NO![...] I've been traveling out in space for forty years-- eating and killing, devouring everything in sight... only to learn I'd be coming back here, to Earth... a place where I can't hide what I once was-- can't forget it, the evidence is right here-- all around us. We were heroes. And we return to find living people here! With families! We can't do this again! We just can't! I won't let you! 
- —Spider-Man[src]
Quick Answers
How did Spider-Man become a zombie in the Earth-2149 universe?
Who did Zombie Spider-Man eat first when he succumbed to the Hunger?
What is the significance of Spider-Man's vein webs in the Earth-2149 universe?
How does Spider-Man's remorse for his actions affect his behavior in the Earth-2149 universe?
What led to Spider-Man betraying his fellow zombies in the Earth-2149 universe?
History
Before zombification
Little is detailed about Spider-Man’s life before the zombie plague arrived on Earth-2149, however it can be presumed that it followed as much of the same path as his Earth-616 counterpart. As he was swinging through New York, Spidey spotted the Avengers having an altercation with an apparently irated Ash Williams holding a chainsaw and a shotgun. He swung down to offer his help, at which point Colonel America asked him to wrap Ash up in webbing and take him away, which he did.
However, while he was carrying Ash through the city, Ash told Spidey of his incredible journey, from the Gates of Heaven, where a zombified Sentry had punched him into this world. They come upon the zombified Sentry biting and infecting Colonel America, Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, and Hawkeye.
The man told the web-slinger that he thought the source of the problem was a “Book of the Dead”; “The Necronomicon”. They were making plans to search for it, when Colonel America launched himself into the air, and bit Spider-Man on the shoulder. Spidey dropped Ash Williams at the feet of the newly zombified Avengers, and crashed to the ground.
Seemingly infected Spidey jumped on Hawkeye and threatened to eat his brains. The others, however, told him not to bother as the dead tasted horrible, and it seemed only total destruction of the brain could kill the zombies. After a brief stand-off, Spider-Man said that he was taking Ash because he had to listen to him talking, so he should get to eat him, and swung off with Ash still wrapped up.
On the roof of a building Spidey untied Ash, who took the opening, and punched him in the jaw. Spider-Man revealed himself to be still human, albeit with a severely dislocated jaw. As they look over the city, and saw the destruction taking place, Spidey realized he had to get Aunt May and Mary Jane to safety and swung off to save them, leaving Ash on his own.
When he arrived home, Spidey found May and MJ safe and well, and told them that they needed to get away. But the zombie contagion was spreading through his body, and he doubled over in pain. When Mary Jane came to help she grabbed his mask, exposing Peter’s necrotized mouth as he lashed out at her and ate MJ. Aunt May came in from another room, and he told her to hide, but he presumably ate her as well. Mary Jane turned into zombie while Peter ate his aunt, but Spidey probably killed her, as zombie, again so he could eat May on his own.
As Spidey was tucking into his wife, Nova appeared at the window, wondering what was going on. Peter attacked him, and Nova backed off to an adjacent rooftop, where Daredevil arrived and told Nova he needed to kill Spidey, but was quickly bitten himself. As the two ate many people on the way, Peter eventually ate his boss, J. Jonah Jameson, for the many times he acused Spidey of being a menace.
When Beast and Reed Richards found a sizable stash of meat in Latveria and the surrounding area, Spidey and a huge horde of zombies headed off to lay siege to Castle Doomstadt. Unable to break through the castles magical defenses, Peter was presumably surrounded by the reanimated corpses of the Deadite Legion. Though apparently this was more of an inconvenience than anything else, as he later returned to New York seemingly none the worse for wear (other than a touch of zombification, obviously). [1] [2]
In New York, Spider-Man caught Reed Richards of Earth-1610 in his webbing as the young Mr. Fantastic was lost in the ruined city. Reed got away when Magneto dropped hundreds of cars on the massed zombie horde.
