Origins
Peter Parker was an incredibly intelligent but socially inept high school student living with his uncle Ben and his aunt May Parker, who he formed an inseparable bond with. He grew up in Queens, New York City with his best friend, Harry Osborn, while admiring from afar his next-door neighbor Mary Jane Watson, who he harbored a crush for ever since he was little. He also formed a close relationship with Norman Osborn, Harry's overbearing father who viewed Peter as more promising and impressive than his own son.
While attending a field trip to a science lab, Peter was bitten by a genetically altered spider, which mutated his cells and gave him spider-like abilities, including enhanced strength and durability, the ability to stick to walls with his bare hands, and shooting strong web-like fluid from his wrists. Wanting to impress Mary Jane and earn money, he became a masked wrestler known as "The Amazing Spider-Man". After his first match, however, the wrestling ring refused to pay him, and so he allowed a thief robbing the place to escape.
Unbeknownst to Peter, the thief assaulted and murdered his Uncle Ben later that night. Overcome with guilt, Peter was forced to truly accept the meaning of Ben's lessons of power and responsibility that he'd tried to teach him. With that in mind, he then decided to take the Spider-Man identity and become a super hero with his abilities. Saving people and stopping crime all around New York City, Spider-Man became a quickly recognized hero of the city, celebrated by most. By setting up cameras around the city to photograph his deeds as a hero, Peter also got a job as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, under the control of the shrewd J. Jonah Jameson, who hated Spider-Man and wished to paint him as a menace.[1]
Battling the Green Goblin
Soon after Peter's graduation from high school, the sad*stic and vicious super villain known as the Green Goblin emerged and began causing chaos across New York City, armed with a mechanical glider, green body armor, and explosives, along with enhanced strength. Peter battled the Goblin as Spider-Man on a few occasions, with the Goblin even trying to convince Spider-Man to join him in his quest of anarchy. Spider-Man turned him down and their rivalry grew, leading to the Goblin eventually discovering Peter's identity and attacking his aunt in her home, then kidnapping Mary Jane and nearly killing her.
The two engaged in their final battle, a vicious brawl that led them to an abandoned building and resulted in them both being badly beaten and battered. Peter discovered that the Goblin was in fact Norman Osborn, who had formed a monstrous dual identity in a lab experiment. When Norman tried to attack Spider-Man from behind with the blades on his glider, he jumped out of the way and they pierced through Norman's stomach, fatally wounding him. As he bled out, he pleaded that Peter not tell Harry about his identity as the Green Goblin, and died shortly after. Honoring his dying words, Spider-Man brought his body to the Osborn home and left without saying anything, leading to Harry vowing revenge on Spider-Man as his father was laid to rest.[1]
Conflict with Doctor Octopus
Two years later, Peter had started college and moved into his own apartment, but began struggling balancing his personal life with his work as Spider-Man. He was fired from his job as a pizza delivery boy, began showing late for class and missing his homework, and began missing meeting up with his friends and event Aunt May. He began to feel stressed out and exhausted, pushed further when his idol, the physicist Otto Octavius, was driven insane after a set of mechanical tentacles were fused to his body in an explosion and began warping his mind.
Once the press had dubbed him "Doctor Octopus", Octavius went on a crime spree across the city to attempt to rebuild his fusion reactor, the machine that caused the explosion, despite its potential to destroy New York. Spider-Man battled Doctor Octopus, but this combined with the pressure of everything else, including Mary Jane getting engaged to Jameson's son and moving on from him, began to fuel Peter's emotional instability, and at the height of his stress, his spider powers began failing him. He decided he didn't want to be Spider-Man anymore and began enjoying his life again, doing well in class and reconnecting with Mary Jane and May, as Doc Ock continued to terrorize the city.
