10 Weird Alternate Versions Of Spider-Man

6. Japanese Spider-Man

Spider Ham
Toei Company

In 1978, Japan's Toei Company decided to adapt Spider-Man into a live-action TV show. They might have taken one or two liberties with the source material.

This version of Spider-Man was a motorcycle racer called Takuya Yamashiro. Takuya discovered a crashed spaceship containing Garia, a dying warrior from the planet Spider. Before he died, Garia injected Takuya with his blood, giving him the same spider-like powers as his people (space diseases are way cooler than ours) and ordered him to defeat the evil Professor Monster and his Iron Cross Army.

Spider-Man was actually a huge inspiration for later shows like Power Rangers and contained similar elements such as Spider-Man striking a pose whenever he appeared and the same basic plot of "Hero fights monster. Monster grows huge. Hero fights monster again in a giant robot".

Giant robot? Oh yes. Spider-Man could use his bracelet to transform the crashed ship into the mighty Leopardon, a battle robot designed to take on Professor Monster's monsters. Peter Parker wishes he was that rad.

Spider-Verse also marked the first time that Takuya Yamashiro was introduced to Marvel canon. As one of the multiversal Spider-Men, he and Leopardon played a big role in stopping the Inheritors.

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I was just a mild-mannered NCTJ accredited journalist until one day I found out the truth... that I could share my nerdy ramblings with people on the internet! It's just like mumbling to myself on the train, but without all the strange looks.