Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most well-known superheroes, and his main appeal comes from being an average man with extraordinary powers. Despite being conceived to be one of Marvel's more mundane and grounded superheroes, Peter Parker's nearly sixty years worth of comic book adventures has led to his trials and tribulations to become a lot more confusing than originally intended.
This article hopes to explain some of the more confusing aspects of Spider-Man's long history as a comic book character. These aspects range from retcons, spin-off characters, and strange plot developments. As with any long-running comic book character, Spider-Man actually has a multitude of Earth-shattering events and encounters, so this list will focus on those that had the biggest impacts.
10 His Clones Were Made For Some Villains' Plots
One of the most controversial Spider-Man storylines of the 90's was the Clone Saga, which reintroduced a clone of Spider-Man who was thought to be dead. Now, he's going by the name Ben Reily, aka the Scarlet Spider. The storyline infamously suggested that the Spider-Man of the mid-70's was actually his clone. Additionally, another clone of Spider-Man named Kaine was introduced, and he was more of an anti-hero than this originator.
Both of these clones were created by the Jackal in his ploy to ruin Spider-Man's life for his role in Gwen Stacy's death. Their return was a part of a larger complicated plot by a long-thought dead Norman Osborne to drive Spider-Man insane. None of it made sense.
9 His Powers Were Temporarily Organic
For the longest time, Spider-Man's powers were rather simple to explain: he could crawl on walls, has super-strength, has a precognitive sense called spider-sense, and used web-shooters zip around town. The 2000's would, however, see a major and temporary shift in Spider Man's powers.
Due to the Sam Rami's Spider-Man movies introducing the idea of Spider-Man's web shooting being a natural part of his mutation, the comic-book Spider-Man gained organic web-shooters through a bizarre series of events. The storyline The Other: Evolved or Die would give Spider-Man even more Spider-based powers, like retractable stingers and sensitive hair. Spider Man's powers would, however, return to normal after One More Day
8 His Most Controversial Story Was Written To Revert To The Original Status Quo
Speaking of One More Day, there is one particular reason why that is considered one of the worst Spider-Man stories ever. That reason being that Spider-Man essentially sold his marriage to Mephisto to save Aunt May's life. This decision would have major ramifications, especially Spider-Man staying a bachelor for the next 15 years.
On paper, this was done to bring back Spider-Man to his roots as a young adult hero. The problem was that it came cost of one of the better regarded and longest lasting marriages in the superhero genre, and this explanation comes off as illogical and detrimental to the everyone involved.
7 He Was Possessed By Doctor Octopus
A more recent controversial storyline is the Superior Spider-Man. Here, a dying Doctor Octopus switches his mind with Peter Parker's. This led to Peter Parker dying and Doctor Octopus deciding to become a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker ever was.
The process of switching bodies, however, left Octavius's mind with a bit of Peter Parker's. While Octavius was initially successful in preventing this remnant from taking over, he let Peter regain his body after his own efforts to be a more anti-heroic Spider-Man led to his loved ones nearly getting killed by Norman Osborne. Octavius finally accepts that despite all his flaws, Peter was indeed the superior Spider-Man.
6 His Powers May Have A Supernatural Connection
Probably one of the stranger development in Spider-Man's recent history is the revelation that his power might be of a mystical origin. In the opening storyline of J. Michael Straczynski Amazing Spider-Man, the enigmatic Ezekial reveals that Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider was a ploy by mystical forces to make him this universe's Spider totem.
Beyond Straczyncksi's run, this mystical aspect of Spider-Man was only brought up in the lead up towards the original Spider-Verse crossover. What the crossover brought to Spider-Man's mystic connection was identifying the force as the Great Weaver and that the Spider-Totem was responsible for why there are so many Spider-Men and Woman in the multi-verse.
5 His Animal-Based Supervillains May Have A Supernatural Connection As Well
The whole concept of the Spider-Totem was partially created as a justification for one of the stranger coincidence in the webslinger's history: most of Spider-Man's rogues gallery are inspired or named after animals, with Green Goblin and Mysterio being some of the few major exceptions. Kraven, arguably, fits the animal kingdom theme due to him being a big-game hunter.
The Spider-Totem concept attempted to explain this, implying that the chosen spider vessel attracted hostile individuals inspired by various animals . This idea has, however, been mostly ignored by writers after Stracyncki's run
4 Spider-Woman Was Created For Legal Purposes
Despite there being six different superheroines who have taken the name of Spider-Woman in the mainline Marvel Universe, only half of them have any actual connection with Spider-Man (namely Matite Franklin, Charlotte Winter, and Cindy Moon). The most famous one, Jessica Drew, has no in-universe connection to Spidey at all, making some wonder why she was even made. Her answer is actually more of a conceptual one than canon.
Similar to She-Hulk, Spider-Woman was created by Marvel to prevent companies they licensed their characters out to from creating their own spin-off characters. Specifically, this was done to prevent Filmation from gaining the copyright of the name through an unrelated but incredibly similar animated series called Web Woman.
3 There's A Real World Reason For Miles Morales Being Spider-Man
Probably the most confusing aspect of the current status quo of Spider-Man comic is that there are two superheroes in the 616 called Spider-Man. One being Peter Parker and the other being Miles Morales. This was the result of the mainline Marvel Universe and Ultimate Universe fusing after Secret Wars.
While having two different characters with the same alias might be confusing to some, Marvel has its reasons for not giving Miles an entirely new alias. According to a recent interview with former Marvel editor Charles Beacham, Marvel decided not to rebrand Miles Morales as it would " takes away the power for kids who relate to this character."
2 He Lost His Company Because He Deviated Too Much From His Characterization
Another major change to Spider-Man following Secret Wars was that Peter Parker was now the CEO of a major international company. This led to him becoming more like Iron Man in more ways than one. This goes from him utilizing new hi-tech gadgets to facing foes of a more international caliber, like Regent and the Zodiac Cartel.
This only lasted about a year before the Secret Empire crossover upended it. There, a Hydra-revived Doctor Octopus destroyed Parker Industries. In the aftermath, Peter Parker would move more into a familiar status quo due to many (both in and out of universe) feeling that Peter Parker's CEO career moved him too far away from his original everyman appeal.
1 Originally, The Symbiote Was Just A New Suit
Spider-Man's relationship with the Venom Symbiote is one made even more confusing by every writer having a different answer and interpretation for who or what exactly a Symbiote is. In its first appearance, the Symbiote was just the material used to make Spider-Man's iconic black suit in the original Secret Wars miniseries.
It was later revealed to be a sentient alien parasite and would later fuse with Eddie Brock to form Venom. Initially, the Symbiote was just using Eddie as a means to rejoin itself with Peter Parker, leading to several defeats. This situation has changed over the years to where after years of bonding, the Symbiote has now become obsessed with Eddie Brock. Since then, the Symbiote's lore and backstory has been greatly expanded to be more than just a weird alien substance Peter Parker stumbled upon.