6 Alternate Versions Of Spider-Man Across The Multiverse

3. Spider-Man Noir

Earth-90214: The Noir universe is set during the Great Depression of the United States, and places various mainstream Marvel characters like Daredevil and the X-Men into the dirty thirties. Pulp and noir novels were obviously heavy influences, with detective stories generally taking the place of superheroics. The heroes of the Noir universe were mostly without superpowers, with a few exceptions like Luke Cage, Matt Murdock, and Peter Parker. After losing his Uncle Ben in a store bombing, Peter Parker attempted to expose Norman Osborn AKA the Goblin as the criminal mastermind responsible. Using his position under the wing of Daily Bugle journalist Ben Urich, who also ran a team of informants under the alias of The Spider, Peter witnesses a criminal shipment gone wrong. A statue of a Spider God is broken open, unleashing a swarm of spiders who kill everyone they bite. Peter also gets bitten, and in a fevered dream recalls the Spider God sparing him and gifting him with mystical powers. These abilities are similar to 616 Spider-Man, though reduced in power level, no wall-crawling, and his organic web-shooters have very little control, shooting only sticky nets.

While Parker's development into Spider-Man focuses the story, it's the interesting use of his cast of characters that really make this a compelling version of Spider-Man. Whether it's Peter's relationship with Felicia Hardy, owner of The Black Cat speakeasy, or his Aunt May, who fights for the people one soapbox at a time, the setting of the Depression Era resonates perfectly with the characters.