Parker, Peter

## Peter Benjamin Parker

### Aliases

Spider-Man, Professional Wallflower (Liz Allan), Petey, (Uncle Ben), Masked Marvel (Joseph "Crusher" Hogan), Spidey, Web-Head, Web-Swinger, Tiger (Mary Jane Watson-Parker), Web-Slinger, Wall-Crawler, Bug-Boy, Bug-Man (Hulk), Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (self), Menace (J. Jonah Jameson)

### Relatives

May Parker (daughter, dead), Mary Jane Watson-Parker (wife), Unnamed adopted daughter, Richard Parker (father, dead), Mary Parker (mother, dead), Benjamin Parker (uncle, adoptive father, dead), May Parker (aunt, adoptive mother, dead), Philip Watson (father-in Law), Madeline Watson (mother-in-Law, dead), Anna May Watson (aunt-in-Law), Spencer Watson (uncle-in-Law), Gayle Watson-Byrnes (sister-in-Law) Kain Parker (1st clone), Ben Reilly (clone, dead), Jack (clone, dead), Spider-cide (clone, dead), Unnamed clone (dead)

### Occupation

Freelance Photographer (formerly), Photographer

## Biographical information

### Place of birth

Queens, New York City, New York, United States of America

## Physical description

### Species

Homo sapien Ultimate, Altered Human, Human Mutate

## Appearances

### Debut

Amazing Fantasy Issue no. 15

Sometimes student, sometimes scientist and sometimes photographer, **Peter Parker** is a full-time superhero better known as the web-slinging and wall-crawling **Spider-Man.** As an orphaned child, Peter was raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. At a science expo, Peter was bitten by an errant radioactive spider which granted him an array of arachnid powers. He initially became Spider-Man to use his powers as an entertainer, growing so conceited he didn't bother stopping a passerby burglar. In a twist of fate, the same burglar wound up killing Peter's Uncle Ben, leading him to realize that he needed to use his powers responsibly. From then on, Spider-Man became a crime-fighting vigilante.

Often a loner, Spider-Man is a stalwart member of the superhero community who has earned numerous allies like the Fantastic Four and the New Warriors. He has made of numerous super villains his personal enemies, including Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Venom, and most notoriously, his nemesis the Green Goblin, who once killed Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacy. J. Jonah Jameson runs a smear campaign against the wall-crawler in his newspaper, the *Daily Bugle*.

## History

### Early Years

Peter Benjamin Parker was born in Queens to CIA agents Richard and Mary Parker, who were killed by the Red Skull and framed for treason during a mission.

Before their deaths, however, Richard and Mary had another child unknown to Peter, a daughter and Peter's younger sister, Teresa. Following his parents' death, a young Parker was adopted by his uncle and aunt, Ben and May Parker, moving in with them at their residence in Forest Hills, New York. After their adopting of him, they became his surrogate parents and raised him as if he were their own son. Over the years into being a teenager, Parker grew to be a prodigy in multiple scholastic subjects at Midtown High School and achieving high honors among his classmates. However, his reserved nature and enthusiasm for knowledge often made him a target for bullying, primarily football star Eugene "Flash" Thompson.

### Birth of Spider-Man

While attending a General Techtronics public exhibition, a teenage Peter Parker was bitten on the hand by a spider, which was irradiated by the demonstration's particle accelerator. Oblivious after falling from his hand died from the radiation.

Making his way home afterward, Peter was almost hit by a car until he leapt out of the way onto a building site a couple of meters high. Peter discovered he had somehow gained incredible strength, agility, and surface scaling; all spider-like traits that he immediately associated with the spider bite at the demonstration.

Encountering an ad offering a cash prize for lasting three minutes in the ring with Joseph "Crusher" Hogan, Peter decided this would be a good way to test his powers. Wearing a mask to avoid humiliation in case of defeat, Peter used his powers and easily defeated his opponent. TV producer Maxwell Shiffman observed his performance and convinced him to go on television with his 'act.' Designing a full costume and fabricating synthetic spider's web and wrist-mounted web-shooters, Peter debuted as "Spider-Man" to become an immediate sensation.