_from_Marvel_Zombies_Vol_1_1_0001.jpg){kind=link}
Chasing Magneto
He missed out on another feed when his webbing runs out while pursuing Magneto, who was escaping the ruins of the Baxter Building after reed's and other survivors escape to another dimension. What’s more, in the resultant fall, he broke his leg “—like—in half”. Unable to get to Magneto because of his leg, Spider-Man eventually got a feed when the other zombies tore Magneto apart and stray bits of his body happened to fall within reach. [3]
Power Cosmic
When Silver Surfer turned up to announce the coming of Galactus and was attacked by the zombies, Spider-Man, deciding that his flapping, broken leg was just holding him back, he tore it off at the knee, and when Hulk bit off Silver Surfer’s head, he made a bee-line for the corpse, ignoring the pleas of a bisected Iron Man. The few zombies that managed to feed on Silver Surfer found they had absorbed some of his Power Cosmic. They used it to cook all of the other zombies to eat them, but they still tasted bad.
When Galactus arrived to devour the world, the zombies tried to devour him, but made a tactical withdrawal when they discovered that, even with a portion of the Power Cosmic, they weren’t powerful enough to defeat him. The zombies decided to build a device that combined all of their Power Cosmics into one powerful beam to take on Galactus. When they set up the weapon, they saw a horde of zombie super-villains making a determined but futile attack on the Devourer of Worlds. It only took a couple of shots from their weapon to floor Galactus, then the two groups of zombies fought over the remains.
Spider-Man and Venom faced off, but the symbiote was dying due to the fact that Brock had been zombiefied and it needs a living creature to survive. Spider-Man easily zapped him with Power Cosmic, and both Eddie Brock and the Symbiote died. Just then, he saw Red Skull scoop out the brains of a partially decapitated Colonel America, and blew the villain's head off with Power Cosmic. But Galactus wasn't quite dead, and began to get up. The Marvel Zombies were on him in a flash and quickly devoured him, absorbing some of his power.
As they finished off the world devourer, out of nowhere the dead bodies of the Fantastic Four flopped onto the street, followed closely by Doctor Doom, the zombies spotted him, and attacked. The zombies, thinking all the "food" of the world was gone, decided to use the powers cosmic to travel through space in hopes of finding life forms in other planets to eat. Somehow, however, they got space clothes similar to the one Galactus had. [4]
Skrull World
After traveling through the cosmos, devouring planets as they go, the Zombie Galacti arrived at the Skrull homeplanet. Wolverine ripped through the defensive field with his claws, and the Galacti squeezed through. Like many of the civilizations before, the Skrulls tried to defend themselves by firing missiles at them, but the zombified heroes destroyed them easily with the Power Cosmic.
On reaching the planet surface Tony and Luke first came across some kind of bug, and they attacked that, then turned to gorge on the Skrull populace. With most of the Skrulls on the ground devoured, the Zombie Galacti concentrated on the Skrull Warships circling them. While the more powerful zombies broke through the hulls of the warships to the delights within, Spidey got a little left behind, clinging to the outside of a ship.
Spidey came across a mother and son Skrull hiding under a bed and devoured them. They seemed unstoppable, but chasing after a group of Skrulls they ran into the bug they met when they first arrived. This time, however, it had been zombified, and ate some of the Skrulls. The zombified heroes attacked but the bug punched them into the side of a building far away. They decided to eat some more before they attacked again.
Cage told the others of his discovery of a possible way to get to another Earth, much to their delight. They confronted the New Fantastic Four in a crashed Skrull ship, and demanded that they hand over the Transdimensional device that they had been using.
Wolverine decided instead to search the Skrull ship for any injured Skrulls to snack on, but only came across Thanos, and his mistress Death. They offered the Zombies a reward for their destruction; an end to their undeadness. Though Spidey discovered that they are far from what they seem. As the projections of Thanos and Death disappeared, the two Skrulls beneath begged for their lives.
With the last of the Skrulls eaten, the Zombie Galacti decide to explore the Galactus element to their powers, and began to consume the planet, eventually leaving themselves floating in space. [5]
40 Years Later
After 40 years of eating planets, Spidey and the others (with new cybernetic parts replacing any lost limbs, like Spidey's right leg) had eaten almost every living thing in the universe. After realizing they were still hungry, they decided to return to Earth to find Reed Richard's dimensional portal and go to another dimension with people to eat. However, when they began to return, Spidey noted to Luke Cage that his hunger seemed to have disappeared.
