Welcome back, Loreseekers! Today I'm doing the second part of my Spider-Man Flavor Gems series, this one focused on the extended cast of Spider-characters, the symbiotes, and the Spider-Verse! Like last time, 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.

Since we're going to be talking about the Marvel Multiverse, I want to clarify that the main Marvel Universe is known as Earth-616. I may be referring to that universe as 616 for simplicity's sake, so I needed to clarify. With that out of the way, let's dive in!

Spider-Totems

Silk, Web Weaver by Carissa Susilo

The first thing we need to talk about in the extended Spider-Hero realm is the concept of a totem. Ezekiel Sims, Spider-Totem introduced the concept of a Spider-Totem, which means that every character with an animal-based power is a magical 'totem' of that animal. Peter Parker has trouble with this magical component to his powers, insisting his powers come through science and a Radioactive Spider.

The issue for the spider-totems, however, is that they're all in danger from a vampire known as Morlun, Devourer of Spiders. Zeke has had all of Spider-Man's abilities for decades, and has been hiding himself to avoid the attention of Morlun. There's also a whole thing about 'The Other' and avatars of the Spider God, but that was mostly there to give Peter Parker organic web shooters for a few years.

It is later revealed that Zeke kept Cindy Moon, aka Silk, Web Weaver, imprisoned for years. Cindy was bitten by the same spider as Peter and shares all of his powers, and if they came into contact, they'd attract Morlun's attention. Thus she was kept locked up and safely away, losing a good chunk of her life. After a brief fling, Peter and Cindy mostly avoid each other, because if uh... the attraction is unbearable if they get too close, if you know what I mean. Comic books.

In turn, we learn Morlun is one of the Inheritors, an interdimensional family of vampires who feed on totems, and specifically on Spiders. The first battle against the Inheritors is the origin of the Spider-Verse comics. We'll talk about the Spider-Verse in a moment!

What exactly the Spider God is has varied over the years. We've seen sort of generic Spider Manifestation gods, but more recently we've learned that as spiders, they're also the chosen of Anansi, the trickster god. It's changed to fit the direction the author wants to go, although I like the Anansi angle.

Three-and-a-Half Spider-Women

Arachne, Psionic Weaver by Steve Argyle

"Who is Spider-Woman" is a question that heavily depends on the timeframe. While both Peter and Miles share the moniker Spider-Man, there are no less than five Spider-Women in this set! Two of them are from a different universe though, so for now I'm just going to talk about the three 616 Spider-Women and one of many Spider-Girls who is closely associated with the others.

Now, the character most commonly known as Spider-Woman is Jessica Drew. Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior actually has very little relation to Spider-Man and the other Spider-Heroes. She was experimented on as a baby with tech from the High Evolutionary, and ended up being tricked into working for Hydra for years. Her power set includes bio-electric blasts called Venom Blasts (similar to what Miles Morales uses, more on him in a second) and she can glide through the air. Jess is typically seen as a supporting character for the Avengers or Captain Marvel in particular.

Julia Carpenter is now known as Arachne, Psionic Weaver, but was also known as Spider-Woman for decades. First appearing in the original Secret Wars event, she rocked the black suit spider outfit several issues before Peter got his own! Her powers came from a serum injection as part of an athletic study that turned out to be a secret super power trial. She's largely been on the sidelines, and took on the name Arachne (Jessica Drew's original code name) when Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman became a big deal in the Avengers. She's now the current Madame Web, Clairvoyant, having inherited the position from the last one when Kraven killed her.

Skyward Spider is Mattie Franklin, the third 616 Spider-Woman. Created in the 90s (there's a new Spider-Woman about every decade), she's the niece of J. Jonah Jameson, and is empowered by a magic ritual and later, by absorbing the abilities of another (villainous) Spider-Woman. Comic books! She's also dead, for now.

