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The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe offering Spider-Man: Homecoming is just around the corner and we are all pretty excited about it. Spidey is one of those heroes we know we can count on to do the right thing, but we’re going to take you through some moments where he crossed the line.
We’re finally getting to see Spider-Man living in a world populated by the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (apart from the Fantastic Four or X-Men, unfortunately.) The cinematic versions of Spider-Man have always been a certain way, but in the comics he has gone through some weird changes.
There’s no denying that Peter Parker is one of the noblest heroes in existence. No matter which comics series he appears in, he always tries to stick to his moral code; “With great power comes great responsibility.”
He’s done this since he first appeared back in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1963) and will continue to do so long into the future. This doesn’t mean that there haven’t been times when Peter has gone against this.
Throughout his time, Spider-Man has done some pretty bad things. We’ve narrowed down the list to the 8 worst things the Spider-Man has ever done…
8: He picked the wrong side during Civil War
More than a decade before the release of Captain America: Civil War (2016), the Marvel Universe was rocked by the original comic book story Civil War, where the heroes chose their sides on whether to support or oppose the Superhuman Registration Act.
Keeping his identity secret has been a big part of who he is, thinking that should any villain ever find out who he was, his enemies would use them against him (and lead the death of Gwen Stacy). It’s likely to assume Spider-Man would side against the Act and work with Captain America.
What really happened was Spider-Man had been working for Tony Stark before the events and sided with him initially whilst using the Iron-Spider armour, helping him hunt his friends and imprisoning them in the Negative Zone (an inter-dimensional prison).
Events escalated leading to Peter willingly unmasking himself live on TV, revealing his identity to the world. He was redeemed later when he turned and sided with Captain America, but it left him in his nightmare scenario. More on this later.
7: Spidey worked for Jackal
If someone made a clone of you as well as your deceased girlfriend and convinced a former US Marine known as Frank Castle (aka The Punisher) to kill you, you would probably not want to work for them. That’s exactly what happened to Peter Parker.
The ‘Clone Saga’ is one of the most famous Spider-Man stories, running for almost two years and introducing the fans to Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider.
Peter acted strangely before the story began when he started calling himself “The Spider” and became unpleasant to be around, until he found out that he was not actually Peter Parker, he was in fact a clone!
The architect of the ‘Clone Saga’ was the Jackal, who convinced Peter that he belonged at his side along with the other clones. Eventually, Peter came to his senses, but not until after hurting his friend Ben Reilly.
6: He made a deal with Mephisto
After Captain America’s assassination, his team went into hiding from the government. This continued for Peter as he had to keep his family safe from the villains that came after them after his identity becomes public. The Kingpin had an assassin track Peter and take a shot, lucky Peter has his Spider Sense, but dodging the bullet allowed it to hit Aunt May, fatally wounding her.
When she was taken to hospital, Peter searched for someone’s help, even contacting Tony Stark and Doctor Strange, both were unable to help. Later, Peter meets the demon Mephisto, who offered to save Aunt May in exchange for the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane because their love was so pure and true, it had great power.
He discussed this with Mary Jane, where she convinced him that he would never forgive himself if he didn’t do it. They both agreed. Before the spell took place, Mephisto showed Peter who he could have been then revealed to both Peter and Mary Jane the daughter that would now never exist.
5: He had an affair
Peter was going through a rough patch after the love of his life (Mary Jane Watson) had turned down his marriage proposal, sending him into a bit of a spiral. Meanwhile, in Paris, Peter’s first girlfriend Betty Brant was having some trouble with Ned Leeds, her husband, leading to her leaving for New York.
She met up with Peter and the relationship between the two began to re-kindle until eventually the two kissed. It is unclear what happened next as the following panel stated “several hours later”, leaving it up to the reader to decide what happened in that time, which was the intention of issue writer Marv Wolfman.
One person, Tom Brevoort suggested that nothing happened since Peter would never let the readers hear the end of it due to his internal monologues. Even if nothing happened, Betty was still married.
4: He robbed a jewellery store
Having radioactive blood must be difficult at times. At one time, Peter was suffering from an illness that made him delirious and more difficult for him to use his powers. Peter thought the radiation was draining from his blood, which would eventually drain his powers.
While this was happening, he remembered that it was his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy’s birthday and she was having a party later that night. Peter hadn’t got her anything, so he decided to break into a jewellery store and grab a necklace. In true Spidey fashion, he comes back to his senses and returns it.
3: He nearly beat up Daredevil
Peter Parker was already reeling from the death of Captain Jean DeWolff, who was one of the few police officers who was nice to him, at the hands of the Sin-Eater. It turned out that Jean DeWolff had had a big crush on Spidey and never got around to telling him, so when the Sin-Eater attempted to murder Betty Brant (Peter’s first girlfriend), he turned violent.
Working with Daredevil to take Sin-Eater down, Peter attacked the Sin-Eater. Daredevil tried to stop but was punched out of a window. But it didn’t stop there. Spider-Man then attempted to pummel Daredevil. Luckily, Spidey was in such a rage that Daredevil was able to evade him until he came back to his senses.
2: He killed Charlemagne
In the story Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, Peter and Ned Leeds are on the trail of a mysterious arms dealer called Charlemagne in divided Germany. “Charlie” is an associate of Wolverine and has somehow got every agency from every government trying to find and kill her. Peter is almost killed but is saved by Wolverine, however Ned is murdered.
Together Wolverine and Spider-Man go to Berlin to find “Charlie”. It turned out that Wolverine was planning to kill her to save her from being tortured by the KGB, Spider-Man doesn’t let that happen leading to a confrontation between the two, but are interrupted by a Soviet helicopter.
During the fight Charlemagne grabs Spider-Man. On instinct, he turns and punches her at full force thinking she was Wolverine (with a healing factor) and kills her, which she had wanted to happen. You would think that he would have pulled his punch, even if that person could heal, considering how strong he is.
1: He hit Mary Jane
During the ‘Clone Saga’, Peter was given some surprising and amazing news; Mary Jane was pregnant! It brought him back from being ‘The Spider’ and he started to get better, that is until he discovered that he was a clone and Ben Reilly was the ‘real’ Peter Parker.
He claimed Ben was trying to steal his life and that he was lying and proceeded to attack Ben (it did turn out to be a lie and Ben was discovered to be the clone). When he was attacking Ben, Mary Jane tried to break up the fight and instinctively Peter smacked her across the room.
However awful this was, it was brought to shocking life in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 when Peter attacks a bouncer at a nightclub whilst under the influence of the symbiote suit.
Do you agree with this list? Is there anything that we should have added or missed out? Let us know down in the comments section!