Fanfic / The Legendary Spider Man

Peter: My name is Peter Parker, and this is the story of my life.

The Legendary Spider-Man by blackknight11757 is a reinterpretation of Spider-Man through the lenses of all his different media appearances mashed together into a new story set in its own Marvel Universe. Starting where most versions begin: The day Peter Parker got bit by a spider which would give him superpowers. However, in this universe, there is one important thing hanging over this Peter: A destiny to become a legendary hero who will lead his world into a new era.

Tropes swinging into action include...

• Adaptation Origin Connection: Several of the supervillains have a connection with Kingpin in this story. These include Vulture, Shocker, Sandman, Chameleon and Kraven all get their first crack at Peter on Fisk's behalf.
• Adaptational Badass: Peter still has his normal spider powers, but the difference now is that he gets a crash course in different martial arts in order to better prepare himself for fights in a more formal fashion. Something no version of Spider-Man normally takes up onscreen.
  • Mary Jane also takes up some self-defense.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: This story follows The Spectacular Spider-Man logic of introducing a bevy of college characters into high school. These include the Symbiote, Venom, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Jefferson Davis, Black Cat (in year 1 of being Spider-Man and the 4th supervillain he encounters), Tombstone, and Mr. Negative (who doesn't appear in canon until Peter's an Adult!).
• Adaptational Heroism: Black Cat isn't a pure thief in this version, but rather someone who uses her family's cat burglary skills to target criminals and help victims afterwards.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Green Goblin hasn't even come up as a potential threat in the 4 years and counting of Spider-Man being active.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Flash Thompson starts out as he always was is, a hot headed, bullying Jerk Jock. However, after being saved by Spider-Man, he begins changing for the better much sooner than in the comics.
  • Uncle Aaron is an ex-con like in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and is genuinely trying to do right by his family.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The Shocker is normally a purely professional criminal with no appetite for carnage or harming innocents. This Schultz is little more than a thug who enjoys the power given to him by his suit.
  • The Rose is more villainous here as Wilson Fisk's son actually wants to continue his criminal career rather than shut it down.
  • Somehow, Norman Osborn is even WORSE than some of his other media counterparts — willingly doing business with terrorists, and an implication that he murdered his own wife, Emily Osborn, when she tried to prove Adrian Toomes innocent of his crimes.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Due to the time gap between their appearances and universes, there's a lot of these.
  • The Stacy Family has no overt connections to Mr. Negative, but become very harshly connected after Mr. Negative murders George Stacy.
  • Normally, Vulture and Norman Osborn have no connection to each other. In this universe, Toomes was the Fall Guy in a deal gone wrong for Oscorp.
• Affectionate Nickname: Steve Rodgers calls Peter "Son" in casual settings.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Anya Corazon is a spider character who is a known Spider hero, but one far less known compared to those around her. Here, she becomes the 4th full-time member of the Web Warriors and the one and only Spider-Girl.
  • Man Mountain Marko isn't normally a high-profile spider villain. In this universe, he's the acting head of the Manfredi Crime Family on Silvermane's behalf.
• Back from the Dead: Lonnie Lincoln gets a "joker" treatment by falling into a vat of chemicals, and then reviving sometime later as the near unfeeling Tombstone.
• Big Bad Ensemble: There are many enemies around this universe. Kingpin is the foremost early Big Bad, someone always creating new villains and leading the criminal underworld of New York. However, there are others lurking around making moves. Hammerhead is acting on behalf of his injured boss, Silvermane. HYDRA is lurking in the background as an international villainous organization. Other international groups like The Inner Demons and The Hand have representatives working in New York. Otto Octavius continues to make moves in the background, which turn into grand plans. And then there's Norman Osborn, whose influence on the story extends to many villains' backstories, as well as lies in the middle of double dealing in both legitimate and illegitimate businesses.
• Big Brother Mentor: While Peter nominally has this with the many new spider heroes, he more directly takes on this role for Ms. Marvel. Saying that he'd be more than happy to check in with her every so often as a growing new teen hero in Jersey.
• Big Good:
  • Julia Carpenter for the Spiders specifically. With her future visions as the new Madame Webb, it's her foremost duty to prepare every spider person to be a hero and ensure the safety of the world.
  • Nick Fury is a more traditional Big Good as someone who helps coordinate for big crisises happening across the world.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Peter actually has this happen twice. Once with Mary Jane and once with Gwen Stacey.
• The Confidant: MJ is the first person Peter reveals his identity to, making her his most trusted confidant to help balance both halves of his life.