Following his first TV appearance, Spider-Man witnessed a fleeing robber run past him, and Peter opted against stopping the thief, maintaining that it wasn't his responsibility. Later, Peter returned home one day to learn from the police that his Uncle Ben had been murdered by a burglar. Also learning that the police had the murderer holed up in a warehouse, Peter changed into his Spider-Man costume and cornered the burglar, only to discover that he was the same thief he had allowed to escape days earlier. Filled with remorse believing that his inaction led to tragedy, Peter realized that when someone has power, they have an obligation to use it responsibly. From this realization of the gravity of events and his own emotional immaturity, he decided to become a vigilante superhero helping whoever he could.

### Responsibility

The first problem young Peter faced was the lack of money with the death of his uncle. Due to the fact that his Aunt May was too weak to work, and Peter was seen as fragile, he decided to get a job, even though Aunt May wanted him to become a scientist instead. Peter even thought about using his spider powers for crime out of desperation but decided against it after thinking how his aunt would react to him in jail.

However, it was seeming impossible to him to find a job in order to pay his growing debts. As Spider-Man, he was not able to continue his career as TV star, because of J. Jonah Jameson, owner of the NOW Magazine and the newspaper Daily Bugle, who started a smear campaign against Spider-Man. Jameson would make statements that he was a bad influence for children and a criminal for taking justice into his own hands, referring to the situation with the burglar. Protests started taking effect and turning the public perception against Spider-Man, eventually causing Spidey's manager to leave him, impeding his ability to earn money even in costume.

With these forced change of events, Peter searched through the wanted ads, only to be rejected by all the employers. Not being able to use his super-powers as Spider-Man infuriated Peter, and his fury only intensified after seeing his Aunt May selling her jewelry to try and earn some money. Spidey's second heroic action was to save Jameson's astronaut son, John Jameson, from an accident in a deviated space capsule. Spider-Man hitched a ride on a small airplane and boarded the capsule during re-entry. Spidey then attached the missing capsule piece, allowing it to land safely. Although he had saved John, Spidey was still blamed by J.J. Jameson for the accident.

Later, trying to find a way to make some money, he decided to join the super hero team the Fantastic Four. Spidey intruded into the Baxter Building, battling the FF, as a way of showing them his power, but the team refused Spidey's entry after explaining to him that they did not get paid for their actions and that they were a family, not an enterprise. Later that day, the Russian criminal and master of disguise known as the Chameleon used Spider-Man's identity to steal defense missile plans. The real Spidey was used by Chameleon as a pawn to escape the scene without problems. After managing to avoid capture by the police, Spider-Man caught Chameleon in a helicopter before he could reach a soviet submarine and handed him in to the authorities. Peter finally found a way to make money when the Daily Bugle asked for photos of the winged criminal known as the Vulture. Not only did Spider-Man defeat the villain, he also found a way to take photos, which caused J.J. Jameson to hire Peter to get him pictures of Spider-Man, under the condition that the publicist would not ask Peter how he took the pictures.

Early in his career, Spider-Man fought many villains including the Tinkerer, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, Doctor Doom, the Fox, the Lizard, the Living Brain, Electro, the Big Man and his Enforcers, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, and his deadliest foe of all time: the Green Goblin. Several of these villains would form the Sinister Six, under the leadership of Doctor Octopus, a team who tried to get Spider-Man by kidnapping Aunt May and trying to force Peter to "call" him. They failed.

During this time, Parker dated Betty Brant of the *Daily Bugle*, although Liz Allan had a crush on him. At the same time, both Peter's Aunt May and their neighbor, Anna Watson, were constantly encouraging Parker to date Anna's niece, Mary Jane Watson. Before his high school graduation Peter continued to fight off menaces, including the Scorpion, Spencer Smythe's Spider-Slayers, the Crime-Master, and the Molten Man. He also assisted the recently formed Avengers in defeating a Spider-Man android created by Kang.

At one point, Aunt May's health got so bad that she suffered from a heart attack. Peter heard the news while he and the Human Torch were fighting the Green Goblin, and he was forced to flee in order to get to her quickly. However, this only convinced the public-at-large that Spidey was a coward who had fled from a battle. Die-hard Spider-Man fans like Flash Thompson continued to support him, while J. Jonah Jameson ran editions in the Bugle claiming that he himself scared Spider-Man off. While looking after Aunt May, Spider-Man was forced to escape yet again from the Sandman in order to get home quickly. When he learned that his aunt's health had improved, he vowed to prove the world wrong about him. Meanwhile, a worried Torch tried to look for Spidey, but only managed to get captured by the Sandman. Spider-Man rescued him and defeated his enemy, wiping the smirk off of Jameson's face and getting the world to appreciate him again.

