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As the most popular character in Marvel Comics, Spider-Man has teamed up with nearly everyone in the Marvel Universe. From the Fantastic Four and the Avengers to Quasar or Daredevil, there are few in the Marvel universe who haven’t encountered the wall-crawler. Some of Spider-Man’s wildest team-up adventures are also some of his strangest.
Whether used for marketing, a silly gag, or a weird adventure, Spider-Man has shared the panel with some truly odd characters over the years. Teaming up with the likes of Martians, ducks, cartoon characters and football players, Spider-Man never fails to find himself in the strangest and most absurd situations imaginable.
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Howard the Duck is nothing if not strange
When Howard the Duck first hatched in Fear #19 (by Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik, Sal Trapani, Stan Goldberg, and Art Simek), he was instantly one of the weirdest characters in the Marvel Universe. Being one of the oddest characters in Marvel, it was only natural for him to team up with their most popular in 1980’s Marvel Team-Up #96 by Alan Kupperberg. The issue features Howard the Duck and Spider-Man teaming up to take down the villain Status Quo, who wanted to hijack the media to recruit people into an anti-fad group.
The issue is weird and goofy and perfect for a Howard the Duck team-up. While not the most daring of adventures for Spider-Man, the team-up fully commits to the silliness and absurdity that comes from a character who is a talking duck who smokes cigars. Even though the two only briefly come together at the end of the issue, the issue provides a weird and fun adventure for Spider-Man as he saves Frisbee golfers and disco dancers from Status Quo’s evil schemes.
9
Spider-Man and Captain America Vs. New York Rats
An iconic team-up in their strangest adventure
Captain America is no stranger to teaming up with Spider-Man, but their adventure together in 1983’s Marvel Team-Up #128 (by J.M. DeMatteis, Kerry Gammill, Mike Esposito, Glynis Wein, and Joe Rosen) is by far their weirdest. After encountering each other at a festival in the city, Peter Parker and Steve Rogers are forced to jump into action to fight a rat man named Vermin and his army of rats. The superhero duo was able to defeat the rats, but both had to resort to drastic measures to do so.
Captain America and Spider-Man fighting a rat man is already a strange concept, but it is made even stranger by its actual deeper undertones of Peter and Steve both struggling in their love lives and facing hard truths about themselves. On top of a weird adventure within its pages, the cover of the issue featured two regular guys in a Spider-Man and Captain America costumes. This is one of the weirdest choices for a comic cover ever, but it is also hilarious.
8
The Spider and the Frog
Frogs and spiders sometimes make a perfect team
After the millionaire thief known as White Rabbit began a string of robberies in Marvel Team-Up #131 (by J.M. DeMatteis, Kerry Gammill, Mike Esposito, Bob Sharen, and Diana Albers), Spider-Man and Frog-Man both found themselves chasing after the villain for the reward money. While Eugene goes after White Rabbit to help his father, Peter goes after the villain to help his friend Roger and his sick mother. The two meet on their way to catch White Rabbit and take down the villain together so Roger and Eugene can split the money.
Another strange and fun adventure for Spider-Man, his team-up with Frog-Man is weird but pretty straightforward. Going against an absurd villain with an absurd hero makes for a perfect team-up story that only Spider-Man could be wrapped up in. Spider-Man’s reluctance to let Eugene enter the fight, in contrast to Eugene’s uncontainable excitement of teaming up with the Web Head, leads to some hilarious moments that showcase the best of both characters, which oddly works.
7
She-Hulk and Spider-Man Break the Fourth Wall
She-Hulk loses her head when teaming up with Spidey
In an already strange series, one of Spider-Man’s weirdest adventures comes in 1989’s Sensational She-Hulk #3 (by Johny Byrne, Bob Wiacek, Glynis Oliver, and Jim Novak). After a fight against Mysterio, Spider-Man discovers that She-Hulk had been taken prisoner by a group of villains named the Headsmen. They removed her head to use her body as a transplant for one of its members, whose head was stitched to the body of a Gorilla. Once finding She-Hulk and fighting her headless body, the heroes discover that the body is a clone and that Jen was trapped in a harness that prevented her from feeling her body and the two take down the villains.
This early team-up between Spider-Man and She-Hulk is absolutely absurd in the only way a She-Hulk comic can be. Breaking the fourth wall to crack a joke, a team of outlandish villains, fighting headless bodies, Sensational She-Hulk #3 truly has it all. The issue is also just as exciting as it is weird, with John Byrne expertly weaving superhero action with the fun and silly tone he was establishing for the new She-Hulk series. Making the issue not only a fun and weird adventure for Spidey but also one that helped propel the She-Hulk character into what she is today.
6
Spider-Man and Deadpool’s Cartoon Adventure
Double the team-up equals double the fun
In 2017’s Spider-Man and Deadpool #19 (by Joshua Corin, Will Robson, Jordan Boyd, and Joe Sabino), the two heroes encounter the living cartoon Slapstick while tracking down photo negatives for a millionaire whose husband was killed. The two fight the cartoon villain and retrieve the negatives, only to discover that he had switched them with fakes. Tracking down the cartoon menace, the three end up teaming up when Slapstick is taken by a New Jersey mobster who is revealed to be the millionaire’s dead husband, trying to cover his tracks.
