Across The Spider-Verse Almost Used The Scariest Spider-Man In The Most Hilarious Way
Despite Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" featuring almost 300 identifiable multiversal variations of everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood wall-crawler, there are still Webheads that haven't snagged screentime in Sony's ongoing animated franchise. Some, although the creative team is notably quiet about which, are being saved for "Beyond the Spider-Verse," but some have simply failed to make the cut. Kristafer "Kris" Anka, a comic artist who worked on character design for "Across the Spider-Verse," revealed on his Twitter account that he created a design pitch for Man-Spider.
"He, unfortunately, didn't make [it] into the film, but of my absolute favorite designs I did was for Man-Spider," wrote Anka. "I pitched a gag that he was the Spider Society cafeteria cook because [of] his arms." Anka attached a series of images to the tweet, images which depict the six-armed, monster-headed Man-Spider dressed in a tattered Spider-Man uniform and a hilariously normal chef's apron, presumably ready to make one of those Burger King tie-in Whoppers.
The main difference which can be found across the four images is the color palate of Man-Spider's many arms. On one, his hairy limbs are a dull blue, on another, they're pitch black. On the last two, they're a sickly shade of beige. And exactly none of them look like appendages that any sound-minded individual would want near their food.
Man-Spider is a recurring nightmare for Peter Parkers everywhere
Man-Spider is something of a tragedy. Although the finer points change from version to version, the general gist of Man-Spider's somber origin story is that the venom from the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker mutates further after seemingly settling in his system. Sometimes, the further mutation is triggered by what we are going to gently refer to as "external factors." Most of these stories see Peter Parker enjoy a brief stint as Spider-Man before he transforms into Man-Spider, which is how the comic artists and television animators justify that iconic shredded costume aesthetic.
It's worth mentioning that, in most stories, Man-Spider is not the endpoint for Peter Parker ... it's more like a really bad, prolonged nightmare for the poor guy. While a six-armed, arachnoid-adjacent creature, Man-Spider serves as a villain to anyone and everyone he encounters. Still, he almost always has the good fortune to revert back to regular ol' Spidey after another hero –- or villain, nobody likes dealing with Man-Spider –- cures him.
Man-Spider has never appeared in a live-action format, but he's appeared onscreen at least twice before Sony axed him from "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." He made an appearance in "Spider-Man the Animated Series" back in the '90s, and, much more recently, he showed up in "Ultimate Spider-Man."
Who knows, maybe Sony is saving the scariest characters for the third installment. That would definitely explain why Spiders-Man hasn't shown his wretched face yet, either.