After eating Ego the Living Planet and floating on for a few weeks, the zombies managed to return to Earth and discovered a race of survivors, led by an aging zombified Black Panther. The Hulk went on a rampage until he was stopped by Giant Man, who suggested they start up a breeding program to have human food for eternity. However, Spidey blasted off the top of Giant Man's head, recognising that he had overcome the worst of his hunger and refusing to repeat his old mistakes with the human race. Giant Man then ordered him to be killed, but Luke Cage, a zombified Black Panther, Wasp, and Spidey fought off Wolverine long enough for a force field to be raised, sealing all the other zombies out of New Wakanda, but sealing Gladiator and Bruce Banner in and tearing Luke Cage in half. After a brief battle with Gladiator resulting in Spidey being nearly torn in half, Spidey and Cage blasted Gladiator's head apart. The other zombies depart to the Baxter Building.
In Forge and Reynolds' lab, Spidey got sewn up and Cage got a new set of legs. After revealing to Forge the reason why the zombies returned to Earth, Forge revealed the device was on Asteroid M, but not in working condition (due to Magneto's final act). He warned Forge that the other zombies would come for the device and any survivors. However, Reynolds revealed a man (Black Panther's son) with Colonel America's brain as a new fighter on their side. However, he attacked Black Panther and all the other heroes in the room before being told of their friendship by Reynolds.
After the zombies returned to New Wakanda, they found Spidey, Cage, Wasp, Panther, and Hawkeye waiting for them. They struck a truce: no eating the people for the dimensional portal. However, after the field was shut down, the "good" zombies attacked the others. The field was reactivated immediately, but Iron Man got through, only to be confronted by Forge (in Iron Man's Mark I suit), Colonel America, and the Acolytes, led by Malcolm Cortez. During the battle, Spidey's suit was partially burned off at the face and the chest, Wasp was crushed by Giant-Man, and Panther was almost entirely crushed by Giant-Man. However, during the battle, Banner awakened and tried to devour Reynolds to keep the Hulk under control, but accidentally deactivated the field. The other zombies attempted to devour other human survivors in a safe room, but as Giant-Man prepared to eat Panther's wife, he realized his hunger was gone. Giant-Man managed to convince the others that their hunger was gone and they could become heroes again.
Shortly after the other zombies realized their hunger was gone, the Hulk burst into the room, threatening to devour everyone. He managed to devour Reynolds, who was distraught after Wasp's apparent death. After a hectic fight, which resulted in the deaths of Phoenix, Hawkeye, Firelord, and Iron Man, the Hulk reverted back to Banner, begging to be killed. Spidey, Wolverine, and Giant-Man complied with his request and blew his head apart.
They realized the gene pool wasn't adequate enough to keep humanity alive after a few generations. After a meeting where they decided to send people to another dimension for supplies and food, Malcolm Cortez demanded that he liked this lifestyle and that he would get rid of the zombie threat. Cortez managed to activate the newly repaired dimensional portal, sending Spidey, Cage, Wasp, Colonel America, Giant-Man, Panther, and Wolverine to another dimension. [6]
Earth-Z
When he arrives in a new uninfected reality, he quickly discovers he has lost the Power Cosmic and has also regrown his missing leg. He attempts to swing with his webbing, but shoots out of his veins instead. He soon remembers that there is a tablet on display at a museum that could reverse his zombification and swings off to find it. He finds the Sinister Six (Doc Ock, Kraven, Sandman, Mysterio, Electro, Vulture) already at the museum and prepares to fight them. Unfortunately for the Six, Spidey succumbs to the hunger again and infects the six except for Sandman who flees, subsequently killing the Spider-Man on this Earth, thinking he was still the zombie Spider-Man in pure rage and fear. The Kingpin arrives at the museum and attempts to fight Spider-Man but is quickly eaten. Before he can use the tablet he sees the Sinister Six attacking Mary Jane and Harry Osborn. After this, he attacked them violently, killing them again. Realizing that he can never be normal again he tears off his skin, leaves it in a dustbin, and staggers away.
