stan Lee, the book became much Lighter and Softer than it had been recently, a move which led most fans to label it as the golden age of Spider-Man.
Hypocritical Humor: In one of the earlier issues, Spider-Man, of all people, tells Mysterio to quit it with the sarcasm.
I Owe You My Life: After Boomerang saves him at a bar Peter decides to give him a second chance.
I Am Not Left-Handed: Spider-Man tends to hold back against non-powered opponents most of the time. The gloves come off when he's fighting a dangerous opponent... or if he's really pissed off:
- During Spider-Man's first fight with Green Goblin II, Harry had most of his father's equipment but none of his actual powers. Peter easily beat him up, and told Harry that if he hadn't pulled his punches, he probably would be dead.
- Despite them being mostly normal humans, Punisher and Kingpin have had a long history of fighting Spider-Man and coming up (relatively) even... until the gloves come off. But when: Aunt May gets shot by one of Kingpin's assassins during the events of One More Day; Punisher launches an assault on the Exchange building in Greg Rucka's Punisher run, resulting in massive collateral damage. Both events result in a pissed-off Spidey tracking them down and beating the crap out of them, reminding them that he could easily destroy them if he really wanted to.
I Can't Sense Their Presence: One of the things that makes Venom such a threat is that he doesn't trigger Spider-Man's Spider-Sense. The Spider-Sense also can't detect the Spot's Teleport Spam or Spidey's clones.
Iconic Outfit:
- Peter's best-known and most-beloved costume is his red-and-blues, the exact appearance of which has changed over the years but in pattern, placement of details, color scheme has remained consistent to Steve Ditko's design.
- The Black Suit is his second-most iconic costume, and he still wears a synthetic replica whenever he gets pissed off. How iconic is the suit? It gets featured in every adaptation since its inception.
Idiot Ball: Spider-Man is tossed one of these nearly any time he is taken by surprise by an attack, considering that his comic named the trope for the ability to sense when something potentially dangerous is about to happen. Sometimes justified in that the Spider-Sense is not infallible. Pete has misinterpreted it at times and been too distracted or in too bad of a condition to pick up on it clearly at other times. It is danger precognition... not omniscience. At one point it was triggered by his own sneezing when he was suffering a truly awful cold.
I Just Want to Be Normal: He's tried to give up the superhero life several times, often because of how much he suffers and never gets the credit he deserves for his superheroics. It never lasts long; Peter's self-imposed responsibilities always end up drawing him back.
I Let Gwen Stacy Die: A tragically common occurrence is for Peter to get traumatized by the loved ones he failed to save. And despite being the Trope Namer, Gwen is not the only person who death he feels responsible for, nor the first:
- In Peter's own origin story, Uncle Ben's tragic death happens because Peter pettily refused to stop the criminal that would go on to murder his uncle, and Peter has carried the guilt in him ever since. The incident is what led Peter to because Spider-Man, and accept the mantra that "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility".
- Captain George Stacy (Gwen's father) found out Peter was Spider-Man, but died as a bystander during a fight Spider-Man had with Doctor Octopus. Peter's feelings of guilt strained his romance with Gwen.
- In the Trope Namer story "The Night Gwen Stacy Died", after Gwen (Spidey's Love Interest at the time) is thrown off a bridge by the Green Goblin, Spidey tries to use his webbing to save her... but pulls too quickly and snaps her neck. As if the preventable death of Uncle Ben wasn't enough, Gwen's possibly preventable death sent Spider-Man spiraling into a whole new level of angst. He learned from Gwen's death to play out his web-lines so people he rescued would decelerate gradually, including Green Goblin trying it again with Mary Jane.
- In the alternate-future mini-series Spider-Man: Reign, Peter falls into a deep, long depression after accidentally causing the death of his wife Mary Jane. The depth and duration of his despair keeps him from putting on his costume again until her ghost (or something like a ghost) tells him that her final words to him ("go...") were actually cut short. She really meant to say, "Go get 'em tiger" one more time so he would know she was proud of him and didn't blame him for her death.
Improbable Weapon User: He often has to get creative with his webbing in a fight.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: One of the driving forces of the character is that he is so strongly compelled to do what he sees as the right thing that he can't give up being a superhero, even with all the misery and ruined relationships that it brings to his life.
Indy Ploy: Spider-Man's modus operandi is mostly just focused on his superpowers, but his creativity and ingenuity using his powers is also a huge factor. He initially had no training in battle or martial arts so to compensate he uses his powers at his fullest extent to fight unpredictably as he can to find weaknesses and openings in an opponent. Occasionally, he'll use technical knowledge like science and physics to improvise a quick idea to come up with a plan to defeat enemies and foes stronger than him and more deadly.
Informed Ability: Some Marvel Databooks states that Spidey can lift and support the weight of around 10 tons, and yet many writers had Spidey struggle with situations that his Super-Strength could easily do the work; common examples are when he is saving people from some catastrophe that wrecked the city, so there are civilians stuck in cars (inside or under them) and debris, much of the time he is struggling to lift some car or piece of concrete that can't weight over a ton and half. It seems Peter can only do justice to his informed strength when he is in Determinator mode, he has supported the weight of collapsing buildings more than once, which in itself is much more than he could possibly endure. Of course, databooks aren't always reliable.
In Harm's Way: He is most definitely an adrenaline junkie, in addition to being something of a showman since his inception in the wrestling ring. His patter has more energy the more danger he's in. He often goes out to 'clear his head' with the hazardous sport of swinging from skyscrapers.
Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Peter was just a 16-year-old kid who was still trying to figure out being a hero and having superpowers on top of being a high school student and keeping up with his grades and trying to have some sort of social life. Meanwhile, he was put up against adult villains like the Kingpin, a mob boss who confidently ran a vast criminal empire, or the Mad Scientist Doctor Octopus. While Spider-Man has grown substantially more confidant over the years, he tends to revert to this whenever he's put up against some of his more powerful foes, like the Green Goblin or Morlun, since they know his secrets and are exceptionally dangerous foes.
In-Series Nickname: "Spidey", "Webhead", "Webslinger" or "Wall-Crawler", "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" or any combination thereof.
Instant Expert: invoked His powers are hardwired into his reflexes and instincts, so he really has a harder time suppressing them than actually using them. That said, he's the Trope Namer for How Do I Shot Web? for a reason; his early days were plagued with misapplication of his powers that mostly came with not knowing how to consciously control them. Unconsciously, he reacts to his Spider-Sense and leaps over a car and sticking onto the side of a building mere moments after the life-changing spider-bite.
Interclass Friendship: With Harry Osborn, son of evil businessman Norman Osborn. Sadly, the friendship falls apart thanks to Harry learning his dad was the Green Goblin and Peter was Spider-Man and thinking he killed him. Indeed, in Peter's circle in college, the only one of his friends who shared his working-class background was Mary Jane Watson.
Ironic Nickname: Something that is lost on account of Spider-Man's fame, but Spider-Man's nickname as "the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" is a major one since before most people saw spiders as creepy house pests. Spiders aren't supposed to be part of a neighborhood and certainly not part of a friendly one, or be considered friendly themselves. Peter being your friendly neighborhood spider-man inverts that completely.
I Shall Taunt You: The Master of the battle insult. Since he usually fights purely on instinct, he actually thinks about making insults rather than focusing on the battle. He has gotten wittier over the years, and so he's able to do it when he IS focusing on the battle. It's been mentioned he becomes like this whenever he puts his mask on. And should he stop snarking...
It's All My Fault: Peter Parker had this attitude after he got bitten by a spider, saying that all he cares about is himself and Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and the rest can go to hell. An attitude that has its logical and tragic consequence when it leads directly to the death of his father figure.
- He also tends to take the deaths of people he knows — friend and foe alike — personally. Carlie calls him out on this habit after Rhino drowns himself and Silver Sable. Peter does have a tendency to blame himself for things that are in no way his fault.
I Work Alone: He normally works alone and finds it difficult to work in teams. This has diminished over time, with Spidey becoming a member of the Avengers and the Future Foundation.
Jack of All Stats: He's the strongest street-level hero, but he's still a street-level hero. He has surprising speed and agility, but he's no Quicksilver. He has Super-Strength, but not Hulk levels. He can take a lot of punishment, but not from super-powered individuals. This combination of powers, combined with his intellect, make him one of the most adaptable heroes in all of Marvel.
- His bevy of superhuman powers are nothing compared to his greatest strength: his heart. The Hulk, The Juggernaut, Phoenix-Force empowered X-Men, Heralds of Galactus, Spidey has faced and defeated all these Omega-level threats not by being stronger than them, but by his sheer inability to give up.
Juxtaposed Halves Shot: During The Silver Age of Comic Books, when Peter Parker's Spider-Sense is triggered while he's in civvies, we often see his face half normal and half in his costume's mask.
Keeping Secrets Sucks: Just ask him yourself. Contrary to what other superheroes make it look like, a dual identity is very hard to manage even if you keep it for years.
Kick the Dog: His treatment of the Venom symbiote was rather unwarranted, at least before it was retconned.
Kid-Appeal Character: Being the original Kid Hero, it's fitting that he fills this role in The Avengers, (along with The Smart Guy), being rather young compared to the others.
Kid Hero: He's one of the first true teen solo superheroes that wasn't a Kid Sidekick, starting superheroics when he was fifteen.
Kid Hero All Grown-Up: He's the original Kid Hero, starting when he was in high school. Over the course of the series, he grows up from that, to a college student, to a schoolteacher, to the leader of his own company, all while keeping up his superheroics. At the very least, ten years have passed in Spider-Man's 616 Continuity despite the floating time scale. And Peter's gone from the age of 15 to, as per Nick Spencer's run, in his "mid-20s". The end of Slott's run had him pushing thirty by establishing that thirteen years had passed since he became Spider-Man while he was the CEO of Parker Industries, and a couple of years have passed in-universe since then.
Knight in Sour Armor: The universe loves kicking him in the nuts while he's down. No matter how much good he does, Spider-Man almost never receives any real gratitude or credit for his actions, and he often loses friends and loved ones. He's contemplated and even attempted quitting at different points, but he always comes back and continues his heroics because With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.
Kryptonite Factor: Of a sort. Because of the time he spent bonded to the Venom symbiote, Venom and all other symbiotes that spawned from it (or its "children") — and in some stories symbiotes in general — don't trigger his Spider-Sense. This would be a problem in itself, but Peter's reliance on his Spider-Sense to predict oncoming danger usually means he forgets this fact until it's too late.
The Lancer:
- In many crossovers, he's presented as this instead of the leader.
- He's technically this in Superior, up until the Grand Finale.
Legacy Character:
- When Mac Gargan agrees to join Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers and impersonate Spider-Man, he's given a drug that reverts the symbiote back to the way it looked when it was bonded to Peter. Also doubles as Evil Counterpart since Mac was still more than happy to eat people.
- When it becomes clear that he's not powerful enough to take on the symbiote-possessed Deathbird, Spider-Man bonds to one of the symbiotes captured by Hellion and controls it with No-Girl's help, causing it to take on an appearance identical to the Venom symbiote's. Unfortunately, No-Girl loses her Battle in the Center of the Mind with the creature's will and it takes control of Spider-Man... for a single panel, before it's removed by Beast.
- When Spider-Man is bonded to a symbiote during Venomized, it immediately takes on the appearance of his black suit. Unable to remove it like he did his first one, he reluctantly remains bonded to it and it saves his life when he's impaled by Poison Carnage; ultimately being separated from him and returned to Klyntar.
A Lesson Learned Too Well: He learned that "with great power comes great responsibility." Cue years later, where his family and friends never get any personal time, because he can't let go of his mission to protect the general public by stopping super-villains.
Let's You and Him Fight: Most new and old Marvel characters have fought Spidey at least once.
Lightning Bruiser: So far as street-level heroes go, Spider-Man is one of the fastest, strongest, and most durable — to the point that he deliberately holds back against opponents to avoid killing them.
Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman:
- Both of Peter's first love interests Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy liked Peter but hated Spider-Man with Gwen even believing and repeating Jameson's screed against the wall-crawler and blaming him for her father's death.
- Jameson was a jerk to both Peter and Spider-Man (and actually to most people), but he did like Peter more, and during Civil War proclaimed betrayal that someone who he saw as his own son had been essentially lying and undermining him all these years.
- Aunt May in the classical era loved Peter but hated Spider-Man albeit she mellowed down later, and in The Amazing Spider-Man #400, claimed to have been a Secret Secret-Keeper for some time. When this was retconned it was back to the same old same old until JMS had her learn his secret leading her to overcome her suspicions over Spider-Man, making up for it (by cancelling her subscription to the Daily Bugle), becoming closer to Peter, and then when that was retconned, her Post-OMD version on the whole has no animus against Spider-Man's identity, and likewise, Spider-Man now has public favor anyway.
Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: With MJ. Though to be technical about it, it's more like "literally loving thy neighbor's niece".
Logical Weakness:
- He has been shown to be susceptible to pesticides that affect spiders. He also can't stick to surfaces that are sufficiently slick.
- His Spider-Sense alerts him of danger, but it does not tell him why something is dangerous. Sometimes his foes have taken advantage of this by presenting an obvious danger so he does not notice a subtle one at the same time.
- His Spider-Sense can also be rendered useless or even a drawback if faced with overwhelming danger from multiple sources. Iron Man also proved that if Peter can build a tracer that emits a signal detectable by his Spider-Sense, then others can build devices to trigger false positives in his Spider-Sense, rendering one of his greatest advantages useless.
- Peter was the main host to the Venom symbiote for a while before he got rid of it. The close connection meant that the symbiote has an understanding of every part of his physiology, including the Spider-Sense, and has adapted itself to not set it off. Venom is one of the few foes who Peter can't see coming.
- The sense isn't very specific, and can thus be fooled by misdirection. For instance, in one What If? story, the Punisher set a trap with a Dr. Octopus dummy and a bomb. Spidey assumed that his Spider-Sense was going off because he was about to tangle with Doc Ock and never realized the real threat until it was too late.
- It also isn't touched on much but his Spider-Sense only identifies immediate, direct, danger/potential danger to Peter. It won't warn him of things that might hinder him but otherwise don't pose a threat nor will it warn him when something is a potential threat until it's activated like a bomb that was not active when he entered a room but then suddenly turned on. He won't know he's in trouble until trouble is basically knocking on his door or about to put its foot up his ass.
Loners Are Freaks: Spider-Man started off as one of the few Marvel Superheroes with no actual team affiliations. Albeit at the time there weren't many teams other than Fantastic Four (who were family first and team second) and the X-Men (an exclusive club of mutants). This went hand in hand with Peter's desire to keep his superhero life far away from his private life, to the point where there were literally only six super heroes who knew him well. This has changed rather drastically in the 2000s, where now Spider-Man is arguably one of the most connected heroes in the Marvel Universe.
Look Ma, No Plane!: Spider-Man swings by helicopters all the time.
Loser Protagonist: Part of the appeal is that, rather than being a millionaire playboy or any other kind of extra-awesome person that other superheroes are, Peter's a normal guy who has to deal with the same mundane problems as anyone else.
Lovable Nerd: The Trope Codifier for Marvel U. He is the sweetest geek ever.
Loves My Alter Ego: Spider-Man inverted this dynamic originally owing to the fact that unlike Superman and Batman, both of whom are more charismatic figures than their civilian alter-egos (in the classical era certainly), Spider-Man started out as a Hero with Bad Publicity and weirdo, who is distrusted by the press. For most of Peter's run, a major hurdle for his girlfriends and stress in their relationships with him, wasn't them liking Peter but if they were able to look past the general sentiment and public opinion against his alter ego and see him for the hero he was.
- Both Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy liked Peter but hated and distrusted Spider-Man, with the latter blaming him for the death of her father. Mary Jane Watson, Peter's long-term love interest was the first one to admit outright that Spider-Man was cool, and she would flirt with both Peter and Spider-Man during their early interactions. In addition, a later Revision has it that she always knew, but didn't say anything. In the original context, the fact that MJ liked Spider-Man at his most distrusted and went against public opinion and general sentiment to express that view, meant that she actually did like the real Peter Parker, contrary to the general trope.
- Felicia Hardy is more conventional, in the Silver Age Lois Lane sense of preferring Spider-Man over his bland alter-ego but putting a new wrinkle in that it's based not on ignorance but knowing Peter's double life and still liking Spider-Man over "plain ol' Peter". Black Cat proves compatible as Spider-Man's sidekick and partner but not in his civilian life, which needless to say confuses Peter to no end.
- Interestingly, in the case of Felicia Hardy vs. Mary Jane, there's a divide between which Alter Ego of Peter's they prefer with their preferences reflected in their favorite Spidey costumes. Felicia likes Peter's "Black Symbiote" look (which has colors similar to her outfit), while Mary Jane likes Peter in his classic red and blue (and red of course being her signature color).
- After the Cosmic Retcon of One More Day attempts were made to claim that Mary Jane Watson, of all people, only ever loved Peter because she knew he was Spider-Man all along. To say that this would be contradictory to her previous characterisation or ignorant of the original context, would be an understatement. When Nick Spencer took over the franchise from Dan Slott, one of the first things he did was affirm that MJ always loved Peter Parker for who he is, recognizing that Peter and Spider-Man weren't separate individuals but essentially the same person.
- In a non-romantic sense, Eugene "Flash" Thompson is a huge fan of Spider-Man while usually being a bully to Peter and thinks he's the coolest guy on the planet, albeit as Peter notes, not usually for the right reasons in that he likes Spider-Man for being strong powerful and beating people up i.e. seeing him as another kind of bully. Generally, he grows out of it and he ends up friends with Peter in his older years and cites Spider-Man as an inspiration for joining the army and becoming a serviceman. In Go Down Swinging, Flash learns Peter is Spider-Man and dies shortly after but calls out Peter as his friend and hero.

