History
Creation & Escape[]
Tarantula was created as a clone of Peter Parker. Otto Octavius and Ben Reilly were assigned by federal agents to help create and replicate a team of super-soldiers as the premier next generation means of warfare. Due to genetic stability issues, the scientists chose Parker's DNA and had it altered differently in each clone. Much of the spider traits were brought out of Tarantula. He's part of an earlier phase of the project (unknown phase level) to see what would happen if more spider attributes were given to him. It is because of this, Tarantula has six arms, black eyes, and spider hair throughout his body. Deemed as a failure, he and the rest of his clone brethren were contained in a secret facility for observation.
Some time later, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman), was ultimately passed as the successor of the project. At the very day Spider-Woman was about to be conditioned, to have her mind reprogrammed to work for the government, Carnage (Gwen Stacy) broke free from the facility. With security weakened by Carnage, Tarantula along with the other clones made their escape.
Stopping Kaine & Death by Otto[]
Tarantula trailed Kaine to prevent him for harming Mary Jane Watson. Unfortunately, Kaine had already kidnapped her and taken her to the remains of Oscorp Industries to infuse her with the Oz compound. Tarantula tried to stop Kaine, but Kaine knocked him unconscious until the real Peter Parker and Spider-Woman had found him. When he awakened, he was quick to explain to them that the mutated creature that Kaine is fighting is actually Mary Jane. Peter was able to calm down MJ and she fainted from exhaustion. Not long, Nick Fury, SHIELD agents, and Spider-Slayers had came to contain the situation.
It was then that Otto revealed himself and explained how the clones came to be. Peter and the clones were more than ready to take their vengeance upon Otto for what he did to them. Peter managed to get Fury to step away from the facility, to give him and the clones 10 minutes of privacy to do as they please with Otto and Peter agreed to turn himself in after that; Fury agreed, but Tarantula didn't last long.
While Tarantula seemed to have the upper-hand in the fight, Otto surprised everyone that he's able to mentally control metal to recompose his tentacles; using his abilities, he had a metal rod go right through Tarantula's body, instantly killing him in battle. Ultimately, Otto was defeated by Peter and Jessica. After the battle, Tarantula's body was recovered by SHIELD agents for research. The ultimate fate of his body is presumed to be kept in storage, under SHIELD's Triskelion lab.
Spider Society[]
Some time later, it would be discovered by Norman Osborn that the OZ Formula from which his and Spider-Man's powers derived granted its users the power of self-resurrection and immortality.[3] Either due to this or different means, Tarantula resurfaced alive as part of the Spider Society led by Earth-928B's Spider-Man. He was seen with Spidercide, LEGO Spider-Man and Last Stand Spider-Man as they got into Peter Parkedcar to be taken into the transporter room so they could aid in dealing with the Spot situation and was one of the many that heeded Miguel's orders and tried to stop the Miles Morales of Earth-1610B from escaping.[2]Attributes
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Powers
- Spider Physiology: Tarantula possessed various superhuman attributes as a result of him being a clone of Peter Parker as well as some abilities that were a result of genetic tampering by Otto Octavius.
- Night vision[4]
- Superhuman Strength: Tarantula can press 24 tons with all arms.[4]
- Superhuman Reflexes [4]
- Superhuman Equilibrium[4]
- Wall-Crawling[4]
- Spider-Sense[4]
- Organic Webbing
- Venomous Fangs: Tarantula has fangs that are able to paralyze victims by direct skin contact.[4] They are painful, but not toxic.
- Immortality (possibly): Norman Osborn believed immortality to be a side effect of the Oz formula, because Tarantula's body was altered by the Oz formula, he could also have such a power in theory.
Abilities
Weaknesses
Notes
- Writer Brian Michael Bendis stated in Wizard Magazine that an ultimate version of Tarantula was set to appear in the "Clone Saga" arc of Ultimate Spider-Man. Although the story arc introduces several new spider-powered characters, none are called Tarantula within the story. However, Ultimate Secrets identifies a black-costumed, six armed Spider-Man clone with spider-like eyes and fur (reportedly dead as of Ultimate Spider-Man #103) as having been Tarantula.
See Also
- 5 appearance(s) of Tarantula (Earth-1610)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Tarantula (Earth-1610)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Tarantula (Earth-1610)
- 1 mention(s) of Tarantula (Earth-1610)
- 13 image(s) of Tarantula (Earth-1610)