Spider-Ham


Spider-Ham is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is an anthropomorphic pig and is a cartoon animal parody version of Spider-Man. He was created by Larry Hama, Tom DeFalco and Mark Armstrong.
He first appeared in the one-shot humor comic book Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, which was then followed by an ongoing bi-monthly series, Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, under Marvel's Star Comics imprint, with both titles edited by Hama. The character existed on Earth-8311, which was a universe populated by anthropomorphic parody versions of the Marvel superheroes and supervillains. Spider-Ham made his feature film debut in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, voiced by John Mulaney.

Publication history

Spider-Ham was first featured as star of the 1983 humorous one-shot Marvel Tails, with a backup cast of other anthropomorphic talking-animal parody versions of popular Marvel superheroes, such as Captain Americat, Hulk-Bunny and Goose Rider.
Two years later, a solo series, titled Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham debuted under Marvel's Star Comics imprint. The series, published bi-monthly, lasted seventeen issues before its cancellation in 1987. With the cancellation of Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, the character became a backup feature in Marvel Tales, a monthly reprint series showcasing Spider-Man's past adventures. Beginning with issue #201, these new Spider-Ham stories appeared in issues #201–212, 214–219, 223–230, 233, 236, 237, 239, 240, and 247 before ceasing altogether.
In issue #3 of What The--?!, Porker meets with Raven the Hunter in a story that satirized the popular "Kraven's Last Hunt" storyline which had been featured a year earlier in Marvel's Spider-Man titles. Spider-Ham also makes appearances in issues #18, 20, 22, and 24 of What The--?! The 26th issue of What The--?! features "Spider-Ham 15.88", a humorous take-off on Peter Parker's future counterpart, Miguel O'Hara a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099. The "15.88" is not seen as a year, but rather a humorous take on the price of a ham.
Spider-Ham has also appeared on the cover of Wha...Huh? #1, and was referred to as a fictional character in the Earth-616 Marvel Universe, in Generation X #52.
Spider-Man Family #1 features a sixteen-page Spider-Girl story, in which May Parker watches a DVD showing a small portion of a fictional Spider-Ham animated series, discovering that it was created by one of Spider-Man's enemies, Jack O'Lantern. Here, Spider-Ham appears to mostly be a parody of Batman. Also in the issue, there is a partial reprint of Marvel Tails #1.
Spider-Ham was selected by fans and retailers to be the focus of the final variant cover by Mike Wieringo to the Spider-Man: The Other crossover, Amazing Spider-Man #528.
In January 2007, J. Michael Straczynski authored the Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham one-shot, featuring Spider-Ham's attempt to find his missing "thought balloons" against a Civil War parody. The story does not fit in with previously established Spider-Ham continuity.
Tom Defalco returned to Spider-Ham's world in 2009, in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man Family #4–5. He introduces Swiney-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Ham and counterpart of Defalco's other creation Spider-Girl. Once again, the story strays away from the established, albeit loose, continuity of the original Spider-Ham stories by altering the character's origin and supporting characters, most notably in establishing Peter Porker as a natural-born pig bitten by a radioactive spider and altering his love interest from a water buffalo to a crane.
He fights alongside the X-Babies in issue #4 of their four-issue miniseries from 2009 to 2010.
To mark the anniversary of Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #1, Marvel released the Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special in July 2010, with Tom Defalco writing both Spider-Ham and Swiney-Girl stories. These stories feature most of Spider-Ham's original cast and origin, but incorporates the Mary Crane Watsow character from Amazing Spider-Man Family rather than her original counterpart.
In 2022, a graphic novel was published called Spider-Ham: Hollywood May-Ham. The book features Spider-Ham and Mary Jane Waterbuffalo attempt to make a documentary about his status as a superhero with Alfred Peacock. After noticing mysterious happenings on set, he realizes Peacock is actually Mysteriape and attempts to defeat him and the Swinester Six. Mary Crane Watsow also makes a background appearance, establishing Watsow and Waterbuffalo to be two different red-haired women named Mary ane whom Spider-Ham has dated.

Fictional character biography

Peter Porker was born a spider and resided in the basement lab of May Porker, a scientist who invented an atomic-powered hairdryer to revolutionize the hair care industry. After dousing her head with water and activating the dryer, May accidentally irradiated herself and in a fit of delusion, bit Peter, transforming him into an anthropomorphic pig. Running from the Porker home, Peter soon came to realize that he still retained a spider's abilities:
"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, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #15

After this startling series of events, Peter adopted the surname "Porker" dedicated himself and his new-found abilities to fighting injustice and the occasional animal parody of established Marvel Comics villains. May Porker's scientific genius was transferred to Peter, giving him the know-how to devise his webspinner gauntlets to replace his lost natural ability.

