Spider-Man/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


With great power comes great responsibility. And great awesome too.

Comics


  • All Spider-Man Moments of Awesome are descended from the classic moment in Amazing #33, where, trapped under a giant machine with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean quickly flooding the room, a beaten and battered Spider-Man refuses to quit and lifts the machine off his back, all to save the rare isotope he needs to cure Aunt May's radiation poisoning.
    • It doesn't stop there; he goes on to escape from the flooding building, defeat an entire gang with his eyes closed while sporting an injured leg, make the life-saving serum, hustle J. Jonah Jameson into paying top dollar for his pictures, and ultimately save his Aunt May's life. The only thing that keeps this issue from being a full-on happy ending is that he scares Betty Brant, making her want to break up with him. Otherwise, the entire issue is a huge Crowning Moment of Awesome for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
  • When the Green Goblin came Back from the Dead and threatened Peter Parker's entire supporting cast, Peter (and his clone 'brother' Ben) save everyone, at the cost of Ben's life, during which we are treated to this:

Spider-Man: "This has never been about Spider-Man and Green Goblin. It has always been about Peter Parker and Norman Osborn. Now Halloween's over, Norman. That means no more masks. No more pumpkins. No more bombs. It's time for us to face each other... as MEN!
Green Goblin: No. No! I kill your true love, you fall in love with someone else. I destroy your life and you build another! Why won't you fall down and die?!
Spider-Man: Because then, Norman, you would win. (punches out Goblin) And I will never give you the satisfaction.