While trying to reconnect with his aunt, he revealed that his selfish actions had led to Ben's death, which May, at first hurt, forgave Peter for, and her words about heroism and truth made Peter reconsider his position about not wanting to be Spider-Man. When he began reconnecting with Mary Jane later at a coffee shop, the two began to consider their romantic feelings for the other. This was interrupted by Doctor Octopus, however, whom Harry had told to find Peter if he wanted to find Spider-Man, since Peter took pictures of Spider-Man for the Daily Bugle. Doc Ock kidnapped Mary Jane and told Peter to have Spider-Man meet him at the clock tower later. Accepting his fate, Peter realized he'd have to sacrifice his happiness to do the right thing, and so became Spider-Man once more to fight Doctor Octopus.
Spider-Man arrived at the clock tower and battled Doctor Octopus in a long, ferocious fight that ended in Doc Ock's victory and him taking a chained-up Spider-Man to Harry's home, where he acquired the rare mineral tritium to power his completed reactor in exchange for delivering Spider-Man. Harry, still furious at Spider-Man over his father's death, prepared to kill him, but first removed his mask to see his best friend underneath. Shocked and betrayed, he allowed Peter to go free when Peter explained he had to stop Octavius to save the city. Spider-Man arrived at Doc Ock's lair where he had Mary Jane next to the activated machine, and the two fought one last time before Octavius unmasked Peter and was convinced to try and wrest control of his tentacles. Once he did so, he was forced to pull his reactor into the river to stop it, and he drowned with his creation, saving the city.
Peter saved Mary Jane just in time, revealing his identity to her, and explaining that they could never be together as long as he was Spider-Man because of the risks, despite him loving her dearly. However, Mary Jane declared her love for him too, called off her wedding with Jameson, and convinced him to be with her despite the risks.[4]
Encounter with the symbiote
Later, life went easier for Peter, as the city began to embrace him for the first time in his career, he was once again the top of his class and he was planning to propose to Mary Jane. However, his friend Harry who had learned his secret attacked him. Peter was forced to defend himself and knock Harry out. Peter would learn that the head injury would give Harry amnesia. Around this time, he discovered that the real killer of his uncle was Flint Marko, who later became the Sandman. While on a date with Mary Jane, a alien symbiote attached itself to Peter Parker's costume. It increased his strength but influenced his behavior for the worst. He fought Marko again and seemingly killed him. Once Harry regained his memory Peter and he fought, this time ending with Peter disfiguring Harry's face with a pumpkin bomb.
After some time, Peter got rid of the symbiotic costume when he learned it was slowly corrupting him, but the symbiote would survive after nearly being destroyed by Peter and bonded itself to Eddie Brock, transforming him into the monster known as Venom. The monstrous Venom kidnapped Mary Jane, and when Spider-Man attempted to save her he was brutally beaten by the combined powers of Venom and Sandman. He was saved by Harry, who had seen the error of his ways and decided to help Peter fight Sandman and Venom. When Venom attempted to impale Peter, Harry jumped in front of the glider, mirroring the way his father died. Peter then used one of Harry's pumpkin bombs that ended up annihilating both the symbiote and Eddie Brock (whom Peter tried to save despite everything that Brock had put him through). In the end, he forgave Marko for killing his uncle, and attempted to rekindle a relationship with Mary Jane.[5] Years after the death of Harry, Peter and Mary-Jane had made their relationship work, despite the complications of Peter's obligations as Spider-Man.[3]
Displaced to Earth-199999
A couple decades later, Spider-Man was eventually transported to the alternate reality of Earth-199999 as the result of a botched magic spell cast in this universe. This world's Peter Parker had his identity as Spider-Man exposed to the public, so he sought the help of Doctor Strange to magically erase the world's knowledge that he was Spider-Man. When the spell went wrong, it almost pulled into Earth-199999 the infinity of people from across the Multiverse who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Strange managed to contain the spell before this happened, but a handful of people made it into Earth-199999. In addition to Peter, most of the Multiversal visitors were villains, including the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and the Sandman from timelines similar to Peter's set earlier in time.
