10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Spider-Man
5. He Has Turned Into A Spider Many Times
Marvel has long had this fascination with transforming Spider-Man into some semblance of an actual spider man - and then promptly forgetting and abandoning the storyline after a few months.
The first time this happened was in Amazing Spider-Man #100, a special event issue that is also Stan Lee's last script on the title. Peter ingests a serum designed to eliminate his spider powers and instead sprouts four new arms (giving him eight appendages). The status quo is restored by Amazing Spider-Man #102, primarily because it would have been weird for Gwen Stacy to date a guy with six arms, and the idea wasn't teased again until more than 30 years later. In the mid-2000s, two separate creative teams tried their hand at making Spider-Man be more spider than man. In the 2004 Spectacular Spider-Man arc Changes, by Paul Jenkins and Paco Medina, during a battle with the mysterious Spider Queen, Peter is literally transformed into a spider. He then experiences a rebirth and when he emerges in human form again, has developed organic web shooters and the ability to communicate telepathically with insects.
This new status quo did not stick. Marvel did it all over again about a year later with The Other, a multi-part event that sees Spider-Man get killed by the vampiric Morlun and then resurrect himself with a brand new power-set which includes night vision and the ability to feel vibrations through his webbing. Peter also refers to having a profound connection with the Web of Life.
Of the three storylines, The Other still has a little bit of a traction in the Marvel Universe, though Peter very rarely mentions the experience anymore. Instead, his clone Kaine undergoes a similar transformation in the since-cancelled Scarlet Spider series.