M-R

Made of Iron: He can shrug off an incredible amount of damage and stay in the fight. Enhanced durability is one of his superpowers, and he can also heal extremely fast, but nevertheless he's taken some incredible poundings. Once, when Peter was involved in an incident, he let a police doctor take some X-Rays just to make certain he was okay, but drew the line there, as he's consistently been shown to be very careful about anyone drawing blood from him. The doctor came back and asked to speak to Pete privately. The doctor explained that he used to be an Army physician, then did a stint with SHIELD before joining the NYPD. He flat-out told Peter that his X-Rays showed multiple broken bones and injuries that no human could have survived, and that he'd seen similar injuries before... among superheroes and super villains. He ended by saying that he didn't know what side of that equation Peter was on, but advised him to try and take better care of himself.
The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Let's just say Spidey has experience with this... as in he's never had a single relationship where this didn't factor in some way, mostly because he has never had relationships with anyone before he got bitten by a spider and his Uncle Ben died.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While Peter's powers were initially stated to be derived from radioactive spider venom altering his DNA, J. Michael Straczynski introduced an arc revealing that his powers - and those of the various other spider-related superheroes as well - stem from an arachnid-related supernatural force called the Web of Life, and that that the spider that bit him was actually the avatar of a totemic spider deity. Araña's comic series and the Grim Hunt and Spider-Island arcs support this supernatural origin story, but it is noted in The Other that the two origin stories aren't mutually exclusive. Spider-Verse reveals this mystical origin to be the case for all Spiders regardless of how they got their powers.
Meaningful Name:
- Peter is Latin for stone and rock, popularized in the English language by Saint Peter, who like Spider-Man, was also burdened by the guilt of failing his mentor for selfish reasons while he suffered and died, only to devote the rest of his life to spreading his work as atonement. The name Peter often signifies humility and is associated with a famous "common name" which befits Spider-Man's Small Steps Hero nature.
- Parker is old English for "Keeper of the Park" or "gamekeeper", as a surname. It was also a lower-class occupational surname associated with maintaining the neighborhood and ensuring that the garden doesn't over-run with animals.
Mental World: Superior reveals that he has one comprised of a patchwork of his important memories, with the main hub being his hometown of Queens.
The Mentor: Got drafted during Avengers Vs. X-Men to serve as one for Hope Summers, by the monks of K'un-L'un. Despite everyone involved being extremely dubious about it, he managed to impress on her the nature of power and responsibility, and get her from sneering at him to actually being in awe of him.
Mistaken for Cheating: Mary Jane Watson's Aunt Anna once tried to get her to face the "truth" about Peter Parker's apparent infidelity, what with all his sneaking around at odd hours and missing commitments with the flimsiest of excuses; this aggravated MJ enough to evoke a Sarcastic Confession: her husband was really Spider-Man. During the JMS Era when the Spider Queen kissed him on TV, MJ (at the time married but separated) reacted negatively on hearing the report and seeing it on TV though she forgave Peter when she learned the truth.
Money, Dear Boy: This is what Peter Parker first thought of using his spider-powers for before it resulted in Uncle Ben's death. Even then, the first issue of his regular series features him attempting to join the Fantastic Four because he thinks the members get paid.
Monstrous Humanoid: On several occasions, Peter has undergone transformations into a feral, anthropomorphic arachnid called "Man-Spider".
Motive Decay: Peter's own motives can be questioned. After being bitten by the radioactive spider, he tries to make money, create web fluid, learns his Aesop about power and responsibility, and alternates all his time caring for Aunt May, studying in college, and saving the world, without any long-term plans to "fight crime", help his family or advance his social career, aside from just helping around with fighting crime. The attempt by writers to spin new material out of a guy who's more or less still static and stuck in the same place when he was still bitten by the spider is arguably one of the reasons for the more controversial storylines later on.
Motor Mouth: Doesn't pause his mid-fight quipping to breathe. He even does this to other heroes, especially to the brooding silent types like Daredevil or Punisher.
Muscles Are Meaningless: He possesses incredible strength but also possesses a thin physique that earned him the nickname "Puny Parker". He's typically drawn as having a decent physique, just one more befitting a gymnast or runner rather than the bulk of someone with a lot of upper body strength. Captain America, for example, has much larger arm and chest muscles despite Spider-Man being several times stronger.
My God, What Have I Done?: When he recognizes the murderer of his uncle as the man he allowed to escape earlier.
My Greatest Failure: He let a burglar run right by him when he could have easily stopped him because he didn't think it was his problem. That same burglar goes on to kill Uncle Ben, and Spidey has lived with the guilt ever since. Then there's his second greatest failure, I Let Gwen Stacy Die. As Nick Fury once stated in a secret file he kept on Spider-Man: "Parker is driven by an overwhelming sense of guilt that basically compels him to do anything you say he has to do."
Mr. Fanservice: While his intelligence is attractive in its own right, he's also very appealing physically, especially for those who prefer a less bulky physique. Some artists seem to intentionally draw his wall crawling from angles that showcase his butt, he often sustains Clothing Damage in battle, and outside of his costume he's often shown in his underwear or towel for no clear storytelling reason. Outside of that, Peter himself is a case of Progressively Prettier, even in the Ditko era where by the time he heads to ESU he actually grows more good-looking since the spider-powers and a growth spurt actually made his attractive features stand out, and then John Romita Sr. gave him an updated look that made him quite handsome.
Mundane Utility: His Spider-Sense makes him a pretty good hand at Poker. It alerts him when he gets a bad hand, when his opponent has a better one, and he used it to his advantage in Paul Jenkins' "Read 'Em and Weep" where he defeated The Kingpin in a game.
Nerds Are Sexy: He's quite the Chick Magnet, considering he used to be a complete dork. During their marriage, Mary Jane even seemed to consider moments when he talked about science as a turn-on.
Neutral No Longer: In his backstory, he initially planned to just use his powers to pursue fame and fortune, to the extent of deliberately letting a burglar he could have easily stopped run right past him on the grounds that it wasn't his problem. That very same burglar later breaks into his house and shoots his Uncle Ben; the guilt of the incident shakes Peter to his core, and leads him to become a superhero to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.
Never My Fault: A lot of folks blame poor Spidey for things they are to blame for themselves.
New Tech Is Not Cheap: One of Spidey's major issues is his budgetary restrictions on the expensive chemicals for his web shooters.
Next Tier Power-Up: When he is infected by the Spider-Queen's venom in Disassembled he grows organic spinnerets, can talk to spiders, and his strength gets boosted to 15 tons. After becoming the receptacle of the totemic spider-deity called the Other in... The Other, he develops night-vision and venomous stingers in his forearms, and his strength gets boosted a second time to 20 tons. He's reverted back to his original power set by Mephisto.
Nice Guy: Pretty much his defining character trait. He's such a nice guy that most other heroes will go out of their way to help him in times of crisis.
- Sometimes you can say Peter is compassionate to a fault. In fact, this is one of the reasons why Peter is constantly is debt. Let's just say he's the kind of guy who after winning a million-dollar lottery, would give it all to charity.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Spidey rescues Alpha from The Jackal, he at one point tries to encourage Alpha to free himself. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of telling Andy that he'd lose his powers if The Jackal managed to drain them from him, prompting Andy/Alpha to break free and state that he would rather die than lose his powers and go back to being a powerless nobody like Jackal's failed clones. It's after this incident that he emancipates himself from his parents and strikes out with the family lawyer for bigger fame and profit, and also became even more conceited than he already was. Not quite the result Peter had hoped for.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Spider-Man's fate. He's damned if he doesn't do (as in the death of Uncle Ben) and damned when he does (courtesy Jameson and others). Specific examples:
- After Green Goblin unmasked him and Spider-Man fought him off, leading to Norman getting Easy Amnesia, Peter decides to give his Arch-Enemy a second chance, partly out of fear that his identity would be compromised, and because of compassion for Harry Osborn, his college classmate. The end result: a few years later the Goblin regains control and kills Gwen Stacy out of spite and he goes on to make Peter's life a world of pain for years to come, spitting on Peter's mercy and his second chance and gloating at him for doing so.
- At the end of Ends of the Earth, when Dr. Octopus established himself as an irredeemable Misanthrope Supreme and wannabe dictator, Peter insists on bringing him in alive and having him face justice, and even escorts him to prison out of duty even when many of his team-mates wanted him dead. The end result, Dr. Octopus hijacks his body, ruins all his relationships, screws over his life and saddling Peter with the consequences of actions that he did not take well after he has "redeemed" himself.
- After discovering The Hulk's identity as Bruce Banner, he decides not to hand him over to the Avengers even though he had been told he'd be allowed to join if he did so. The saddest thing is that the Avengers actually wanted to help Hulk, and if not for the misunderstanding, Peter could have got a spot on the team while maintaining his compassion.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Peter generally holds back against his enemies to avoid killing them. That said, there have been times when he's gone all out.
- When the Green Goblin threw Gwen Stacy off George Washington Bridge and Spider-Man accidentally broke her neck trying to catch her, Peter furiously chased the Goblin down and nearly killed him. He stopped himself, but Osborn accidentally killed himself trying to impale Peter with his glider.
- Black Cat ran afoul of Doctor Octopus while tracking him down as a favor to Peter, and he beat her to within an inch of her life. When Spider-Man learned what had happened, the resulting beatdown traumatized Octavius so badly he was institutionalized with arachnophobia.
- When Aunt May was shot by a sniper hired by the Kingpin after Peter had outed himself as Spider-Man during the Civil War, Peter put his black suit on and hunted Fisk down, trashing Iron Man and berating him into paying for May's medical bills. After listening to Fisk mock him, Peter brutally beat him to a pulp and promised to come back and finish him off if his aunt died.
No-Sell:
- According to New Avengers, Peter's been through so many horrific things that when unconscious his brain is utterly shielded from psychic intrusion, something Maria Hill learns only after she's had SHIELD's psychics knock him out.