Peter was overcome with a gut feeling to help his native counterpart, but was unsuccessful in locating him. This changed when MJ and Ned Leeds, two allies of the native Spider-Man, attempted to find him themselves. Using a Sling Ring, Ned attempted to open a magic portal to find the Peter he knew, but the artifact honed in on the visiting Parker. This happened on his second attempt, since the first one had brought them yet another foreigner Spider-Man, the Peter Parker of Earth-120703. MJ and Ned were joined by the two Spider-Men in finding their Peter on the rooftop of this world's Midtown High School, where he was mourning the death of his aunt May. The two Peters spurred on their counterpart, and then all three worked together to finish developing cures for the visiting villains. Peter took on the task of curing Osborn, having been thinking of doing it for a long while.
The three Spider-Men then lured the villains to the Statue of Liberty using the Macchina di Kadavus as a bait, which was a device that could return the villains to their respective timelines. The Lizard, Electro and the Sandman arrived at the scene and confronted the heroes, who were initially sloppy in their teamwork. They managed to pull themselves together and also assigned themselves nicknames; the native Peter being "Peter-One," Peter being "Peter-Two," and the other visiting Peter being "Peter-Three." Taking one target at a time, the Spider-Men first targeted Sandman. Peter-Two lured him to the top of the Statue of Liberty and Peter-Three tossed him the cure. Peter-One subsequently administered the Lizard his cure, while Peter-Three confronted Electro. He was joined by Peter-Two, but both were overwhelmed. The only other villain to have been cured earlier, Doctor Octopus, arrived and attacked the two Spider-Men to trick Electro, and instead administered him his cure when his guard was down. Peter-Two had a brief reunion with the reformed Otto before the Green Goblin arrived. Osborn destroyed the Macchina di Kadavus with an explosion, unleashing the initial botched spell and tearing the fabric of reality.
When Peter-One faced off against the Goblin, the other two Parkers watched as he brutally beat the villain in revenge for May's death. Peter-Two interceded to stop Peter-One from killing the Goblin, bringing him back to his senses. With his back against the Goblin, Osborn stabbed him, albeit non-fatally. Peter-Three tossed Peter-One the cure for the Goblin, and he administered it. With Doctor Strange failing to contain the effects of the unleashed spell, the native Peter asked him to use magic to make the entire world forget his existence, thus neutralizing the effects of the initial spell. The three Spider-Men bid farewell, and all the visitors were transported back to their respective realities.[3]
Spider Physiology: After being bitten by a genetically engineered super spider, Parker gained the attributes of a spider. His body is muscular but extremely well proportioned with serious muscle definition. Spider-Man possesses the proportionate powers of a spider. The bite triggered numerous body-wide mutagenic changes within Parker, granting him superhuman strength, speed, toughened flesh, and numerous arachnid-like abilities.
- Spider-Sense: Spider-Man possesses an extrasensory "danger" or "spider" sense which warns him of potential immediate danger by the manifestation of a tingling sensation in the back of his skull, and links with his superhuman kinesthetics, enabling him to evade most any injuries unless he cognitively overrides his automatic reflexes. The precise nature of this sense is unknown. It appears to be a simultaneous clairvoyant response to a wide variety of phenomena (everything from falling safes to speeding bullets to thrown punches), which has given several hundredths of a second warning, which is sufficient time for his reflexes to allow him to avoid injury.
- Superhuman Strength: Spider-Man's physical strength is sufficient to lift and throw objects as heavy as most standard automobiles with ease. Spider-Man's physical strength also extends into his legs, enabling him to be able to jump to a height of several stories in a single bound. Spider-Man has shown impressive feats of strength. Such as when he was able to hold a cable-car full of children with one arm and show no sign of stress. He was also able to send Flash Thompson flying many meters with a single punch. Also, Spidey was able to support the warehouse where Doctor Octopus was holding his secret experiment, managing to lift weights even exceeding 35 tons. His strength was temporarily increased when he was connected to the Venom Symbiote.
- Superhuman Speed: Spider-Man can run and move at speeds that are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete. Parker can move incredibly quickly, being able to catch up to his school bus on foot. In combat, he can move with blinding speed, as seen during his duel with Flash Thompson. He can travel great distances in even shorter amounts of time by swinging on his webs; he was once tasked by Aziz with traveling 42 blocks in less than eight minutes.
