Spider-Ham

Spider-Ham (Peter Porker) is a fictional anthropomorphic funny animal parody of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man, created by Tom DeFalco and Mark Armstrong.

He first appeared in the one-shot humor comic book Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1, which was then followed by an ongoing bi-monthly series, Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. The series lasted 17 issues, all of which were published under Marvel's Star Comics imprint. The character existed on Larval Earth, which was an anthropomorphic universe.^[1]

Fictional character biography

Peter Porker was born a spider (simply named Peter). He resided in the basement lab of May Porker, a slightly goofy animal scientist who had created "the world's first atomic powered hairdryer", hoping that "the introduction of nuclear fusion into America's beauty salons" would "revolutionize the hair care industry".^[1] After dousing her head with water and activating the dryer, May Porker accidentally irradiated herself, and in a fit of delusion, bit Peter, who then found himself transformed into an anthropomorphic swine much like May Porker herself. Running from the Porker homestead disoriented, 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 (May 1987)

After this startling series of events, Peter (who adopted the surname "Porker", that of his benefactor May Porker, who after the accident mentally attuned to a state in which she believed she was Peter's loving aunt) 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. This story contradicted a detail in "Salad Daze" (Spider-Ham #6) where Peter Porker, in a vigil at May Porker's hospital bed, thinks back to his pre-Spider-Ham years when he was just a young pig being raised by his loving aunt.

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 (Marvel Tails #1, "If He Should Punch Me").

Several months later, Spider-Ham encountered his main nemesis and one of his only re-occurring enemies in the form of Ducktor Doom, a duck parody of Doctor Doom (Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1, "The Mysterious Island of Ducktor 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 (Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #6, "Salad Daze").

Other notable menaces Porker would face along the way include The Bull-Frog (a parody of the Marvel villain Man-Bull), the Buzzard (an opossum take on the Spider-Man adversary The Vulture), Hogzilla (a swine counterpart to the more popular Godzilla), and The King-Pig (seemingly the swine equivalent of Marvel's mob-boss The Kingpin).

Three characters, not parallels to anybody in the Spider-Man series, also begin in #1: J.Jeremiah Jackal, Jr. (J.Jonah Jackal's nephew), Bunson Bunny and Upton Adam Stray (a cat with shades), 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 totally fumble their first mission, forcing Peter Porker to resume his alterego as Spider-Ham. Further misadventures of the Beagle Brigadeers were in the back-up stories in Marvel Tales.

The series also included back up stories featuring such characters as Deerdevil (Daredevil), Goose Rider (Ghost Rider) and the Fantastic Fur (the Fantastic Four). Some of these back-ups were contradictory, presenting different anthropomorphic versions of characters in different stories, such as two Namor counterparts: the Sub-Merchandizer (a dog) and the Sub-Marsupial (possibly a wombat). (Note: the Asinine Torch (a donkey) that appeared in a story with the Sub-Marsupial and the Fantastic Fur's Simian Torch are not two variants of the Fantastic Four's Human Torch; since he was depicted as elderly in the 1980s, and referred to as an "old sparring partner" of the Sub-Marsupial's, he was obviously a counterpart to the golden age Human Torch.)

Marvel Zombies

When Spider-Ham accidentally travels to the Marvel Zombies universe, he is suddenly zombified by a group of zombies, namely Colonel America, Hulk, and Wolverine. It appears that he is directly shot in the head by an energy bullet by Earth 616's 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 (the baby brother of Spider-Girl of Earth-982) - one of the three sacrifices needed for the Inheritors to destroy the Spider-totems - allowing Ben Parker to get Benjy to safety.^[2]

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,^[3] and the two eventually discovered and teamed up with other Spider-powered people (Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man: India, Spider-UK and Anya Corazon), neither of whom remembered their previous encounter during the original Spider-Verse.^[4]

Web Warriors

Following the conclusion of Secret Wars the team of six Spiders that formed during the event will rename itself and feature in a new ongoing series called Web Warriors, a name that was coined by Peter Parker from the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series during the original Spider-Verse.^[5]

Publication history

Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Limited series
Publication date	November 1983
Number of issues	1
Main character(s)	Spider-Ham Captain Americat Hulk-Bunny Goose Rider

Spider-Ham was first featured as star of the humorous one-shot Marvel Tails, with a backup cast of other anthropomorphic funny-animal parodies of popular Marvel Comics characters, such as Captain AmeriCat (a cat version of Captain America), Hulk-Bunny (a bunny version of Hulk) and Goose Rider (a goose version of Ghost Rider).

After the cancellation of his solo series, Marvel Tales, a monthly reprint series which specialized in reprints of Spider-Man's past adventures began carrying Porker as a back-up feature in 1987, beginning with issue #201 (cover dated July 1987). These adventures appeared sporadically, in issues #201-212, 214-219, 223-230, 233, 236, 237, 239, 240, and 247.

In issue #3 of What The--?! (cover dated October 1988), Porker meets with Raven the Hunter (a parody of Spider-Man's nemesis Kraven 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--?! (cover dated Fall 1993) 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.

Cover to Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #12, by Joe Albelo.

