Peter Parker isn’t always your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.
Well… actually, yeah, no he pretty much always is, isn’t he?
But just because he’s friendly doesn’t mean that his comics and the stories involving
the world of Spider-Man always have to be that way.
Sometimes Spider-Man comics get dark and scary and creepy crawly.
I mean, the name Spider-Man itself implies some sort of horrific monstrosity.
Of course, Peter isn’t actually half spider.
Except for the times when he is.
Join me as we explore some of the most frightening Spider-Man tales as we count down the top
10 Scary Spider-Man stories worth reading.
And for those of you who are new to the channel, hello.
I’m your host, Amanda McKnight.
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And on that note, let’s get counting.
10 Ultimate Clone Saga
This version of the Clone Saga didn’t just have a good and evil clone of Peter Parker
but instead had a whole slew of clones.
This time around the people responsible for creating these Peter Parker clones were Otto
Octavius and Doctor Connors who were both working with the FBI and CIA.
It also involves a version of Jessica Drew that instead is a female clone of Peter but
who still had all his memories.
Weird.
The CIA planned to manipulate her mind and wipe Peter’s memories from it but before
they got a chance to follow through with their plan, Jessica freed the other clones and they
all escaped.
You can find this story in the Ultimate Spider-Man series.
9 Web of Death
I’m sorry but you know my love of the 90s, so sometimes we gotta got there.
This four part story arc takes place between two comic serials, The Amazing Spider-Man
and Spectacular Spider-Man.
While it is part of the Clone Saga which has led many I’m sure to dismiss Web of Death,
any many of the consequences of the story were later undone, I do think it’s something
worth reading.
Especially if you’re a Doc Ock fan, because it has lots of good moments between him and
Peter, who at the time is dying from a virus given to him by Vulture, and we also get to
see the brutal death of Otto at the hands of the frightening, messed up Peter Parker
clone, Kaine.
This is also the story arc where we find out MJ and Peter are going to have a baby.
There’s also a part where you think that Peter actually kicked the bucket.
Needless to say if you want some intrigue and murder and you can deal with or like me,
love the 90s, this one is for you.
8 Kraven’s Last Hunt
This scary Spider-Man story originally made us think that Spider-Man had finally been
defeated and even killed.
Kraven sets out to capture and kill Spider-Man, his ultimate prey because Spidey always managed
to get away, and surprisingly, Kraven succeeded and made it all look pretty busy.
Kraven buried Spider-Man and then took up the mantle himself, aiming to prove that he
could do an even better job than his foe at defeating his own villains.
To Kraven that proved that he was better than Spider-Man.
But when Spider-Man shockingly returned (spoiler alert: he was not dead just knocked out for
a few weeks) he revealed to Kraven that his objective as Spider-Man was never to completely
destroy his foes but simply to prevent the crimes they sought to commit.
Deciding that he had achieved everything he could while in his prime and proven himself,
Kraven let Spider-Man go and in the end took his own life, resigned with his accomplishments.
7 Dying Wish
In this story arc, starting in Amazing Spider-Man issue 698 and spanning three issues, Peter
Parker does actually die.
Sort of.
This is the final chapter in an ongoing plot of Otto Octavius, wherein Otto aimed to take
over Peter’s body as he was failing.
He succeeds in swapping bodies with Peter and leaves Parker’s consciousness to die
inside his former body.
While Peter inside Otto’s body fights to stay alive, in the end he does perish.
But not before he can flood Otto’s mind with memories of his life, inspiring Otto
Octavius to flip sides and turn to a life of heroics.
Even aiming like Kraven in a way to be better than Peter, taking up the mantle Superior
Spider-Man.
6 Spider-Man: Reign
So you may be familiar with the Old Man Logan storyline, but have you ever wondered what
this story would be like if it were about Spider-Man instead?
Well look no further because this dark and depressing story is basically Old Man Parker
or Old Man Spider-Man.
This version of Peter Parker was an old man full of regrets.
Peter went on to own a flower shop but was destroyed when MJ died of cancer as a result
of being exposed to his radioactive bodily fluids.
