Welcome back, Loreseekers! Today I'm going to tackle another Universes Beyond set I know well enough to have been hired on as a writer! Marvel's Spider-Man goes deep into the Spider-Man mythos, and there's a lot of characters you may not recognize, but have no fear, a Spidey nerd is here! Because there's just so much to cover, I'm splitting this in two, with this article focusing on the main, 616 Peter Parker, and the next one focusing on spin-off or Spider-Verse characters.

There are a few things to understand here right off the bat. This set is based on the comic book Spider-Man license, NOT any of the films or shows (including Into the Spider-Verse). While it does touch on characters that are popular from other media iterations, it's very much the comic book iteration of those characters. With that out of the way, let's dive in!

Story Arcs

Amazing Spider-Man by Thanh Tuan

The Origin of Spider-Man is one you all know by now, it's mostly the same in every iteration. Peter Parker is bitten by a Radioactive Spider, tries to make some money as a Professional Wrestler, but his negligence gets his Uncle Ben killed, and he embraces that With Great Power... there must also come Great Responsibility. As a side note, for those of you who are fans of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, I regret to inform you that the pro wrestler was Crusher Hogan in the comics, not Randy Savage's Bonesaw.

There's a lot of iconic Spider-Man story arcs, some of which are covered by the sagas in the set. The Death of Gwen Stacy is by far the most impactful for Spider-Man. In the early comics, Spider-Man's love interest is Gwen Stacy, not Mary Jane Watson. However, Gwen is captured by the Green Goblin and thrown off a bridge, and Spider-Man isn't able to save her.

Spider-Man No More is an iconic moment adapted by a lot of Spider-Man media, where for a couple issues Peter gave up being Spider-Man, until it was clear how much he was needed.

You may also have heard of The Clone Saga which is... complicated. You see, Jackal, Genius Geneticist, a professor who was in love with Gwen Stacy and blamed Spider-Man for her death, created a clone of Spider-Man who is thought to be killed. Years later, the clone re-emerges having taken his Uncle's name and his Aunt's maiden name, calling himself the Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly. There was confusion for a long time as to who the real Peter Parker was because of this event, and Ben will sometimes take over as Spider-Man for Peter. Ben would eventually be killed by the Green Goblin, revealing in the process that he was the clone. This is comic books, so Ben got better. Sort-of. Add to all this another clone, Kaine, who was defective and deformed. Kaine would be a recurring antagonist until he reached some stability, taking over as the Scarlet Spider, Kaine in honor of Ben. His version of the Scarlet Spider would always stay a bit more brutal and anti-heroic, though.

I'll talk about Maximum Carnage and Kraven's Last Hunt later, but rest assured I didn't forget them.

Spider-Suits

Costume Closet by Bastien Grivet

Both Costume Closet and Spectacular Spider-Man feature a ton of different Spider-Suits from Spider-Man's history. Here's a breakdown of each one, starting from left to right in the Costume Closet arc:

• Future Foundation - This black and white suit was the standard uniform for the Fantastic Four's Future Foundation, Reed Richard's attempt to plan a better future for humanity.
• Spider Armor MK I - This very 90's silver metallic suit was designed for Spider-Man to go up against high-power weapons, but was destroyed in the very same issue it was introduced.
• Spider Armor MK II - This yellow and black suit was created to make up for Peter's temporary loss of his Spider-Sense at the time.
• Spider Armor MK III - This red and silver suit was created to fight the Sinister Six while Peter had access to the resources of Horizon Labs, a think tank.
• Spider Armor MK IV - This high tech suit was built using the resources of Parker Industries at Peter's height. It also probably inspired Spider-Man's MCU suit.
• Iron Spider - This red and gold Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade suit was built with Tony Stark, but has since been used by a lot of different characters. It was Peter's first suit to feature 'extra legs'.
• Bombastic Bag Man - This is a borrowed Fantastic Four costume that Peter wore home after having the symbiote removed by Reed Richards.