• Dark Secret: Richard and Mary Parker were SHIELD agents who failed their mission inside HYDRA and were killed by The Winter Soldier in retaliation.
• Dawn of an Era: This is what Julia Carpenter posits to Peter: that his awakening will be the start of a new era of heroes, and he'll be there to lead them all through it.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Cassandra Webb is not a part of this story, as she died a year or so before the beginning.
  • Leeland Owlsley, AKA The Owl gets this twice. Once with a fake-out death, and once with an actual death.
• Early-Bird Cameo
  • Jessica Jones was one of Peter's classmate before being Put on a Bus due to her car crash that killed her family.
  • Kate Bishop is first mentioned as an elder classman going to Miles's vision Academy.
• Enemy Mine: While he at first saw Carnage as a useful partner to get revenge on the Spiders, Venom eventually got pushed too far when his Love Interest also got in the crossfire. Causing them to team up to make certain Cletus doesn't get away.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A very recurring trope, as Tombstone, Kingpin and Kraven all have loved ones who they value and might shape their actions.
  • This trope is also why Tiana Toomes is ashamed to fully explain herself to Miles as they start going out.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Very present, but played with. At the start of the story, there's plenty of criminals already established around the world. But in Peter's world, the big 4 to worry about were Lonnie Lincoln, Leland Owlsley, Silvermane and Kingpin. After Spider-Man puts all these criminals out of commission, they either diminish in importance or have their regular positions taken over by other crime bosses. There's a case where this happened twice in a row. As the china triads lost leadership from The Hand, only for The White Dragon and then Mr. Negative to take over their remnants back to back.
• Friendly Enemy: For Kraven the Hunter, he actually has no malice towards Spider-Man at first. Only wanting the thrill of hunting a prey who can give him a serious challenge. In fact, he's sure to give Spiderman respect every time he escapes or bests him.
• Foil
  • Cloak & Dagger makes for a contrast with where Spider-Man and Ghost Spider were in their careers at that time. The spider people have identical powers, while Cloak & Dagger have contrasting Darkness and Light powers. Peter & Gwen are more ordinary high schoolers, while Ty and Tandy are runaways who got mixed up in a bad situation. But on an inverted note, while Ty and Tandy trust each other and work together pretty smoothly, Peter & Gwen have to learn to trust and believe in working together after revealing their identities lead to friction on how capable the other is.
• Forced into Evil:
  • After being arrested for robbery, Aaron Davis did want to turn the corner and live a normal life. Unfortunately, he still owed a favor to Kingpin, and so Aaron felt he needed to become The Prowler in order to keep his family safe from reprisal.
  • Sandman also fell into this due to threats to his family.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: White Rabbit and her allies. They aren't harmless, but they're far less of a threat compared to the A listers like Venom or Dr. Octopus.
• Hero of Another Story: Technically applies to all heroes who aren't Web Warriors, as we don't get to see their heroic adventures for the most part. For example...
  • Tony spends some of his free time fighting The Mandarin.
  • Steve and T'Challa went after Klaw after Ultron attacked, and Cap got his shield broken by the sound. Meaning he needed to use the light shield for a bit.
  • Carol spent some time in outer space, and befriended the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Heroic Sacrifice: It's a superhero adaptation. It happens pretty regularly.
  • Hank Pym takes out Ultron by shrinking both of them into the quantum realm without hope of escape.
  • Aaron Davis dies protecting Miles from Dr. Octopus.
  • Otto Octavius gives up certainty at life to ensure Peter can return and save everyone from Arnim Zola.
• The Juggernaut: The Rhino's backstory here is directly tied to The Hulk as a hulking power who the Web Warriors can't defeat with their normal skills.
• Legion of Doom: There's the usual Sinister Six which Dr. Octopus manages to assemble. But when Otto then moves on to his Ends of the Earth plan, he upgrades into something even more grand: The Sinister Sixteen!
• Love Dodecahedron: It carries over some of the romantic dynamics of The Spectacular Spider-Man, but with some of its own more comic book twists.
  • Peter Parker had Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy and Liz Allen all have an interest in attracting his attention. And others like Betty Brant, the Spider Queen, Rogue, Black Cat and Iceman all have some level of interest in him as well.
  • Liz also started out dating Flash Thompson, but eventually broke up due to disliking his attitude.
  • Mary Jane is Peter's closest confidant and truly cares about Peter, but she's also the Best Friend of Gwen and suspects that she'll be Always Second Best compared to the brainy Spider Hero in Peter's heart. So, she dated both Harry Osborn and Flash Thompson for periods of time.
