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Spider-Man

Ret-Canon in Spider-Man.

Comic Books

  • In a two-issue storyline from 2000, Spider-Man donned the caped costume he wore in Spider-Man Unlimited while battling Blastaar in the Negative Zone. The cartoon's failure meant that the outfit never really reappeared after that, however.
  • Circa 2004, as part of a tie-in for Avengers Disassembled, Spider-Man gained biological webshooting powers like those portrayed in his eponymous 2002 movie. The change lasted until Brand New Day, which brought back the mechanical web-shooters.
  • Continuing the trend, in 2007, the "Back in Black" storyline, wherein Spidey starts wearing the black costume again, echoes Spider-Man 3, which is a retelling of the original black costume storyline.
  • In the original Black Costume saga, the symbiote did not affect Peter's personality, at all. It just made him tired because it would take his body out crime fighting while he slept. The addition of it making him more violent and mean came from the '90s cartoon.
  • Speaking of symbiotes, the 90's Venom: Lethal Protector series introduced five unnamed symbiotes that had been spawned from Venom by the Life Foundation. For branding purposes, ToyBiz's "Planet of the Symbiotes" toyline named the yellow, gray and green symbiotes Scream, Riot and Lasher, respectively, and the names were subsequently canonized by later writers.
  • According to Word of God, the second Superior Spider Man costume was directly inspired by the unused design Alex Ross created for the first movie, which was previously an unlockable costume in its video game adaptation.
  • The Spider-Cycle from the Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) cartoon appeared in an Imagine Spot in issue #200 of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic.
  • "Web Warriors", the subtitle of Season 3 of Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), was later imported into the comics as the name of a group of Spider-Heroes from across the multiverse.
  • The famous phrase "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" was shortened from a longer form and attributed to Uncle Ben by Retcon. (It was originally spoken by the narrator.) The first time the phrase was actually attributed to Uncle Ben was in The Amazing Spider-Man: A Rockomic!, a Spider-Man themed rock opera from the early 70's.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2 did away with Electro's mask and green tights, and completely redesigned him so that he now resembled a pulsing blue Energy Being (which itself was taken from Ultimate Spider-Man). In turn, the comics ditched Electro's mask and established that thanks to Power Incontinence, he had now begun turning blue whenever he used his electrical abilities. Funnily enough, Spider-Man: No Way Home had Electro going back to his regular appearance (due to the MCU's higher energy) and whenever he charges his electricity, it resembles his classic mask.
  • Ariel Olivetti's redesign of the Rhino was based on an unmade action figure Paul Komoda designed for the Marvel Legends Icons line.
  • After the Marvel Rising: Initiation animated shorts changed Spider-Gwen's official codename from "Spider-Woman" to "Ghost-Spider," the comics followed suit.
  • In 2019, Lady Octopus was redesigned to resemble the Olivia Octavius version of Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Meanwhile, the Prowler (Aaron Davis) was reintroduced with his Adaptational Nice Guy personality from the movie, genuinely caring about Miles rather than ruthlessly exploiting him like the Ultimate version. Additionally, Aaron now wears a cape with his Prowler costume (which he did not originally have in the Ultimate universe) due to the influence of the movie.
  • The Round Robin one-shot Spider-Man: Full Circle features Spidey being sent on a globe-trotting adventure by S.H.I.E.L.D., a premise obviously inspired by Spider-Man: Far From Home.
  • During the third issue of his Absolute Carnage tie-in book, Miles Morales ends up defeating one of Carnage's symbiote mooks in the middle of a shoe store. The store's owner rewards him with a new pair of shoes that he can claim as soon as the crisis is over. The shoes in question, called Athena Sky 6's, are obviously lawyer-safe stand-ins of the Nike Air Jordan 1's he wore in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Similarly, other books such as Champions have sometimes depicted Miles in the same hoodie he wore in the film.
  • While not ported back to the original comics, Ultimate Spider-Man would inspire every incarnation since on when Peter knows Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Gwen Stacy. The original comics had Peter meet them when he entered college. Starting with Ultimate, every adaptation would have him meet or even already know them during their high school days.
  • The 2023 Spider-Man: India mini-series sees Pavitr adopt a new costume heavily influenced by his radical redesign from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

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