- Also, blows from normal humans fail to phase him in the slightest. In fact, on more than one occasion they injure their hands. A one-shot villain who was a heavyweight boxer punched Peter in the abs, and ended up with broken wrists to Peter's amusement.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In the grand scheme of things Spider-man is not characterized as a truly powerful character, being overshadowed by dozens of superheroes. But for the street level standards that is where he usually works he is easily one of the most powerful superheroes, being able to lift tanks and surprise Daredevil with his speed.
Not Allowed to Grow Up: Poor Peter Parker will probably never hit his 40s. Early comics averted Comic-Book Time and had the characters advance and age in the comics, this applied to the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, and the X-Men. As such Peter remains a mid-20s to early-30s guy in the mainstream comics largely for the sake of Grandfather Clause even if editors and writers have said that he's essentially an adolescent character and Kid Hero, and on account of Lost in Imitation stated above, the Spider-Man of the Pop-Cultural Osmosis is either a teen hero or a college kid. As such, while Peter has grown up from a teenager to a young adult, the writers generally try to enforce Status Quo Is God to keep Peter's lifestyle and personality young and relatable. For example: Peter was, at the time of his introduction, around the same age as the original X-Men, yet all of them are already in their early-mid thirties while Peter was only in his mid-twenties after Civil War, and only come 2022 did he finally turn 30 years old in his 900th issue. Likewise, Spider-Man was already a hero when the Avengers were a start-up, and in Issue #3, Iron Man is the one coming to him asking for his help (alongside the Fantastic Four and the X-Men) only for Peter to insist he's busy whereas more recently the Avengers and Iron Man are established as senior figures to him. As a side effect, this means that all Spidey stories set in between the Seventies ^Notewhen Peter was 20-something and attending college to the 2000s took place over a period of at most five or six years In-Universe, which is really rather cramped.
- This creates issues the more decades in real life go by, as it is harder and harder to justify so many of Spidey’s adventures, especially the life-altering ones, all happening in what seems to be one day after the other; this gets harder to understand when some of Peter’s supporting cast start to make families while he seems to be frozen in time, as in Eddie Brock was outright revealed to have a son conceived after he became Venom, the kid is a teenager now, think about that and try to make sense of it.
Not Helping Your Case: One of the main reasons for his being a Hero with Bad Publicity, and something Jonah calls him out on during Nick Spencer's run. As JJ points out, whenever he made a false accusation against Spider-Man in the past, Spidey's response was usually to insult, antagonize, and even threaten Jameson for doing so rather than simply reach out and try to set the record straight, which, if anything, just made the situation worse and convinced people he was even more of a menace. On one particular occasion, Spidey went so far as to break into Jonah's office, web the door shut, and corner him with full intent of beating him up, only for Jonah to call him out on it, saying his paper only reflects the public's perception of Spidey and the wall-crawler isn't exactly helping his image:
Spider-Man: Don't give me that! You're the one who made them believe I'm a menace!
J. Jonah Jameson: Oh, really, Spider-Man? Look at yourself, you're so blasted smug. Either you were always the menace I said you were — or I've managed to convince you that you're a menace, because you're sure acting like one! And frankly, masked man, I didn't think I was that good a writer.
[Beat]
Spider-Man: ... You stink, Jameson. You really do.
Not Quite Dead: He was thought to be dead at the end of the Amazing series. Superior #1 shows that a piece of his soul is in his body, plotting to get it back. And he does.
Not Quite Flight: Thanks to the Iron Spider armor, Peter briefly had the ability to glide via the suit's armpit webs.
"Not So Different" Remark: In regards to Alpha, MJ points out to Peter their similarities. Deep down, Peter knew that if it weren't for the tragedy of losing Uncle Ben, he'd probably be doing exactly the same things Alpha was doing then.
Not What It Looks Like: Was once caught by MJ being showered with kisses by a neighbour, who was only doing it to make her actual boyfriend jealous. Fortunately, MJ was in a pretty understanding mood.
Obfuscating Stupidity: In the early days, no one would have suspected bookish, shy Peter Parker of being the web-slinging, wise-cracking Spider-Man.
Official Couple: He's had quite a lot of official partners over the years, but three of them stand out: Gwen Stacy, Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, and Mary Jane Watson with the latter the most prevalent and longest lasting of all. They were married for over 20 years (in Real Life time) until the infamous story One More Day retconned their marriage. After that, he barely sustained any lasting relationships, while at the same time teasing the possibility of him getting back together with MJ until The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) finally made them to officially start dating again.
Offing the Mouth: Spider-Man, being a Deadpan Snarker extraordinaire, invokes this trope deliberately when he fights his enemies, to make them so pissed off they don't notice whatever plan he's cooking.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Depending on the Writer, of course, but Peter has in-depth knowledge of chemistry, biology, and physics. He developed the formula that produces his super-strong and versatile webbing when he was just a teenager. By the time he's an adult, he's working in cybernetics, robotics, particle and quantum physics. While he may not be as purely intelligent as people like Reed Richards or Tony Stark, Peter has outwitted both of them on multiple occasions by coming up with solutions that those super-geniuses could not.
One-Hit Kill: Peter's full force punches, even when he's out of shape, can easily be fatal to humans. In fact, this was exploited, much to Spidey's horror, when a woman trying to get a Mercy Kill via Suicide by Cop, jumped into a fight between Peter and Wolverine, resulting in her dying from one punch from Peter.
The One Who Made It Out: He has a lot of angst about the fact that being Spider-Man is delaying or hurting his ambitions and plans for his career or attempts to live up to his potential. This is also part of the arc of his supporting characters.
One-Winged Angel: On at least four occasions, Peter has been transformed into an anthropomorphic spider-like monster called Man-Spider, and even completely into a giant spider.
- When the Red Goblin mortally wounds Flash Thompson, Symbiote Spider-Man goes berserk and Venomizes, punching Osborn halfway across the city and roaring that he's going to eat his brain. The dying Flash manages to calm Spider-Venom down and begs Peter not to let his rage and hatred towards Osborn be the reason the recently redeemed symbiote relapses into its bloodthirsty monstrous state.
- In Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality, the symbiote is forced to take control of Peter's body when he goes into an Angst Coma after seeing Aunt May die, and twice assumes its monstrous form — once when entering Nightmare's realm and again when attacking Hobgoblin.
- In Symbiote Spider-Man: Crossroads, the symbiote accidentally assimilates the Matrix Norn Stone — which resonates with its divine heritage. The augmented symbiote promptly takes over Peter, transforms into its monstrous form, and proceeds to Curb-Stomp Battle the Hulk.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Spidey will usually toss off a steady stream of jokes and one-liners during a fight, so the rule of thumb with D-list villains is that as long as Spider-Man is constantly quipping and cracking jokes, everything is right in the world. If he's not telling jokes, bad things are happening or he's really, really pissed off.
- Played with in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual Vol 2 #1, with him being silent, eliciting a few Oh, Crap! reactions, and at least one classic Spider-Foe quickly giving up. Turned out Spidey [[simply had laryngitis.
Ordinary High-School Student: One of his most famous traits, even though he's past college now. Most adaptations have him in high school, or for some reason have his college seem like a high school.
Our Ghosts Are Different: In Superior, he doesn't get any ghost powers, but is just there for the ride as a soul.
Outside Ride: Spidey often uses this technique, particularly when he needs a longer-ranged or faster mode of travel than his usual web-swinging. His powerset (superhuman reflexes and leaping ability to catch a ride and clinging ability to hang on) makes it fairly easy for him.
Pals with Jesus: So far, Peter is the only character in the entire Marvel Multiverse to ever have The One Above All go after him to have a chat, a meaningful one; others looked for The One Above All and some talked to him, but Peter was the only one who was looked after by the man himself; in all, Peter seems to have a tendency to intrigue multiverse beings, good and bad, to sometimes take their precious time to talk with him.
The Paragon: Thanks to his immense kindness and inflexible morals, he is a significant inspiration for other of Marvel’s heroes such as Daredevil and Hope Summers.
Parental Abandonment: His parents died before he was old enough to remember them, leaving him with Ben and May.
Parental Substitute: As an orphan who lost his parents, and then Uncle Ben, Peter constantly seeks some form of adult validation in both his civilian and superhero career:
- Captain George Stacy, the father of his crush, served as this for Peter, and he became the first adult to approve of both Peter and Spider-Man, and was even okay with him dating his daughter. This didn't make Spider-Man's life easier since he died, making him guilty, and Gwen never knew this, and she blamed Spider-Man for this, and then she died anyway.
- Peter's older superhero buddies also serve as this. The Fantastic Four were the team that Spider-Man auditioned to join, with Reed Richards being the scientist Peter most admired. Likewise, Captain America belongs to the same generation as both Ben and May and Peter often said that Steve Rogers reminds him of Uncle Ben (who also served in the army during World War II). Tony Stark also served as one during the New Avengers arc, although recently Peter has become more of a rival and has a "rebellious kid" dynamic after becoming CEO of Parker Industries. Given Tony's playboy reputation, he's also uncomfortable seeing MJ working with him. This carried over into the MCU.
Pay Evil unto Evil: During "Sins Rising," he initially works to save Norman Osborn from the resurrected Sin-Eater and his followers. But when Osborn sniffs Spider-Gwen, hits on her in the sleaziest way possible right in front of Spider-Man, and threatens to kill her just as she did the Gwen of Earth-616, Peter snaps and personally throws Norman to the Sin-Eater.
Personal Horror: Uncle Ben's death is indirectly caused by Peter's irresponsibility.
Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Most of the villains Spider-Man met when he was a teenager only developed a hatred for him after he kept getting in their way. One notable exception was the Green Goblin, who intended to make an impression on the New York mobs by capturing Spider-Man, who he thought would be an easy target. It all went downhill from there.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Peter is by no means very small but his build is lean and he, like Daredevil or Black Cat, has a reputation for being fast, agile, and hard to hit. This makes most villains believe that he's a Fragile Speedster. He isn't. At all. Peter can officially lift over 10 tons and has lifted more than that when pressed and running on adrenaline. It's just that Peter is a Nice Guy so he always holds back when dealing with any villains who can't handle punches from a man that can bench press a fire truck. This has often caught his enemies off guard much to their regret.