  • Meanwhile, Miles was attracted to Anya Corezon on first meeting her at school, but got busy being a spider hero. So wanted to settle on being Just Friends. And started going after Tiana Toomes. Of course, Anya hasn't gotten over her own frustrating attraction to Miles.
  • There's also the awkward situation Superior Spider-Man put peter in due to dating Anna Marie briefly to get away from Gwen in the process. But given the Grand Theft Me going on, despite her appreciation for him, saw that it wasn't right for them to be together under those circumstances.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: At the very least, Peter has the excuse of being a freelance photographer to help pay the bills for his aunt, but the stress of supervillains and responsibility did lead to some serious strain on his relationship with Liz Allen. There was also unintentional strain that he and Gwen went through due to their spider powers driving a wedge of expectations between them.
  • It also extends more directly to MJ, who swore to both Peter and Gwen to not bring Harry into their secrets. But, since they were dating at the time, Harry decided that since she can't be honest with him, then they can't be together.
• Odd Friendship: Spider Man with all the other heroes of the world. Who'd think a teenager from Queens would end up friends with such a diverse group of people?
• Open Secret: In many ways, Peter's secret identity evolves into a form of this. He basically gives the entire superhero community carte blanche to know since he trusts their character. And while hesitant to be too open with many of his friends, enough of his close friends (George Stacy, Aunt May, MJ, Gwen, Ganke, Ariane, Anna Marie) are already familiar with the secret, meaning he mostly only stays coy in his professional life as Spider Man.
• Out of Focus: Harry Osborn, despite having a great destiny and supposedly being the original 4th member of Peter's friend group, has much less to do compared with the ladies in Peter's life.
• The Paragon: In this universe, while Peter Parker isn't the original superhero or even responsible for the rise of many other heroes, his dogged dedication to responsibility, courage and hope makes him essentially the most respected hero among the community and a mentor to those wavering on the sidelines.
• Posthumous Character: The original Madame Webb (Cassandra Webb) dies several years before Peter's story begins.
• Punch-Clock Villain: The Tinkerer is foremost an inventor, and treats his work as a mere living rather than a means of malice. Of course, Spider-Man is quick to say that's no excuse for providing weapons for the streets to make worse.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of high school, Flash Thomson decides to enlist in the military, thus putting him very far away from all his old friends.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Essentially the entire Marvel Universe becomes at least a passing enemy of Spider-Man and his teammates. The Mandarin, HYDRA, AIM, The Brotherhood of Mutants are all different subfranchises, but Spidey clashes with each of them in turn.
• Rotating Arcs: While the hijinks of Peter Parker are the main thrust of the entire series, many of his supporting cast also get stories about what's up in their own lives as well. Gwen, MJ, Miles, Anya, even Flash Thompson all have arcs which zing and zag around each other to various degrees.
• Secret Identity: Peter is a little more flexible with this compared with some adaptations, being open about it to MJ and Tony Stark to start with.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Captain Stacy figures out that Peter is Spider-Man relatively quickly, but is unwilling to go public about it in many ways because Peter saved Gwen from the Enforcers. Plus, he's unsure how to broach the topic when Spider-Man has some weird interactions with other villains/the media.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Johnathan Drew usually only appears once or twice a season, but he's essentially the man who enabled the creation of The Web Warriors. He created the special spiders which would give superpowers to every spider hero/heroine to arise from his partner Jessica Carpenter to his daughter to the many teens who got powers accidentally in one way or another.
  • Spider Queen is only around for the first 3 chapters of year 4 before dying. However, her actions lead to the creation of the 4th spider hero, and is Peter's first introduction to Mutants, who would become a serious part of the year going forward.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Sally Arvil AKA The Bluebird is saved from death in this continuity. She gives up the moniker to live a normal life after nearly dying.
• Stern Teacher: Peter as a new Spider Mentor takes this as his initial tact with Miles and Anya. Not entirely trusting of a new spider hero who he's never interacted with before. And very frank about the dangers the life of a superhero entails.
• The Stinger: Occasionally happens at the end of a chapter as different heroes or villains tease upcoming stories.
  • Thunderbolt Ross thinking of getting Project Abomination started.
  • Nick Fury keeping tabs on new heroes emerging into the world.
  • Tony coming to Hank Pym looking to team up to create Ultron.
  • Clea of the Dark Dimension ending up in Dr. Strange's sanctum.
  • Ms. Marvel having her mom find out about her secret life.