  • Mary Jane gets her own Moment of Awesome when Spidey's foe The Chameleon uncovers his secret identity and imprisons him. To rub salt into the wound, Chameleon assumes the form of Peter Parker and goes to Peter and MJ's apartment, intending to have some "fun" with MJ. What could have been a horrible moment ends when Mary Jane, immediately realizing "Peter" is a fake, beats the Chameleon senseless with a baseball bat, leaving him battered and broken both physically and mentally.
    • Mary Jane also gets another one in the "What If" storyline of the Other, where the Peter dies and the symbiote takes over his body. Said symbiote is now much stronger than normal as it is in the body that it's wanted for so long, and proceeds to take out Wolverine and Power Man before going to Mary Jane as it has plans to replicate itself. To stop it from hurting anyone else, MJ offers to go with it, but here's the moment of awesome as she then goes on to say something along the lines of, "you may get my body, but my soul will always belong to Peter, and if I go with you, I'm going to make your life horrible." This is so awesome because it actually scares off the newly dubbed Poison and makes him rethink her as a host.
    • Even Peter's Aunt May gets into the act, when the Chameleon tries the same thing on her: after confirming he's an imposter with a few trick questions, she bakes "Peter" a batch of cookies with crushed sleeping pills and just a little bit of almond flavor to make him think he's been poisoned. Best of all is the moment when she tells him all the mistakes he's made and holds up the sweater she's been knitting - with GOTCHA in big block letters across the front.
      • With bonus Heartwarming Moments: "I suspected you weren't Peter on the elevator ride up. After all...what kind of mother wouldn't be able to tell her son from an imposter?"
      • Oh, yeah... And that almond taste? CYANIDE! Don't mess with Aunt May.
    • Both of these moments are available to view now!
      • Are they available to view elsewhere? Those images aren't showing up for me.
    • Sure, there was the Chameleon beat down, taking down Swarm, and shooting the Green Goblin... but THIS has always been MJ's Moment of Awesome, if you ask this troper.
      • Yes, fellow troper! Seeing Mary Jane refuse to leave the grieving Peter after Gwen's death, even after Peter attempts a "The Reason You Suck" Speech was nothing short of great.
  • As angsty as Back in Black was, his "Shut UP, Hannibal" speech to Kingpin more than made up for it. The ensuing beat down he delivered as Peter Parker didn't hurt either.
  • Spidey's battle with The Juggernaut in Amazing 229-230. The fact that Spider-Man is completely outmatched might make the fight seem ridiculous-but it instead ends up being a testament to Spidey's willpower, ingenuity, and sense of justice, as he throws everything he can at the villain in an effort to stop him. The fight ends with Spidey jumping on Juggernaut's back and covering his helmet's eyeholes as the villain pounds at him-until Juggernaut accidentally wanders into a deep cement building foundation, leaving a battered and exhausted Spidey the victor. Proof that the "Parker Luck" isn't always bad, and that Spider-Man's refusal to submit is one of his greatest weapons.
  • For all the amazing action Spider-Man has been involved in over his entire history, the true, one-of-a-kind, ultimate Moment of Awesome for the character was in The Boy Who Collected Spider-Man. A kid, not even a teenager yet, has terminal cancer and wants to meet his hero, Spider-Man, before he dies. Spider-Man shows up at the kid's window once night, and 100% Pure Awesomeness ensues.
  • Granted it was with the Power Cosmic but he still punched the damn Hulk into orbit.
  • In his first meetings with both the FF and X-Men he held his own and beat them about. In fact Xavier had to step in to stop him beating the 4 X-Men who were there at the time.
  • The end of the classic Amazing Spider-Man #18. Not only is it a crowning moment for Peter but one for Aunt May too. Up to that issue Peter never had it rougher. Due to running away from the Green Goblin after learning his Aunt had collapsed, the entire city, super hero, and villain communities were labeling Spider-Man as a coward. To make it worse Jonah was gloating about it all over the place, Aunt May was slowly recovering, and Peter was afraid to fight any villains for fear of leaving his Aunt unable to take care of herself. Not only that but money was getting so tight that Spidey was ready to sell his web fluid for money, course it being unstable didn't help so that option was out. Near the end Peter decides to let the world win and gives up being Spider-Man. Only to go downstairs to find his Aunt up and about. She refuses his help and explains that Parkers are tough and should never give up no matter what. After her stirring speech Peter returns to his room and re-dons his Spidey costume vowing to continue his fight. Despite being 46 years old it's one of the most dramatic moments this twenty three year old has ever read from a comic book. In fact it has a crowning moment of awesome for Flash Thompson as well. The one person who stuck by Spider-Man's side and even donned a costume to go out and fight crime. This resulted in getting his butt handed to him by three guys. Despite Spidey never coming to his aid he still believed in the guy. For containing not one but three moments of awesome this is why issue 18 is this Spider-Man's #1 issue, not the classic #33 that every other Spider-fan considers their favorite.
    • Not to mention that glorious moment in #19 when JJJ, about to do another speech gloating how he proved Spider-Man is a phony, learns the shattering news that Spidey's back in action and his face falls to the floor.
  • The principal of Peter's high school gets a Moment of Awesome in an early issue of The Amazing Spider-man. The Sandman, hiding out in the high school, accidentally walks into an occupied classroom that the principal is dropping in on. Sandman taunts his new hostages and mentions that so long as he's around, he'd like to have the diploma that he never got when he was in school. The principal balks, saying that a diploma must be earned, and refuses to back down on the issue. When the rather irate Sandman threatens the students, the principal throws himself in front of the class and orders the kids to run for it while he holds the Sandman off (luckily, Spider-man arrives just in time to keep the poor guy from being clobbered by the Sandman). Corny? Yes. Awesome? Hell yes.
  • In the battle at the end of Marvel Civil War after Spidey defects to Captain America's side In the space of two frames, Spiderman takes down Bishop, Doc Samson, The Radioactive Man and Blizzard before kicking Reed Richards in the neck, all this while avoiding Reed's flailing arms.

Reed Richards: Amazing...

(Spidey kicks him in the throat)

Spiderman: Spectacular.

