Peter Parker (Earth-1610)

Peter Parker is an American high-school student in New York City as well as a superhero known as Spider-Man. His parents died in a plane crash when he was young, and since then he has lived with his aunt May—and formerly his late uncle Ben—in Forest Hills.

Biography

Origin

In the year 2000, Peter Parker was a high-school student in Queens, New York; a bright and scientifically minded student, and one who was regularly targeted by bullies. He lived with his uncle Ben Parker and his wife May in the Forest Hills neighborhood after his parents died in a plane crash. He was friends with Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn; Watson was similarly brainy and bonded with Parker as a result, but Osborn often had trouble sympathizing with his plight.

During a class trip to Osborn Industries—a manufacturing corporation owned by Harry's father Norman Osborn—Parker was bitten on the hand by a large, chemically altered spider. The bite rendered him unconscious, but the next day he found himself with remarkable power. When Parker's towering schoolmate Kong continued to bully him, Parker reflexively threw the much larger boy to the floor. The exertion caused Parker to faint once more and wake up in the hospital. The doctors ran a blood test, but the vial of Parker's blood was stolen by Shaw, an agent working for Osborn. Shaw then tried to run Parker down in a car per Osborn's orders, but Parker evaded the attempt with abnormal reflexes. Shaken by his new abilities, Parker went home and tested his blood, discovering traces of spider blood, and found that he could climb on walls and ceilings with ease.

Parker also found himself becoming physically stronger, more perceptive, and more aggressive, standing up to bullies at school like Flash Thompson and becoming more active in sports. Despite not being interested in fighting Thompson, Parker was accosted by the bully, blocking a punch and breaking his hand in the process. Thompson's family then sued Parker's family for the medical costs, amounting to $2,500. After Norman Osborn's failed attempt at killing Parker, Osborn gained a desire to study him and the effects of the spider bite he had suffered at Osborn Industries. Through his son Harry, Norman invited Parker to a supposed tour of Osborn Industries as an apparent form of apology. There Parker met the brilliant scientist Otto Octavius, who took a sample of Parker's blood when he wasn't looking. Shocked and afraid, Parker fled the facility.

Parker soon learned of a challenge put forth by professional wrestler Crusher Hogan, who was offering five hundred dollars to anyone who could beat him in the ring. Parker crafted and donned a simple mask and costume and used his newfound agility and strength to easily defeat the musclebound Hogan. He slipped his winnings under Ben and May's door, presenting them as an anonymous gift to pay their legal fees. At school, Parker replaced the injured Flash Thompson on the basketball team and quickly became the star player. His increasing number of commitments frequently got in the way of a burgeoning romance with Mary Jane Watson, as he regretfully pushed potential dates to the background. Peter continued to make money as a wrestler for Ben and May's bills, and after a second match with Crusher Hogan was dubbed by the promoter as "Spider-Man," along with an intricate new costume.

Parker's wrestling career didn't last long. He was wrongly accused of stealing money from the promoter, and his unwillingness to reveal his true identity led to increased suspicion and his departure. Parker then witnessed a robbery of a small deli and, preoccupied with his compounding personal issues, did nothing to stop the fleeing criminal. His grades began to slip, and his relationships with Ben, May, and Mary Jane continued to degrade. The usual teenage tendency to act out and rebel was seemingly exacerbated by the effects of the spider bite. Ben got a hold of Peter and calmly encouraged him not to squander his incredible potential, invoking Peter's late father. Around this time, Norman Osborn experimented on himself in an attempt to recreate what happened to Parker; it went horribly wrong, explosively killing several scientists and transforming Osborn into a green monster that was now roaming the streets of New York. Osborn returned to his own home, burning it down and killing his wife, seemingly by accident due to his new and uncontrollable power. Harry Osborn witnessed these events, and seemed to know instinctively that the beast was his father, despite his deformed appearance.

When Peter returned home shortly after speaking with Ben, there were ambulances and police cars waiting outside: Ben had been shot and killed by an intruder. Peter overheard a police radio signal concerning the perpetrator, and tracked him down in his Spider-Man garb. He easily overpowered the killer, and found him to be the same man who had robbed the deli earlier that day. Peter blamed himself for Ben's death, and vowed to rise up to his uncle's expectations and his own potential. Mary Jane reached out to Peter, brushing aside their problems and consoling him in his time of loss.

