"This is astounding! Am I a spider with the limitations of a pig? Or a pig with the proportionate strength and agility of a spider? I've become something greater than either spider or pig... I've become a Spider-Ham!"
— Peter Porker, Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #15
Debuting in a comedic one-shot comic entitled Marvel Tails in 1983, Spider-Ham was created by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Mark Armstrong as an animal-based parody of Spider-Man. Hailing from Earth-8311, Peter Porker is an anthropomorphic pig who actually began life as a common house spider who was bitten by a radioactive pig scientist after an atomic-powered hairdryer accident. Upon being bitten and transformed, he found that he retained all his spider abilities in addition to gaining the genius of scientist May Porker, who now believes herself to be Peter's aunt. After coming to terms with these changes, the arachnid-turned-pig decided to become a superhero and use these talents to fight crime. Spider-Ham proved popular enough to get his own series published by Marvel Comics subsidiary Star Comics, a short-lived imprint of the company focused on children's comics, with this solo series lasting for 17 issues and featuring back-up material starring anthropomorphic animal versions of other Marvel heroes. After that, Spider-Ham made a few appearances in Marvel Tales and humor magazine What The—?! before fading into obscurity during the 1990s.
Spider-Ham gained newfound prominence during the 2010s thanks to an unexpected cameo in the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. He would return to comics as a supporting character in the Spider-Verse crossover event a few years later, after which he became a main member of the dimension-hopping Web Warriors team. The character's popularity was further bolstered by his cinematic debut in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where he is transformed into a Looney Tunes-inspired character voiced by John Mulaney; Mulaney would reprise the role in Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham, a short included as a special feature in the film's home release. At the tail end of 2019, he got a new miniseries, and in 2021, a graphic novel called Spider-Ham: Great Power, No Responsibility was released under Scholastic's "Graphix" imprint.
Tropes:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: In his new mini at the end of 2019, he's developed a very swelled head from working to save the multiverse in Web-Warriors. It's long since gotten on every other hero's last nerve and they can barely tolerate his company, to his total obliviousness.
- Alternate Species Counterpart: Spider-Ham is Spider-Man as a cartoon pig.
- Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation: The basic premise of the comic is that it takes place in a version of the Marvel universe where everyone is an anthropomorphic animal.
- Canon Foreigner: Aside from anthropomorphic animal versions of traditional Marvel characters, there were some original characters created for this continuity as well, such as the villains Bullfrog and Dragon Lassie and the three junior reporters Bunsen, Upton, and J. Jeremiah Jackal, Jr. (J. Jonah Jackal's nephew).
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Peter Porker eventually in his own series gained a love interest named Mary Jane Waterbuffalo, this reality's version of Mary Jane Watson. She hasn't been seen since the story "The Pig from Porker's Past, Part 1" from the 224th issue of the second volume of Marvel Tales, being replaced in the stories from Amazing Spider-Man Family and the Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special one-shot by a different character named Mary Crane Watson. She did return, however, in the recent graphic novel Great Power, No Responsibility.
- Decomposite Character: Some Marvel characters have more than one counterpart in this reality. For instance, the Kingpin has appeared in the series as the Kingpig and the Pinhead.
- Department of Redundancy Department: This reality's version of Ant-Man is known as Ant-Ant.
- Depending on the Artist: While Ham's design is consistent for obvious reasons, alongside May Porker and Ham's rogues, the other characters whose species are kept consistent across titles often vary in design.
- Depending on the Writer: While Ham (obviously) and the Scavengers have stayed consistent in what animal they are, what animal counterparts to certain Marvel characters are is constantly fluctuating. In some stories, Mary Jane is a water buffalo, in others she's also a pig. The counterparts of the X-Men were initially all bugs, but in more modern times they are of various species.
- Destructive Savior: Captain Americat freely admits that the Scavengers destroy buildings in their fights.
- Expospeak Gag: Bunsen often says overly complicated versions of simple phrases, like saying "Do my audio receptors deceive me?" instead of "Do my ears deceive me?"
- Failure Hero: Awful Flight, this universe's version of Alpha Flight, who are shown to be completely inept and easily distracted from their mission. The ending narration even snarks that the reader shouldn't count on them ever saving the day.
- Humanity Ensues: A rare anthropomorphic animal example. Peter Porker used to be a spider, but became an anthropomorphic pig after an eccentric and elderly scientist named May Porker bit him after being exposed to radiation. The accident damaged May's brain and caused her to believe that she was Peter's aunt. Peter Porker chose not to tell her the truth out of fear that she'd die of shock.
- Interspecies Romance:
- Peter Porker, a spider mutated into an anthropomorphic pig, has fallen for a bat named Batty Brant, a water buffalo named Mary Jane Waterbuffalo, a catfish named Black Catfish, and a crane named Mary Crane Watsow.
- One of the back-up stories in Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham featured a relationship between Ant-Ant, an ant, and Waspbunny, a bunny.
- Jive Turkey: Upton tends to describe everything using urban slang.
- Left Hanging: There were some stories that ended abruptly with no proper conclusion.