The other suits seen on Spectacular Spider-Man's alternate artworks also include:

• Stealth Suit - This black suit with glowing accents was created alongside the Spider Armor MK II at Horizon labs, and later repurposed as Kaine's Scarlet Spider outfit.
• Sensational Suit - This suit is Ben Reilly's version of the Spider-Man costume.
• Six-Armed Suit - This is just the regular costume ripped after the Grow Extra Arms incident in Amazing Spider-Man #100 when Peter drinks a serum that was supposed to remove his powers and instead... does that.

Spidey And Friends

Romantic Rendezvous by Nereida

I'm going to be dividing this up as best I can to make the information manageable, so let's start with Peter Parker's extended cast and references, which makes up the majority of the set. Aunt May is present in every iteration of Spider-Man, but what you may not know is that her card art is a pair with Randy Gallegos' version of Peter Parker! Aunt May's famous wheatcakes (pancakes) are Peter's favorite, and both flavor texts and the art references to this. Aunt May's flavor text is also ripped straight from the comics, as are a lot of the flavor texts in the set.

Mary Jane Watson is of course Peter's main love interest, even if editorial decisions have kept them apart for almost two decades. She's actually the current Venom, if you can believe it. When she's not doing her own super heroics, MJ, Rising Star is a relatively famous actress.

A huge amount of Peter's early life revolves around selling staged Pictures of Spider-Man using Peter Parker's Camera to Daily Bugle Editor J. Jonah Jameson. JJ is a rather infamous newsman who targets Spider-Man and frames him in a negative light. This was in part because the web crawler outshined his son Colonel John Jameson's (Gallant Citizen) historic space flight. The flight almost crashed but was saved by Spider-Man. JJ is a more complicated character though, and has looked out for Peter since he was young.

Other Daily Bugle Reporters include Robbie Robertson, Jonah's long-time editor at the Daily Bugle, and a major recurring character. You can also see Betty Brant behind Robbie in that artwork, she's another longtime Bugle staffer.

The Stacy family was also a big part of Peter's life, with the original, 616 Gwen Stacy being his love interest until her death. Her father, Captain George Stacy, is depicted on Selfless Police Captain. Captain Stacy dies saving a child from falling rubble, an event heavily referenced by Across The Spider-Verse as a 'canon event' that must happen. Captain Stacy also, notably, figured out Spider-Man's secret identity but didn't tell anyone.

Black Cat, Cunning Thief is Felicia Hardy, Peter Parker's on-again, off-again love interest. Felicia is a cat burglar, the daughter of the famous Black Cat who takes the mantle for herself. While she's not a big fan of the law, she does have a heart and will frequently help Spider-Man out, although often with ulterior motives. She also has bad luck powers.

Silver Sable, Mercenary Leader is the boss of the Wild Pack Squad. Silver Sable fills the role of a merc with a heart, although she won't let anyone know it. She and Spider-Man have fought side by side, and against each other, on more than one occasion.

Cassandra Webb, the original Madame Web, Clairvoyant, was originally just a psychic Spider-Man relied on for help, but she eventually grew into a role of 'seeing' into the Web of Life and Destiny... but more on that next time. She was killed about a decade ago in the comics and replaced by one of the Spider-Women (more on them next time, too).

Wraith, Vicious Vigilante by Nereida

Wraith, Vicious Vigilante is the alter ego of Police Captain Yuri Watanabe, who for a time filled the role once held by Captain Stacy and later Jean DeWolff, as a police officer willing to use Spider-Man's help to solve crimes. Yuri felt like she could never do enough as a police officer, and used confiscated villain technology to become a vigilante.

Prowler, Clawed Thief is not Miles Morale's Uncle Aaron Davis, but the 616 version of Hobie Brown (more famous from Across the Spider-Verse as his Spider-Punk variant). Hobie wanted to get into a life of crime, but when he thought he'd accidentally killed Peter Parker, he confessed to Spider-Man. Seeing the good in him, the two eventually became friends and Hobie would occasionally substitute as a body double for Spider-Man when both Peter and Spider-Man had to be seen at the same time.

The Spider-Mobile is one of my favorite bits of Spider-Man lore. A car company wants to team up with Spider-Man to promote their clean engine technology. Peter realizes he could really use the money, and gets Johnny Storm's help to build it. The original, of course, gets wrecked very quickly, but it'll forever remain in our hearts. There's a multiversal variant of the Spider-Mobile called Peter Parkedcar, from Cars-like universe.

