When it comes to reinvention, few superheroes have endured the kind of body horror, death, and resurrection that Spider-Man has. Yet even among the web-slinger’s countless transformations, one stands out as particularly bizarre. In one instance, Marvel Comics decided to turn Peter Parker into a literal spider, only for him to give birth to himself.
This wasn’t a wild “What If?” scenario or a dream sequence. It was canon. In 2004’s The Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #20, Marvel took a strange leap of logic to give Spider-Man organic webshooters like the ones seen in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire.
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To fully grasp how wild this story was, you need to understand where Marvel was in the mid-2000s. The Avengers: Disassembled event was shaking up nearly every major Marvel title. Heroes were being destroyed, resurrected, or reinvented in dramatic fashion, and Spider-Man was no exception. In Spectacular Spider-Man #15, Peter Parker crosses paths with a villain named The Queen. She is a mutant-human hybrid with insect-like powers. The Queen captures Peter and, in a scene that still raises eyebrows decades later, kisses him.
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This act infects him with a virus that slowly transforms him into a spider. Over the next few issues, readers watched as Peter’s human features warped into something unrecognizable. He developed multiple eyes, extra limbs, and finally a grotesque, full arachnid body. This wasn’t the charming neighborhood Spider-Man fans knew; this was something straight out of a nightmare. And then, in a shocking twist, the spider dies… only to give birth to a human version of Peter Parker, identical in every way and carrying all of his memories.
It’s as if the old Peter died and a new, reborn version emerged. However, this Peter could now shoot webs directly from his wrists, just like Tobey Maguire’s cinematic Spider-Man. For fans who had followed Peter’s story for decades, this was a jarring pivot. The transformation felt less like a natural evolution and more like a studio-mandated rewrite. And perhaps most unsettling of all, Peter wasn’t traumatized by this experience. He woke up, checked his new powers, and seemed oddly pleased.
It’s no coincidence that Spectacular Spider-Man’s “Disassembled” arc dropped shortly after ‘Spider-Man 2’ hit theaters in 2004. Sam Raimi’s film was a massive success, and Tobey Maguire’s organic webshooters had become one of the movie’s defining traits. Marvel’s comics, eager to capitalize on that mainstream visibility, decided to align the two versions of Spider-Man. On paper, it made sense. However, the execution was extreme.
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Fast forward to 2025, and Spider-Man’s personal life is once again taking unexpected turns. In The Amazing Spider-Man #15, Peter Parker finds himself locking lips with an alien warrior named Raelith the Wretched, effectively replacing Mary Jane Watson as his current romantic interest. After risking his life in a cosmic gladiator match to help Rocket Raccoon clear his debts, Spider-Man ends up freeing his sentient alien suit, which had been enslaved as a weapon.
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Moved by his compassion and bravery, Raelith surprises Peter with a kiss. The twist? Peter doesn’t resist; he enthusiastically reciprocates. This marks a bold shift in Spider-Man’s emotional journey. Before his exile from Earth, Peter was dating psychiatric nurse Shay Marken. However, their relationship struggled due to his secret double life. Now, in deep space, he seems to be finding solace in someone completely outside of his world, literally.