2001

Following Ben's death, Peter became a full-fledged superhero, fighting crime across the city as Spider-Man. With help from some of his late father's work, he developed a formula for a web-like adhesive that he could fire from a wrist-attached device. He quit the basketball team, allowing himself more time to be with Mary Jane. One day, Peter's school was attacked by the grotesque Norman Osborn; while the rest of the school fled, Peter donned his Spider-Man outfit and fought the beast. During their battle, Osborn repeatedly growled "Parker," revealing that there was some level of intent behind his attack. Police eventually intervened, shooting Osborn down into the bay and seemingly killing him. Peter later spoke to Harry, who told him that the creature was his father. Harry believed that Norman was trying to kill him after having killed his mother; Peter couldn't tell Harry that he was Norman's real target. Around this time, Spider-Man ran into Wolverine and Sabretooth fighting in the streets. The latter was working with the U.S. government to apprehend the former, resulting in a battle that had the potential to harm innocent bystanders. Wolverine agreed with Spider-Man that this was not an ideal situation, and Spider-Man whisked him away to a shadowy rooftop, escaping Sabretooth's pursuit. Wolverine was grateful for Spider-Man's help.

Shortly afterward, Spider-Man heard of a large green monster—the Hulk— arriving in New York and going on a rampage. Spider-Man took the fight to the creature, but quickly discovered that he was not a match for Hulk's overwhelming power. Instead, Spider-Man led Hulk away from the bustling city center to an empty building on the docks, where Hulk began eating from a box of frozen fish. As Spider-Man watched quietly, Hulk transformed into his human form, the brilliant scientist Bruce Banner. Spider-Man confronted Banner, who began babbling vaguely about a conspiracy theory. Before he could adequately explain, the Army burst down the door and attempted to take Banner into custody. This disturbance angered and transformed Banner once more, and the Hulk again escaped the Army's clutches, fleeing to New Jersey.

After stopping an attempted armored-car robbery by Shocker, Parker learned that the Daily Bugle newspaper was offering money for pictures of Spider-Man. He took a few snapshots of himself in the Spider-Man costume and brought them to editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson. Jameson initially offered Parker a mere fifty dollars for the photos, but after Parker easily fixed a computer problem at the office, Jameson hired him in earnest. Still haunted by his uncle's death, Peter used the Bugle archives to research Ben's killer. He found that the man was part of a city-wide organized-crime operation led by Wilson Fisk, known as Kingpin, a wealthy businessman who consistently used the city's corruption to his advantage to escape conviction.

Spider-Man's investigating led him to the Enforcers, a trio of criminals loyal to Kingpin: Ox, Montana, and Fancy Dan. They were formidable opponents, but Spider-Man was able to neutralize them, and attempted to learn Kingpin's whereabouts from them. He was interrupted by a fourth man however, Mr. Big. The man told him that the way to Kingpin was to take away something he loves, and informed him that Kingpin was putting on a gala that Friday night. With that, FBI agents burst down the door, forcing Spider-Man into a hasty retreat. In the more pedestrian half of his life, Peter was asked on a date by Mary Jane, and began to notice that Jameson's coverage of Spider-Man at the Daily Bugle was heavily skewed toward presenting him as a menace.

On the night of Wilson Fisk's gala, Spider-Man infiltrated his office on the 34th floor of Fisk Tower, but the copious security cameras allowed Kingpin to anticipate his arrival. Kingpin, along with the Enforcers and a supervillain henchman named Electro, easily defeated Spider-Man, unmasked him, and threw him from the building. Spider-Man was able to break his fall, but was nonetheless significantly hurt. Injured and demoralized, Peter was forced to cancel his date with Mary Jane the following night, marking another bump in their rocky relationship. He apologized to her in class the following Monday, and she seemed cautiously receptive to his advances. Around this time, Mr. Big was found dead in the East River wearing the Spider-Man mask, the victim of a hit by Kingpin in a clear message to Spider-Man.