Platonic Life-Partners: With Anna Maria Marconi. After discovering the truth about what happened during Superior Spider-Man, she and Peter become close friends.
- In a reverse situation of what would be considered normal of them, Spidey is this with Earth-65's Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy. As both of them are haunted by the deaths of their respective counterparts, the two of them made a pact to protect each other and remain close friends without progressing past that.
- He and MJ were this during the period after she returned to his life and they confessed each other's Dark Secret, but the sparks that flew between them made it hard to stay platonic for long.
Plot-Driven Breakdown: "I'm out of Web Fluid!"
The Pollyanna: No matter what life throws his way, he will always do the right thing and won't stop trying to make the world a better place. He also always seems to have a joke at the ready for any situation.
Pop-Cultured Badass: Often makes Shout Outs to other media, being a huge nerd and all.
Iron Man: How did you know my A.I. was a woman?
Spider-Man: I know you. And I saw 2001. No computer will ever have a man's voice again. Kubrick saw to that.
Popularity Power: How Spidey gets to beat the really tough villains and heroes. Somewhat justified by the fact that, as pointed out on this page, when he really goes all-out, he's a lot more capable and dangerous than he seems to be at first glance. This is also why Mary Jane Watson remains the most iconic of all of Peter's girlfriends no matter what writers and editors do; even Stan Lee couldn't manage to do anything about it.
Powered Armor: Peter's worn several and built most of them himself: The Iron Spider, Big Time Stealth Suit, Big Time Spider-Armor, and Ends of the Earth Suits, to name a few. His All New All Different costume, the Spider Armor Mk IV, has a metallic sheen to it while it's being worn, with glowing eye pieces and Tron Lines around the spider emblem, but can be taken off like a cloth costume.
The Prankster: When with Johnny Storm they often play pranks.
Pretender Diss: When Mac Gargan becomes the third incarnation of Venom, Spidey has this to say:
Spider-Man: He's just a B-list punk who's got a shot at the big-time here. A lackey of the Goblin that suddenly thinks he's got a chance in the major leagues. But I've got news for you, man... a loser dressed like Venom is still a freakin' loser.
Projectile Webbing: Spider-Man relies heavily on his famous palm-held web-shooters, which shoot large quantities of webbing to produce both thick ropes with which to swing from buildings and nets with which to trap villains.
Pronouncing My Name for You: Spider-Man goes out of his way to point out you have to "pronounce" the hyphen so it's two words ("Spider-Man") and tends to get up in arms whenever someone pronounces it as one whole word ("Spiderman"). Apparently, it makes it seem like a Jewish last name or something to that effect.
Pro Wrestling Is Real: When Spider-Man first got his powers, he entered a wrestling tournament and beat a wrestler by the name of Crusher Hogan. Interestingly enough, Crusher came back years later, publicly stating that wrestling was fake and that he purposefully threw the fight to Spidey.
Psychic Block Defense: When Mosaic possesses Spider-Man, he finds out the hard way that Peter installed a mental defense system following his last brain-jacking: multiple copies of Symbiote Spider-Man that viciously attack anyone who invades his mind and tries to discover his civilian identity.
Puppy-Dog Eyes: Has big brown/hazel eyes that a lot of women find attractive.
Real Award, Fictional Character: Peter Parker won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his pictures of Spider-Man. After he revealed to the world that he was Spider-Man in Civil War, he was sued by J. Jonah Jameson for essentially selling him pictures of himself, but no word if his prize was in danger of being revoked as well.
Really Gets Around: Peter Parker possibly has had more girlfriends than any superhero simply because his comics were among the first superhero stories took romance and relationships seriously (unlike Superman who at time spent most of his time messing over Lois and/or Lana in his Love Triangle until The '80s). He has most famously been in relationships with Betty Brant, Gwen Stacy, Black Cat, Debra Whitman, as well as many other minor one-time girlfriends in-between while having a major on-and-off relationship with Mary Jane Watson before their marriage. After OMD, Peter once again hits the dating scene and goes through a number of dead-end relationships before recently returning once again to MJ.
Reckless Pacifist: All very well when Spidey's dealing with supervillains, but sometimes he seems to forget how much ordinary people can take. This becomes a plot point when Otto Octavius discovers he's dying from brain damage caused by his fights with Spider-Man.
Refusal of the Call:
- Peter refused to stop a robber, who shortly thereafter murdered Uncle Ben.
- In the earlier days up until the 80s, Peter had this relationship with the Avengers if they ever asked him to join. The first time, in Avengers issue #3, Iron Man tries asking him to help hunt the Hulk. Peter very rudely tells him where he can go put his offer. Later on, Pete's offered a place again but refuses because they could only put him on as a trainee.
- In Venom (2021) it was revealed that Peter was originally supposed to replace Knull as the new King In Black but rejected this destiny by rejecting the Venom symbiote.
Retcon: Initially the Black Suit was just a snazzy new shapeshifting costume, but its lack of popularity quickly led it to be turned into an alien symbiote that had the ability to increase his strength. The idea that the Black Suit was making Peter evil stems from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, as prior to that Peter rejected the symbiote out of disgust and terror at learning it was alive and wanting to bond to him. While the comics never committed to the idea that the Black Suit outright was making him evil, some later stories set in that era have ran with the idea that it did at least make him more aggressive to give Peter a better excuse.
The Reveal Prompts Romance: With Mary Jane, sorta; it's subverted quite a bit in the 616 timeline. They already had a close relationship, previously sorta dated, and Peter had proposed to her once before, and it wasn't Peter who revealed himself to her, she revealed she knew who he was and that she loved him, resulting in him proposing to her. Him being a superhero was actually a turn-off (she knew that dating a hero could result in violent death and that he could end up killed in action and leave her alone), but couldn't shake her feelings for him and so eventually relented and said yes. The Ultimate Universe, however, has a straighter example. This is averted in the newspaper strip, where Mary Jane was already seriously dating Peter without having prior knowledge of his dual identity. After Peter revealed who he was to her and proposed, she didn't think twice about accepting.
Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Shows up all the time in many (overlapping) love triangles:
- During his period in high school, Peter often felt insecure about his crushes (Liz Allan, Betty Brant) because his rivals (Flash Thompson, Ned Leeds) were simply better matches owing to him being a struggling working-class student with an aunt to care for, and hardly had time and resources to show the girls a good time. Of course eventually Liz had feelings for him anyway but nothing came of it, while Betty and Ned Leeds had a troubled marriage before the latter's death.
- This is gloriously inverted when Peter gets to college and becomes the lust-object for the gorgeous ladies — Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson. Gwen is the rich suitor he met in college and whose Dad was a respected and well-off city official, and MJ was the poor suitor from the same Queens neighborhood who his Aunt tried to set him up on a date with. Peter and Gwen hit it off since Peter found MJ flaky, unpredictable, and insensitive at the time, but eventually after Gwen's death, he and MJ fell for each other and had a long relationship before breaking up later, and then picking up their relationship after that which led to their marriage.
- MJ for her part could have had Harry Osborn and his inherited wealth for the taking but she chose Peter instead, breaking up with Harry over his drug habit, and still pining for Peter even after Gwen and he are in a serious relationship. After Gwen's death, she and Peter grew closer and fell in love which so upset and enraged Harry that he placed a bomb in his apartment to kill both Peter and MJ, with Peter saving both at the last moment.
Ridiculously Successful Future Self: According to Cable in Avengers: X-Sanction #4, in the future, or at least one probably one, Peter's legacy will be that of the greatest hero of all time.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: There have been several occasions where Spider-Man has been pushed to the breaking point and strongly considered breaking his Thou Shalt Not Kill tenet; pretty much every single time one of his loved ones is badly hurt... or killed. Stand out examples are:
- When Uncle Ben was murdered, Peter went after the criminal with every intent of returning the favor. The realization that he had inadvertently caused his uncle's death through inaction stopped him, and he turned the burglar over to the police.
  - Subverted when the burglar returns. During the pursuit, Spider-Man reveals his identity to show why he won't just give up. The burglar — thinking that Peter wants the ultimate revenge for Uncle Ben's murder — has a fatal heart attack out of fear.
- After Gwen was killed, Spider-Man hunted down the Green Goblin with a vengeance. Before delivering the final blow, however, Spider-Man backed away out of fear of breaking his Thou Shalt Not Kill rule.
- When Jean DeWolff was murdered by the Sin-Eater, Spider-Man pursued him in a very personal way. This time, he almost beat his prey to death — leaving him crippled — and was only stopped by the intervention of Daredevil.
- When Doctor Octopus nearly beat Black Cat to death after catching her tailing him, Peter went after him with such intense fury that Otto suffered from arachnophobia for some time.
- When Aunt May was shot by a sniper hired by the Kingpin following Spider-Man outing his secret ID on Iron Man's behest, Peter put on the Black Suit and beat the tar out of everyone standing between him and the Kingpin — including Iron Man. After sitting through Fisk mocking his choice to out himself, Peter pummelled Fisk to a pulp, and then said he'd come back and finish him off if Aunt May died.
- In the Grim Hunt storyline, the Kravinoff family, led by Kraven's wife Sasha, started hunting down spider-powered individuals, killing Mattie Franklin, Madame Web, and Kaine in the process. In response, Peter put on the black suit and took the fight to them, defeating the Chameleon, Alyosha, and Vladimir, ripping Sasha's face apart using his Wall Crawling power offensively, and nearly killing Kraven himself with a spear before Julia Carpenter, now the new Madame Web, talks him down by showing him visions of a Bad Future where he becomes a mass-murdering Anti-Hero.
- When Itsy-Bitsy began killing in his name, Spider-Man snapped and built a weaponized suit of Powered Armor resembling the Superior Spider-Man's costume in order to kill her, but was stopped by Deadpool.
Romantic Ribbing: Spider-Man's relationship with the Black Cat was often written this way, with the two frequently trading snarky comments about the other's quirks such as Peter's focus on responsibility or Felicia's Sticky Fingers. Sometimes this would escalate into outright hurtful insults when the writers wanted real drama. Felicia and Peter still retained their habit of ribbing each other after they broke up.
Run the Gauntlet: Spidey's first battle with the Sinister Six was one of these, where he was forced to battle the Vulture, Electro, Kraven, Sandman, Mysterio, and Doctor Octopus one after another to save Aunt May and Betty Brant.

