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You might have guessed it by now, but I’m kind of a fan of a certain wallcrawling, web-slinging superhero. And while I may not always know how to anticipate my enemies’ attacks, I’m reasonably attuned to some of the desires of those who think Spider-Man and his friends are pretty great. While it might be a little late in the holiday season to grab these gifts or stocking stuffers, the nice thing about them is they make excellent selections for the Spider-Fan in your life the whole year round!
This was originally intended to be a single post covering a wide range of gifting ideas, but there are SO MANY different gift categories that feature Spider-Man, I’ve decided to break it up into several posts covering different gifting areas. Each article will contain links to both specific items and to general shopping areas where you can browse for other items in that section. We’ll cover the gamut, from graphic novels and video games to movies, collectibles, clothing and accessories that feature Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and so many of the characters we’ve come to know and love over the years.
And while these are by no means exhaustive listings of Spider-Man gift ideas, they should provide an excellent start to searching for something to satisfy your beloved Spider-Fan’s web-slinging heart! We’ll start with arguably the most popular category, narrative media — movies, TV shows, books, and video games!
So with that said, let’s have a look at some of the best gifts you can grab for your Spidey-obsessed friends, family and loved ones!
Spider-Man has been featured in an enormous amount of video games, from a self-titled Atari 2600 game in 1982 to the spectacular 2018 Marvel’s Spider-Man and its superb half-sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. In addition, he (and other Spider-Folks) have been a part of various Marvel video games, such as the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games. While there are probably too many to list here, and not all of the games he’s been in are guaranteed hits, there is no denying that the web-slinger is a hot commodity who’s basically made for video gaming.
In addition to the two latest Spider-Man games, we’re getting a sequel in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in 2023. Here are a few personal recommendations for video games in which you can play as Spider-Man.
Graphic Novels — Spider-Man was created 60 years ago, and has been starring in his own comics as well as guest starring in others ever since. There is a LOT of lore that has developed in that time, much of which the movies, video games, and other media have pulled inspiration from to portray their particular depictions of Peter Parker, Eddie Brock, Miles Morales, and so forth. The adventures, trials, and tragedies Peter and his friends have endured in the comics over the decades feature compelling narrative, fantastic artwork, and tie-ins to the greater Marvel Comics universe.
Some stories from Spider-Man lore are truly iconic and stand out among the others. While I have many more recommendations than what’s shown here, this is a good sampling of tales from Spidey’s very storied history.
Movies — Spider-Man’s influence at the box office can not be denied. Filmmakers, moviegoers, and critics can’t seem to get enough of the webhead, no matter what they might actually say. While they’re not all smash successes, the overall body of Spider-Man films–as well as those of Spider-Man adjacent characters–makes for a much beloved and well regarded collection of stories. While I often watch the films digitally, I also like to have DVDs or Blu-Rays of them in case I somehow find myself without internet and craving a Spidey movie fix.
TV Shows — My first memories of Spider-Man come from the cartoons, and I struggle to remember a time when there wasn’t some iteration of the wallcrawler on the small screen. While there have been many versions of the webbed wonder on television–mostly, but not exclusively in animated media–it goes without saying that some shows were better than others. With that said, television has often been the first point at which children meet the arachnotastic superhero, and through which some of them are cultivated into Spider-Man enthusiasts.
A good number of these series are not available in boxed sets, but you can make up for some of these gaps by checking which streaming services, such as Disney Plus, offer them.
While comic books and graphic novels probably come to mind first when most people think about Spider-Man, it is well worth noting that there is plenty of (primarily) prose media that covers the exploits of the wallcrawler, both in the fictional and non-fiction realms. While many of the novelizations are products of their time from several decades ago (and therefore difficult to find), there exist plenty of guides, encyclopedias, timelines and so forth that discuss the chronicled history of Spider-Man and his friends. These resources tend to get updated every so often, as Spidey’s adventures are always ongoing on the comics.
As you can see, there’s no shortage of adventures to read, play, and watch where the web-slinger is concerned. The items featured above are worthy additions to any Spider-Fan’s library, and will hopefully inspire some gift ideas as you shop for them.
Keep an eye out for the next post in this series, covering Spider-Man collectibles, in the near future!
