Spider-Man
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Peter" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Peter (disambiguation). |
Peter Benjamin Parker is a photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper under Editor-in-Chief Joe Robertson. Parker is also the friendly costumed hero Spider-Man. Spider-Man possesses the abilities of Earth arachnids, allowing him to fire thread-like projectiles from his wrists. These threads may be used to spin webs of near-limitless size, as well as to capture thieves and other assorted rogues in the selfsame manner as a spider entraps traditional insects. Those who wonder about his boundless strength would be advised to listen closely, as his spectacular might is the result of radioactive energy flowing through his very veins. The aforementioned web-like materials fired from his wrists can also be used as a means of swinging to and fro, meaning that those who wish to observe the Spider-Man in action can best do so by simply looking overhead.
In addition, he is known to be primarily a nocturnal adventurer, appearing in the deep of night wherever evil is afoot. His alacrity is so great, his timing so amazing, he has been compared to a flash of light. Despite his best efforts and good intentions, it seems that his attempts at justice are often overlooked, and while other heroes may find celebrity and fortune, poor Parker is constantly in one hang-up or another. Regardless, the Spider-Man soldiers on; wherever there is a fight or ruckus or tussle, the Spider-Man can be found!
Sometimes he has a black costume, which he can control with his mind, and can shapeshift into normal clothes.
He's kind of a smartass.
Contents |
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel The Transformers comics
In 1984, in order to get exclusive photographs of the new Decepticon fortress in Oregon, Peter Parker donned his Spider-Man costume and used his powers to sneak closer to the action. He intercepted Gears, who had been sent on a scouting mission, and attacked, thinking Gears was one of the invaders. When Skywarp threw a tank at a gaggle of unwary reporters, Gears saved them, convincing Spider-Man he was good.
Doesn't work, now he dies!
Spider-Man teamed up with the Autobots to help rescue Sparkplug Witwicky from the Decepticons. Spider-Man noted that he has had many adventures in his long history as a superhero. Optimus Prime replied that he is sure tales of his exploits would be interesting... they could possibly even be described as amazing.
Spidey managed to get the Autobots past the army with a little subterfuge, which lasted about ten seconds. While the Autobots dealt with both the human army and some invading Decepticons, he and Gears made their way into the base. After dispatching the cassettes and Soundwave, the pair found Sparkplug, and Megatron! He used his webbing to completely mummify Megatron, but it didn't hold for very long. Megatron blasted a hole in the floor of their base, so Gears, and Sparkplug would plummet to their deaths. Webbing saved Spider and Spark, but couldn't hold Gears's weight.
Spider-Man was aghast that the Autobots would treat their comrade's apparent death so nonchalantly. He followed the Autobots back to the Ark, and Prime failed to explain in any adequate sense how Gears was neither dead nor alive right then. But Spider-Man couldn't stick around, so he left. Prisoner of War!
Megatron referenced Spider-Man as a reason to observe and wait instead of attacking: he's showed not all humans were helpless, so others might be useful to the Decepticon cause. The Enemy Within!
Buster Witwicky had a poster of Spider-Man in his room, perhaps as a reminder of the hero that co-saved his father. The Wrath of Guardian!
Later, Spider-Man had become an iconic figure wearing a different costume, featuring a red mask with a black spiderweb pattern. Noah Acton wore a T-shirt bearing his likeness, indicating either kid appeal or counterculture status. Decepticon Graffiti!
Classics
When an alternate Ultra Magnus threatened to destroy Earth with the power of his Terminus Blade, Spider-Man assisted in rescue efforts in Canada. Invasion
The Transformers cartoon
In 1985, Spider-Man had become an iconic figure wearing a different costume, featuring a red mask with a black spiderweb pattern. T-shirts were made of his likeness! The Autobot Run
Combat Colin
Having been turned away from the Transformers' party, Colin and Steve called Spider-Man to invite him and his superhero chums to a party in the Combat Shed to celebrate Christmas 1989. Hanging from the ceiling, Spidey quipped that it was crowded. Christmas with Combat Colin
Mini Mayhem!
Spider-Man was among the many super-heroes who threw a surprise party for Optimus, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie.
Some jerk in a Spider-Man outfit led a legion of Clone troopers to smash Bumblebee and Sideswipe's Star Wars Transformers: Crossovers toys.
Later, Spider-Man was seen waiting in line in anticipation for the live-action Transformers film. Mini Mayhem!