Arana, Heart of the Spider is Ana Corazon, a young Mexican American girl who gets embroiled in a secret totemic war between the Spider Society and the Sisterhood of the Wasp. It's complicated and relates to the totemic stuff I talked about above. She's currently one of many characters to use the name Spider-Girl, hence the set using her original name, Arana, instead.

Miles Morales

Spider-Man, Miles Morales by InHyuk Lee

If you've seen the Spider-Verse films, you know Miles Morales, but you might not know the comic version of his story Miles Morales. Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary originally comes from the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610), and specifically from the Ultimate Spider-Man series of comics. Ultimate Comics were a re-imagining of the main Marvel universe for the early 2000s. In Ultimate Spider-Man, we follow a young Peter Parker for nine years during his rise as a hero until his apparent death.

After Peter dies, we're introduced to Miles at just 14 years old. Miles' uncle Aaron Davis is a super thief known as Prowler, Misguided Mentor, and when Miles comes to hang out at Aaron's house, he's bitten by a spider similar to the one that bit Peter Parker. He gains all of Peter's powers, plus two: a Venom Blast and the ability to camouflage. We followed this Miles for two years in his own adventures (and a couple team ups with original 616 Peter Parker), as well as through the original Spider-Verse event (more on that in a moment).

However in 2015 Marvel did a bit of a cosmic shuffle in Secret Wars, where the old multiverse crumbled and was only saved by a god-like Doctor Doom (this is rumored to be the inspiration for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film). Miles Morales is saved from the multiversal destruction and teams up with the other heroes to defeat Doctor Doom. When it comes time to rebuild the multiverse, Miles and his family are rebooted to be part of the 616.

While I've skipped most of the team-up cards, I wanted to note Spectacular Tactics is a fun one because Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman and Miles Morales' Spider-Man both have a venom blast attack that they're using together here. In addition, in the 1610, Jessica Drew mentored Miles, but this "Ultimate Spider-Woman" was actually a female clone of Peter Parker.

The main cast that Miles brought to the 616 are his Supportive Parents, Jefferson and Rio Morales, as well as his Guy in the Chair, Ganke Lee. Ganke was the inspiration for the MCU version of Ned Leeds in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Since coming to the 616, Miles has gained an extended cast, including Starling, Aerial Ally (the granddaughter of the Vulture), and a Twisted Spider-Clone called Shift, who now goes by Jaime.

One of Miles' greatest enemies has been his original 616 variant. The older, 616 Miles Morales was a friend of the Kingpin who travelled to a post-Secret Wars recreated version of the Ultimate universe and stole a lot of technology to make himself a villain called Ultimatum. Ultimatum brought Ultimate Green Goblin to the 616 to menace Miles, and using that Norman Osborn's blood they created the Raging Goblinoids by infecting people with a weaker version of the OZ formula.

Symbiotes

Venom, Lethal Protector by Greg Staples

Back in 1984, Marvel had a comic event called Secret Wars, where groups of heroes and villains were brought together to fight on Battleworld. Without getting too much into specifics, while on Battleworld, Peter Parker needed a new costume, and the machine gave him a black suit. It would later turn out that the suit was alive, an Alien Symbiosis. The Symbiote Spider-Man would go out at night and fight crime while Peter was unconscious, leaving Peter more and more tired, until finally he'd had enough. Peter went to Mister Fantastic and asked for his help to remove the suit.

Enter, Eddie Brock. A rival journalist who publicly revealed the identity of a serial killer... and was promptly proven wrong by Spider-Man. Eddie became a laughingstock and blamed all the problems in life on Spider-Man. The symbiote known as Venom, which had been cast aside by Spider-Man, was attracted to these dark feelings and bonded with Eddie. While they started off as villains, they evolved over time into anti-heroes (earning the title Venom, Lethal Protector), until more recently becoming a more heroic duo. While Eddie has always been the primary host, the symbiote has bonded with many other characters, from Mac Gargan (aka the Scorpion) to Mary Jane Watson.