The deepest cut here is Amateur Hero, which features a young Ollie Osnick. Ollie was a supervillain groupie and created his own version of Doc Ock's Tentacles. When Spider-Man caught him doing amateur villainy, he let the boy go, and Ollie would go on to idolize Spider-Man's compassion instead, becoming Spider-Kid. As an adult, he would take on the identity of the Steel Spider, imitating Peter's Iron Spider suit.

Sinister Six (and More)

Behold the Sinister Six! by Nathaniel Himawan

In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, Doctor Octopus is tired of being defeated by Spider-Man and brings together a group of like-minded villains to form the original Sinister Six (Behold the Sinister Six!). The name has stuck for future villain team-ups, and by this point most of Spider-Man's villains have been in one version or another.

Spider-Man's archenemy has historically been Norman Osborn, who becomes the Green Goblin after an Unstable Experiment. The Green Goblin would menace Spider-Man for years until his apparent death (not long after The Death of Gwen Stacy. Shadow of the Goblin would loom long, and Peter's friend Harry Osborn would take up his father's mantle to avenge him as the second Green Goblin, Revenant. Because this is a comic book story, it's way more complicated and these two have been subjected to countless retcons.

Spider-Man's second most dangerous foe is Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist. Doc Ock has had a lot of looks over the years, but I'll always be partial to the original, cheesy, portly green of Doctor Octopus, Master Planner. Otto Octavius was just a nuclear scientist who invented Doc Ock's Tentacles to help with his experiments (seen in Risky Research), but an accident resulted in brain damage and the ability to control the tentacles mentally.

Since then, he's become one of the biggest thorn in Spider-Man's side, forming many iterations of the Sinister Six to battle Spider-Man. When his body was dying, he performed a secret mind swap with Peter Parker, and lived Peter's life as the Superior Spider-Man. During his time in Peter's body, he creates 'Parker Industries' and learns how wrong he was about Peter's Spider-Man, ultimately sacrificing himself to allow Peter to regain control. He has of course been cloned since and fully purged of all memory of his time as Superior Spider-Man, because comic books.

Doc Ock also inspired Carolyn Trainer, who is known as Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor. She took over as Doctor Octopus herself after one of Otto's original deaths, when he was killed during The Clone Saga}. She's the inspiration for Into The Spider-Verse version of Doc Ock.

The most famous Mysterio, Master of Illusion is Quentin Beck. As Mysterio, Beck uses stage magic and technology to simulate magic powers and create illusions to outwit, rather than outfight, Spider-Man.

Scorpion, Seething Striker is Mac Gargan, a private investigator who became part of an experiment funded by J. Jonah Jameson to try and create someone capable of stopping Spider-Man. It worked, but Mac was changed forever, for the worse.

Chameleon, Master of Disguise is probably the biggest Spider-Man villain to not yet get a film adaptation. Dmitri Smerdyakov is the half-brother of Sergei Kravinoff, also known as Kraven the Hunter. A lot of his backstory is tied up in cold war espionage, but all you need to know about him is that he's cold and calculating, and very good at stealing identities.

Electro, Assaulting Battery, aka Max Dillon, was a lineman for a power company when he was struck by lightning, a freak accident with the way the power lines were formed, gave him electric powers. The name Assaulting Battery (as in, Assault & Battery) is just the perfect pun, I wish I'd written it.

Shocker, Unshakable is Herman Schultz, a low level criminal who created vibration-generating gauntlets. He lacks both the ambition and the skill of many of Spider-Man's other villains, making him not a terribly big threat.

Doctor Curt Connors, aka the Lizard, Connors's Curse, attempted to create a serum that would regrow his severed arm. Instead, the Lizard Formula changed him into the Lizard. The exact nature of the Lizard has changed a lot over the years, but at some points he wants to turn other people into Lizards, like with Lurking Lizards.

Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel is the original elemental villain of Spider-Man, and the most well-known. Although "Flint Marko" has gone by a bunch of different names, it's not worth getting into the real backstory here or using a name most fans wouldn't know. He's a crook that sometimes fights on the good guy team, although any character growth is inevitable reset, because comics.

