10 Weird Alternate Versions Of Spider-Man

5. Anansi

Spider Ham
Marvel Comics

Anansi is an African folktale character. He is a trickster god who uses his cunning to outsmart his much stronger opponents. He is also said to take the form of a spider and so, when Marvel produced a series of fairy tales based around Spider-Man, he seemed like an obvious fit.

In Spider-Man Fairy Tales #2 the bored Spider God decided he wanted to find the ultimate power. Sent by his uncle Nebasti, Anansi journeyed across Africa to find the spider orchid which would give him the power to bend others to his will.

To get there, Anansi had to fight the elemental spirits of air, water, earth and fire (loose analogies for the fantastic four). He was able to defeat each by outsmarting them and, once defeated, the spirits all decided to follow Anansi to the garden at the end of Earth.

Once they got there though, Anansi was attacked by his sworn enemy, the god of bees. Yes, surprisingly, the main villain of the story was Swarm, the Nazi made of bees.

Working with his new friends, Anansi was able to defeat the bee god. However, he then gave up on his quest when he realised that what he really wanted was a group of friends.

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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.