S-Z

Sad Clown: To quote Iron Man, "The closer we get to uncomfortable truths, the more jokes per minute you make."
Samaritan Syndrome: Big time. After Uncle Ben, Pete has taken much more responsibility for the safety of New York than a hero of his modest power set should have. Other heroes respect the hell out of him for it, but consider it unhealthy. He takes it up to eleven when Jonah's wife is murdered trying to save Jonah from the Spider Slayer, declaring that no one would die while he was around. This gets thrown in his face when Rhino murders Silver Sable and commits suicide by drowning during the End of the Earth. During the first issue of his All-New, All-Different Marvel Amazing relaunch, Mockingbird worries he's gone back to this, but he corrects her that he's realized that's an impossible dream and toned it back down again.
Sarcasm Failure: Spider-Man is famous for his habit of quipping his way through fights. If he's not joking, it probably means the villain has really pissed him off, and is in for quite a bit of pain.
Save the Jerk: Spider-Man has often found himself coming to J. Jonah Jameson's rescue due to the latter being a target of supervillains, some of which were created by Jameson himself. Despite this, Jameson rarely, if ever thanks the Wall-Crawler and is more likely to continue his crusade against the hero than admit he is wrong about Spider-Man. Spidey has saved Jonah's behind so many times - with absolutely no gratitude from Jonah after all of it - you have to wonder why he bothers.
Science Hero: Some writers portray him as this, especially in the "Big Time" arc, with his new job. Even in the Ditko era he was prone to rely on his smarts as often as his superpowers, especially in the case of Dr. Octopus and Electro.
Second Love: After the death of his original true love, Gwen Stacy, he eventually fell in love with Mary Jane, who is his most well-known love interest to this day and defined the concept.
Second Super-Identity: Spider-Man did this as an entire group of heroes. When Spider-Man was accused of murder during the "Identity Crisis" storyline, he temporarily adopted four other costumed identities to allow him to continue fighting crime without appearing as Spider-Man: Hornet, Prodigy, Ricochet, and Dusk. Eventually, these personae were adopted by other heroes, creating The Slingers.
Secret Identity: Spider-Man's identity was originally secret, before the Green Goblin found out. Since then, a handful of Spidey's Rogues Gallery have found out that it was Peter Parker, Mary Jane always knew from even before they officially met, Aunt May walked in on an unconscious and bloody Peter in costume, and it gradually became an open secret amongst part of the superhero community. Then Civil War came, and Spider-Man publically unmasked, before One More Day erased the knowledge of Spider-Man's identity from everyone. Since then, a handful of his allies and villains have found out his identity:
- He revealed it to the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.
- Kaine still knows due to being a clone of Spider-Man.
- The Jackal also knows due to his cloning work, and the Queen knows since the Jackal was working for her.
- All of the Spider-People (Spider-Woman, Spider-Man 2099, etc) know.
- Kraven the Hunter also knows.
- Doc Ock knows, due to taking over his body.
Seduction-Proof Marriage: Spider-Man gets a lot of attention from seductive female villains and female fans, while Mary Jane, a glamorous actress/model who has guys drooling after her and likes to party and dance, gets a lot of unwanted attention from men who think they will come and sweep her off. However, they are completely loyal to each other and would never cheat.
Series Mascot: Of Marvel Comics, alongside Wolverine, Iron Man (since 2008) and Stan Lee himself.
Sex God: He's had a famously mutually satisfying sex life with his wife Mary Jane when they were married, and he was often shown to be pretty kinky, using webs for bondage or even having sex in the ceiling. It's also been implied the enhanced stamina and flexibility he got from his powers are a huge positive in that department. According to MJ he's also proficient in the "The Venus Butterfly". And Black Cat has also admitted he's amazing in bed on many occasions.
- Although always through Sexy Discretion Shot (it's still a family-friendly franchise, after all), his relationship with Mary Jane was always shown to be sexual. Peter's first time was with her at the end of issue 149 (albeit with a tasteful door closed behind). Particularly after they got married, since the marriage allowed the writers and artists to show them in explicitly sexual situations without fear of angering conservative types too much. (As for nowadays, the second issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (2018), their first scene after officially getting back together is them waking up in the same bed. Subtle that ain't.)
- To a lesser extent, he's been shown quite sexually active with some of his other Love Interests as well, particularly Black Cat. Although with her it was portrayed as kinkier and less healthy due to her being turned off by the Peter Parker persona, so much that they had sex with the masks still on.
She-Fu: One of the oldest examples, believe it or not, despite being a Rare Male Example. He uses it expansively throughout his career. It can be seen a bit more clearly in some of the more recent video games, where you can see Spidey in motion more easily.
- In the Marvel vs. Capcom series, everyone has an equal amount of punches and kicks due to there being buttons for both. Come the third installment, which decreased the buttons to three for general attacks, and he becomes a Rare Male Example for Kick Chick, using almost exclusively that.
She Is Not My Girlfriend: When he finally got a date with Carol Danvers, the two were attacked and Peter was held at gunpoint with the shooter threatening Carol to surrender or he'd shoot "her boyfriend". Peter clarified this was their first date, so calling him her boyfriend is premature.
Sherlock Scan: Spoofed more than once. Peter is smarter than the average bear and has heightened perception, but there've been occasions where he's able to make ludicrously quick determinations from mere glimpses of someone's body-parts. To whit:
- During an appearance in an issue of X-Men where for a variety of reasons New York has been turned back into the Hyperborean Age, Peter gets attacked by the brainwashed New Mutants. He's able to recognize it's them when he sees Cannonball, recognizing the guy by his distinctively large ears, while Cannonball was a nigh-indistinguishable blur due to his blastin'.
- In New Avengers, he claims to be able to recognize Electro from a blurry black-and-white security recording of the guy's elbow. To quote Peter, "I'd know that elbow anywhere!" And he's right.
Ship Tease: Both this and Ship Sinking. Ever since One More Day, the writers have been mercilessly teasing the possibility of Peter and MJ getting back together... only to sink the hell out of that ship and make it float again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Both in and out of universe. Notable examples are the build-up to One Moment in Time, the ending of Spider-Island followed up by Superior Spider-Man, and again the build-up to The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows and the "Power Play" story arc. The cycle was maintained for over a decade until it was finally broken by The Amazing Spider-Man (2018).
Sidekick: Spider-Man was notable as one of the first teenage superheroes to not be a sidekick, but a full-fledged superhero in his own right. Stan Lee never liked the idea of sidekicks, and decided to make a character who had all the makings of one, but was instead the hero. Given his popularity, this may explain why so many superheroes are now young adults. Of course, one can argue that during Team-Up, Spider-Man kind of defaults to sidekick either to Captain America, Wolverine, and especially Iron Man in Civil War. There has never really been a major story where Spider-Man was outright the team leader or senior partner.
- In his early run, he did everything on his own, without relying on confidants like Alfred or Robin, making his own web-shooters, doing his own crime research, and enjoying the reputation of being a lone-wolf weirdo among the superhero community.
- Though he normally works alone (except during team-ups obviously), writers have entertained the idea of giving Spidey a sidekick of his own, though it never lasts. In his team-up with Miles Morales, the latter played junior partner to him and is presently New York's street-level Spider-Man while Peter is running Parker Industries.
- In any superhero team-up, Spider-Man nearly always defers to a senior, whether it's Mister Fantastic, the Thing, Captain America, Wolverine, and especially Iron Man. The exceptions include Daredevil (where they are often equal partners, somewhat echoing the Superman and Batman World's Finest dynamic), but in either case, Spider-Man has never been a team leader.
- Spider-Man tried to join a team, the Fantastic Four (The Avengers weren't invented yet) but he got turned down because Reed insisted that they were a family and not a team (years later, he did join the Future Foundation). And despite being offered a place in The Avengers later on, he turned it down because he felt it would come in the way of helping his Aunt May.
Signature Move: Spidey has always liked to shoot a small patch of webbing at his foes' eyes to blind them.
- Should he meet someone as verbose as he is, his first target is their mouth. He does the talking around here, thanks.
Small Steps Hero: What separates him from characters like the Fantastic Four, Iron Man or Thor. While they're out saving the world, the universe, or the multiverse, he's in Manhattan saving the civilians.
Sneaking Out at Night: Originally, Peter Parker would often sneak out of his house at night to fight crime without his Aunt May finding out. He was able to stop needing to do this once he entered college and moved out.
Sneaky Spider: A quippy spider-themed superhero who frequently uses his wits and webs to outsmart larger and stronger opponents.
The So-Called Coward: Thanos sees Spider-Man as a Dirty Coward due to a few bad experiences that involved Peter being frightened by the idea of taking on the Mad Titan, who is noted to fight the Avengers alone without any reinforcement. Regardless, Spidey proves him wrong as, even if there's nothing left, Peter will show up to fight and protect Earth and holds on to his core beliefs of being a hero.
Socially Awkward Hero: Peter is the Trope Codifier, being a nerd with superpowers.
Spell My Name with an S: One of his recurring pet peeves is people spelling "Spider-Man" as all one word or without the hyphen. Somehow he can even tell when people are saying it wrong, despite it being pronounced otherwise identically.
Spider Limbs: The Iron Spider Armor Tony Stark gives Spider-Man in the Civil War has three retractable arms.
- Pre-dating the Civil War Iron Spider armor, a possible future Spider-Man was shown to be a genius with Powered Armor using a similar system to Doc Ock's. Interestingly, the future Goblin serving as his nemesis had equivalent technology on her armor as well.
Spider People: While Spidey himself generally doesn't qualify, being just a normal-looking human with spiderlike powers, there have been occasions where he mutated further into "Man-Spider", a far more monstrous form somewhere in between a bipedal human and a giant multi-armed spider.
Spider-Sense: Peter possesses a form of mild precognition (which he is the Trope Namer for) that warns him of potential dangers, including people who might be observing him to discover his secret identity (for example, the Green Goblin could only discover it after numbing the Spider-Sense with a special gas grenade thrown by one of his henchmen).
Spiders Are Scary: Subverted by his fun-loving wise-cracking personality (unless he's fighting somebody who has seriously pissed him off). That said, his superhuman athletic moves and ability to catch foes by surprise can inspire fear, particularly among common mooks.
Spirit Advisor: An interesting example, to say the least. Though Otto initially didn't know he was there, Peter was keeping him from crossing the line.
Split Personality: Discussed, as his employees at Parker Industries think he's insane due to the stark contrast between his behaviour and Otto's.
Starcrossed Lovers: He and Mary Jane Watson were forced into this by One More Day.
Starving Student: His college years were spent impoverished, in part due to Aunt May's failing health.
Stepford Snarker: Depending on the Writer, Spider-Man does this. He uses his quippy brand of sarcasm to hide the fact he's usually pretty scared, self-doubting and carries around a massive Guilt Complex.
Stereotypical Nerd: Peter Parker. A scientific genius from a young age, rather milquetoast from being raised by a loving but elderly couple, and in early appearances socially inept and unfashionable. In his subsequent appearances, though he's gotten Progressively Prettier and more confident, he's retained most of his gadget geek, Science Hero nerdiness.
Stock Shōnen Hero: A precursor of sorts. He's a Fun Personified Primary-Color Champion who's one of the most frequent mascots for the Marvel Universe and initially (and often) depicted as a Kid Hero. A key difference between Spidey and the typical Stock Shonen Hero is that he's very intelligent, and his ineptitude instead comes from being a social outcast as a teen in many adaptations. Naturally, Spidey is one of the most popular Marvel heroes in Japan.
Stood Up: Inverted. In an issue of Spider Man, where Peter Parker is (unintentionally) stood up by Mary Jane Watson after spending the day trying to remember where he agreed to meet her. Of course, Peter has had to ditch a fair number of dates while trying to save the day.
Strong and Skilled: He started out as Unskilled, but Strong due to unfamiliarity with his powers, but he eventually becomes the most proficient Spider-based hero due to his years worth of experience above his successors.
Strong as They Need to Be: Not as blatant as most examples, but Spider-Man's strength level tends to fluctuate as well. One comic might have him struggling to lift a car. Another might have him holding up part of the Daily Bugle flipping a train car over with one finger◊, and tearing another train car off the tracks with both arms to use as a weapon.◊ It should be noted that this goes hand-in-hand with Afraid of Their Own Strength above.
Superhero: Alongside Batman and Superman, Spider-Man is the archetypical proverbial superhero. He's the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier for modern superhero stories, which explore the impact of their vigilante lives on their social life, and his stories inspired the later direction and characterization undergone by both Batman and Superman (namely failing to protect the ones he loves, which became a Batman trope in The '80s, sharing his secret identity with his love interest and wife, which Superman did with Lois in Post-Crisis but never in the classic era). Likewise, Spider-Man was swinging and grappling and parkouring across buildings long before Batman started doing so (having only gotten his Grappling Hook from the Tim Burton Batman film which seeped into his comics).