Driven insane by grief he ends up returning to a life of fighting crime in his old age,
when he’s not clutching tombstones while crying and having horrific hallucinations.
This story is also almost as violent as it is depressing.
5 Go Down Swinging
If you haven’t heard about this story line and you are a big fan of the Spider-Man comics
and Peter Parker’s villains, this one is going to be a must read for you.
This four-part story arc takes place in the Amazing Spider-Man series starting in issue
797.
Realizing the he is at his most powerful when he gives in to his own inner demons, Norman
Osborn plots to get his powers back and part of this plot involves the Carnage symbiote.
Yup.
I think you know where we’re going with this.
Norman Osborn manages to succeed in this and merges with the symbiote to become Red Goblin.
It takes tons of heroes from the Spider-Man world to band together and defeat him after
he manages to convince Peter Parker to give up the Spider-Man mantle in exchange for not
brutally killing Peter and his family.
Instead Parker is forced to fight against Red Goblin as himself in order to defeat this
new version of two merged psychotic foes.
4 Back in Black
This five part story arc takes place in Amazing Spider-Man, starting in issue 539.
Aunt May is rushed to critical care after being shot by an assassin while out with MJ
and Peter.
While her life hangs in the balance, Peter sets out to uncover evidence as to who is
behind the attack.
He discovers that Kingpin is to blame and pays a visit to Kingpin who is in jail, simply
to kick the living shit out of him.
The fight is brutal and violent.
With Aunt May’s fate uncertain, Peter tells Kingpin that he better hope that Aunt May
survives as his own life depends on it.
Promising that if Aunt May dies, he will return to finish Kingpin off and kill him.
A pretty dark story for a hero who is generally known as having a no-kill policy.
3 Absolute Carnage
Absolute Carnage might not center around Peter Parker’s Spider-Man specifically but it
is an event involving tons of characters from the spiderverse.
In Absolute Carnage, Cletus Kasady returns from the dead, after merging with a new symbiote.
The symbiote Carnage had seemingly perished as he attempted to save Kasady when they two
fell together from space back to earth.
However remnants of the symbiote live on in Kasady and are able to influence the new Grendel
symbiote basically turning it into a new version of Carnage.
With a new link to Knull through the Grendel symbiote, Kasady agrees to help free him and
sets out to collect the remnants of other symbiotes known as codexes, located in the
spines of every person and super, dead or alive, who has ever bonded with a symbiote.
2 Shed
This four part story started in Spider-Man issue 630 and centers on Doctor Curt Connors.
Though Spider-Man is also involved too.
It is his series after all.
Connors after being reformed from his life as the Lizard finds himself once again pulled
to the darkside after the death of his wife, Martha and the near loss of his son, Billy,
both to cancer.
Doc Connors begins to lose control and once again finds himself becoming the Lizard and
losing himself to it’s animalistic instincts.
The Lizard decides the best way to shake Connors’ consciousness is by eating his son, Billy.
Spider-Man races across town to save Connors’ but arrives to late.
That’s right Doc Connors eats his own son.
Not only is the story of this story arc brilliant but there is some great use of colour involved.
Lots of dramatic colours play with the use of light and dark, creating stark shadows,
mixed with some brilliant pops of blood red.
1 I Walked With a Spider
Patton Parnel is one of the most terrifying alternate Spider-Men that I have yet to uncover.
If you want something really gruesome then this is a story for you.
It only spans one issue of Edge of The Spider-Verse.
You can find it in issue 4.
This issue was written by Clay McLeod Chapman with it’s disturbing and vivid artwork coming
from Elia Bonetti.
The story centres around Patton who lives with his abusive Uncle Ted.
He is bit by a radioactive spider and undergoes a slow gruesome transformation into a spider-like
monster that also comes with an uncontrollable urge to feed on living flesh.
You know what they say with great power comes great appetite.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
What are some of your favourite Spider-Man stories?
Which alternate Spider-Man do you think is the most terrifying?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
And if you love the world of Spider-Man, Mans, Totemic Warrior as much as we do, be sure
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Till next time this has been top 10 nerd, and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding
you to stay safe and stay nerdy, YouTube.