After remaining underground for four years, he saves Kitty Pryde from Zombie Wolverine and explains to her that he has been working on a vaccine that might cure Wolverine and stop the Zombie plague once and for all, but he needs a blood sample from Kitty Pryde's Wolverine in order for the vaccine to work. Unfortunately for Spider-Man, when he brought Kitty to his hideout, she noticed a bad smell coming from Spidey's cupboard and so she phased through it and is shocked to discover bits and pieces of half eaten people. This forces Spider-Man to reveal to Kitty that he is also a zombie, however Spidey claims that he hasn't killed anyone in a long time and that the corpses that he has been eating are the victims of Wolverine, explaining that he selected Kitty as an ally because her intangibility means that he cannot bite her if he succumbs to his zombie instincts, also telling her how to kill him. After finding Earth-91126's Wolverine and getting a sample of his blood, Spidey swings off with the body of the recently killed Zombie Wolverine. Unfortunately, the Wolverine of this dimension was bitten by an unspecified zombie during his fight in between the zombie Wolverine and zombiefied members of the Hand, however, he maneged to resist the hunger and became a ally of spidey.
A short time later, Spider-Man is seen watching the zombification of the Sentry at the hands of a zombiefied Hulk, who had shortly arrived on Earth after the events of "Planet Hulk", and comments that while he has finally beaten the hunger, Giant-Man hasn't, and proceeds to state that he has to gather a team to stop Giant-Man and the other zombies, and he knows just the team to get. With his mind made up, Spider-Man webslings to his destination to form the New Avengers. At some point, Sentry betrayed Hulk, which made him ally himself with Spider-Man, becoming one of the New Avengers, with Spidey teaching to Hulk that all he zombies must die. James Rhodes and Earth-Z Wolverine joined the team as well. Maybe other people did, but most likely they where klled in previous battles to stop the infection, just like Kitty Pryde. In the final battle, the New Avengers proceed to trap the other Zombies in the Savage Land using (what can be assumed to be) James Rhodes's finger- Rhodes having escaped infection by cutting off damaged body parts and replacing them with cybernetic implants- as a trap and fight the Zombies head on. During the fight Spider-Man tells Wolverine to cut open the canister he had brought with him, unleashing Sandman, who has been infused with special nanites Spider-Man took from Tony Stark's inventory, which were a supposed cure for cancer, eating all of the dead cells present. Sandman is turned into the ultimate weapon for destroying the zombies; and he proceeds to do that. All of the Zombies of Earth-91126 and the last remaining Zombies from Earth-2149 decompose and die, except for the Sentry, who has been sent to Earth-2149's past by Uatu the Watcher to contain the infection in the realities of Earth-91126 and Earth-2149 for all eternity. Spider-Man's last words were to Sandman, thanking him for avenging the deaths of Aunt May and Mary Jane. [7]Personality
The zombie Spider-Man retains much of the personality of his mainstream counterpart. However, he changed once infected. His first victims, Mary Jane and his Aunt May would forever make the zombie Parker feel immense guilt and remorse after feeding once his rationality returns, as seen after devouring pieces of Magneto. However, like the rest of the zombies, if he doesn't eat, he will lose all rationality and his guilt, and go into a hunger fueled frenzy as he succumbs to the Hunger and continue to eat humans. Once he feeds, the hunger fades away, for a while, and the guilt returns once more; despite all the people he's eaten, the immense guilt and remorse he feels after feeding is mainly focused on his eating his wife, Mary Jane, and Aunt May first, crying for their deaths long after they died, and even wishing for death himself, implying some suicidal thoughts from this Spider-Man.
Despite the fact that no one else aside from the zombies know his secret identity he chooses to continue wearing his mask, when Luke Cage asks about this Spider-Man reveals that his guilt over killing May and Mary Jane is so great that he can't bare to look himself in the mirror again and refuses to take his mask off. Things get worse however after he succumbs to the Hunger on Earth-Z and infects five of the Sinister Six; hoping to use a stone tablet to cure his zombifacation in the hopes of being a hero again he unintentionally causes the deaths of Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane thanks to the zombie Sinister Six. Accepting the fact that he'll never be normal again and coming to the conclusion that, as no one was left to love Peter Parker that having his face is now pointless, so he rips the rotten flesh right off his face and dumps it in a bin as he walks away defeated.
However, despite the guilt and the Hunger, Spider-Man still retained some of his personality traits, like his habit of making jokes in serious moments, or annoying everyone around him to the point of angering them, one example is on their way back to Earth after travelling through space he continuously uses the "are we there yet?" joke and angers Giant-Man to the point that he threatens to kill Spider-Man, when asked by Luke Cage why he continues the jokes Spider-Man tells him it's because it's the only thing helping to distract him from what he's become.