Super Loser: Depending on the Writer. His Butt-Monkey tendencies as a superhero, not to mention J. Jonah Jameson's editorial vendetta against him, make him seen as the dweeb who swings around in red-and-blue tights. In his civilian identity as Peter Parker, Spider-Man was also a Geek who continually lost out because he had to protect his secret identity, as opposed to a war hero, a millionaire playboy, or a god. Needless to say, some writers enforce the "loser" part more than others.
Superpower Lottery: Peter has an array of powers given to him by supernatural force with a spider fetish via a radioactive spider-bite. The source of his powers inspired him to take up an arachnid motif, but he's also used other non-spider-themed identities.
Superpowered Evil Side: Subverted mostly, as all the Black Suit did was take Peter's body out at night to fight crime while he slept out of a misguided attempt to please him. Some later tellings set in that era do have it make Spider-Man more aggressive and brutal — especially when it's puppeteering Peter while he's asleep. However, it lacks this quality in the current day, with Flash instead warning Peter to not be a corrupting influence on the Venom symbiote in Go Down Swinging.
Super-Reflexes: His reflexes are around 40x those of an olympic athlete, coupled with being more than twice as flexible as a normal human.
Super-Speed: As a result of his combined Super-Reflexes and Super-Strength, he is fast enough to keep up with speeding cars on foot and move faster than the eye can follow.
Super-Strength: Peter can lift approximately 10 tons at a minimum (which might seem small, but a car is roughly 1 and a half tons so he can lift about six of them), and has greatly exceeded that with enough effort (lifting 25, 50, or even over 100 in certain instances), punch through steel and concrete effortlessly, pick up and crush a tank with his bare hands, and KO a mutant T-Rex in one hit. He has to actively hold back to avoid killing the thugs he pummels on a daily basis. His strength was boosted to 20 tons following The Other, but this has been reverted following One More Day.
Super-Toughness: Peter's durability is such that he can withstand a lot of damage, even from big shot Marvel characters such as Rhino, the Hulk, and the Juggernaut. He can usually walk away with only a headache at least, and at most he would be temporarily KO'd. This also explains how he can web swing like he does without ripping his arms from their sockets. Depending on the Writer, he can be virtually invincible against bog-standard Mooks in a fistfight, to the point that he has to roll with the punches less they break their hands on him.
Support Your Parents: 15 year old Peter got his job as a Daily Bugle photographer to support his Aunt May, who had raised him, after his Uncle Ben, her husband and the family breadwinner, was murdered.
Suppressed Rage: The Venom symbiote notes that Peter is teeming with rage and hatred towards it that he isn't even consciously aware of. Following the Dead No More fiasco, the involvement of Norman Osborn is enough to cause him to stop cracking jokes, causing Mockingbird and Tarantula to note he isn't acting like himself.
Surprise Jump: Peter discovers his powers when, distracted by the odd sensations he feels after the spider bite, he nearly gets hit by a car — and reflexively leaps halfway across the street to find himself clinging to the side of a building.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The strain of trying to maintain a balance between his personal life and superheroing really starts to pile up on Peter. Between being unable to socialize, keep up with his studies, and enduring the constant scorn of the press via his own boss he eventually gives it up. Albeit temporarily.
- Peter's goal after he discovers his powers is finding a way to monetize them, which emphasizes the social-material dimension of superheroics in a way the likes of Superman and Batman never did^note. Even after Uncle Ben's death due to neglecting to stop a burglar, when Peter understands the importance of responsibility, he's poor enough that he is constantly trying to find a way to earn a living, such as working as a performer in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 and later trying to monetize his web-shooters.
Symbiotic Possession: Played with: All the symbiote wanted to do was help Peter, something it has repeatedly berated him for, but Peter was becoming increasingly unnerved by its autonomy and that it was joy-riding his body while he was asleep to fight crime.
Take Up My Sword: This seems to be Spidey's thing concerning superhero teams. He joins the New Avengers after the disastrous Avengers Disassembled storyline, he joins the Fantastic Four when Johnny Storm was thought dead, and he joins the Jean Grey School as one of Wolverine's last wishes.
Talent vs. Training: Peter verges on Master of All, being faster and having quicker reactions than anyone who isn't a dedicated speedster, stronger and tougher than most who aren't dedicated powerhouses, more mobile than anyone save flyers and teleporters, and with his Spider-Sense that gives him a precognitive warning of danger. All this makes him surprisingly formidable (especially when he stops cracking jokes and focuses on the fight. However, Peter relies so much on his Spider-Sense that when it's disabled, he finds himself at a severe disadvantage against opponents even significantly weaker than he is but with greater skill. In Spider-Island, he remedies this by martial arts training from Shang Chi.
Talking Is a Free Action: Spidey has a reputation for panels mostly dedicated to the protagonist talking. Sometimes it's done artistically — Spidey will be drawn in several places in the same panel to showcase his agility, so presumably, he has more time to say all that. Other times it's really an Inner Monologue. But one way or another, that's a lot of talking. Fortunately, it works for the character; Spider-Man is known for using witty banter to annoy the hell out of his enemies (and hide his own insecurities) during battle.
Talking the Monster to Death: In the War of the Realms event, when he was temporarily a member of the League of Realms as its Midgard representative, the League had to fight an army of angels from Heven (no, that's not a typo; Heven is the secret Tenth Realm), led by the angel Fernande, who was starting to doubt her people's allegiance. Peter, who had been not getting along with the League due to his code against killing, uses words of kindness and empathy to convice her to make a Heel–Face Turn and defect from her Queen and Malekith's cause.
Tears of Remorse: Peter has these after Uncle Ben is killed.
Technical Pacifist: He is usually depicted as this. Sure, he's willing to beat the ass out of the villains, but he absolutely refuses to kill anyone, even against said villains. Then again, it's also more or less his fear of himself if he drops his Thou Shall Not Kill moral code. In fact, when a resurrected Kraven the Hunter offer Spider-Man the opportunity to kill him, he was about to pull a killing blow on Kraven, but later refuses to do so after given a vision of a Bad Future where he becomes mass murdering Anti-Hero vigilante, thus reinforcing his moral code.
Teen Genius: At the start of the series (and the most common portrayal of him in most media) he was 15 when he developed his super strong and versatile web formula. Some writers give him an IQ of 250, a superhumanly high statistics that makes him an improbable super-genius. He designed his web fluid while still in high school and later designed the Spider-Tracer (which inspired the development of the real tracing bracelet).
Territorial Comic Relief: He's used to being the quipster of whatever team he's on, so he's upset when he's temporarily on the same Avengers team as Hawkeye, who likes to quip, too.
Thememobile: Deconstructed with the Spider-Mobile, a vehicle that Spider-Man reluctantly endorsed in the early 1970s. He drove it into the East River almost as soon as he got it and is hideously embarrassed whenever someone reminds him of it. Part of a Running Gag is that Peter, being a native New Yorker and being able to webswing since he was 15, never learned to drive.
Then Let Me Be Evil:
- While it never actually happens, the comics have often teased the possibility that Spidey will eventually snap and become the very menace J. Jonah Jameson and the people of New York accuse him of being. In the Ultimate Universe in particular, Nick Fury was particularly worried that all of the tragedy and bad publicity in Peter's life would drive him to villainy — and given the combination of Peter's intelligence, determination, and superpowers, that would be a very bad thing.
- The closest Spidey has come to this in the mainstream universe was during the Acts of Vengeance arc. Having gained the power of Captain Universe with no idea how to control it, the New Yorkers are more scared of him than ever. The fact that super-villains were attacking him for no seemingly reason at all (something that was happening to the entire hero community during the crisis) only made him angrier. It all climaxes during his fight with the T.E.S.S. One, where people just keep insulting and badgering him even as he tries to help him; finally pushed to his Rage-Breaking Point, Spidey loses his cool and scares everyone present, including himself, by blasting T.E.S.S. One to bits. He manages to calm himself down and attempt a "Just Joking" Justification shortly after, but it's too late, and the people flee in fear.
Spider-Man: That's it! I've had it! No matter what I do, people think I'm a menace, including my own woman! Okay, fine! They want a menace?! I've got your menace RIGHT HERE!!
Thou Shalt Not Kill: He's strongly against killing anyone. In fits of rage or frustration, he has been known to say he's going to kill *insert villain here*, but never actually goes through with it. He has, however, seriously considered killing the Green Goblin, Carnage, and The Kingpin and has activley attempted to murder the Venom symbiote and Itsy Bitsy but was stopped by Eddie, Flash and for the latter Deadpool.
- He accidentally gives Uncle Ben's killer a fatal heart attack by revealing his identity. The killer thinks he wants the ultimate revenge.
- The Punisher started as a Spider-Man villain, and Spidey is still one of the heroes least comfortable working with Frank Castle because of this trope.
- This is one of his points of contention with Wolverine, but to a lesser extent than with the Punisher. Spider-Man doesn't approve of killing, but he understands that Wolverine doesn't often have a lot of choice and isn't a kill-happy maniac.
- Spider-Man has actually killed before — the agent Charlemagne exploited confusion during a battle between him and Wolverine. It was essentially Suicide by Cop, but Peter is still haunted by it.
- In Superior Spider-Man, Doc Ock, having hijacked Peter's body, accidentally punches Scorpion's jaw off. Otto comes to the realization that Peter could have killed him any time they fought, yet he still didn't.
- In Go Down Swinging, he takes a bullet for Norman Osborn, who had been defeated and turned into a gibbering mess when Jameson shot to try and end Osborn once and for all. Keep in mind, Norman had just killed Flash Thompson and was extremely close to killing Aunt May, MJ, Miles, and Cindy all at once in the most painful way possible. When Jameson asks why he did that, Peter says "Because I could. That meant I had to. Because with great power there must also come great responsibility. To everyone. Even the worst of us."
Three-Point Landing: Spider-Man likes this pose so much that he is more or less the Trope Codifier.
Throw the Dog a Bone: There are numerous occasions where Spider-Man gets lucky breaks. But the biggest one is where Cable revealed that he will be remembered as ''the greatest hero in the history of the world", and that on some occasions, he's also remembered as the only hero of his time, because of how often he helped the average citizen compared to every other hero of his time. That means that despite all the tragedies and heartbreak he has gone thought, his undeserved reputation as a menace by the public he's trying to protect, someday Spider-Man will be seen as the hero he is and the public will appreciate his work to protect them.
Trademark Favorite Food: His love of Aunt May's wheatcakes dates back to his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy. And, of course, there's New York pizza & hot dogs.
Trash Talk: The king for Marvel U. Deadpool rivals him though, to the point where he has been described as a Spider-Man clone as a result of this.
Trauma Conga Line: Not uncommon, but the most severe occurred to Peter in the '90s comics. First his parents are seemingly Back from the Dead, only for it to turn out to be a ploy by the Chameleon — they were in reality Ridiculously Human Robots programmed to kill Spider-Man. After a battle and their death, Peter is understandably extremely shaken, causing him to retreat so far from his identity as Peter Parker he is essentially never at home and neglects Mary Jane's feelings. Then his Aunt May seemingly enters a coma. Then Ben Reilly appears and much drama ensues over who the original is. Mary Jane is also revealed to be pregnant, and Aunt May seemingly dies. Then it turns out that not only was Norman Osborne Back from the Dead and masterminding the whole Clone Saga, but drugs given at his behest result in the death of his unborn child. Oh, and Ben Reilly dies too.
Tranquil Fury: When he's so enraged that he stops wisecracking. Opponents and allies both have commented this is terrifying.
- In fact, in one of the earlier examples, when his Aunt May is dying from a disease that Doctor Octopus stole the cure for, when Peter confronts Octopus, Octavius notes how ferociously he's fighting and, realizing he can't beat him, makes a hasty retreat.
- When Doctor Octopus beat Black Cat to the brink of death, Spider-Man coldly returned the favour to the point where Otto had to be sent to a psychiatric hospital to get treatment for severe arachnophobia.
- When the Kravinoff family tormented him and his "spider family," killing Kaine, Mattie Franklin, and Madame Web, Peter dawns the black suit and goes after them, subjecting them to a Mook Horror Show, ripping Sasha Kravinoff's face apart, and coming within a hair's breadth of killing Kraven himself, all echoing menacing threats of his intentions to each of them.
Troll: One of the friendliest but original examples in comic books.
True Companions: Johnny Storm's Video Will names him first choice for a replacement on the F4, which the rest of the team wholeheartedly supports.
A True Hero: Peter Parker's human flaws, relatively modest powers, and everyday problems and responsibilities often (both in-universe and out) see him as one of the greatest heroes because he shows that anyone can become a hero.
True Love is Exceptional: His relationship with MJ is this.
Two-Person Love Triangle:
- Both Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy liked Peter more than Spider-Man whom they blamed for the death of their brother/father, which was an inversion (since originally Lois disliked Clark but preferred Superman). Later, Black Cat barely tolerates Peter Parker's presence, but is hot to trot for Spider-Man any time, the catch is that Black Cat knows that they are one and the same person and chooses Spider-Man in full knowledge. This goes back a long way with him; at the end of a very early adventure, Peter Parker calls Liz Allen on the phone to ask for a date only to have her tell him she's already told off his rival Flash Thompson and wants him off the line as well, since she's anticipating a call from Spider-Man. As she slams down the receiver, he laments "Only a guy with my nutty luck could end up being his own competition!"