Spider-Ham has also appeared on the cover 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 (2005 one-shot) features a sixteen-page Spider-Girl story, in which May Parker (Peter Parker's daughter) 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 (directly mirroring Spider-Man's origin) and altering his love interest (a counterpart of Mary Jane Watson) from a water buffalo to a crane.

He fights alongside the X-Babies in issue #4 (March 2010) of their 4 issues mini-series from 2009-2010.

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.

Other characters

Earth-8311 featured anthropomorphic parodies of a variety of other Marvel characters.

In other media

Television

• Spider-Ham is alluded in the cartoon series Ultimate Spider-Man.^[6] In "Flight of the Iron Spider", Iron Man shows Spider-Man a machine that could scatter any physical object's particles inside across parallel universes. Spider-Man briefly envisions himself being turned into Spider-Ham as a result. In "Run Pig Run", Loki (disguised as a hot dog vendor) give Spider-Man an enchanted hot dog that turns him into Spider-Ham as payback. Just then, Asgard's finest hunters led by Executioner arrive and chase after Spider-Ham as part of Asgardsreia. Thor comes to Spider-Ham's aid and guesses that Loki had done this to him. While running, Thor tells Spider-Ham that he must keep him alive until the hunt ends at sundown. Thor throws Spider-Ham and his hammer towards Midtown High School. Thor brings Spider-Ham to Phil Coulson, Power Man, Iron Fist, White Tiger and Nova just as Executioner and the other hunters arrive. Spider-Ham even tries to reason with Executioner that he's not a real pig. Phil Coulson arrives where he and Thor hold off the hunters while the others get Spider-Ham out of there. While on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury helps to protect Spider-Ham when the wolves that the hunters ride on sprout wings and attack the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. While Thor, Coulson, and Spider-Ham's team fight Executioner and the hunters, Spider-Ham ends up calling out Loki and fights him. Not wanting his friends to sacrifice themselves for him, Spider-Ham fights Executioner. Before Executioner can land the killing blow on Spider-Ham, the sun sets ending the hunt. Spider-Ham changes back to Spider-Man and punches Loki.

• The actual Spider-Ham appears in the "Spider-Verse" episodes voiced by Benjamin Diskin. An alternate version of Spider-Man, Peter Porker got his powers from a spider that fell into Aunt May's pancake batter that transferred the vitamins and powers to him, becoming Spider-Ham. He uses his powers for good and even joins with the Avengers, but decides to quit after J. Jonah Jackal turns the public against him. In the episode "Spider-Verse" Pt. 2, he encounters Spider-Man (whom he mistook for a monkey) while relaxing by his mud pool. With encouragement from Spider-Man, he decides to become Spider-Ham once again and helps fight the Green Goblin. Although the Goblin still manages to get DNA from his chin, Spider-Ham is offered by Iron Mouse a spot on the Avengers team again which he accepts. In the episode "Spider-Verse" Pt. 4, Spider-Ham appears along Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Girl, Spider-Man Noir, Spyder-Knight, and Miles Morales to help Spider-Man defeat the Spider-Goblin and Electro. In the episode "Return to the Spider-Verse" Pt. 1, Spider-Ham ends up in Peter Parker's living room alongside Spyder-Knight and Miles Morales' mother Rio due to the effects of the shattered Siege Perilous.

Video games

• In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spider-Man mentions Peter Porker in a conversation.
• Spider-Ham appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Chris Edgerly who was not credited for the role. In the intro, Madame Web shows the images of several alternate universes to which Spider-Man then notices the image of Spider-Ham and says "Is that a...cartoon pig?". In a scene during the credits, Spider-Ham answers Madame Web's call to save the universe too late asking "So, what'd I miss?".
• One of Spider-Man's win quotes in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is "Man, I bet the Amazing Spider-Ham could have beat you". Spider-Ham also appears as a support card in the "Heroes vs. Heralds" mode of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Spider-Ham was available as a purchasable hero in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online on March 15, 2014, to celebrate the game's anniversary.
• Spider-Ham has a cameo appearance in Spider-Man: Edge of Time. He is seen locked up in a stasis tank in the Alchemax building in Chapter 15. He also shows up in Peter Parker's drawings in the credits, in a mock fight against Spider-Man 2099.
• Spider-Ham appears in Marvel Heroes. He can be purchased as a pet.
• Spider-Ham and other associated spider characters from the Spider-Ham comics are playable in Spider-Man Unlimited.
• Spider-Ham appears in Marvel Avengers Academy during the Spider-Man Event, voiced by Christopher McCann.

Miscellaneous

• The Wizard Spider-Man Special featured a Twisted Toyfare Theater parody comic "Four Webbings and a Funeral". In it, Spider-Ham is one of the entrees being served at Spider-Man's funeral.
• A "Spider-Pig" appears in The Simpsons Movie as Homer Simpson's pet who used to be in a Krusty Burger commercial, he is later renamed Harry Plopper. He has made several cameos in The Simpsons since the movie. In one episode, he swung across the opening title in a similar manner as Spider-Man.

Reception

In August 2009, TIME listed Spider-Ham as one of the "Top 10 Oddest Marvel Characters".^[1]

References