Has Spider-Man become Marvel's poor man version of Batman?

[Darthfury78]

The title says it all. Over the years, Spider-Man has grown into the Spider-Family. But consist of Miles Morales, Ghost Spider, Silk, and Ayna. The problem is that so many Spider-People has been added over the years. Yet none of them are friends with Peter Parker. The question is why did Marvel decide to add Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales to Earth-616 when they should be in their own respective universe, like Spider-Man 2099? I just do not see the point of adding Miles and Gwen to Marvel-616.

Does anyone here believe that Spider-Man has become the poor man's version of Batman? We have to thank Dan Slott for this, as well as Bendis for bringing Miles Morales to Marvel-616...

[HypnoHustler]

The title says it all. Over the years, Spider-Man has grown into the Spider-Family. But consist of Miles Morales, Ghost Spider, Silk, and Ayna. The problem is that so many Spider-People has been added over the years. Yet none of them are friends with Peter Parker. The question is why did Marvel decide to add Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales to Earth-616 when they should be in their own respective universe, like Spider-Man 2099? I just do not see the point of adding Miles and Gwen to Marvel-616.

Does anyone here believe that Spider-Man has become the poor man's version of Batman? We have to thank Dan Slott for this, as well as Bendis for bringing Miles Morales to Marvel-616...

Yes. I’m not sure I’d use that term, but I am also not a fan of the “Spider Family” or Order of the Web, or whatever people want to call it. It’s overdone with Batman as well, but it’s even more jarring with Spidey.

If it were up to me, I’d just keep Ben Reilly, Kaine, 2099 and Miles. I’m not personally a fan of Miles, but I understand how important that character is to some in the fan base. I’m personally a fan of Ben, Kaine and 2099, but I could understand someone wanting to get rid of them too. The others, like NotGwen, Silk, the new Madame Web, Arana, etc. are just awful and useless with very little personality or presence.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Considering that Spider-Man in terms of merchandise makes more than Batman, his PS4 game outsold Arkham City as the bestselling superhero game of all time (even though it's a Platform Exclusive), and that Spider-Man comics continue to sell very well and in the top 10 every month far more consistently than Batman comics have (Tom King's later run sold very poorly and had a really steep drop).

...considering all that, I am not quite sure "poor man's version" makes any sense because it implies Batman to start with is somehow bigger than Spider-Man when evidence suggests the opposite.

Marvel after all is the industry leader in comics sales and it's been that way for a long long time. Spider-Man is their biggest character and that's true for a long long time.

[Snoop Dogg]

A diverse selection of Spider books + bad Venom comics is better than 5 Peter books + bad Venom comics

[CrimsonEchidna]

A diverse selection of Spider books + bad Venom comics is better than 5 Peter books + bad Venom comics

I mean, it's a Darthfury thread so it's going to eventually boil down to "Why don't they use ______ characters as the family instead of ______?"

Like he comes up with a new thread title just to mask beating the same dead horse.

[Spiderfan001]

A diverse selection of Spider books + bad Venom comics is better than 5 Peter books + bad Venom comics

I think a middle ground is the best thing.We can have a ASM ongoing with serious stuff (with someone like Zdarsky) and then a friendly neighbourhood/spectacular for light hearted fun stuff(Tom Taylor).We can alternate between 2099 and miles with their ongoings(A miles one for 3 years and then 2099 for 2).A decent venom/symbiote comic and a mini for the others(Ben ,Silk,Notgwen,kaine,Webb,Arana,etc).

[wleakr]

Considering that Spider-Man in terms of merchandise makes more than Batman, his PS4 game outsold Arkham City as the bestselling superhero game of all time (even though it's a Platform Exclusive), and that Spider-Man comics continue to sell very well and in the top 10 every month far more consistently than Batman comics have (Tom King's later run sold very poorly and had a really steep drop).

...considering all that, I am not quite sure "poor man's version" makes any sense because it implies Batman to start with is somehow bigger than Spider-Man when evidence suggests the opposite.