### (Super)Hero on Campus

Eventually, Peter graduated from high school as valedictorian and enrolled at Empire State University on a science scholarship, meeting new classmates such as Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy.

Even though he got off to a bad start with them, finally Peter became friends with them, as well as Flash. The Green Goblin came back and discovered Spider-Man's identity, kidnapping him and revealing his own alter-ego, that of Norman Osborn, Harry's father. In a furious battle, the villain lost all memories of his time as a super villain. During that time, Spider-Man fought new foes such as the Rhino, the Shocker, as well as teaming up with Dr. Strange to defeat the wizard known as Xandu. The Avengers also tried to make him a member at one point, but Spider-Man declined the offer. Also, Peter finally met Mary Jane Watson, but at that time he was interested in Gwen, so Mary Jane started dating Harry.

After finding an old newspaper clipping that identified his parents as traitors to their country in his aunt’s house, Peter decided to learn the full story, traveling to Algeria with the Fantastic Four's aid. He learned that his parents were supposedly spies who worked for the communist Red Skull and he came across their ID badges for the Skull's organization. Spider-Man also stumbled upon the original Nazi Red Skull and his men, who had previously worked for the other Red Skull. In the aftermath, Peter found his father's CIA identification card, proving to Peter that his parents were secret government operatives. With evidence to clear his parents' names, Peter returned to the States.

Weeks later, after the return of Kraven and battling a new Vulture, Peter started wondering if he may be better off not being Spider-Man. Crime rose and a new Kingpin appeared in New York, and abducted J. J. Jameson. Peter returned to his heroic identity, and Frederick Foswell, formerly the criminal Big Man, sacrificed his life to save Jameson's. A mystical artifact called the Tablet of Life and Time exhibited in ESU was stolen by the Kingpin; the Tablet passed over many people who tried to get it, including Spider-Man, Shocker (who was working for Kingpin) and Man Mountain Marko (who was working for the Maggia crime family). Finally, the Tablet got to the Maggia boss, Silvermane, who forced Doctor Curt Connors to translate the tablet. Connors managed to create a powerful rejuvenation serum from it. Silvermane drank it and became a young man again. But the serum made Silvermane regress beyond birth. Meanwhile Connors, as the Lizard, escaped, and later was returned to normal by Spider-Man again.

### Death of the Stacys

Soon after, Doctor Octopus managed to get his metallic arms again and broke free from prison. After Spider-Man thwarted his attempt to hijack a plane, he started attacking the city's main power plant. Although Spider-Man escaped from Ock, Spider-Man was attacked by surprise by Ock the next day.

They battled on a rooftop and Captain Stacy died when saving a child from falling debris. Before dying, Stacy revealed to Spider-Man he knew his identity and asked him to take care of Gwen. Being accused of Stacy's death, Spider-Man faced some heroes who wanted to take him to authorities, such as the X-Man Iceman and the beginner hero the Prowler. Peter even went to London to prevent Gwen's departure forever, after her father's death.

Things got worse. Harry became addicted to LSD, and Peter, along with Gwen and Mary Jane, took care of him. This familial stress caused Norman Osborn's Green Goblin persona to return, and he once again battled Spider-Man. During the battle, Norman was exposed to his son's declining condition in the hospital. This severed the control of the Green Goblin persona over Norman and caused Norman to have amnesia again. With his secret identity making his life impossible and leading Gwen to end their relationship, Peter tried to give up being Spider-Man and created a cure for his powers that instead made him grow four extra arms. With the help of Curt Connors he found a cure, fighting Morbius the Living Vampire and Connors' alter-ego the Lizard in the process.

Norman Osborn's alter-ego resurfaced again and the Green Goblin kidnapped Gwen Stacy. Spider-Man found them at the Brooklyn Bridge, where they fought, and Gwen fell from the bridge. The Goblin escaped; a furious Peter searched, found, and battled him again. In this battle Norman has impaled with his own Goblin Glider, apparently killing himself. Peter was extremely distraught over the death of Gwen, possibly even more so than when Uncle Ben died. An equally traumatized Mary Jane tried to comfort Peter after Gwen's death; she was initially brushed off, but they eventually got closer.

After being accused of the death of both Stacys, and attending Gwen's funeral as Peter, Spider-Man was confronted by heroes such as Power Man and the Punisher. Later, Harry, who had discerned Spider-Man's identity and wanted revenge for his father's death, took the Green Goblin mantle and kidnapped Flash Thompson, Mary Jane and Aunt May in an attempt to lure him out and kill him. Spider-Man managed to find him at his father's old home and defeated him, leaving him to the authorities. Harry was sent to an asylum.