Back on Earth, he turns against the other zombies, trying to stop them from eating more people, as over time, as they have had no one to eat the Hunger started to slowly fade until it was gone, returning Spider-Man to the hero he was before the infection. On Earth-Z, the Hunger was returning, and when encountered by Kitty Pryde he reveals to only feed on bad people and any left overs of Wolverine, by the time Earth-Z's Hulk and Sentry start their feeding carnage Spider-Man had once again overcome the Hunger, this time for good.
He was shown to be quite the strategist and leader, having assembled and become the leader of the New Avengers to oppose the zombie Avengers, he also retains his intellect as he used Nanobots made by Earth-Z's Tony Stark filled with blood from the still living Wolverine and injected them into Sandman to create the ultimate zombie killer.Attributes
Powers
Spider Physiology: Spider-Man possesses the proportionate powers of a spider, granted to him from an irradiated Common House Spider (Achaearanea tepidariorum) which bit Peter Parker that was apparently already mutated from prior exposure to certain frequencies of radiation and received a final, lethal dose during Parker's attendance of the exhibition. The radioactive, complex mutagenic enzymes in the spider's blood that were transferred at the time of the bite triggered numerous body-wide mutagenic changes within Parker, granting him superhuman strength, stamina, durability, speed, agility, reflexes, and equilibrium.
- Superhuman Stamina: Spider-Man is able to exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impair his performance.
- Superhuman Agility: Spider-Man is extraordinarily limber.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Spider-Man's reflexes are about 15-18 times greater than that of an ordinary human.
- Superhuman Equilibrium: Spider-Man possesses the ability to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium in any position imaginable.
- Wall-Crawling: Spider-Man's hands and feet have the ability to manipulate the inter-atomic binding forces of matter, allowing him to form temporary molecular bonds between his body and another object. This enables him to adhere to walls and ceilings with just his fingertips and feet.
- Spider-Senses: Spider-Man possesses an extrasensory "danger" or "spider" sense which warns him of potential immediate danger.
- "Zombie-Senses": An feature added thanks to the Zombie Virus, this zombie power allows Spider-Man to sense any real flesh as was the case with the two Skrulls who impersonated Thanos and Death and with Mysterio on Earth-Z, as such this lets him to find any real form of flesh within a matter of seconds.
- Vein and arteries Webbing: Another feature that Spider-Man possesed thanks to the Zombie Virus, he discovered during his first time in Earth-Z that he could web swing by using his veins and arteries as a substitute for his webbing. Curiously this actually causes Spider-Man to feel pain despite being a zombie.
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Notes
- The character of Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee, and Steve Ditko.
- The reality Earth-2149 was created by Mark Millar, and Greg Land in Ultimate Fantastic Four #22.
Trivia
- Spider-Man is the only one of the Marvel Zombies to feel any form of pain as shown in Marvel Zombies Return where he shoots his veins and arteries out of his wrists, much like he would normally with his webbing.
- Spider-Man could be considered the main protagonist of Marvel Zombies as he later tries to stop the other zombies in Marvel Zombies 2/Returns once his hunger has faded away.
- Since possesing the Power Cosmic and later using veins and arteries as webbing, he no longer needed his Web-Shooters; but keeped them to shut someone's up, like he did to Giant-Man.
See Also
- 26 appearance(s) of Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
- 5 minor appearance(s) of Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
- 56 image(s) of Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
- 8 quotation(s) by or about Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
- 19 victim(s) killed by Peter Parker (Earth-2149)
Links and References
References
- ↑ [[Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness Vol 1 1 - 5|[[Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness #1]] - 5]]
- ↑ Marvel Zombies: Dead Days #1
- ↑ Marvel Zombies #1
- ↑ [[Marvel Zombies Vol 1 2 - 5|[[Marvel Zombies #2]] - 5]]
- ↑ [[Black Panther Vol 4 27 - 30|[[Black Panther (Vol. 4) #27]] - 30]]
- ↑ [[Marvel Zombies 2 Vol 1 1 - 5|[[Marvel Zombies 2 #1]] - 5]]
- ↑ [[Marvel Zombies Return Vol 1 1 - 5|[[Marvel Zombies Return #1]] - 5]]