Marvel after all is the industry leader in comics sales and it's been that way for a long long time. Spider-Man is their biggest character and that's true for a long long time.

Batman comic sales has been used as the anchor to determine the top selling comics across all companies for a long time, at least when everything was going through Diamond. Not sure if that's the case currently.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Batman comic sales has been used as the anchor to determine the top selling comics across all companies for a long time, at least when everything was going through Diamond. Not sure if that's the case currently.

You mean the "benchmark" but yeah he used to be. But the X-Men were the defining benchmark in the '80s. And then Immortal Hulk became the benchmark. So Batman's had his highs but he's also had lows lately, and then the Pandemic happened and DC pulled out of Diamond to "go it alone".

Who knows how things are now.

[PeterParked]

You mean the "benchmark" but yeah he used to be. But the X-Men were the defining benchmark in the '80s. And then Immortal Hulk became the benchmark. So Batman's had his highs but he's also had lows lately, and then the Pandemic happened and DC pulled out of Diamond to "go it alone".

Who knows how things are now.

Immortal Hulk has never been the benchmark for sales, it sold well but never at the level of Batman. Spider Man may have had one record game, but comics wise Batman sells regularly more and it is also able to keep around a successful family of books, from secondary and tertiary Batman books, to its extend family of co-characters (nightwing, robin, cat woman, birds of prey, joker etc.). Saying that Spider Man is bigger than Batman based on a videogame sales and ignoring the success of Batman in comics, it’s movie franchise etc. it’s not correct. What distinguish Batman from other comics is exactly that regardless of who is hot in a specific moment, x-men, venom, hulk, image and so on, it’s always up there with them. Tom King’s Batman at its lowest still sold numbers that have always been considered successful for Amazing.

[Immortal Hulk]

Considering that Spider-Man in terms of merchandise makes more than Batman, his PS4 game outsold Arkham City as the bestselling superhero game of all time (even though it's a Platform Exclusive), and that Spider-Man comics continue to sell very well and in the top 10 every month far more consistently than Batman comics have (Tom King's later run sold very poorly and had a really steep drop).

...considering all that, I am not quite sure "poor man's version" makes any sense because it implies Batman to start with is somehow bigger than Spider-Man when evidence suggests the opposite.

Marvel after all is the industry leader in comics sales and it's been that way for a long long time. Spider-Man is their biggest character and that's true for a long long time.

Exactly. He's simply too big.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

That's still Moon Knight .

[Castle]

No. where are u getting this?

His comic still sells and he is one of the marvel characters that does not need the MCU push in the comics.

Spiderverse was fantastic

His PS4 game was marvellous.

I am not the biggest fan of his new movies but they still make money.

Spiderman is still the most iconic character from marvel of all time. he is the superman of marvel, not even the batman.

[Orbus]

Spiderman is still the most iconic character from marvel of all time. he is the superman of marvel, not even the batman.

To be fair Superman isn't the Superman of DC these days.

[9th.]

No that's just what happens to popular concepts, they make a bunch of derivatives. It's happened to the Hulk, Superman, Wolverine, The Saiyan's in DB, even Cap.

[JTHM]

This thread and it's premise are, with all due respect to the OP, kinda silly. It reads as more of a fit as to why everything Spider-related doesn't circle around Peter Parker, and only someone too laser-focused on him would not understand why.

Each of the other spiders like Miles, Anya and even Gwen bring different perspectives to a similar experience that Peter doesn't have. They know him and help him, but it's a companionship rather than a mentorship like in the Bat-Family. They are not a group of people brought together by a single anchor in the form of Peter but by an experience or similar life that binds them all together. I think that's way better than having everything in the world revolve around Peter. More importantly, their diverse perspective allows them to have stories Peter either doesn't have, or straight up can't anymore (i.e: Miles' book dwells more into school life that Peter has by now just left behind)

I think a lot of people are just too attached to the (idea of) Peter Parker's character. But he really doesn't need to have any more focus than he already does.