    • The entirety of the Marvel Civil War was MADE of Moments of Awesome for Peter, but I can't let this one pass without mentioning his fight with Iron Man. "What kind of techno geek do you think I am, that I wouldn't find your suit's lockdown code and program an override?"
      • What makes it even better is that Peter's wearing his Stark Armor/Iron Spider costume, and Iron Man uses his override for the suit, and then admonishes Peter for never examining the tech he was wearing; only for Spidey to then reveal that he had not only found Stark's override & created his own override for that, but also that his also had the added bonus of disabling Stark's Iron Man armor long enough for him to escape, all the while Peter admonishes Stark for thinking he wasn't bright enough to find to his override, nevermind program an escape to it.
  • In Amazing Spider-Man 587, during the "Character Assassination" arc, Spidey gets himself out of a super-tough neck brace by using leverage. As he said once in Marvel Adventures, "Why do people keep forgetting that I'm really, really smart?"
  • In Spectacular Spider-Man #203, nearing the end of the "Maximum Carnage" arc, Spider-Man -while distracting the villains so his allies can get the Alpha Magni-Illuminator to stop them- lectures the villains while they try their very hardest to kill them, with only damage on his costume all they have done. This of course leaves him helpless and he is hit by a Psychic blast which turns his "shame, self-disgust, anger, and pain" onto himself which he also promptly survives, making two Moments of Awesome in the same two pages.
  • A Moment of Awesome for long-time Butt Monkey the Shocker. Herman Schultz was terrorizing the New York Stock Exchange one day when, in one of the more inspired moments of his criminal career, he pointed his vibro-smashers at a nearby broker. "Hey, you! The Shocker wants to be a millionaire...so hop to it!" The broker played the market accordingly...and a few minutes later, the Shocker left the scene a million bucks richer.
  • Aunt May talks back to the Scorpion. Does May Parker have to slap a punk?
  • Spider-Man versus Firelord. Yes, the former herald of Galactus. Spidey spends most of two issues using every trick he can think of to keep Firelord down, and none of it sticks. Finally, he attacks, relying on speed, spider-sense, and repeated punching and kicking. The only thing that stops the fight is Captain America pointing out that Firelord is unconscious...
  • Spidey gets at least two Crowning Moments during the Secret Wars. One memorable moment is when he kicks Titania's ass after she foolishly challenges him thinking he'd be a pushover, putting that arrogant b* tch in her place and actually making her mildly phobic of him for quite a while. (Titania: "Impossible! Nobody can move that fast!" Spider-Man: "Nobody else.") But by far the best moment is when he eavesdrops on the X-Men plotting to leave the main hero group and join up with Magneto, they catch him in the act, and Spidey SINGLE-HANDEDLY beats the tobacco juice out of every single one of them and escapes to warn the others. Nightcrawler's quote says it all:

Nightcrawler: "His strength--! His speed--! Unbelievable! He is AWESOME!"

  • While we're talking about Spidey vs other heroes, there was an crossover issue in the late 80s involving a mutant who could possess other people, which led to Spider-Man fighting the Fantastic Four to a stalemate until someone else could knock out the mutant. That's four-on-one, where the one is your friendly neighborhood arachnid and the four are people who regularly fight Galactus.
    • This troper would like to add the very first issue of Spider-Man where he breaks into the Fantastic Four's base to join the team and, when they won't let him and try to attack him, he fights all four of them until he decides its pointless and escapes. This was before he'd ever dealt with super villains and he still managed to impress the Thing with his strength and leave the Fantastic Four worrying about how powerful he would someday become. Spidey has a long history of fighting the Fantastic Four.
  • Spider-Man vs. Fusion. Spidey still went toe-to-toe with someone who appeared to be collecting superpowers like they were going out of style, sustained an illusionary broken neck, and still managed to deliver a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and stand up for another round. (It has to be acknowledged that Fusion may have appeared to have every power in Marvel New York, but all he could actually do was a Compelling Voice. The fact that Spidey went head-to-head with him before he actually found this out qualifies). At the end came perhaps the actual crowning moment: Fusion says that even if Spidey knows about the true source of the powers he's being hit with, it won't stop them hurting, and delivers a Hulk Punch. Spidey doesn't even notice it.

Fusion: *Turns into the Hulk* Die. *punches*
Spidey: *unflinching* No.

  • This troper would like to add Anti-Venom's (Eddie Brock) first fight with Venom (Mac Gargan) where he beats down Gargan and then tears apart the symbiote bit by bit until Gargan and the symbiote are on the ground halfway dead.
  • Amaxing #656. After being shot in the stomach, and establishing Massacre as an emotionless killing machine with efficiency rivaling The Joker, Spidey shows up in an upgraded armoured Spider-Suit. Massacre tries to blow up his hostages with bombs strapped to their chests. Spidey uses magnetic webbing to cut off the signal to the trigger. Massacre blasts at them with his machine gun, Spidey blocks it with his suit. Massacre decides to blow up another bunch of hostages across town, Spidey webs the trigger. Massacre gets tired of this and pulls out a rocket launcher. Spidey blocks that too. After a good kick, Massacre is in range of multiple police snipers. Yes, Spidey blocks those as well.

Today nobody dies. Not even you.