- Superhuman Stamina: Parker can exert himself for extended periods of time without tiring. While sprinting used to leave him breathless, his breathing and heartbeat are now slow, steady, and sure, as if he does not even strain himself. His heartbeat had remained steady no matter what sort of physical exertions to which he had been subjecting himself. Even after stopping a train and pushing his muscular endurance, he fainted from exhaustion only for a few minutes. He fought both Venom and Sandman before Harry arrived to help.
- Superhuman Durability: Spider-Man's body is physically tougher and more resistant to some types of injury than the body of a normal human. Parker's bones and muscles are incredible dense to support his strength. As such, he can survive falling from incredible heights, as seen when he was experiencing a web block and he stopped producing webs while swinging, or when he jumped off a building and landed on a car. He even survived a Pumpkin Bomb detonating in his face, whereas Harry was disfigured by one. He also withstood Harry stabbing him with a knife. He even survived from being stabbed by the Green Goblin, noting he had been stabbed multiple times before.
- Superhuman Agility: Spider-Man's equilibrium, dexterity, and flexibility are all enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Parker is exceptionally agile and acrobatic in his movements, surpassing that of an Olympic gymnast; he can leap 40 feet into the air without feeling bound by gravity.He moves with a lithe, skittering grace that seems barely human. He was able to perform a double backflip over Flash's crony, who was attempting to tackle him. he can practically surf rooftops. He was also able to backflip over the Goblin's glider to avoid being impaled. He could save MJ when Otto Octavius threw a car at them.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Spider-Man's reflexes are similarly enhanced. In combination with his spider-sense, the speed of his reflexes allows him to dodge almost any attack.
- Wall-Crawling: After being bitten, Peter's skin grows a sharp, "barbed" like material and this allows Peter to cling to surfaces.
- Organic Webbing Generation: Spider-Man was also gifted with the ability to organically produce his silk webbing from glands within his forearms, limited by his body's health and nutrition. These organic webs have many of the same properties as his Earth-616 counterpart's artificial webbing. Thanks to its similar properties, it appears Spider-Man can utilize his organic webbing in any way he could with his artificial webbing. The silk is released through a spinneret near each wrist containing a central web spigot orifice used for web-slinging and draglines, supplemented by several radial minor spigots for other types of webs connected to specialized glands; he can fire organic webbing from his wrists.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Parker has an enhanced healing ability, allowing him to heal higher than normal humans, he stopped using his glasses because his eyes were healed to perfection, and his eyesight was now superhuman. He healed from the spider bite in one day, During his second battle with the Green Goblin, he had a bloody cut on his wrist, which eventually healed in a few hours. During his final battle with Green Goblin, he was fatigued and injured then regain his strength, stamina, and senses, and made a full recovery from all of his injuries in one hour. He recovered after he woke up after being unconscious after his second battle with Doc Ock, and healed from minor injuries. After his final battle with Doctor Octopus, he healed the stab wound by Harry to the abdomen with a little blood to come out without scaring. His regenerative power enhanced his metabolism, immune system and health.
Peter has gone from a science whiz in high school to a laboratory assistant of Dr. Connors and a brilliant Columbia University physics student who is at the top of his class as he becomes secure with his dual roles. His knowledge of science has impressed the likes of Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, and the aforementioned Dr. Connors. Considered a genius by Harry and Gwen, he has shown himself to be knowledgeable in mechanics, quantum mechanics, photonics, nuclear fusion, acoustics, and nanotechnology.
- Gifted Intellect: Parker was described as the living personification of intelligence. He is a scientific genius, as Harry Osborn described him as a prize-winning "science whiz" to his father Norman, whose research on technology he has completely read and written a paper on; the senior Osborn was impressed. He also referred to him as "the biggest brain in school" to Flash Thompson. During the field trip to Columbia University, he demonstrated familiarity with the most advanced electron microscope on the eastern seaboard, as well as knowledge in entomology, telling Harry that some spiders change colors to blend into their environment as a defense mechanism. He has been called "brilliant" by Aunt May and Curt Connors, and a "genius" by Harry and Gwen Stacy. Parker was also capable of noticing potential flaws in Otto Octavius's Fusion Reactor, which was eventually proven to be right. Parker is also a skilled artist and can play the piano, and he was in the debating team and chess club in high school.