- "Secret Furs", a take-off of Secret Wars (1984) where the Bee-yonder forced several characters to fight each other to promote profitable merchandise, ended on a cliffhanger in the 17th and final issue of Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham, with the Bee-yonder still not punished for exploiting the heroes and villains.
- The 224th issue of the second volume of Marvel Tales had a story entitled "The Pig from Porker's Past, Part 1". The story had Porker and Mary Jane Waterbuffalo go on a date and meet an until then unestablished love interest known as Sylvia Sowmeister, alias the Silver Sow. Peter Porker eventually left to change into Spider-Ham while some thugs were threatening Sylvia at gunpoint, ending the tale on a cliffhanger that was never resolved.
- Legacy Character: One What The—? story introduced Piguel O'Malley, Spider-Ham 2099. It also featured The Punfisher 2099.
- Lighter and Softer: Due to being aimed more at children, the comic was definitely more lighthearted than regular Marvel comics.
- Literal Bookworm: The Bookworm is an enemy of Spider-Ham that appears in "TV or Not TV, Or... Read a Good Book Lately?". He's an earthworm whose parents were librarians and instilled him with a deep love for books. He became a librarian himself, but had to close down the library when television sets became a household standard. Some time thereafter, a book fell on his head and The Bookworm became a low-key Reality Warper with the skill to summon literary figures into existence, order them around, and dismiss them out of existence. In order, he summons The Three Muskrateers, The Raven, and Quasidodo to ruin the Eggy Awards, destroy the state-of-the-art dish of a new television network, and kill Spider-Ham. Spider-Ham defeats The Bookworm by dropping another book on his head to remove his powers.
- Mythology Gag: A scene in the 2019 mini is based on the climatic battle of Avengers: Endgame, although with the Big Damn Heroes moment made somewhat less dramatic by Spider-Ham getting his left and right mixed up. It even riffs on Movie Cap's Signature Line, with Captain Americat saying he could do this all day, if they stopped for a catnap first.
- Negative Continuity: Some stories seemed to contradict Spider-Ham's origins of being a spider mutated into his current state from being bitten by a radioactive pig. For example, the aforementioned "The Pig from Porker's Past, Part 1" established that Peter and Sylvia Sowmeister knew each other when they were 12 years old and met in school, which is at odds with Spider-Ham's origin having him state that being bitten by the irradiated May Porker caused him to become a full-grown pig. And that's not getting into how some Marvel characters' Larval Earth counterparts lack a consistency on what animal they are.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Some of the anthropomorphic animal characters were named after and based on famous celebrities. One particular example was an ostrich rock star named Ozzy Ostrich.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. May Porker refers both to Peter Porker's "aunt" and his daughter in the "Swiney-Girl" stories from Amazing Spider-Man Family and the Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special one-shot.
- A Pig Named "Porkchop": Peter Porker is obviously named after pork, the food product from a pig.
- Punny Name: Quite a lot of the characters have names consisting of puns on their species. For example, Magneto's counterpart is named Magsquito, and this reality's version of the Beyonder is called the Bee-yonder.
- Species Surname: Several characters have surnames consisting of their species. J. Jonah Jameson's counterpart, for instance, is named J. Jonah Jackal.
- Spin-Offspring: The 4th issue of Amazing Spider-Man Family and the Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special both featured a story focusing on a take-off of Spider-Girl called Swiney-Girl, where Peter Porker had a daughter named May "Mayday" Porker who decides to become a superheroine after learning that she's inherited her dad's powers.
- Tailfin Walking: The Pun-fisher, the version of The Punisher in this universe, walks around on his tailfins.
- Take That!:
- It's made evident that whoever wrote the "Awful Flight" story doesn't have a high opinion of Alpha Flight, since they're portrayed as incompetent and useless.
- Or it’s an Affectionate Parody
- At the end of the 2019 mini, Mojo decides Larval Earth needs to be more "edgy" and puts the characters in pastiches of Family Guy and Bojack Horseman. Spider-Ham complains that this just isn't funny, and Mojo acknowledges that it's "More wry than funny. In a depressing way." Spider-Man, meanwhile is reinvented as Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, with Mojo explaining "Now I can use him to explore complex, mature themes like violence and mental illness. No idea what I'm actually saying about them, but still ... pretty cool."
- It's made evident that whoever wrote the "Awful Flight" story doesn't have a high opinion of Alpha Flight, since they're portrayed as incompetent and useless.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Spider-Ham asks The Inhumanati why they didn't call him for a multiversal mission, they take turns explaining exactly why they didn't call him, and would never call him.
- Ultimate Universe: Miles Morhames of Ultimate Larval Earth is introduced in the finale arc of Ultimate FF. That universe is a darker and grimmer universe where the characters have relatively more realistic proportions and anatomy, juxtaposed against everybody still being an anthropomorphic animal with a pun-based codename.
- World of Funny Animals: Just about everyone in this universe is an anthropomorphic animal with humanoid limbs and torsos. (Usually, they are all different animals — e.g., Hulk Bunny, Captain Americat, Deerdevil, etc — but in Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham they're all pigs with "Ham" in their names, like Green Ham and Captain Hamerica)