### Clone Saga I

Peter later had to go on a work trip with Robbie Robertson, and he and Mary Jane shared their first kiss at the airport. After returning from the trip to France, Peter found an alive Gwen Stacy, but could not bear to rekindle their relationship because of his kiss with MJ.

With the help of Ned Leeds, Spider-Man found out that this Gwen was a clone created by the Jackal, who, after defeating Spider-Man with the help of Tarantula, was revealed to be Peter's professor, Miles Warren. After kidnapping Leeds and Spider-Man, Warren explained to the hero that he loved Gwen and blamed Spider-Man for her death. And after managing to clone a frog, he used a blood sample from Gwen to clone her. Later, Spider-Man was left unconscious in a stadium, where he battled a clone of himself to save Ned from a bomb.

Gwen's clone made Jackal realize everything was wrong, so he freed Ned and the bomb exploded, apparently killing the Jackal and the Spider-Clone. Spider-Man took the corpse of his clone and buried it at an industrial chimney, while the clone of Gwen Stacy left New York. Unsure whether he was the real Peter Parker or the clone, he had Curt Connors run tests on him. However, he never checked the results, being convinced by his emotions for Mary Jane that he must be the original.

### Appreciation For Life

Peter had to leave Betty Brant's engagement party to defeat the Shocker, causing friction between him and Mary Jane. Peter served as best man at Ned Leeds's and Betty Brant's wedding.

Spider-Man later faced Harry's psychologist, Bart Hamilton, who became the third Green Goblin, and who, after various encounters, died at the hands of Harry. Peter proposed marriage to Mary Jane, but she did not accept, making their relationship falter. MJ moved to Florida with her Aunt Anna. Spider-Man managed to clear his name, while Peter Parker graduated from ESU. Also, Spencer Smythe, the creator of the Spider-Slayers, died from an illness after trying to kill Spider-Man and Jameson, the men he blamed for ruining his life.

As Peter continued to live on his own, his Aunt May decided to transform her home into a senior citizens' boarding house. At one point, Mysterio managed to convince the wall-crawler that she had died. Spider-Man later discovered that she had been kidnapped by the same burglar who had shot his Uncle Ben. After cornering him furiously and revealing that he was the nephew of Ben Parker, the burglar died of fright. At one point Parker began a romantic relationship and heroic partnership with the Black Cat, developing feelings for her and even starting to love her, although Parker later broke it off due to the Black Cat's disdain for Parker's life apart from being Spider-Man.

### Black Suit

When the Beyonder kidnapped Earth's heroes to fight in his "Secret Wars" Peter Parker was with them. After his costume got damaged, Peter used an unfamiliar piece of technology to fix it.

However, his costume was replaced by an alien "symbiote" which shaped itself into a black costume. Peter, unaware that he was wearing an alien as a costume, used it as his regular costume. The symbiote was also able to create its own webs and change its appearance to look like regular clothes. Once the Secret Wars came to an end, Peter returned to Earth along with the other abducted superhumans and continued to use the black suit. He eventually noticed the costume behaved strangely, so he sought help from the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic, who discovered the suit was a living organism.

He helped remove the costume by force and kept it at the Fantastic Four's headquarters in captivity. The symbiote would later escape, plaguing the life of Parker again and ultimately merging with one of Spider-Man's critics, Eddie Brock, creating the villain Venom. In a climactic fight, Spider-Man defeated this new foe.

### Life Improvement

As Spider-Man, Parker met and fought alongside nearly every hero in Manhattan, if not the world. Although he fought alongside the Avengers many times, he unsuccessfully (for now) tried to join their number when he learned of the financial stipend their members received. Parker helped them stop an invasion and subsequent breakout of the energy research and villain internment facility, Project Pegasus.

However, Spider-Man was deemed to be too disruptive to the team's cohesiveness -*perhaps due to either his loner nature, lack of experience, or annoying sense of humor*- and was denied membership. Although, Spider-Man later met the international mercenary Silver Sable and would often be working on her behalf. Soon after a fight with Spider-Slayer, Peter and Mary Jane married. Spider-Man later defeated Venom in battle again. Peter's old friend Harry Osborn leased the couple a loft in the condo that Harry and his family were also living in. Mary Jane's cousin Kristy also temporarily moved in with the Parkers at one point. Eventually, however, the Parkers had to move into a room in Aunt May's house due to financial problems.