- Master Scientist: His knowledge of science has impressed the likes of Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, and Doctor Connors. Considered a genius by Harry and Gwen, he has shown himself to be knowledgeable in mechanics, quantum mechanics, photonics, nuclear fusion, acoustics, and technology.
- Skilled Photographer: Peter is a very skilled photographer.
- Master Combatant: Peter has become a highly skilled fighter during his vigilantism career. His fighting style resembles a combination of several martial arts, such as boxing, wing chun, karate, taekwondo, capoeira, judo, krav maga, muay thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and professional wrestling. he has a proclivity for incorporating his elevated physical strength, outstanding agility and athleticism and webs into his unique style of combat, all aided by his early awareness of danger. Peter has defeated criminals, Flash Thompson, Bonesaw McGraw, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, New Goblin, Sandman, and Venom. In battle, Peter tends to punch his opponent, as seen with Flash, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman.
- Expert Marksman: Peter is also highly accurate when he projects his webbing. He usually shoots to blind, silence, or restrain his opponents in battle.
- Master Acrobat: Parker is a master of acrobatics and gymnastics, which he is able to use while navigating his environment with a combination of his superhuman agility and web-swinging. He is able to perform acrobatic stunts when web-swinging through New York City without physically straining his muscles.
- Stealth Expert: As Spider-Man, Parker moves so silently that the absence of sound that would have prompted any onlooker that maybe he was not there at all.
- Indomitable Will: Parker has a strong, powerful, and unstoppable force of will, spirit, determination free of all evil and temptation. He has an absolute refusal to kill or give up, making him a formidable opponent against his enemies, he overcomes fear at almost anyway. Due to this, he struggled to balance his life as a student and a super hero.
- Tobey Maguire portrayed Spider-Man in Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and appeared through archive footage in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
- Tobey Maguire has a species of spider named after him called the Filistata maguirei.
- In Spider-Verse, a comic book event that saw countless alternate versions of Spider-Man coming together, writer Dan Slott and his collaborators were forbidden from using a handful of versions of the character due to legalities, including the cinematic Spider-Men.[6] The story "It's the Little Things" from Spider-Verse #2 was used as a way to sneak references or small glimpses of these banned Spider-Men.[7] Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is alluded to when a Spider-Man mentions that one of his counterparts resembles "the guy from Seabiscuit," which is a reference to Maguire's role as Red Pollard in said film. Despite the legalities, Maguire's Spider-Man appears projected in the Master Weaver's web in Spider-Woman (Vol. 5) #3, in a drawing traced from a Spider-Man 3 poster.
- He's the only live-action version of Spider-Man to never use web-shooters, something addressed by the Spider-Man of Earth-199999 and the Spider-Man of Earth-120703.
- In What If Aunt May Had Died Instead of Uncle Ben? #1, the Raimi version of Spider-Man appears as a cameo in the comic book shop, in the form of a poster of the Spider-Man film.
- Following the release of the PlayStation 4 video game Marvel's Spider-Man, a costume modeled after Tobey Maguire's version of the character was highly requested by the game's userbase. The suit eventually came in the form of a free DLC released as a holiday gift for players on December 20, 2018. In the game, Maguire's costume is identified as the "Webbed Suit."[8]
- The Webbed suit is also available in the sequel Marvel's Spider-Man 2, where it is unlocked at level 32. Additionally, the "Webbed Black Suit" from Spider-Man 3 is unlocked at level 31.
- Before production for Spider-Man 2 started, Maguire suffered from back problems which caused Columbia Pictures to contemplate recasting the role of Peter Parker with Jake Gyllenhaal. Maguire's health issues went away, and he kept the role.[9] Gyllenhaal would later go on to portray Mysterio in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- To differentiate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Spider-Man, Marvel has designated this version of Spider-Man as Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.[10]
- Peter's safe space was the Chrysler Building.[3]
- According to the novelization of Spider-Man, Peter was born in August.