Parker soon realized that the security cameras in Kingpin's office must have recorded footage of the latter killing Mr. Big, and that this could be the key to bringing him down. He investigated the camera system Fisk used and discovered that footage was kept digitally on discs in an on-site storage system. Spider-Man infiltrated Kingpin's tower once more, finding the disc storage and successfully claiming dozens of discs of recent footage. This set off an alarm however, and he was again confronted by Electro and the Enforcers. The prepared Spider-Man was able to defeat them this time however, dousing Electro in water. Speaking with the downed Ox, Spider-Man convinced him to turn himself in, as Fisk and his empire were going down soon anyway. As he left the building, Spider-Man was confronted by Kingpin himself, who was determined not to let him leave alive. Spider-Man wasn't interested in fighting, instead disabling Fisk with webs to enable his escape. Parker scoured the footage and found clear-cut evidence of Mr. Big's murder, which he sent anonymously to the Daily Bugle. He also found the footage of himself being unmasked, securing the safety of his identity. The Bugle indeed published the evidence against Fisk, though he was nowhere to be found—he had flown far from the country, escaping federal agents for the time being.

Parker, meanwhile, looked to repair his relationship with Mary Jane by revealing his secret identity to her. He called her to his home, saying he had something important to tell her. She agreed, and, sitting together in his bedroom, he told her that he was Spider-Man. She initially laughed it off, but when he demonstrated his powers she couldn't deny it any longer. He swore her to secrecy, for the sake of his own protection and that of his loved ones. Mary Jane was thrilled that she knew Spider-Man personally, and the confession did perhaps just what Peter hoped it would: the two started to become physically close, but just as they leaned in for a kiss, Aunt May interrupted with a phone call from Mary Jane's mother. A frustrated Mary Jane was forced to leave, but Peter was nonetheless left in a state of euphoria.

Shortly after the escape from Ryker's Island of the vigilante known as the Punisher, Spider-Man spotted Punisher on a rooftop pointing a gun at a defenseless man, Artie Jillette. Spider-Man swung into action, knocking Punisher unconscious and seemingly defending an innocent. The nearby hero Daredevil scolded him however—Jillette was in fact a criminal himself, a corrupt cop who was responsible for killing Punisher's family. Daredevil ordered the younger Spider-Man to take Punisher to the police while he pursued Jillette, who had just run off in the confusion. In the end, both Punisher and Jillette were brought to justice and sent to Ryker's Island.

2002

Some time after revealing his identity to Mary Jane, Spider-Man decided to investigate reports of a large reptilian creature in the sewers. He had reason to believe it may be Dr. Curtis Conners, who had transformed into a "Lizard" after an experiment gone awry. He indeed found such a creature in the sewer, and attempted to reason with it, but to no avail. The Lizard ravenously attacked Spider-Man until an even stranger beast known as Man-Thing appeared, grabbing Lizard by the head and transforming him back into his human form in a burst of blue flame. As Man-Thing mysteriously stalked away, a confused and amnesiac Dr. Conners was left there, harmless and afraid. Spider-Man took Conners to the hospital where he made a full recovery. At school, several students—especially Kong—expressed concern at the increasing number of superpowered people lately, specifically Spider-Man and the X-Men. A new student named Gwen Stacy introduced herself to declare that "regular" people would simply have to rely on their own "superpowers" to survive. Stacy immediately struck the other students with her charisma, especially the boys.

Kong's superhero paranoia led to him deducing that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. No one else at school was buying his logic, so he sought to prove it by kicking an ostensibly unaware Peter in the butt while he was rummaging through his locker. The hypersensitive Peter of course overheard all of this, and deliberately took the shot as though he were the weakling he appeared to be. This attack drew a crowd, including Gwen Stacy pulling a knife on Kong and threatening him never to pull anything like that again; she was then dragged away by a school official. Later, Spider-Man helped a woman recover her purse from a common thief; expecting gratitude, he was instead met with the woman running away in fear. He then saw J. Jonah Jameson face-to-face for the first time, mockingly complimenting him on the Bugle and its sensationalist reporting. Working in the Bugle offices later, Peter overheard Jameson and Ben Urich discussing reports that Otto Octavius had survived the disaster at Osborn Industries, and that he had since violently escaped a government facility.