At this time, Spider-Man once again allied with the Avengers to stop the alien Nebula from destroying reality with her Infinity Union. An increasingly unnerved Spider-Man, unaccustomed to dealing with cosmic-scale menaces, accidentally allowed Nebula to absorb the power of the Infinity Union, although the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the alien Stranger thwarted her regardless. Parker was told again that Spider-Man might not be suited for Avengers membership, although later he was inducted into their number on a provisional basis.

Parker later returned to his studies and postgraduate work as a lab assistant at Empire State University. During this time, Parker was briefly endowed with the powers of Captain Universe and the Enigma Force, in order to stop a series of robots, including the mutant-killing Tri-Sentinel. Once the menace was defeated, the extra powers he gained left him.

### The End of Sergei Kravenov

After being defeated once again, Kraven the Hunter's remaining sanity was destroyed. He hatched a scheme to finally defeat Spider-Man. While Spider-Man swung around the city, Kraven hit him with a tranquilizer dart. Spider-Man started hallucinating and Kraven knocked him down and captured him in a net. He shot Spider-Man with a rifle, apparently killing him.

In reality, his drugs kept him completely immobile, so that Kraven could bury him alive. Kraven then donned a copy of Spider-Man's costume, calling himself "The Spider," he tried to become a better Spider-Man than Peter. He ended up brutally attacking and beating criminals, ultimately sending fifteen men to the hospital and killing one. The Spider confronted Vermin, who had resurfaced and killed various people, in the sewers. During the ensuing fight, The Spider overpowered Vermin and captures him.

After two weeks, Kraven’s drug eventually wore off and Spider-Man emerged from his grave. He learned from a newspaper that someone has been impersonating him for two weeks. He reunited with Mary Jane at their apartment before going to confront Kraven. However, he refused to fight, saying that by "killing" and impersonating him, he had proven his superiority. Kraven led Spider-Man to a caged Vermin and released him, goading Vermin into attacking Spider-Man. At first Spider-Man fought back but then backed off, refusing to play Kraven's game. Vermin overwhelmed him and fled with Spider-Man following him. Having finished his greatest hunt, Kraven left a confession saying he impersonated Spider-Man for the past two weeks and then committed suicide with a hunting rifle. Spider-Man took down Vermin and handed him over to the police, who found Kraven's confession.

### Clone Saga II

Aunt May supposedly suffered a debilitating heart attack. This also led to the Parkers meeting Ben Reilly, a clone of himself whom Peter had fought earlier. Reilly created a similar spider-costume, dubbed the Scarlet Spider by the Daily Bugle, and helped Spider-Man in his adventures. Shortly afterward, Mary Jane became pregnant, and the apparent revelation that Ben was the original Peter Parker and Peter the clone prompted Peter to retire from Spider-Man and relocate to Portland.

After a crisis in Portland resulted in minor damage to Peter's cellular structure that prevented him from accessing his powers, Peter chose to accept retirement and focus on his new family. Back in New York, Reilly eventually assumed the identity of Spider-Man himself, since the second villain by the name of Doctor Octopus tarnished the reputation of the Scarlet Spider. After a few months in Portland, Peter and Mary Jane returned to New York, with Peter's powers returning after a strange illness was revealed to be his body 'resetting' itself, although his powers were unpredictable for a while and prone to cutting out at inopportune moments.

As Peter's powers returned, however, he and Ben began to contemplate the possibility of both of them acting as Spider-Man after the recent war against Onslaught resulted in the loss of the FF and so many of the Avengers. This plan was cut short when Mary Jane was rushed to hospital while giving birth due to an unexpected medical emergency, later revealed to have been staged by Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin; Osborn had survived his apparent death due to an unexpected increased healing factor as part of his powers that nobody had known about before.

Having stolen the body of Parker's baby, the Goblin revealed that he had manipulated the tests that confirmed that Peter was the clone and Ben the original with the goal of destroying Peter's life, angered when Peter had managed to move past that revelation to make a new life for himself. During the subsequent confrontation, Ben Reilly jumped in front of the Goblin's glider when he sent it flying towards Peter, sacrificing himself to save Parker. Reilly's body disintegrated after his death, finally convincing Peter that he was the original. Due to this "revelation" and the fact that his daughter had died, Peter once again became Spider-Man.