Spider-Man has had plenty of weird stories across his many years. Superhero comic books can be a silly genre, and when you combine the absolute lack of serious lines with a writer who is willing to indulge that weird voice in the back of their head, you can get some absolutely baffling storylines. Far and away the weirdest Spider-Man story of all time, and that is a very high bar, is The Spectacular Spider-Man volume two’s “Changes.” Not only is this four-issue “Avengers: Disassembled” insane, but it completely changed everything about Spider-Man for years to come. And it all started with a kiss.
Spider-Man Was Changing
Issue #17 started with Peter Parker obsessively watching ants crawl around the park and MJ being upset. In the previous issue Spider-Man fought a woman named Queen, whose mutant power allowed her to control insects. This extended to a subsect of the population that possessed an “insect gene” and Spider-Man himself, whom Queen kissed while she had him controlled. Ever since, Peter has developed a fascination with insects and hasn’t been able to get Queen off of his mind. Meanwhile, Captain America briefed S.H.I.E.L.D. that Queen was planning something very dangerous, and Spider-Man was at the center of it.
Queen’s plan was to uncover and detonate a bomb designed by the United States military back during World War II, which if unleashed would kill everyone without the insect gene in a six hundred mile radius. Before that, she wanted to claim Spider-Man as her mate. Peter had recurring nightmares about Queen chasing him, and one day woke up different. He’d sprouted an extra set of insectoid eyes on his head and bristly hairs all over his body. What is Mary Jane’s reaction to her husband’s horrific transformation? To drag him to their neighbor’s wedding, of course. They can’t skip it, that’d be rude!
While trying to live his life as if everything’s normal, Peter’s transformation only worsens. He becomes more and more spider-like, until he’s practically a giant walking arachnid. Queen finds him and uses her abilities to break down the last of his willpower, completing his transformation into a massive spider, fully under Queen’s control. With her chosen mate at her side, Queen announces to all of New York City that she’ll be soon detonating her bomb, which starts an all out scramble by every government agency and superhero team to find her before it’s too late. With the spiderized Spider-Man as her complacent thrall, Queen revealed the final shock of Peter’s transformation. He was pregnant. With himself.
Just before Queen could detonate her bomb, Spider-Man collapsed. His body tore itself apart, as emerging from his abdomen was Peter, once again fully human. And he was reborn with upgrades, as he could shoot organic webbing from his wrists, now had severely enhanced speed and strength, and could talk to insects through his improved Spider-Sense. With his new abilities, Spider-Man defeated Queen and disabled her bomb, the supervillainess going missing as S.H.I.E.L.D. raided her lair. Free of his transfigured form, Spider-Man went home to get some much deserved rest. But I still have questions.
[RELATED: Spider-Man & Wolverine #1 Reminds Me How Fun This Team-Up Can Be]
How and Why Did Any of This Happen?
So, Peter was “pregnant” while he was a giant spider, and that body died before the human Peter broke his way into the world of the living, so does that mean that the original Spider-Man died? Is the new Peter an entirely new person who just has all of his memories? When you’re pregnant you typically don’t give birth to an exact duplicate of yourself, but even if you did that wouldn’t make them you. Regardless of the ethical, moral, and spiritual debate of those questions, this rebirth signaled a massive change for Spider-Man as a character. This organic webbing and animalistic spider-side signaled an entirely new era for the Wall-Crawler.
Up until this point in comics, Spider-Man had always been a science-connected character. Peter never had anything to do with magic, and his powers came from an irradiated spider, purely powered by comic pseudo-science. Yet from here on out, Marvel introduced a much more magical side to the character. Spider-Man would go on to meet characters like Morlun and Madame Web, magic characters connected to the mystical Web of Life and Spider-Totem concepts. This was the start of Spider-Man’s journey into destiny and magic, and these concepts did not fade when the next creative team took over. No, while the organic webs and new powers disappeared with “Brand New Day,” the Spider-Verse is still a massive part of Spider-Man’s mythos and stories are being told with it to this day.
Of course, in all honesty, the only reason any of this happened at all was because of the release of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie, where Peter had organic webbing. Marvel wanted to tie the movies into the comics as much as possible, and of course that meant making sure the two Peters matched in every way they could. Marvel was in the business of making their comics match the flow of their movies long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was even a thing, and I kind of respect the dedication.
“Changes” is a storyline that grosses you out and makes all arachnophobes shiver like it’s the middle of winter, but it fundamentally altered Spider-Man’s character forever. Personally, I think this weird tale about Peter giving birth to himself is totally worth it if it means we get to enjoy the Spider-Verse movies. Spider-Man being pregnant with himself was still really weird though. There’s not getting past that.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
The post This Is the Weirdest Spider-Man Story Ever (But It Changed Everything) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