• Superhero Paradox: It wouldn't be a superhero story without something like this happening. While Spider-Man fighting crime did drive some criminals to rise in response to his challenge, there were enough entrenched powers in the world that in a way, the rise of Superheroes was a boon to the world. As with their rise, groups like The Ten Rings, AIM, HYDRA, Fisk's crime ring and even international/national criminals like The Foreigner and Crime Master were taken down for the first time. Providing respite and lessening the overall crime levels compared to before.
• Teen Genius: Technically, Peter, Gwen and Ganke all have this. Each has their own skills in chemistry, mechanical engineering or computer work.
• Tragic Monster: Kurt Conners was nothing but a good man and scientist. But after experimenting with a lizard serum, he now has a monstrous lizard inside him which he can damp down, but never quite control.
• Tragic Villain: Martin Li has a characterization that balances between his video game and comic appearances, where he was a victim of an experiment with light & dark energy by a Mad Scientist. It gave him a Evil Superpowered Side who became the great crime boss of Hong Kong, but Li himself hates his negative side and wants to be free of it, despite being unable to truly control it.
  • Aaron Davis made a bad choice to steal, and got a few years in prison. To survive, he made a deal with Kingpin to make it through his imprisonment. But because of this mob debt, despite wanting to put his past behind him, he was dragged back into the life to act as a supervillain on behalf of greater masterminds.
• Training Montage: Madame web puts both Spider-Man and Ghost Spider through the paces to get their fighting skills up to snuff.
• Ultimate Universe: A Spider-Man story that intends to take influences from all aspects of Spider Canon, and giving it its own sheen. In terms of some specifics, the story begins in the year 2021 so cell phones and jet pack technology are more modern aspects of their various lives. The Daily Bugle is described as more of a tabloid paper thanks to Jonah's editorializing, but inflation also means that Peter gets paid slightly more money compared with older pricing. And then there's discussion on how to bring a criminal to justice if they're also a public figure like Wilson Fisk.
• Uniqueness Decay: Peter Parker was the first Spider hero. But every year like clockwork, another spider hero ends up joining the group. Ghost Spider, Kid Arachnid (Miles) and Spider Girl. And that's not even counting the Spider-Woman and Madame Webb who aren't direct Web Warriors.
• Wham Line: Kingpin I. When Aunt May holds up Spider Man, distrustful of somehow getting her family involved, she asks why she should trust him.
  Peter: (Unmasks) Because you always did before, Aunt May.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Kingpin of Crime: After lasting the whole year as the biggest threat in the city, Peter ups his game by approaching as many people as possible to take down the Kingpin's empire. In the struggle, Tombstone is put in a coma, Leland Owlsley is revealed to be alive and gives testimony as revenge on Fisk, Vanessa finds out about his double life and ends up killing herself out of shame for what happened to their family. But on a more direct level, an assassination attempt on the Parker house leads to Peter revealing his secret identity to Aunt May willingly.
  • Cloak & Dagger: After saving two runaways and working to take down Silvermane's operations, Gwen tells Peter that if they can't trust each other to work without the extra burden of romantic care, then they can't be together. Thus, Gwen breaks up with Peter until he can see her for who she's become.
  • Mr. Negative. Trying to get a handle on the Inner Demons gang, Cloak & Dagger finish their own investigation into the third surviving experiment of their type, learning about Martin Li and the being infused into him by giving him both darkness and light powers. Meanwhile in New York, Mr. Negative makes himself known through muscling into the triad spaces left by White Dragon, even turning Spider-Man back to evil through his negative powers. While Gwen manages to stop his near-destruction of the Daily Bugle, it only hardens Jameson's view of the heroes as menaces to society. And in the final conflict, Mr. Negative stabs George Stacy. While Cloak does get him to a hospital very quickly, the wounds are too great, and George dies, passing on his legacy to the four people he influenced in his life: Flash's father, whom he helped get clean; Lieutenant Yuri, whom he entrusts leading the NYPD and clearing Spider-Man's name; Peter, who he asks to look after Gwen; and his daughter, who he only gives the last words that she's become someone to be proud of, and he loves her. As a consequence, Gwen has to leave with her uncle's family to London in order to be with her next of kin.
  • The Superior Spider Man I: After a fun bit of fighting a minor villain called Massacre at a wedding, Peter goes to Aunt May to ask for her blessing to propose to Gwen Stacy. May eventually relents, and even gives him her wedding rings. Peter films what he intends to do, and then is captured by Dr. Octopus. With his body about to give out after months of cancerous rot, Ock steals Peter's body and pushes Gwen away, although also beginning to better understand what joys Peter's life has.