A Spider Hero For Everyone!
Spider-Ham is the oddest of all the animal versions of Spider-Man variants. Having seen this character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, some of us were amused and boggled with the conundrum of it all. A practically invincible seeming ‘Pig’ in ‘Spidey’ costume was a treat to watch that also brought alive the cartoon love within us all.
But this Spider-Man variant – like every other variant in the film – has a complete background and a whole story behind his superpowers. As real as any other Spider-Man!
Published in a solo comic issue of ‘The Spectacular Spider-Ham’ as well, this Spidey version is an anthropomorphic spider that looks like a pig and has qualities of both a pig and a spider. This character was created by Tom DeFalco and Mark Armstrong.
Spider-Ham Origins
So, let’s do this one more time…
Spider-Ham’s story starts when May Porker, an anthropomorphic pig, is in the middle of an experiment of creating a hairdryer that runs on atomic energy. (As funny as it is) May Porker gets whizzed by the radiation of the atomic dryer and bites the spider, Peter there. Due to the radioactive bite from May Porker, Peter changes into a Pig with the powers and abilities of a spider. Which is an absolute reversal of the original story, where a spider bites the character.
Watch: Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham | EXCLUSIVE Animated Short |
After becoming the Spider-Ham, Peter Porker tries climbing the walls and shooting webs out of his Web shooter just like his variants.
Peter Porker’s girlfriend is Mary Jane, but this time she is a beautiful water buffalo. And he works at the Daily Beagle with J. Jonah Jackal.
There are instances in the comics where we see non-sentient animals in farms along with their anthropomorphic masters in this universe or should we say ‘Ani-verse’.
Into the Spider-verse, On To The Pop Culture
Spider-Ham is a part of the earth 8311 of Marvel comics which is a cartoon universe that has the animal versions of many original marvel characters.
And that’s not all folks, ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (Animated Film) and ‘The Spectacular Spider-Ham’ (Comics) are not the only places this weird superhero has appeared. We have seen Spider-Ham in Marvel’s ‘The Ultimate Spider-Man’ (Cartoon Show) and the Web-Warriors (Variant Edition). He also stars in his exclusive animated short, Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham.
Fun fact: Peter Porker can be seen eating meat – including pork – without a problem. Because it is well established in the comics that he considers himself to be a higher form of life than non-sentient beings.
Marvel never fails to amuse us, don’t they?
With the creation of a Spider-Man variant that can literally be flattened like a cartoon and it does almost nothing to him, Spider-Ham is not only the weirdest of all but perhaps also the mightiest of all.
As the Pig himself says,
“Well, you mess with the Ham, you get the Hammer.”