Parker became concerned that if a simpleton like Kong could deduce his identity, a brilliant scientist like Octavius was certain to put two and two together as well, given their personal connection. He also learned that the office of Justin Hammer, a former rival of Norman Osborn, had been broken into; recognizing a connection, Parker decided to investigate Hammer's office building. There, he eavesdropped on a discussion between Hammer and a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Sharon Carter and Jimmy Woo. Through their discussion, Spider-Man learned that Octavius—soon to be commonly known as Doctor Octopus—had become unpredictable and violent since awaking from his coma, as well as suffering from amnesia. Thus, the risk of him figuring out Spider-Man's identity was negligible. Meanwhile, Hammer was dodgy with regard to Agent Carter's questions regarding his assocation with Octavius. The agents soon realized that they were being watched, opening fire and forcing Spider-Man to withdraw.

Parker soon learned of the arrival in New York of Kraven the Hunter, an Australian television star and big-game hunter, who declared his intention to hunt and kill Spider-Man. That day at school, Gwen Stacy returned after a week's suspension, though she didn't let up on her antagonizing toward Kong. Later, the student body were informed that a portion of Kraven's upcoming special would be filmed there at the school. This announcement was interrupted by news of an attack on the Big Apple Dome nuclear facility, which was being unveiled that day by Justin Hammer. Peter surreptitiously suited up and made his way to the facility, where Doctor Octopus had made himself known. Hitching a ride on a helicopter, Spider-Man was shot at by police, crashing into the Dome. He was confronted by Doctor Octopus, and the two began to fight; Octopus quickly demonstrated his power by ripping Spider-Man's webs with his mechanical arms, an act previously unthinkable. In the end, Spider-Man was handily trounced by his foe and thrown from the building. He was soon swarmed by S.W.A.T. officers ordering him to take off his mask, but they were interrupted by Sharon Carter and other S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, arriving to take Spider-Man for themselves. Spider-Man used their bickering as a means of escape, narrowly evading S.W.A.T. officers through the sea. A bruised and battered Parker returned home, meeting with Mary Jane in his basement. Spider-Man was presented on the news, particularly by Justin Hammer, as being possibly responsible for the attack on the facility, and certainly anything but a hero. Mary Jane comforted Peter, but with mortal threats and public disapproval mounting, he began to feel like this life wasn't for him.

Peter returned to school the next day, where Kraven made an appearance as scheduled, ostensibly "tracking" Spider-Man from where he had first been seen weeks ago. Meeting again with Mary Jane at home, Peter was asked if he "liked" Gwen Stacy. Misunderstanding the question, Peter replied positively, which upset Mary Jane. Later, Peter again donned the suit and infiltrated Justin Hammer's office, where he informed Hammer that he was trying to help at the Dome, but now he essentially couldn't care less what happens to him. Hammer offered Spider-Man money to kill Octopus, which he laughingly refused. Moments later, Spider-Man followed Hammer's limo down the road into New Jersey to a Hammer Industries research facility, where Doctor Octopus had lured Hammer and called together myriad TV and print reporters.

Spider-Man again challenged Doctor Octopus, deliberately steering the fight away from the reporters, which they took notice of and recognized as heroic benevolence. Octopus believed that Spider-Man was a being made in Hammer Industries' labs, like Electro or Sandman. This time, it was Octopus' overconfidence and obsession with Hammer that cost him: he slammed the limo holding the aging Hammer, causing a heart attack and killing him, as well as injuring his assistant. Spider-Man was able to outsmart Doc Ock, downing him and even ripping off one of his mechanical arms. At that moment, Kraven the Hunter took advantage of the intense television coverage to challenge Spider-Man. Spider-Man scoffed at the entertainer, looking to get help for the injured instead. Kraven pushed the issue, insisting that Spider-Man fight him. Spider-Man dodged several blows, repeatedly telling Kraven to stop, before landing a single punch that sent him flying, easily defeating him. Spider-Man begrudgingly accepted a live TV interview from a nearby reporter, explaining his motivations and finally looking to all the world like a real hero. He returned home late that night to a furious May, who grounded him after a series of lies on his whereabouts.

See also

• Spider-Man from Earth-616