There’s something about Spider-Man and horror. Whenever the Marvel Universe takes a turn for the scary, Peter Parker is often right in the middle of it. Other times there are horror stories, both within the Prime timeline and alternate universes, just straight up centered on Spider-Man in a horror context. With two issues out this week starring Spidey in a horror context, we found ourselves asking, what is it about Spider-Man and horror that goes so well together?
With how often Spider-Man faces horrific situations, it’s easy to name horror-tinged, or even straight horror, stories starring the webcrawler. A Monster Called Morbius. Kraven’s Last Hunt. The Child Within. Marvel Zombies. Even Spider-Verse. They all are frightening stories from Peter’s history, and that’s just in two minutes from memory. Hell, there’s such a tie that Marvel recently released Chilling Spider-Man, a scary story featuring our hero, and both Spider-Man related issues out this week are horror stories.
So what is it about Spider-Man that attracts the character to the horrific? Is it that his whole identity is wrapped up in one of mankind’s oldest and most prevalent phobias? Is it the rogues gallery filled with villains based on some of our deepest darkest fears? Or is it something much more simple? Is it that Peter Parker is perhaps the most human and relatable character in Marvel’s pantheon of heroes, which means anything horrifying happening to him could happen to us?
In both Darkhold: Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man #82, both out this week, the creative teams seem to hit on it perfectly. It’s not just that Peter Parker is relatable. It’s that he cares for his friends and family so deeply that the all too real horror of loss suddenly makes the bizarre and supernatural hit home.
In the Darkhold issue, writer Alex Paknadel essentially gives Peter a ticking clock. While his world is literally falling apart around him, held only together by his webbing, he has one thing to keep him grounded and keep him motivated to keep going. Every night at 7:30 PM, he returns home to his wife, Gwen Stacy, and relives their last normal anniversary before the supernatural Unraveling tore it apart.
Paknadel balances the love Peter has for Gwen with the responsibility he feels for the city. It’s ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’ writ large. With that personal driving motivator, Peter can keep going past the breaking point, despite the horror of his crumbling world. Unfortunately, Reed Richards, the only other person in Peter’s life not falling apart, doesn’t see that, and instead pushes him forward with no regard for the human being behind the herculean task.
Naturally, that means the moment Peter loses Gwen, the horrible, grotesque world (which artists Dio Neves and Jim Charalampidis bring to vivid life) that we’ve seen for the last twenty pages breaks him. It’s horror in grief, in loss, and in pain. Which makes Peter’s horrific actions on the next page completely understandable in a sick way. Peter’s been holding the world together for who knows how long. Now, it’s Reed’s turn.
It’s a Twilight Zone style twist that shocks, but is rooted in the character. It’s not unlike Robert Kirkman’s twist in Marvel Zombies, in which Peter is horrified to be driven by his undead hunger to attack Aunt May and Mary Jane, but it’s pulled off much more successfully here. Where there, the horror was shock value, here it’s not simply to shock, it’s rooted in grief and love.
Meanwhile, in Amazing Spider-Man #82, we know the horror isn’t going to go as far, because this is the main Spider-Man book. They don’t tell imaginary stories or “what if’s” in Amazing Spider-Man. So Saladin Ahmed, Jorge Fornés and Dan Brown had a different sort of route to take. Peter Parker’s still weak from the events of Amazing Spider-Man #75, still recovering from his coma. Meanwhile other patients in the hospital have started to disappear, including Peter’s two roommates. When a creepy orderly shows up in his room, suddenly we know Peter is next and we’re terrified for him.
A thought crosses our minds. It’s Spider-Man. He’s going to be okay. We know that Peter Parker’s going to be okay. But what if this time he’s not. This isn’t the normal sort of circumstance, and the doubt sneaks in. Is Peter Parker going to make it this time? He already was put in a coma by the U-Foes. Is this unnaturally creepy orderly going to be his end?
Where Darkhold was like a stronger execution of Marvel Zombies, this story takes its cues from Kraven’s Last Hunt. Peter can barely lift his head, but he knows something is wrong. He tries to do something, but all he can do is tell Mary Jane about it. And in that, we see where the story goes right.
In Darkhold, Peter Parker snaps because the love of his life is lost. In Amazing, he’s saved because he leans on the love of his life in a desperate moment. In Kraven, that was metaphorical, but here it’s literal. It’s just in one panel, but that’s enough. Mary Jane has been with Peter long enough to know that if something’s wrong, she needs to listen.
For a moment in the story, you wonder if it was enough. After all, MJ is forced to leave. But Ahmed uses the deep bond between Peter and MJ to come through, even if the tension is built up to the point that the reader begins to wonder how he’s going to make it through. And that’s paced perfectly by Fornes’ art, using a page turn to build up the scares, almost the comic book equivalent of a commercial break right at the most tense moment of your favorite TV show.
Props also belong with the two issues’ letterers, Joe Caramagna in Amazing and Clayton Cowles in Darkhold, who both are able to translate the writer’s scripts into a visual accompaniment for the art.Now, with all of this said, is Peter’s relationships the only way that horror and Spider-Man can work together? I don’t think so. But in the most effective cases, that thematic element is always there. Without the people Peter Parker loves, he’s a lesser character, and maybe that’s scarier than any monster or apocalypse he can face.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