2005 IDW continuity
As part of the Avengers, Spider-Man traveled to Latveria to investigate Doctor Doom's apparent attack on the neighboring country, Symkaria. Upon arrival, he and his fellow heroes found a dome-shaped structure emitting radiation and broke into it. Inside the building, they came under attack from automated laser turrets, and while Spider-Man was busy webbing them up and cracking jokes, he was suddenly electrocuted into submission and kidnapped by Runabout. When he regained consciousness, he found himself strapped to a table by a giant robot named Megatron, who explained that the hero was about to help him and his Decepticons conquer the world. Man and Machine, Part One Megatron began extracting Spider-Man's radioactive blood, refining it into a powerful energon isotope that he used to supercharge his troops. All Spidey could do was lay there and weakly taunt him. Man and Machine, Part Two
Luke Cage and Ratchet came to his rescue, but were promptly defeated by the charged-up Megatron. Man and Machine, Part Three However, after Megatron left to deal with the attacking Avengers and Autobots outside, Spider-Man proved he still had enough strength to burst out of his restraints. After meeting with Ratchet and Prowl, he agreed to power them up using Megatron's device as well. Ultimately, he didn't have to sacrifice even more blood, though, as Wolverine offered to take his place. Spider-Man followed Ratchet and Prowl outside, where he webbed up Megatron in an attempt to stop him from escaping. It ultimately failed, but at least he made the Decepticon leader look mighty silly as he lay tied up and helpless on the ground! After everything was wrapped up, Spidey and the other Avengers returned home on the Quinjet. Man and Machine, Part Four
Crossovers
Unseen scientist Mister Fantastic constructed large, transforming battle armour for various superhumans; Spider-Man received two, one based on each of his costumes, both of which could transform into a high-speed motorcycle. It is likely Richards gained the idea from Spider-Man, as it is inconceivable the encounter with the Transformers wouldn't have a lasting impact on the vigilante.[1]
One sign of such an impact is that Spider-Man's activities seem to be focused solely on fighting hostile aliens. One of those aliens has somehow stolen and altered Spider-Man's loyal living costume; how he'll reclaim it is unknown. He clearly misses it, based on his second, black-painted armour!
Spider-Man later teamed up with fellow superhero Iron Man, who built him a third battle suit—one that transformed into a helicopter and could combine with Iron Man's own bomber mech to form a "super jet".[2]
Iron Man apparently has a soft spot for the wall-crawler, as he constructed Spider-Man a fourth battle suit for when two wheels just aren't good enough. The transforming car mech can match Iron Man's suit in speed and is better armored than the original cycle suit.[3]
Toys
Crossovers
- Spider-Man (Marvel, 2008)
- Accessories: 2 missiles
- Part of the first wave of the Marvel Crossovers toyline, Spider-Man transforms into a red and blue motorcycle. His hands are sculpted in the iconic web-slinging position and he has a "webbing missile" launcher on each arm, and the missiles become twin exhaust pipes in vehicle mode. Much of his transformation engineering is borrowed from 2007 movie Deluxe Class Arcee. He has two kickstands, as the size of his cycle mode requires both of them in order to stand up.
- Venom is delightfully not a black repaint of him.
- Black Costume Spider-Man (Marvel, 2008)
- Accessories: 2 missiles
- A redeco of the above toy, "Black Costume Spider-Man" is cast in solid black (including the formerly transparent parts), with the white emblem of the 1980s black costume. He was part of the second wave of the line.
- Spider-Man (Marvel, 2009)
- Accessories: 2 missiles
- Another redeco of the original toy, the 2009 edition of Spider-Man replaces the light blue parts with dark blue, akin to his appearances in the Sam Raimi-directed film trilogy. This release featured new box art of Spider-Man.
- Spider-Man / Iron-Man (Marvel 2-pack, 2009)
- Part of the fourth wave, this second Spider-Man mold transforms into a slim, high-speed helicopter with big underslung engine pods. He comes packaged with Iron Man, who transforms into a stealth bomber, and can combine with him in either mode. The combined robot mode is referred to as a "heavy assault mode" which looks like Spider-Man with a stealth bomber on his head, while the combined vehicle mode is called a "giant super bomber".
- Spider-Man (Marvel, 2009)
- Part of the fifth wave, the third Spider-Man mold transforms into a streamlined futuristic "Spider-Car" based loosely on a Peugeot 908 V12 HDi DPFS LeMans-style racer. It is fairly compact and unfolds into a roughly 7" tall robot with much more angular features than the motorcycle version. Unlike nearly every other Crossovers toy, this one lacks a gimmick of any kind other than being a transforming Spider-Man.