- Also, in her early mainstream appearances, Mary Jane flirted both with Peter Parker and Spider-Man (when he rescued her) and often expressed admiration or attraction to Spider-Man. Years later, it was revealed that MJ knew that the two are one and the same all along. Making things interesting, MJ actually didn't want a serious relationship with Peter because she knew he was Spider-Man and she knew the issues with dating a superhero but her feelings for Peter were too strong for her to keep away entirely, especially after Gwen's death.
Underestimating Badassery: Frequently. He's a lithe guy who swings around a lot, wears silly pajamas, and makes stupid jokes. New villains tend to forget that he's held his own with the Avengers, the X-Men, and fought just about every villain in the Marvel Universe. He also spends a lot of time dealing with street level crime and ordinary human criminals where he deliberately holds back so as to not seriously injure or kill them leading to heroes and villians alike being suprised at just how powerful he is when he stops holding back - The Kingpin in particular found this out the hard way once.
Unlucky Everydude: This is just putting it very lightly for Peter. He isn't just unlucky, but his poor luck almost seems to seep onto anyone he meets.
Unrequited Love Switcheroo:
- Peter originally has a crush on Liz Allan. However, she is Flash's girlfriend and initially considers Peter something of a loser, even taking part in the general ridicule that Peter endures on a daily basis. After, she hears an ailing Peter donned a Spider-Man costume in order to save Betty Brant from Doctor Octopus and develops a crush on him. By this time, however, Peter's interest has waned considerably, as he notes that Liz never showed any real interest in him until he began dating Betty Brant and assumes that Liz's feelings are little more than a schoolgirl crush.
- After OMD, Peter and MJ were on the outs. She moved on and developed a relationship with others while Peter wasn't ready to move on. Peter eventually decided to start a relationship with Carlie Cooper, while MJ started to reevaluate her feelings for Peter and eventually came to the realization that she still loved him during Spider-Island. The pair slowly tried getting back together, only for the events of Superior Spider-Man to drive them apart again. After Peter got his body back, MJ had already moved on and started a relationship with another man before again flirting with each during "Go Down Swinging" until she saw his Spider-Man outfit, but they are officially back together in Nick Spencer's run.
Unskilled, but Strong: In a universe full of vigilantes skilled in Martial Arts, Spider-Man for the longest time just winged it with his fighting style and relied heavily on his Spider-Sense. This allowed characters like Captain America and Daredevil to have the upper-hand in combat whenever they fought in close quarters. Upon temporarily losing his Spider-Sense, Peter would later develop an actual fighting style after getting trained by Shang Chi, allowing him to fight at least as well as he had before losing it. When he regained his Spider-Sense he was able to put the two together in a devastatingly effective combination.
Unstoppable Rage: Any villain who manages to really piss him off will soon regret it.
Unwanted Harem: Often entering "Unnoticed Harem", but Peter gets a lot of attention. Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Carlie Cooper, Black Cat, Michele Gonzales, Debra Whitman, Betty Brant, Jessica Jones (at least back when they were in high school), Jean De Wolff, Mattie Franklin, Carol Danvers, Silver Sable, Norah Winters, Deadpool, Anya Corazón, Jessica Drew, Silk, Joy Mercado, Black Widow (via her amnesic "Nancy Rushman" self, though she confessed to herself she was still attracted to him), Mockingbird, and the Venom symbiote (which has always been portrayed as more of a scorned lover than anything else) have all canonically show attraction Spider-Man at some point, and this is far from complete and only counting the mainline universe.
Upbringing Makes the Hero: Thanks to Uncle Ben and Aunt May.
- To drive the point home: in Bullet Points, the very same upbringing sans Uncle Ben (and, therefore, without a fatherly figure) resulted in Peter being a total jerk instead.
Utility Belt: Spider-Man wears a utility belt to hold extra web cartridges, spider-tracers, his camera, and his "Spider-signal" flashlight buckle. He wears it under his shirt but since it leaves only a small bulge, as well as its being the same color as his suit and he is usually moving around so much, most people don't even realize he has one. Ben Reilly wears his on the outside with his Scarlet Spider costume.
Vague Age: Peter became Spider-Man when he was 15, but pinning his age down since then is far from an exact science. At the beginning of Peter's stint as the CEO of the globalized Parker Industries, Dan Slott established that thirteen years had passed since he became Spider-Man, with at least one year passing leading up to Go Down Swinging — making him around twenty-nine. However, the subsequent writer, Nick Spencer, has re-established Peter as being in his "mid 20s" again.
Vengeance Feels Empty: In "The Night Gwen Stacy Died," he flies into a rage, swearing revenge on the Green Goblin and vowing to make him pay. When Osborn is skewered by his own glider, Spidey feels nothing from it.
Spider-Man: I thought seeing the Goblin die would make me feel better about Gwen. Instead, it just makes me feel empty... Washed out... And maybe a little bit more alone.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Johnny Storm. Their team-ups are a constant snark-fest, but Johnny is Peter's closest friend in the superhero community, and Peter is Johnny's closest friend outside the F4. Spider-Man also shows this most obviously with Wolverine, and post-OMD with Iron Man.
Waif-Fu: For all that Spider-Man is a full-blown Lightning Bruiser by any human measure his agility and combat precognition lends itself to this fighting style. It is especially noticeable when the wiry fellow of middling height deals with massive behemoths that seriously outclass him in the bruiser category.
Wall Crawl: His ability to cling to almost any surface with any part of his body. While some incarnations have given him spines or hairs on his palms and feet (which is how actual spiders do it), the Spider-Man of the 616 universe does so by subconsciously manipulating his body's electron interaction (basically he is creating temporary molecular bonds), and each fingertip can hold a few tons before the bond breaks. This is so entrenched with both his super strength and his willpower that whenever a villain tries to rip him from a wall, most of the wall comes with him. In fact, anytime Spider-Man slips, it's not his power failing so much as the object he's clinging to not being able to handle the weight and force.
Warrior Therapist: Spider-Man has done this as a way to help villains such as The Lizard or Vermin. More often than not, he actually uses this in a way that is normally reserved for villains or anti-heroes: he humiliates them verbally, making them reckless. It has been revealed that a number of his foes have actually suffered some mental trauma because of this, but many of them were crazy already.
Weak, but Skilled: Spider-Man is usually physically, sometimes mentally as well, outclassed by the bulk of his more dangerous enemies. Even moreso against threats he faces in team-ups with other heroes. He still manages to win by using his powers efficiently and creatively.
Weakness Turns Her On: The real reason why Peter Parker is so sexy and irresistible to some of the most beautiful women in the world. They actually like his woebegone affect. MJ once told him so but he didn't get it:
MJ: You're the tensest person I've ever met, Pete. I think that's what makes you so loveable. You always look like you're going to fall apart — like a Charlie Brown who's just had the football jerked away from him.
Peter: That's the strangest compliment I've ever received, MJ. If it was a compliment.
MJ: Oh, it was, baby. It was.
— The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1, #141, dialogue by Gerry Conway.
What You Are in the Dark:
- Peter is unique for the fact that he became a superhero because he failed this test. After getting superpowers on a silver platter, he tried to cash it in, and had no grand plans aside from using the money to provide for his family. But then a burglar passes by and he does nothing and when called out for it, exclaims that it isn't his job. That burglar then killed Uncle Ben, i.e. his beloved surrogate father. This moral failure and lapse pretty much defines Spider-Man for the rest of his life, and his attempts to do good and redeem his action.
- In Nick Spencer's run, Peter cites his refusal to turn his unearned degree after his revival in his own body as another failing of a similar kind. He notes that after getting his body back he simply walked past a wall showing his graduate degree earned by Octavius in his body and he didn't turn it in and realizing this, he comes to the conclusion that the plagiarism scandal he faces is entirely deserved and justified.
When He Smiles: It's been noted by more than a few that Peter has a "dreamy smile" when he lights up. This is best seen after Peter and MJ have their First Kiss which goes on for a few panels and at the end of it Peter gives out a Laugh of Love and breaks into a wide grin that is the happiest he's been since Gwen died.
While You Were in Diapers: His response to The Avengers when he offers to join them in Roger Stern's The Avengers #236 when Cap points out that their roster only allows 6 and it's all filled up, but Spider-Man can join a trainee program:
Spider-Man: Trainee program?!? Hey, I'm Spider-Man, remember? I was sticking to walls when you guys were still looking for a clubhouse, I'm no green rookie!
Wide-Eyed Idealist: While he's got a very misplaced reputation for being whiny and angsty (coming from the second two Raimi films playing up his Woobie points and the nineties being, well, the nineties), Peter Parker's main reason for being so popular isn't because of his powers, but because he'll always do the right thing, no matter what the world throws at him.
Willfully Weak: Whenever he fights normal humans, he constantly holds back and pulls his punches to avoid accidentally killing someone. When Dr. Octopus, having stolen Peter's body, punches the Scorpion in the face so hard that his jaw snaps clean off, he's absolutely shocked at just how powerful Spider-Man truly is.
With Great Power Comes Great Perks: How Peter was before the fateful day when he learned With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.
Wolverine Publicity: As Marvel's Breakout Character, Spider-Man became the company mascot and in the early issues often appeared in multiple titles, predating Wolverine by more than a decade having passed even Wolverine and Deadpool in over-saturation as he is now either a member or guest-starring with the three big teams in the Marvel Universe—including the X-Men, the Avengers (both teams), and the new Fantastic Four (known as the FF); plus his own book is released twice a month.
The Worf Effect: He seems to get knocked around by his enemies more often than other heroes. Then again, he usually comes back to win, so the effect isn't as bad as it otherwise would be, plus some of his enemies are legitimately stronger and faster than him — as in if they grab him, it's instant death.
- If anything, you could argue it's an inversion: Spidey gets knocked around all the time (and often fights enemies who are much stronger and/or larger than he is) to show that he's weak and spindly. But wins anyway.
- It's also somewhat subverted in that he more often than not uses his intelligence or pragmatism to defeat someone as opposed to just a straight beatdown.
- If there is a "standard formula" to a Spider-Man story, it's this: Spidey meets a new villain (or old villain with new and/or improved powers), gets his ass kicked, comes up with a scientific solution to neutralize the baddy's advantage, then delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle. Probably the best example of this, in prolonged format, is the 'Spider-Island'' event. If Spidey isn't triumphing after total defeat through science and ingenuity, he's probably doing it through Heroic Resolve and being The Determinator.
Worf Had the Flu: It's quite common for Spidey to come down with some illness for an issue or two which allows a villain to gain the upper hand in a fight. This is usually used to show off his Heroic Willpower by fighting through the illness and he typically loses one fight and then wins the rematch and the illness goes away as soon as he gets back home.
Working-Class Hero: One of the many reasons why Peter Parker was such a fresh character from its beginnings. He very believably came across a poor scholarship boy whose daily pressures (education, being an orphan, having elderly guardians) were already a strain before his superpowers. It's also there in his identity as a "Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man" and a Small Steps Hero.
- This aspect tends to be toned down in more recent stories, and as the ex-CEO of his own company, it's much less of a factor, though given the rising costs of living in New York, it's probably less likely for Peter Parker to continue operating in New York believably as a low-wage earner than the '60s version of the character did.
Would Hit a Girl: While Spidey never hits women first, if you want to fight or kill him, know that your vagina won't get you any special treatment. Ask Shriek, the Femmes Fatales, Shathra, or the White Rabbit for details. Actually got called out on it by Typhoid Mary of all people, causing him to apologize profusely. Turns out it was just Crocodile Tears, and he stopped pulling punches after that.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: When Spidey was first starting out, he was reluctant to harm women. It was the 1960's, after all.
Yiddish as a Second Language: Peter peppers his quips with Yiddish phrases, especially when Bendis is writing him.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: For all of his strength and speed, Peter beats himself up to the extreme whenever he fails to save someone, or even when people get hurt while he's fighting one or many supervillains, so he has to be reminded of this at times, usually by Mary Jane, but sometimes by people like Wolverine or Captain America.
You Fight Like a Cow: The master of this trope, deadpan or not. Peter Parker may not use a sword, but nevertheless, he's the master of the fighting quip.
Your Mom: Engaged against fellow jokester, Deadpool, and got the last diss in and technically won if not for the former not choosing to go through with his Yo Mamageddon.
Zorro Mark: While he doesn't like to do this, like Kaine, he can use his wall-sticking powers to rip the flesh from people leaving a disfiguring hand-shaped mark.

