Top 10 Most WTF Spider-Man Stories Of All Time
For this list, we're looking at the strangest, silliest, and downright WTF-est stories ever to star Marvel's favorite web-slinger. Spidey's had some pretty wild adventures over the years, but these might be a bit too wild.
#10: “Spider-Man vs. The Prodigy” (1976)
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Marvel’s heart was in the right place when they produced this comic in cooperation with Planned Parenthood in an effort to combat misinformation about teen pregnancy. But that doesn’t make the book itself any less ridiculous and weird. An alien known as The Prodigy comes to Earth with a nefarious and completely impractical plan to drum up some free labor: spread misinformation about pregnancy to gullible teens and then kidnap the resulting babies. Naturally, Spider-Man intervenes, unmasking the villain and exposing his hare-brained scheme. it’s not like this issue doesn’t tackle a serious topic, but it does it in perhaps the most baffling way we could ever imagine.
#9: “Burn, Spider, Burn!” (1985)
It’s easy to forget that Spider-Man is actually really strong, even among Marvel heroes. But nobody expected that the webhead would be strong enough to knock a Herald of Galactus for a loop. The story begins when Firelord, a former Herald, comes to Earth in search of a bite to eat. Naturally, he’s got a hankering for some New York City pizza, and he cuts a swath of destruction through the city in his quest for a slice. Spidey gives chase, usually being swatted away like an annoying fly. In the end, Spidey has enough of Firelord’s nonsense and takes him down… all that destruction for a slice of pizza.
#8: “My Uncle... My Enemy?” (1974)
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This is one of those early comics stories that really exists to justify an attention-grabbing cover. Aunt May is Marrying Doctor Octopus? How? WHY? As it turns out, the story behind this mystifying matrimony is even sillier than you’d think. As it turns out, May is…..somehow…..inheriting a state-of-the-art nuclear facility on a secluded Canadian island, and naturally, any supervillain worth their salt would want to get in on that action. Luckily, Doc Ock had recently hired her as a housekeeper, putting him in the perfect position to court and marry the poor woman, with the intent of bumping her off and taking control of the facility himself.
#7: “Sins Past” (2004-05)
Everyone has dark secrets they’d like to keep buried, and sometimes those secrets have a way of coming back. This infamous storyline attempted to give Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s long-departed love interest, her own secret. The results, however, weren’t well received. When two twins, Gabriel and Sarah, appear claiming to be Gwen’s children, it’s revealed that Gwen had an illicit affair with none other than Norman Osborn! Thanks to Osborn’s altered blood, the twins are even much older than they should be and have enhanced strength and stamina. This baffling addition to Gwen’s history was not well-received by fans, and the Stacy Twins haven’t been seen much since.
#6: “The Gathering of Five & The Final Chapter” (1988)
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When Norman Osborn starts gathering artifacts and people to perform an arcane ritual intended to bestow him with great power, it looks like another classic Spidey vs Goblin yarn. But things get complicated when a supporting character delivers the message that “May is alive” before dying. Initially, it was thought by Spidey and readers that this meant Baby May, Peter and Mary Jane’s infant child who seemingly died in childbirth. It turns out that the “May” is actually Aunt May, who had died years prior. As it turns out, Osborn actually faked Aunt May’s death as part of an elaborate plot, and the woman who died was actually an actress playing May. Yeesh, can’t anyone stay dead?
#5: “Spider-Man: The Other” (2005-06)
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When Spidey learns that he’s dying of a radiation-based infection, it looks like it’s curtains for the web-head. To make matters worse, a new villain named Morlun appears and beats poor Spidey to a pulp, even plucking out and devouring one of his eyes. Ew! Spidey seemingly dies in the battle with Morlun, but of course, he’d soon return. Turns out, the “spider” part of Peter survived, shedding his old body and leaving it behind as a husk as it set up a cocoon to form a new body. After having some trippy visions and finally hatching from the cocoon, Peter is reborn, once again with both eyes and a new slew of powers to boot. Yes, really. No, seriously.
#4: “Changes” (2004)
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Before Spidey got his new powers in “The Other”, this even weirder story was concocted to give him organic web-shooters in place of his classic mechanical ones. After being attacked and forcibly kissed by an insectoid villain called The Queen, Spider-Man begins transforming into a giant spider-creature. To make matters infinitely weirder, The Queen reveals that despite being a male, Spidey is now pregnant! In the end, a horribly mutated Spidey seemingly dies, before giving birth to….himself. A fully human version of Peter emerges from his former body, complete with organic web-shooters. There’s not enough “ew” in the world to cover this one.
#3: “Spider-Man: Reign” (2007)
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This much-maligned story attempted to give Spider-Man the “Dark Knight Returns” treatment, portraying an older Spider-Man coming out of retirement to fight a totalitarian regime. An approach like this sounds ok on paper until you bring up one crucial and very icky detail. Most of Spider-Man’s friends and family are long gone, but the circumstances of Mary Jane’s death are implied to be that she died of radiation poisoning as a result of her years sleeping with the wallcrawler. Let’s just say that Spidey’s blood isn’t the only bodily fluid of his that’s radioactive. Why Marvel thought that this admittedly minor plot point would be a good idea is totally beyond us.
#2: “The Clone Saga” (1994-96)
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For years, this epic story arc was undoubtedly Spidey’s lowest point. That is until our number one entry came along. The tale actually began way back in 1976, in a story in which Spidey was forced to battle his exact clone. Years later, this clone resurfaces, having adopted the name, Ben Reilly. For a while, it’s even believed that Peter is actually the clone, and Ben is the true blue original. It’s eventually revealed that this was all a plot by the Green Goblin, who had returned from the dead years before and hatched the elaborate plot as a way to break Spidey’s will once and for all.
#1: “One More Day” (2007)
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What else could it be? The most hated story in Spider-Man’s history is also one of the weirdest and silliest, making it a shoe-in for the top spot. Following Spider-Man revealing his secret identity to the world, Aunt May is shot and Peter’s life thrown into chaos. In order to set things right, Peter makes a deal with Mephisto, the Devil of the Marvel Universe. In exchange for saving Aunt May and erasing all knowledge of his identity, Mephisto erases Spider-Man’s marriage to MJ from the timeline. The story was so poorly received that Marvel even attempted to “fix” it with a follow-up story called “One Moment in Time” but the damage was done.