C21st Gods is your fairly standard, Lovecraftian cult-inspired dark mystery, starting with a police investigation of a murdered woman at an isolated homestead. The danger ratchets up fairly quickly, and a number of unexplained events come to the forefront, leaving both the reader and the main character wondering what is going on and what is to come.
incorporate a detached, almost unsympathetic view of the happenings going on and the people involved that feels appropriate to this genre. The depictions of the murder victims are unsettling, but almost too clean.
I wasn’t terribly into the New Jedi Order series of novels. I’d been reading the books a long time at that point, and had developed a kind of weariness with continuing the journey. After reading the first book, Vector Prime, I decided not to continue reading after enduring the heroic, but untimely death of a major character, Chewbacca. I kept tabs on the developments of that series, but didn’t read any further than Wikipedia (as well as Wookieepedia) in order to see what had been going on.
Ganner Rhysode was a Jedi character, who had been among the first students in Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. He was a promising Jedi, but was also vain, obsessed with his looks, and a bit too “swashbuckling” and concerned with playing the hero to actually work on being a hero. All that changed on a mission with Corran Horn, where Ganner received a prominent facial scar, which he left as a reminder to be more humble and not overestimate his own abilities. It was a good development for the character.
“You are only one man!” Nom Anor tells him.
When your enemies are so impressed by you that they place you in their mythology, then you’ve definitely done something right.
I’m not one to go around starting fights. I prefer Marvel to DC, but again, I’m willing to give them credit when and where it’s due. More importantly, I’m actually rooting for the DCEU to be as successful as the MCU, even though I think they are far behind in terms of execution at this point. I want them to have a tentpole franchise they can be proud of. I am not willing to lower myself into a mudslinging fight that we see so often, both online and in pop culture forums, where one side is yelling “MARVEL SUCKS!” and the other is yelling “DC SUCKS!” as loud as they can. It’s pointless and puerile, and I want no part of it.
Batman enthusiasts may have recently noticed a controversial headline or two about the highly anticipated home video release of Batman: the Killing Joke. Starring the beloved voice talents of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, this classic story was hailed as one of the seminal tales of the Batman mythos in the 1980s, and is credited with moving the Dark Knight into dark territory with its violent plot and surprisingly tragic (possible) backstory given to the Joker. One of the most impactful developments in the story involves the crippling of Barbara Gordon, who up until this story had been Batgirl, and whose horrific treatment at the hands of the Joker lays the groundwork for her eventual rebirth as the wheelchair-bound superhero, Oracle.
However, with that said, I like a lot of the other issues raised by this part of the story. Barbara’s exploration of her role as a crimefighter takes a compelling turn when the nephew of one of the mob bosses becomes obsessed with her. She scoffs, like I would guess any young vigilante would, when Batman tells her she’s not taking a dangerous situation seriously enough. Her enthusiasm balances her uncertainty, with which she does struggle in a believable fashion. What her mentor thinks of her, what lengths criminals will go to in order to get what they want, how she handles stress and surprises in their line of work—these are all issues she encounters, and deals with in ultimately relatable ways. It’s only when the romantic/sexual/infatuation elements come into play that things come off as contrived or off-putting.
There is, of course, more to this film than the changes that were made to the story, and I’m giving them such short shrift because, for the most part, they’re fine, and we all know what to expect from them. The script is nearly line for line accurate to the comic, and the animation and voice acting is all top-notch. I even didn’t realize in the original comic that Joker actually sings during one phase of his tormenting the elder Gordon. It’s certainly not a bad adaptation. I just happen to think the changes surrounding Barbara’s character are the most significant part of the story, and that they bring both positive and negative elements to bare upon the narrative.
run of ASM, but I can at least now claim I’ve completed the latter half of the original 700-issue run (yes, there are more issues since those, but I’ve got all of them, as I’ve been subscribing to ASM since 2012), as the acquisition of these issues–in addition to the 9/11 “black” issue earlier this week–mean that I now have every issue of Amazing Spider-Man from #300-700. It’s taken me about four years of searching and hunting, and spending, but I now have a massively unbroken streak of these comics that more than comprises the latter half of the original run.
Spidey Librarian 