This week we’re covering season 2, episode 8 of Spider-Man: The Animated Series – ‘Duel of the Hunters’
Recap: 3:33
Review: 39:37
Comic Origins: 42:19
It’s Man-Spider O’Clock!
The Punisher has his hands full with Spider-Man after our hero transformed into a horrifying, dopey monster – something he still thinks he has the ability to sort by himself. Hey, maybe the man’s just got a lot of free time after his family picnics have been cancelled. Too soon?
He’s joined by Kraven, fresh off the boat to bear-hug his new bestie and join in on the dogpile when Man-Spider starts creepin on New York’s redheads. Along the way we end up talking about Stop the Pigeon, kite daydreams and… 9/11. Does acid spit melt steel beams? Oh, and also Morbius is floating around.
After our episode discussion, we talk about the various spider transformations that Peter Parker has gone through in the comics. It’s pretty wild.
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Further podcast notes
First off, here’s some images from the episode we discussed this week:
Kraven keeping the trench coat economy surviving:
Here’s that Flash…Flashback:
Now for some comic origins! We get our first Spider transformation in Marvel Fanfare #2 (1982), written by Chris Claremont and with art by Michael Golden.
Peter is captured by Brain-Child, who slowly scrubs his humanity away and brings out the beast within him.
Ka-zar is attacked by Peter’s spidery transformation after Brain-Child uses his ray to turn him and Angel into their bestial forms. The art in this issue w/r/t Man-Spider is pretty damn good if you ask me.
I also love this way of showing the man trapped within the monster throughout this issue (and the next).
This is also the first time we see the phrase ‘Man-Spider’ used, for those wondering. There’s Brain-Child and a transformed Angel in the right panel.
It gets pretty dark at points.
Before Man-Spider can be killed by Ka-zar, he has his energy sucked away by Lykos, unfortunately transforming him back into the villainous Sauron.
Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 (1993) features Spider-X’s one and only appearance, written by Mort Todd and with art by Javier Saltares.
Ghost Rider is actually wrong in this case. He make look like it, but this isn’t a transformed Spider-Man – it’s actually a transformed Brian Kornfield, who got his monkey paw wish to turn into his favourite hero after his mother was mugged.
The Darkhold’s spells aren’t exactly a glow-up.
He’s got acid spit on his side, and also the grossest way to shoot webbing. The Darkhold Dwarf really fucked Brian over, didn’t he?
Johnny Blaze uses his hellfire weapons to take him down… but it doesn’t last for long.
Spider-X flees the scene, at which point he uses the opportunity to spit acid? Or is it green fire?
Eventually, Ghost Rider grabs him to use his patented Penance Stare to “sear what’s left of your soul!”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work – having been diluted by his “many eyes”. Also, Blade gets involved, where he gets attacked by that aforementioned acid.
The art briefly changes to be covered by Ken Meyer Jr. – who does some great work with this particular Darkhold creature.
Then the issue resolves with Spider-Man and Morbius joining in on the fight with Dougie Braithwaite on pencils.
Eventually, they all team up to take him down, at which point he gets incinerated when Zzzaxx blows the hell up. It’s… complicated.
We get yet another Man-Spider transformation, this time after Spider-Man: The Animated Series had its shot at the story. This time it all went down in The Amazing Spider-Man #437 (1999), written by Tom Defalco and with art by Rafael Kayanan.
It’s a very goofy issue – that just so happens to feature one of the more horrifying of his transformations.
They really don’t dwell on it at all, but the existential terror of turning into this kind of monstrosity with no clear way back is heavy. Luckily, it’s all a day in the life for someone with Parker Luck.
Spider-Man confronts Plantman, who is the source of the transformation through his mutagenic pollen… he eventually turns the villain into a real plant with his own pollen – so he gets his antidote.
Here’s some shots of the creepy critter in action:
It’s resolved all in one issue – but in 2003 Spidey will be putting up with an even worse transformation… somehow.
Adriana Soria, better known as The Queen or The Spider-Queen, ends up tangling with Spider-Man after making her first appearance in The Spectacular Spider-Man vol.2 #15. But it’s in #17-19, written by Paul Jenkins and with art by Humberto Ramos (not a fan truth be told) then Paco Medina (ehh), that she triggers the transformation.
It’s a little weird that this has happened to him twice before this, but hey, Marvel continuity is weird as hell. The Queen triggers the transformation using her control of the… M gene… which is not the X gene…
He eventually turns into a fully-fledged spider that follows her around like an obedient dog. She loves it. Until he dies.
For seemingly no reason, he keels over and dies, and she believes it’s because his body can’t handle the transformation.
Little does she know, he’s actually going to give birth to himself! Seriously!
And all this… just to give a good reason to upgrade Spider-Man’s powers. After this point we jump into the storyline with ‘The Other’… which is a whole thing. But basically, he gets arm talons, the ability to talk to spiders and organic webbing – like in the movies. Funnily enough, they retconned this away post-One More Day.
That’s all for this week, folks. If you missed the last episode – be sure to check it out here.
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