Characters / Spider-Man: Peter Parker

Spider-Man

Alter ego: Peter Benjamin Parker

Notable Aliases: Bombastic Bag-Man, Ricochet, Dusk, Prodigy, Hornet, Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider, Captain Universe, Liar

Editorial Names: Amazing Spider-Man; formerly Sensational Spider-Man, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Avenging Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Super Spider-Man, Astonishing Spider-Man

Species: Human mutate

First appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962)

Team Affiliations: The Avengers, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Secret Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Fantastic Four, The Defenders, Future Foundation, Daily Bugle, Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, League of Realms, S.H.I.E.L.D., Spider-Army / Web-Warriors

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Characters / Spider-Man: Peter Parker

Edit Locked

Spider-Man

Alter ego: Peter Benjamin Parker

Notable Aliases: Bombastic Bag-Man, Ricochet, Dusk, Prodigy, Hornet, Ben Reilly, Scarlet Spider, Captain Universe, Liar

Editorial Names: Amazing Spider-Man; formerly Sensational Spider-Man, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Avenging Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Super Spider-Man, Astonishing Spider-Man

Species: Human mutate

First appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962)

Team Affiliations: The Avengers, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Secret Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Fantastic Four, The Defenders, Future Foundation, Daily Bugle, Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, League of Realms, S.H.I.E.L.D., Spider-Army / Web-Warriors

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