One such host was Flash Thompson, Spider-Fan, Peter's childhood bully turned friend. Flash's card represents his High School self, where he was Spider-Man's #1 fan. This led to some complicated feelings with Peter, because Flash would believe in Spider-Man when no one else did, all the while still bullying 'Puny Parker.' Flash does a lot of growing up after high school, and he and Peter eventually become friends. But after joining the army and losing his legs in combat, he's given the opportunity to become Agent Venom, bonding with the Venom symbiote and beginning a big part of the Symbiote's journey of self-discovery. It's through this timeframe that we learn a lot more about the symbiotes and the evil god that created them, Knull.

Every so often, the symbiotes create a new spawn. Venom's first was Carnage, Crimson Chaos, which bonded to the serial killer Cletus Kassady. During the story Maximum Carnage, Cletus escapes Ravencroft Asylum with Shriek, Treblemaker and they go on a rampage together. Symbiote Spawn depicts Scream, another child of Venom.

There have been several iterations of Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, but the gist is that it was the remnants of Venom that remained in Eddie Brock's system, accidentally transformed into Anti-Venom by the touch of Mister Negative. An offshoot of this Anti-Venom is later used by Flash to become Agent Anti-Venom, and there's an alternate art of Anti-Venom depicting that version.

Finally, Grendel, Spawn of Knull is a symbiote dragon, one of the original symbiotes created by the dark god Knull. Grendel was defeated and trapped in a glacier by Thor, and that battle became the basis for the myth! Woof, symbiote lore has gotten complicated.

Spider-Verse

Web-Warriors by Thanh Tuan

The original Spider-Verse event occurs when Morlun, Devourer of Spiders senses Silk, Web Weaver having been released by Peter Parker. We're introduced to the Spider-Verse, a way of looking at the multiverse through the Web of Life and Destiny. The Web-Warriors are formed from alternate universe Spider-Heroes, old and new. Eventually they also incorporate and Interdimensional Web Watch to be able to move around at will. Besides Miles Morales, there are two other major alternate universe Spider-characters of note.

The first is Spider-Man 2099. Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O'Hara was created as Marvel's 2099 comics line, which imagined a dystopian cyberpunk future. Miguel was a geneticist who is forced into gene splicing himself with spider dna. Spider-Man 2099 largely fights against the corporations who control Nuevo York. He's helped by Lyla, Holographic Assistant in his battle against Alchemax (Alchemax Slayer-Bots), the corporation that he works for. In the comics, Miguel is technically from the future, not an alternate dimension, although that changed when the 2099 future was rebooted.

The second is more recent, Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit was a concept for the original Spider-Verse that proved insanely popular. In Earth-65's history, Gwen Stacy, not Peter, gains Spider powers. Peter, jealous of her abilities, becomes this universe's Lizard (Rampaging Classmate), and dies. She's also a member of the band The Mary Janes. There's a complicated history with the Gwen of this universe, whose powers morph into an alternate version of the Venom symbiote (Gwenom, Remorseless). Gwen went through a lot of name changes over the years until Marvel settled on Ghost-Spider.

Needless to say, the introduction of a living Gwen Stacy has proved an emotional hurdle for the 616's Peter Parker. The Spider-Verse also introduced or brought back a number of other alternate universe Spider-characters:

• Spider-UK is Billy Braddock, the Captain Britain of Earth-833. The Captain Britain Corps protect the Omniverse, so a Spider-powered Captain Britain was a good fit to protect the Spider-Verse as well.
• Spider-Byte, Web Warden is Margo Kess of Earth-22191, who in the comics is just a hacker who controls a powerful spider-themed avatar in that universe's virtual reality internet.
• Spider-Man Noir is from the Marvel Noir line of comics, Earth-90214, which is a World War II era Noir world. Peter Parker is a reporter who gains powers from a magical spider-bite and uses it to fight crime in a gritty, Zack Synder's Batman kind of way.
• Masked Meower is Spider-Cat from Earth-999, a house cat who secretly fights crime in a very toon-logic kind of world (Tom and Jerry style, not Looney Tunes style).
• Spider-Punk is Hobie Brown of Earth-138, a punk rock world of fighting back against extreme corporate greed and authoritarianism. Hobie originally gets his powers from a spider irradiated by an illegal toxic waste dump. Unlike the movie, this Hobie is American. His original concept was for Spider-UK, and the movie must have combined the ideas.
• Spinneret and Spiderling are Mary Jane and her daughter Annie from Earth-18119. They were created for the Spider-Man: Renew your Vows mini-series during the Secret Wars event in 2015. In this universe, MJ and Peter never split up after Civil War and had a daughter named Annie together. MJ gets a suit that lets her share Peter's powers, while Annie had inherited her own.
• Spider-Ham, Peter Porker is from Earth-8311, an anthropomorphic animal toon logic world. Like the film series, he was a spider bitten by a radioactive pig (May Porker).
• Spider-Rex, Daring Dino from Earth-66 is Pter Ptarker, a pteradon who body swaps with the T-Rex Norrannosaurman when they're struck by a meteor full of alien spiders.
• Spiders-Man, Heroic Horde from Earth-11580 is a hive of sentient spiders who absorb the personality of the deceased Peter Parker, and masquerade as a person to do heroics in his name.
• SP//dr, Piloted by Peni is from Earth-14512, a mecha cyberpunk reality. This Peni's life is far closer to Evangelion's mecha tragedy than the kawaii cuteness of her film version.
• Spider-Girl, Legacy Hero is "Mayday" Parker from Earth-982, the daughter of Peter Parker from a universe where Mary Jane and Peter's baby (from the 1980s) survived. Originally a What-if? Story, she was so popular she became the flagship title of MC2, a version of the Marvel Universe where time has progressed 15 years farther.
• Spider-Man India is Pavitr Prabhakar of Earth-50101 from the comic of the same name. In the Spider-Man India universe, Pavitr is a cross-cultural stand-in for Peter Parker, with a lot of the same history and relationships with Indian names, but a Hindu mythology theme. Unlike Across the Spider-Verse, this Pavitr is from Mumbai, not Mumhattan, although his suit depicted here is the updated from from his Seva mini-series, which riffed off the film version.
• Sun-Spider, Nimble Webber is Charlotte Webber of Earth-20023. Charlotte is the newest Spider on this list. She has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a condition that includes joint hypermobility but increased fragility. While her Spider powers help, they don't cure her EDS and she'll often need prolonged rest between uses of her abilities.

Last References and Callbacks

Here's a few notable flavor drops that are only really worth a bullet point:

• Impostor Syndrome is a reference to the classic 1960s Spider-Man cartoon that became a meme.
• Strength of Will is a reference to the iconic scene from The Amazing Spider-Man #33.
• Secret Identity is a visual callback to RK Post's famous [Unmask] art.
• Cosmic Spider-Man comes from a time when Peter Parker was Captain Universe, the title for the holder of the Enigma Force, a near-infinite well of power.
• Rocket-Powered Goblin Glider is a long name because [Goblin Glider] was already taken.
• Sudden Strike is moment from Silk's solo comics where she faced off against Black Cat.
• Parker Luck is what Peter calls the way things never seem to work out for him.
• Spider-Islanders are a reference to the Spider-Island event where the entire island of Manhattan got Spider-Man's powers, only for it to turn very, very wrong.
• Damage Control Crew are a private company that specialize in super powered disaster recovery.
• Ominous Asylum is a reference to Ravencroft, which is essentially Spider-Man's Arkham Asylum.
• Thwip! is the sound Spidey's Web-Shooters make when they Web Up bad guys.

That's it for my Spider-Man coverage! I'll have to see what's coming down the pipeline for a lore fan like myself to tackle, so until then, be nice to your Universes Beyond loving friends!