10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Spider-Man

With Spider-Man: Homecoming arriving in cinemas worldwide this week, it's time to think about what we actually know about the red and blue webslinger. Traditionally Marvel's biggest and most beloved superhero, Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in 1962 and very quickly took pop culture by storm. Over the decades, he's joined the Avengers, had multiple love interests, faced dozens of supervillains and survived cancellation, company-wide relaunches and the perils of low comic book sales. But what might you not know about Peter Parker? Well, thanks to the several movie and TV versions and the general popular image of the character, there are a lot of developments and elements from the comics that you may well not be familiar with. From the details of his gruesome transformations to the shocking facts of Peter Parker's true origins, here are 10 things you may never have known about Spider-Man. 10) Peter Parker Isn't The First Spider-Man You might know that Stan Lee was inspired to create Spider-Man after spotting a fly (or maybe an actual spider, Lee tells it in different ways) crawling up a wall. What you might not know, though, is that Lee's Peter Parker was not the first "Spider-Man." He wasn't even the first one in the Marvel universe. Just one month before Spider-Man made his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey Into Mystery #73 included a story from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby which also saw a spider doused with radiation. But this one didn't bite a nerdy high school student on the hand. Instead, it grew to an enormous size and gained a human-like intelligence. This Man-Spider, if you will, died at the end of his single adventure and has never been brought back to face Peter Parker. That still wasn't the first Spider/Man hybrid in popular culture, however. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, there was a pulp fiction hero known as The Spider. In the style of fellow pulp vigilantes like The Shadow, The Spider was really a millionaire playboy - in this case, Richard Wentworth - and did not have any super-powers to speak of. Nevertheless, Lee has stated that The Spider was a great influence on his creation. 9) His Webbing Lasts For Just One Hour Have you ever wondered why the streets of New York aren't continuously littered with cast-off strings of webbing from when Spider-Man zips between skyscrapers? Well, that's actually not a worry, as the hero's webbing only lasts for one hour before dissolving into nothing. The reason for this was not a way to explain how street cleaners sweep up after Spider-Man, but actually as a way of ensuring Peter is always strapped for cash. Lee didn't want him getting rich off selling his webbing formula as a super-strong adhesive. Of course, this only applies to Peter's artificial webbing. Inspired by Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, Peter did develop the ability to produce biological webbing for a while in the comics. However, fans were never keen on the development and that power soon faded out of use and the artificial webbing returned. 8) His Parents Were Secretly S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Remember the shocking reveal in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that Peter's parents, Richard and Mary Parker, are actually the cause of his becoming Spider-Man - because the genetically-engineered spiders were created using Parker DNA? Well, none of that is comics accurate, but that doesn't mean Mr. and Mrs. Parker don't have secrets on the page, as well. In 1968's The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, it was revealed that Richard and Mary were actually S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. In fact, they even saved the life of none other than Wolverine while on a mission - and while Mary was pregnant with Peter. So, in a way, this adventure was the first team up between Spidey and Logan. The Parkers were such dangerous secret agents that they even got on the wrong side of Red Skull. Knowing they were investigating his criminal organization, the villain sabotaged the plane they were travelling on and they perished in the ensuing crash. 7) Peter And J. Jonah Jameson Are Kind Of Related The relationship between Peter Parker and his boss at the Daily Bugle is always presented as a very prickly one, with the ol' blowhard J. Jonah Jameson not being the easiest person to work for. Though you might not think it, then, Peter and J.J.J. are actually kind of related. At least, by marriage. In contrast to his son, J. Jonah Jameson Sr. - known as Jay - is a much mellower man and a keen supporter of Spider-Man. After first appearing in the comics in 2009, he quickly fell in love with Peter's Aunt May and the pair were soon married. Though not technically, this basically made Jonah and Peter like brother-in-laws. Sadly, Jay recently died of a rare hereditary disease, nullifying the relationship between the Parkers and the Jamesons. Though they still aren't best pals, Peter and Jonah probably now have more of an underlying bond and respect for each other than they did before. 