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Spider-Man and Deadpool’s adventure with Slapstick is a hilarious and strange adventure for both the scarlet heroes. With the two heroes swearing themselves off comedy and being bashed around with Slapstick’s giant mallets and rubber chickens, the two-issue team-up is filled with insane and weird antics between the three characters. Deadpool and Spider-Man teaming up usually leads to a strange adventure, but adding a character even more outrageous than Deadpool makes this one of the weirder team-ups for both characters.
5
Spider-Man Vs. The Martians
The Web Head joins Killraven in the fight for Earth
After an adventure through time with Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man finds himself caught in an alternate future in Marvel Team-Up #45 (by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito, Jean Izzo, and George Roussos), where Martians had taken over the world. Once there, Spider-Man is quickly met by Killraven, the hero of his time and leader of the Freemen resistance group. Spider-Man and Killraven fight off the Martians and have hallucinations of their greatest enemies until they break the illusion and Spider-Man is able to return home.
Spider-Man’s time in the year 2019 was not only weird but devastating for the young hero. Seeing Killraven and the people of Earth at war with the Martians sent Peter into an existential crisis of life having no meaning. This War of the Worlds-inspired adventure for Spidey was a strange choice for a team-up, but it resulted in a great story of two heroes coming together despite the overwhelming odds they faced.
4
The Watcher’s First Christmas
Spider-Man and Uatu’s Christmas adventure made no sense
While trying to take a break from superhero work during Christmas, Peter learns that the granddaughter of one of Aunt May’s tenants, Aruthur, has gone missing. Thinking that she is most likely running late, Peter is forced into the investigation by Uatu the Watcher, who gives him a gem that shows Aurthur’s granddaughter, Bette, in trouble. Under the watch of Uatu, Spider-Man finds Bette being held hostage by drug dealers and is barely able to save her with the help of intervention from the Watcher.
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The story of The Watcher intervening in Spider-Man’s life is not only really weird but also totally random. Peter had no idea who The Watcher was or what he was doing, so sending him on a random adventure was definitely strange. The issue explains this away as The Watcher wanting to experience joy, but it still doesn’t explain why he decided to mess with Peter on Christmas for seemingly no reason but his own enjoyment. The issue also ends with Peter just completely confused about what just transpired and sort of implying The Watcher is some sort of ghost of Christmas past, saying that it’s the one night a year he can reach out to humans.
3
Spider-Man Saved Obama
Obama was almost replaced by the Chameleon
Published a week before Obama took office, Amazing Spider-Man #583 featured a back-up story where Spider-Man meets the newly elected President while in Washington to take photos of his inauguration. The celebration is interrupted when another Obama appears, claiming the other is an impostor. To determine the real Obama, Spider-Man and the Secret Service challenge them to a three-point game, which makes it obvious who the Chameleon was.
Spider-Man saving Obama at his inauguration was strange to say the least. While a great idea to celebrate Obama coming into the role of President, it’s still an odd pairing within an even weirder premise. There’s not much Chameleon can do in the role of President, as he didn’t even know what a basketball court was. While strange and corny, Spider-Man and Obama’s team-up is still heartwarming as Peter watches Obama swear in and say that Washington is in good hands.
2
Stephen Colbert Swings Into Action
Colbert teaches Spider-Man about responsibility
In a backup story to Amazing Spider-Man #573, “Candidate” (by Mark Waid, Patrick Olliffe, Serge Lapointe, Rain Beredo, and Cory Petit) follows the late-night host running for president as a third-party candidate funded by J. Jonah Jameson. After realizing his campaign is dead, Colbert stumbles on a fight between Spider-Man and the Grizzly. Seeing his opportunity to improve his public perception, Colbert runs after Spider-Man and Grizzly and takes the villain down by throwing a brick from a roof.
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Colbert’s teaming with Spider-Man is just as weird and goofy as it sounds. Seeing the late-night host chasing Spider-Man through New York and then swinging from one of his webs is something most readers never would have imagined, but here we are. While the short story is funny and fitting for Colbert’s character, it’s still just really weird that it exists at all.
1
Spider-Man is Visited By Another Late-Night Host
Jay Leno had no business in a Spider-Man comic
In one of the weirdest comic stories ever, Jay Leno comes to New York after agreeing to do a commercial with Spider-Man in a scheme to get him and his crew out of work. Annoyed that Spider-Man actually showed up to do the commercial, the unlikely duo are then attacked by Ninjas. Leno and Spidey fight off the ninjas, and it’s revealed to have all been a plot by Leno’s producer, and the issue ends with Spider-Man appearing on The Tonight Show.
Spider-Man and Jay Leno fighting ninjas is a team-up that was so weird it maybe shouldn’t have happened at all. The entire three-part story is filled with the characters trading cheesy monologues and Leno being depicted as some kind of badass who makes Spider-Man look like a wimp. There is a scene in this story where Spider-Man is terrified by how fast Leno is driving his motorcycle, and Leno comments on how he learned to fight from Jackie Chan, which doesn’t even begin to convey how weird this story is.
“}]] Spider-Man has teamed up with nearly every character in the Marvel universe, though some of the pairings and reasons behind them are downright odd. Read More