Misadventures

Porker, in his spider-themed alter-ego's first adventure, teamed up with Captain Americat, as they attempted to foil the nefarious plot of The Marauder, in a series of events that led to the creation of the Hulk-Bunny.
Several months later, Spider-Ham encountered his main nemesis and one of his only recurring enemies in the form of Ducktor Doom, a duck parody of Doctor Doom. Spider-Ham would meet again with Doom when Porker would foil the would-be world conqueror's plot to create an army of living super vegetables.
Other notable menaces Porker would face along the way include the Bull-Frog, the Buzzard, Hogzilla, and the King-Pig.
Three characters, not parallels to anybody in the Spider-Man series, also begin in #1: J. Jeremiah Jackal, Jr., Bunson Bunny and Upton Adam Stray, all junior trainees at the Daily Beagle. They acquire super-powers in #15, encouraging Spider-Ham in his already made decision to abandon his super-hero career, but they fumble their first mission, forcing Peter Porker to resume his alter-ego as Spider-Ham. Further misadventures of the Beagle Brigadiers were presented within the back-up stories in Marvel Tales.
The series also included back-up stories featuring such characters as Deerdevil, Goose Rider and the Fantastic Fur.

Marvel Zombies

When Spider-Ham accidentally travels to the Marvel Zombies universe, he is suddenly zombified by a group of zombies, namely Captain America, Hulk, and Wolverine. It appears that he is directly shot in the head by an energy bullet by Ultron, effectively killing him but, in a zombie state, Spider-Ham turned into Ham-ibal Lecter.

Spider-Verse

During the Spider-Verse storyline which featured Spider-Men from various alternate realities, Spider-Ham became a member of the Spider-Army fighting against the Inheritors. He played a crucial role in the final confrontation when he switches places with Benjy Parker – one of the three sacrifices needed for the Inheritors to destroy the Spider-Totems – allowing Ben Parker to get Benjy to safety.

''Secret Wars''

During the Secret Wars event when all universes were destroyed and their remains formed a single planet called Battleworld, Spider-Ham found himself the only pig in the domain of the Battleworld called Arachnia and ended up as the captive of its Mayor, Norman Osborn. He was rescued by Spider-Gwen, and the two eventually discovered and teamed up with other spider-powered people, neither of whom remembered their previous encounter during the original Spider-Verse.

''Web Warriors''

Following the conclusion of Secret Wars, the team of six Spiders that formed during the event feature in a new ongoing series called Web Warriors, a name that was coined by the Peter Parker of the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series during the original Spider-Verse.

In other media

Television

  • Spider-Ham appears in Ultimate Spider-Man in two different forms.
  • * In the first season episode "Run Pig Run", Loki transforms Spider-Man into an anthropomorphic pig resembling Spider-Ham during Asgardsreia, a holiday where Asgardians go on a day-long hunt. With the help of Thor, Phil Coulson, Nick Fury and his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. trainees, "Spider-Ham" evades the Executioner and his Asgardian hunters until he is returned to normal.
  • * Spider-Ham proper appears in the third and fourth seasons, voiced by Benjamin Diskin. This version is a pig who got his powers from a spider that fell into his Aunt May's vitamin pancake batter, which transferred said vitamins and powers to him. After becoming a superhero and joining his universe's Avengers however, J. Jonah Jackal turned the public against him and forced him to quit. In the episode "The Spider-Verse", Spider-Ham encounters the "prime" Spider-Man, who encourages him to become Spider-Ham once again.

Film

Video games

Miscellaneous

  • Spider-Ham appears in the Twisted ToyFare Theatre parody comic "Four Webbings and a Funeral" as part of The Wizard Spider-Man Special. In the comic, Spider-Ham appears as one of the entrees being served at Spider-Man's funeral.
  • Spider-Ham appears in Marvel Battleworld: Mystery of the Thanostones and Treachery at Twilight, voiced by Jesse Inocalla.
  • Spider-Ham appears in the web-series Marvel TL;DR.

Reception

In August 2009, TIME listed Spider-Ham as one of the "Top 10 Oddest Marvel Characters".