There have been many Spider-Mans in the history of the Marvel Comics but one name resonates more, among the fans than the others. Peter Parker is the flagbearer of the Spider-Man name and he has been through some insane things in the Marvel Universe.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe and a couple of other movies have given the fans an enormous amount of content to judge Spider-Man from. Be it his origin story or the iconic supervillains he has faced, almost every person in the world knows about him. Nevertheless, the comics offer a different side of Peter Parker.
10 Radioactive Bite Number Two
Who would have thought that the radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers would never bite someone else again? This is what the fans were told in the movies but something else happened right after Peter was given the fateful bite. Just minutes after biting Parker, this radioactive spider goes on to bite Cindy Moon. Yes, the same girl who becomes Silk in the future. Thankfully, she didn't go through the trouble alone as she was trained by Ezekiel Sims.
9 Money Making Parker
Peter Parker's first thought after discovering his superpowers was not to become a neighborhood friendly Spider-Man, instead, it was to make money because he knew his uniqueness would sell. He was pitched an idea by a TV producer about a gimmick. The costume and his skills had the potential to become a hit among the public, so he decided to don the Spider-Man costume to earn some bucks. Well, Parker wasn't always a selfless man.
8 University Stories
Unlike the Spider-Man movies, Peter Parker didn't really have much going for him during his high school days in the comics. That all changed once he enrolled in the Empire State University. He didn't meet Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy till then, neither did he have Harry Osborn to keep him company.
It was the university life that gave Peter some headaches. He had to juggle between two beautiful girls fighting over him, while also taking care of the criminals budding in New York. During his high school days, all Peter Parker did was get bullied.
7 A Bully Becomes Peter's Friend
Talking of bullying Peter Parker, it was a boy named Flash Thompson who made Peter's life a living hell in high school. Once Peter got his Spider-Man abilities, he put Thompson in line. Little did both of them know that after the bullying saga, they would become very good friends. Flash and Peter continued the banter with one another but both of them grew to respect each other. Flash actually respected the fact that Peter was better than him in almost all aspects of life.
6 Rejecting Mary Jane
It has been shown in the Spider-Man movies that Mary Jane is somewhat a godsend for Peter Parker; he cannot exist without crushing on her. In reality or in the comics, the opposite happened. Mary Jane was that girl who Aunt May wanted Peter to be with. Spider-Man, on the other hand, didn't quite like the idea. He used to turn down going out with her. But, in the end, they did fall for each other and ended up being a happily married couple.
5 The Mystery Around His Parents
When Peter Parker burst upon the scene, there was basically silence about the history of his parents that only added to the mystery revolving around the character. In what was a startling revelation, Peter's parents, Richard Parker and Mary Parker, were said to have a history with the CIA. It turns out, Peter inherited the genes of flirting with danger from his parents. Although the background story didn't go down well with the fans, it was good to give Peter's parents some recognizable history.
4 Red Skull Connection
Another bizarre yet interesting connection featuring Peter's parents concerns Red Skull. In this piece of Spider-Man's background story, it was revealed that while working for the CIA, Richard and Mary Parker were undercover in an organization run by the third Red Skull, Albert Malik.
Peter's parents died in a plane crash that was orchestrated by The Finisher, Red Skull's assassin. It was Red Skull who killed Spider-Man's parents. How is that for some intriguing background information?
3 Bizarre Transformation
The radioactive spider bite didn't only give Peter some defining traits, but it also gave him the power to convert into an outright spider. Maybe the original spider bite gave him some mutations that manifested after a while and that, in the end, allowed him to reach the top of his development. The transformation got so bad that Peter couldn't control the mutations and as a result, he had to seek help from the X-Men. Getting spider hands can be tricky after all.
2 To The Clones Of This World
The Marvel Multiverse provided the Spider-Man universe with unlimited possibilities as numerous Spider-Mans across the Spiderverse were introduced to the fans. But what no one liked was Spider-Man and the clone stories; Peter Parker found himself battling his clones created primarily to destroy him. Among them, the most popular ones were Kaine and Ben Reilly, while the likes of Spidercide, Spider-Skeleton, etc, also battled Peter.
1 Owning His Decisions
One of the biggest moments that changed Peter Parker's life forever featured him unmasking himself to the world. Civil War is regarded as one of the best storylines in Marvel Comics history and Spider-Man played his part in it. He obviously sided with Iron Man and he once set-up a press conference in Washington DC to voice his opinions about the Superhero Registration Act. In that press conference, he removed his mask and told everyone that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. It had huge implications on his private as well as superhero life.