It has been 43 years since Marvel Comics introduced one of the strangest Spider-Man variants and the wild Earth that he lived on. In 1981, DC Comics introduced a character named Captain Carrot and his team, the Amazing Zoo Crew, heroes on an alternate Earth that was ruled by anthropomorphic sentient animals with no humans. Each of the heroes was an animal that had the powers of humans from the mainstream Earth, with Captain Carrot as the counterpart to Superman. Two years later, Marvel did the same thing. In this story, instead of Superman, the main counterpart was Spider-Man, and each of the characters was a lot more like the Marvel Earth-616 heroes than even the Captain Carrot comics did for DC.
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On August 9, 1983, Marvel Comics released the comedy title Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham. As evident from the punny name, the main character was a pig named Peter Porker who became the superhero known as Spider-Ham. That same issue also introduced animal versions of Hulk, Captain America, and Ghost Rider.
Marvel Comics Introduced a Pig Version of Spider-Man in 1983
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Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #1 by Tom DeFalco and Mark Armstrong featured the first appearance of Spider-Ham. The book started with the hero in action, stopping a jewelry store robbery by a gang of gophers. Just as one of the gophers prepared to shoot Spider-Ham, he was saved by Captain Americat. The two wrapped up the villains and then went on their way. J. Jonah Jameson here is named J. Jonah Jackal, and Peter is a photographer just like Peter Parker, while Steve is a reporter for the Daily Beagle. They also met Bruce Bunny, the electrical engineer at the local arcade. Yes, this entire series is full of puns.
Of course, Bruce Bunny ends up bombarded with gamma rays and becomes the Incredible Hulk Bunny, and it was up to Spider-Ham and Captain Americat to stop him. The backup story was about Goose Rider. This was a one-shot comedy issue, and whether Marvel was testing the waters or just got lucky, it ended up as a hit. Unlike Captain Carrot, which played it straight with touches of humor, this comic was simply an onslaught of puns and goofy versions of the real heroes, but as wise-cracking animals. Thanks to its success, Marvel launched the new solo series Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham 17 months later, with the first issue hitting stores on January 22, 1985.
This book brought back Spider-Ham and J. Jonah Jackal, and it introduced more animal replacements for the Earth-616 heroes. In this issue, he fought Ducktor Doom, and the issue also showed the Fantastic Fur in flashbacks (Mooster Fantastic, Simian Torch, Invisible Gorilla, and Thang). Issues after this introduced heroes like the Uncanny X-Bugs, Iron Mouse, Croctor Strange, and Thrr, Dog of Thunder. Each issue went deeper into the idea of animals serving as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, while playing off the puns of their names. The series ran for 17 issues, and the final issue had the story “Secret Furs,” clearly playing off the idea of “Secret Wars” with the Bee-Yonder as the villain.
Spider-Ham Returned In the Spider-Verse
After his comic was cancelled, Marvel kept telling Spider-Ham stories in the pages of Marvel Tales, where Spider-Man was in the first story, and Spider-Ham was in the backup story of each issue. This lasted until Marvel Tales #247, and then he was in a few issues of What The–?!, which was a series like What If…? but with goofier tales. Following What The–?! #24, Spider-Ham disappeared, and he was gone for 13 years. He showed up again in Spider-Man Family #1 (2005) and then had a few cameos before he made his official return in Edge of Spider-Verse #5 (2014) to fight alongside Spider-Man and other variants.
This led into the “Spider-Verse” event series, where Morlun and his family, the Inheritors, were feasting on members of the spider-totem, and Spider-Ham was one of the heroes who joined the fight against the monsters. For the first time, Spider-Ham wasn’t a pun-filled joke character, and he was actually teaming with real heroes to save himself and everyone like him. He was also back in other Spider-Verse stories after that, and this allowed him to reach the highest level of success since his original appearance in the 1980s.
Spider-Ham was one of the main characters in the Oscar-winning animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where he was voiced by John Mulaney and helped Miles Morales alongside Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, Peter B. Parker, and Spider-Woman. He also had a non-speaking cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. What originally looked like a one-off comedy comic that looked a little too much like DC’s Captain Carrot books turned Spider-Ham into a popular cult classic Marvel hero that has become a big-screen icon.
What are your thoughts on Spider-Ham in Marvel Comics and the movies? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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