Arachnid Appearance and Attire



This Animal Motif is when a character consciously themes themselves, their behavior and even their home around spiders, though they might only do one or two of the above. Though they may have an Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance with long, thin limbs and a round belly, a rail thin and tall physique is the norm. Spider ladies are usually hourglass shaped, and regardless of gender or build almost always have black hair and pale skin.

They'll wear a lot of black, sometimes with red or white accents, lots of gauzy material, use web patterns, and generally either dress very fashionably in well tailored suits and dresses or go for Awesome Anachronistic Apparel with a whiff of decay. Villains enjoy High Collar of Doom and skintight Hell-Bent for Leather, though not necessarily at the same time. Personality wise they are usually territorial, sexually predatory (sometimes to the point of aptly being a Black Widow), and good at intrigue. On the more positive side, they can also be intelligent, patient, stoic, kind (this one is rare though) and creative, (they may be good at weaving either literally or metaphorically). Of course Dark Is Not Evil and they may just have a case of Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind; good spider people can be nice, but regardless of morality, spider-themed characters can usually be creepy with very little effort.

Spider powers optional, but usually include Super Strength, Not Quite Flight augmented with In a Single Bound, shooting webs and being a Poisonous Person. Theme Naming and Meaningful Name recommended. Spider puns less so.

If combined with Petting Zoo People and/or Shapeshifting, the motif can become far more literal, as with Spider People.

Anime and Manga

 * Shogen Kazamachi from Basilisk has spider powers and looks really like one, having a gargantuan, round hunchback and long, thin limbs.
 * The spider guy from Galerians: Ash.
 * Pictured above, Arachne from Soul Eater, complete with Meaningful Name.

Comic Books

 * Spider-Man is a notable example for being very colorful.
 * Except when he's wearing his black costume.
 * There's also Venom, Carnage, and Toxin as symbiotes that copy Spidey's powers, and the various Spider-Women.
 * Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan.
 * Bride of Nine Spiders from the Immortal Iron Fist
 * Emily Crowe from Desolation Jones, who emits pheromones that trigger the Arachnid Reaction.
 * Widow from Savage Dragon is a formerly-homeless metahuman who has spider-based powers and appearance including pale skin and a web-designed costume.

Mythology

 * Anansi the Spider is probably the Ur Example.

Tabletop RPG

 * The Weaver from Werewolf: The Apocalypse is a Powers That Be variant.
 * Drow from Dungeons and Dragons tend towards this kind of thing, although dark-skinned and white-haired. The 3.5 sourcebook for the drow points out that their obsessive reverence for a creature that they can't hope to truly emulate has driven the society as a whole a bit crazy.

Video Games

 * Tarantula from Wet.
 * Juri Han from Super Street Fighter IV fits the bill. Her style of Taekwondo shows a great degree of flexibility, her top is fashioned after a spider, and her nickname within S.I.N. is even "Spider." Juri is a lewd, flirtatious character with a mean streak and a very predatory nature (sometimes sexually, sometimes not). According the developers, the basic idea for Juri was to "make her an evil, sexy character."
 * Zafina from Tekken 6. Director Katsuhiro Harada likened some of her moves to that of a spider and a few of her animations even involve Zafina crawling towards her opponent in an insect-like manner. While she possesses a large degree of mystique to her character and a cold and distant personality, she is working to prevent The End of the World as We Know It.
 * Lord Recluse from City of Heroes, Incarnate of Tartarus, head of the villainous organization Arachnos and ruler of the Rogue Isles. He is spider-like in appearance, with eight arms growing out of his back fitted with metal claws, and clad in armor resembling a spider's exoskeleton. His organization as a whole shares his spider motif.
 * Black Widow from Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II. Aside from her ring name, she's known for her bedazzling flexibility (in spite of her large frame).
 * Mephala of the Elder Scrolls fame, particularly in her Daggerfall incarnation. Bonus points for being the Daedric patron of sex and murder.
 * Death-sphere wizard Arachna, the Spider Queen, from Age of Wonders 2.
 * Yamame from Touhou is a spider youkai, and as such has six buttons down the front of her dress, which was designed to form the silhouette of a spider's abdomen.

Web Comics

 * In Drowtales, there are several characters that might fit this:
 * Melanarch is the resident Crazy Spider Lady. Her "lair" is filled with cobwebs and her outfits are all made of silk. She doesn't act like a spider, though.
 * The Beldobbaen clan has a spider motif. Their matriarch, Weas is perhaps the most notable example (her spider legs are not real, they're some sort of spell or shapeshifting).
 * Naal (Waes' daughter) is an Elegant Gothic Lolita Ill Girl who carries her pet spider on her back.
 * Thera is a Half-Human Hybrid whose spider parts are quite real. Melanarch's clothes are made from her silk.
 * Homestuck: Marquise Spinneret Mindfang wore a black, skin-tight pirate outfit, with a webbing design on the jacket. Oddly, Mindfang's modern-day descendent, Vriska Serket, continued the spider motif in every manner except her clothes—except for one scene where her most powerful attack causes her to take on Mindfang's abilities and wardrobe.
 * The evil-Spinnerette from Spinnerette had this even before her transformation.

Western Animation

 * Blackarachnia from Transformers Beast Wars and her Transformers Animated Expy. Since both series don't share continuity, and are thus different characters, they're technically separate examples.
 * Her Expy Airachnid from Transformers Prime as well.
 * Tarantulas as well.