6) Peter Parker Has Died Three Times Because this is comic books we're talking about, Spider-Man has died a bunch of times over the course of the decades. The first occasion Spidey died took a surprisingly long time to occur. In 2005's The Other storyline, Peter Parker was brutally beaten within an inch of his life by the villainous Morlun - who, among other things, ripped Peter's eyeball out and ate it. When Morlun threatens Mary Jane, Peter manages to defeat the monster and save his wife (more on that in a moment). Sadly, he dies from the effort... Until he recovers two issues later, thanks to spending time in a healing cocoon. Then in The Superior Spider-Man story arc, which kicked off in 2012, Peter died again in a confrontation with Doctor Octopus. In one of the most controversial Spider-Man storylines, Otto Octavius then possessed Peter's body for a whole year - until his consciousness later reasserted itself. Meanwhile, in the Ultimate Spider-Man alternate universe, Peter met his end in a climactic battle with Norman Osborn's Sinister Six. His mantle was taken up by fan favourite Miles Morales, which suggested this Peter really was dead. However, he did eventually reappear, though he likely died again when the Ultimate universe came to an end. 5) He Once Transformed Into A Giant Spider Now, let's follow on from our earlier point and explain how Peter defeated Morlun that time before he died. In his final moments, he actually transformed into a giant spider monster and savagely killed the villain. So yeah, that's a thing Peter can do. The explanation for this occurred in an earlier storyline. During a confrontation with a villainess known as The Queen, Spider-Man transformed into Man-Spider for a period. Eventually, regular Peter emerged reborn from the shell of this creature. He now possessed enhanced spider-like abilities, like communicating with spiders and, most notably, organic webbing. The reason he was able to access his spider-form again when facing Morlun is because it's explained that Peter can only bring forth this side of himself when he comes up against those who are linked into Spidey's true mystical origins. Speaking of which... 4) There's A Mystical Element To His Powers Everyone knows how Peter Parker got his powers. It was a random accidental spider-bite, right? Well, actually, there's a mystical element to it that makes Peter more of a "Chosen One" type. Back in the early aughts, it was revealed that the spider that bit Peter didn't give him powers because it was radioactive. It was actually the vessel for an ancient, mystical force which had chosen Peter as a Spider-Totem, avatars that protect the multiverse from other animalistic totems (hence why so many of Spidey's foes are animal-based). Each Spider-Totem is connected to the Web of Life And Destiny, which is basically a physical model of the entire multiverse. It's this that gives Spider-Man and his fellow Totems their Spider-Sense. You might be surprised to find out that this concept is still totally part of canon. In fact, the idea was key to 2014's Spider-Verse storyline, when Morlun and his family, the Inheritors, sought to wipe out the various Spider-Totems across the multiverse. 3) Michael Jackson Almost Bought Marvel In Order To Make A Spider-Man Movie Let's take a break from Spider-Man's adventures on the page to bring you perhaps the strangest fact concerning Peter Parker's cinematic history. Many actors have been offered or attempted to nab the part of the wallcrawler on film - from Tom Cruise to Charlie Sheen to Jake Gyllenhaal to Heath Ledger - but the most unlikely has to be Michael Jackson. According to Stan Lee, he became good pals with the King of Pop back in the 1990s after Jackson contacted Lee in order to buy the rights to not only the Spider-Man character but the whole of Marvel. In fact, the pair of them were going to seize control of the company together, but the $1 billion dollar price tag proved too steep. Jackson's main interest in the purchase was to make a Spider-Man movie. Lee isn't sure whether Jackson wanted to produce the film or star in it, but he suspects it was most likely both. So, in some alternate universe out there, there could exist a Spider-Man movie where Peter Parker moon walks up a wall... 2) Peter Parker Used To Be A High School Teacher If you ask anyone what Spider-Man does for a living, they'll obviously answer that he's a photographer for the Daily Bugle. While that has traditionally been the case, Peter Parker's considerable smarts have allowed him to widen his career in more recent years. For a while there, Peter returned to his old school of Midtown High where he became a science teacher. His knowledge and enthusiasm for science, plus his fun, good-natured temperament, made him a pretty great teacher and it's likely that he would have continued being happy in the job. However, during the Civil War incident, Peter made the massive decision to reveal his secret identity to the world, which meant he could no longer continue his everyday job. Even after reality was altered and no one remembered his identity, Peter tried out some other roles. He was a research scientist at Horizon Labs for a time and then returned to the school life as a guidance counselor at Wolverine's revamp of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters - the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. 1) ... And He Currently Runs His Own Multi-Billion Dollar Corporation Still, Peter's current employment is by far his most successful. If you've fallen out of the loop and haven't been following Spider-Man's comic book adventures in recent years, you may be shocked to find out that Peter Parker is not the cash-strapped kid he once was. He's now the President and CEO of Parker Industries, an international, multi-billion dollar scientific organization. So, how the hell did Peter get his act together enough to become a billionaire? Well, that's the thing, he didn't. When Doctor Octopus took over Peter's life, he started the company and built it up into the massive success that it is today. Once Peter returned to his body, he found that he was now the head of his own company and has been struggling to maintain the balance between his highly-visible professional life and his duties as Spider-Man ever since. The story he tells the press is that - like Iron Man and Batman before him - he's hired Spidey as his personal bodyguard. It's not a development that has been popular with all fans, as many claim that it makes Peter far too much like Tony Stark, but it's definitely an intriguing and novel revamp for Spider-Man. Whether it will last for all that long, we shall have to see.