Aleksei Sytsevich, aka Rhino, Barreling Brute, is a former Russian mobster who was enhanced and grafted to a Rhino suit. Aleksei isn't a particularly smart man, and like a lot of Spider-Man villains he's often just in it for the money. In recent years, he's become an ally of sorts to Miles Morales's Spider-Man.

Vulture, Scheming Scavenger is Adrian Toomes, an inventor who created an electromagnetic flight suit that also gave him increased strength. He used the suit to get revenge on his traitorous business partner, but quickly turned toward a life of crime. He's also the grandfather of Starling, Aerial Ally, to whom he lied about his criminal history and instead framed Spider-Man as the bad guy.

Kraven the Hunter was a big game hunter who became obsessed with hunting greater prey. Kraven was a consummate hunter, and even almost killed Spider-Man once in Kraven's Last Hunt, a story arc from the 1980s where Kraven buries Spider-Man alive and takes on the mantle to prove himself Spider-Man's better, only for Peter to dig out of his own Eerie Gravestone and return to take it back.

Mister Negative is the biggest Spider-Man villain you may not have heard of. Mister Negative is the dark side of philanthropist Martin Li, transformed by darkforce power as an alternate personality and served by his Inner Demons Gangsters. Mister Negative's power can twist someone's mind into serving him, turning them into a darker version of themselves.

Who was behind the Hobgoblin, Mantled Marauder's mask was a big question back in the day, until a creative team shift mostly deflated the resulting reveal. While several characters have been behind the mask, the best known is Roderick Kingsley. In recent years, Kingsley is best known for franchising out the Hobgoblin and other villain identities to other criminals, as well as power brokering and generally running supervillainy like a business. He's also become much more of a Miles Morales villain (see: Scout the City), although he still menaces Peter from time to time.

Minor Villains

• Tombstone, Career Criminal - Lonnie Lincoln, an infamous mobster with an alabaster complexion from chemical exposure that left him super powered.
• Beetle, Legacy Criminal - Tombstone's daughter, who got into crime because she was bored and wanted to show up her dad.
• Robotics Mastery - Robot Master is Mendel Stromm, a roboticist with a grudge against Norman Osborn (who framed him for a crime).
• Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon - Morris Bench, a water-powered villain who doesn't mix well with Sandman. Possibly better known as part of the Frightful Four (Fantastic Four villains) than a Spider-Man villain.
• Merciless Enforcers - Montana, Fancy Dan, and Ox are the Enforcers, an eccentric team of skilled criminals.
• Swarm, Being of Bees - A Nazi who became a sentient hive of bees.
• Molten Man, Inferno Incarnate is Mark Raxton, who while working for Alistair Smythe (creator of the Spider-Slayers) was exposed to a liquid metal from a meteor.
• Superior Foes of Spider-Man - A criminal group formed of D-Listers, including Boomerang (a disgraced pro baseball pitcher), Shocker, Beetle, Overdrive, and Speed Demon.
• Morbius the Living Vampire - It's morbin' time! Michael Morbius accidentally turned himself into a science vampire.
• Spider-Slayer, Hatred Honed - Alistair Smythe, son of the man who invented the Spider-Slayers, wears a Biorganic Carapace to take revenge on Jameson and Spider-Man.
• The Spot, Living Portal - An unusual teleporter made famous by Across the Spider-Verse.
• Stegron the Dinosaur Man - Vincent Stegron was transformed by a variation of the Lizard Formula that used dinosaur DNA.
• Mechanical Mobster - Silvermane, a mobster now mostly exists as a head on various cybernetic bodies.
• Living Brain, Mechanical Marvel - A classic, one-off enemy from Peter's High School days that would resurface during the Superior Spider-Man arc and be repurposed by Otto as a lab assistant.
• Wisecrack - Grizzly, a former pro wrestler and low level villain in a bear exosuit.

Into the Spider-Verse

Next time I'm going to be diving into all the related Spider characters: the Totems, the Spider-Women, the Symbiotes, Miles Morales and the Spider-Verse! Come check it out!