- The toy's instructions go through the entire transformation sequence, then end with a picture of Spider-Man transformed in a totally different way from the waist down (resembling the picture on the back of the card). This was likely done because transforming him the correct way makes it impossible for him to stand without splaying his legs far out to the sides. The instructions also fail to note the step wherein his legs extend slightly to reveal double-jointed knees.
- Black Costume Spider-Man (Marvel, 2010)
- A second "black costume" redeco, part of the sixth wave, now for the super car version of Spider-Man.
- Spider-Man (Marvel, 2010)
- A single-packed version of the helicopter Spider-Man from the 2-pack with Iron Man, differing only in the shades of red and blue used for the plastic, was released as part of the eighth wave. He retains the ability to combine with any version of the stealth bomber mold, such as the similarly single-packed War Machine.
The Amazing Spider-Man
- Battle Hauler (Flip & Attack, 2012)
- Released as part of the movie merchandising blitz for The Amazing Spider-Man, the Flip & Attack Battle Hauler transforms from a vague heavily-armed tracked vehicle into a heavily-armed Spider-Man "attack bot". Like the Jumpstarters of 1985, he uses a pull-back motor in vehicle mode with a spring-loaded mechanism that flips him up into robot mode after being propelled a short distance.
- Spider Jet (Flip & Attack, 2012)
- Changing between a winged shape and a robot Spider-Man, the Spider Jet uses the same Jumpstarter tech featured in the rest of the toyline.
- Spider Racer (Flip & Attack, 2012)
- Jumpstarting from the most aerodynamic car you've ever seen, Spider Racer retains the line's signature mechanism. Notably, while all three Flip & Attack Spider-Men feature the webslinger's visage and a chest emblem inspired by The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider Racer is the only one with the golden eyes of the movie suit.
Notes
- Spider-Man was co-created by Steve Ditko.
- Including Spider-Man in "Prisoner of War!" as a sales boost was Jim Salicrup's idea, as he was also the Spider-Man editor at the time.
- When Marvel approached Hasbro about the prospect of including Spider-Man in the third issue of the Transformers comic book, they initially turned the idea down, since Spider-Man was currently licensed to rival toy company Mattel for the Secret Wars toy line. Marvel convinced them to permit the appearance by putting Spidey in his black costume, whereas the Secret Wars toy was clad in his traditional red and blue, and therefore wouldn't be "advertised" by the comic.[4] This meant adding a footnote to the story explaining that it took place prior to Spider-Man #258, where Peter Parker ditched the black threads upon finding out they were a symbiote.
- Reprints of Spider-Man's encounter with the Iron Man of 2020 were used as a backup strip in The Transformers UK series, as was the PSA strip "Children in Danger".
- Spider-Man has been voiced by several Transformers alumni in the past, that includes the likes of Ted Schwartz, Dan Gilvezan, Jim Ward, Chris Edgerly, Alistair Abell, James Arnold Taylor, Josh Keaton, Andrew Francis, Tom Kenny, Yuri Lowenthal, Sam Riegel, Sean Chiplock, Dave Boat, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Robbie Daymond.
- Spider-Man, along with the rest of Marvel's starring heroes, appeared in a special border on the cover of Transformers #22. This border was included on all Marvel comics that month, celebrating Marvel Comics' 25th anniversary.
- The letters page for US Transformers issue #64 declared The Transformers and Marvel Universes to be separate. In the process, it politely asked the readers to just forget about the issue of guest-starring Spider-Man. But the Wiki never forgets. The Marvel Database wiki notes that the Spider-Man from the issue, therefore, appears to be a paradox, as he has memories of events of the mainstream "616" universe, but lives in a realm where few 616 heroes and villains exist.
- In the Prime episode "Predatory", the sound effects used for when Airachnid spews her webbing are the same used for Spider-Man in the 2008 Spectacular Spider-Man TV series.
- Arachnolord is seemingly implied to be the mirror version of Spider-Man.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Spider-Man (スパイダーマン Supaidāman)
External links
- Spider-Man at Wikipedia
- Spider-Man (Earth-616) at Marvel Database
- Spider-Man (Earth-91274) at Marvel Database
References
- ↑ Crossovers Motorcyle Spider-Man packaging bio
- ↑ Crossovers Spider-Man/Iron Man packaging bio
- ↑ Crossovers Race Car Spider-Man packaging bio
- ↑ Moonbase 2 podcast interview with Bob Budiansky