  • What, no love for his stint as Captain Universe? Basically, an extra-dimensional being (or something similar) called the Enigma Force detected that a great calamity would occur, and as such beings are wont to do, it selected a hero in order to stop it, choosing Spider-Man. The result was that our favorite web-slinger became Captain Universe. Basically, he won the Superpower Lottery again, this time getting Flight, Energy Blasts, Nigh Invulnerability, his Super Strength was at least doubled, his five (not counting Spider Sense) senses went into overdrive, and he gained psionic control over his webbing, essentially making it into a literal Green Lantern Ring. Anyhow, some time after that, Loki decided that he wanted to do some mischief, so he magically combined THREE prototype ultra-powerful Sentinels into one "Tri-Sentinel", which could apparently only be stopped by something as powerful as Captain Universe. Ultimately, Spider-Man burned himself out stopping the Tri-Sentinel and lost his newfound powers, but damn if it wasn't awesome.
  • In (I believe) Amazing Spider-Man, after being beaten down by Green Goblin and trying to save Aunt May again, he saves a blown-up Daily Bugle by holding it on his back while everyone escapes. And to stop it from falling he uses all of his webbing to hold it in place.
  • Amazing Spider-Man #682 - We get a few pages of Peter commenting on how the things he's created at Horizon as Peter Parker are helping people with things like organ transportation, to providing more chance of people avoiding head trauma thanks to more protective bicylce helmets, before lamenting that he's finally doing what Uncle Ben had wanted for Peter by using his intellect to help people.
    • Which turns into an Ironic Echo and an Awesome Moment for Dr. Octopus as it's revealed in 686 that all of Peter's creations at Horizon were being used by the mad scientist against him.
  • Amazing Spider-Man #683. Spidey, donning his brand new Anti-Sinister Six Armor and flanked by Captain America (comics) and Thor, bursts into a room where various leaders are discussing weither or not to give into Dr. Octopus' final demands. When Al Gore tells Spidey that Octavius' work could help mankind, Spidey responds by punching him in the face, mostly because he knows that everyone would be insane to let a mad man like Doc Ock win.
    • Of course It was the Chameleon... but it still manages to be an awesome moment for Spidey, since it show just how Crazy Prepared he was for the Sinister Six when he created his new Spider Armour, as he had implemented something similar to Daredevil's Radar Sense in order to tell if someone was the Chameleon or not.
    • A very simple moment in this scene - when the UN question whose authority Spider-Man speaks on, Thor steps forward.

Thor: I am Thor Odinson, heir to the lord of Asgard. And this man is my most trusted counsel. Continue, Spider-Man.

Film series

  • Admit it, you thought the Green Goblin interrupting Aunt May's prayer by crashing into her house was awesome.
  • In the second movie, the entire train sequence. And just about anything involving Doctor Octopus.
  • Doctor Octopus gets his own crowning moment by responding to the civilians. Long story short, the civilians say "If you want to get to him, you'll have to go through me." Ock simply replies "Very well." Ass is kicked.
  • It's not Spidey saving an entire trainload of people from horrible death (who then save him). It's not the civilians (later) standing up to Doc Ock (though both are awesome). Spidey realizes his mask got lost and has a little moment of panic and the two kids say 'We won't tell'. The others agree.
    • Made more awesome by that one guys shocked reaction, realising the sort of person who routinely risks his life to save them.

Passenger: He's... just a kid? No older than my son?!

  • The quality of the third movie depends according to who you ask, but you have to love the fight at the end. And this troper loved the scene when the Sandman is "born".
  • Also, Venom killing Harry. This version of Venom may have not been in the movie that long, but he managed to deal a blow to his nemesis harsher than any other incarnation of the character has.
  • In the first movie, the scene where Peter catches Mary Jane's lunch is a Moment of Awesome...for Tobey Macguire. The scene was done without special effects or CGI; the only "doctoring" is that the lunch tray was attached to Tobey's hand, meaning that what we see are his reflexes and balance, not Spider-Man's.
  • "Shame on you." You just know Doc Ock's in for it when Aunt May shows disgust towards underhanded sneak attacks...in more ways than one. The film version of Aunt May's Moment of Awesome was smacking Doc Ock upside the head with her umbrella handle, temporarily distracting him while both are at least two dozen stories high (300 feet up at least). She had the theater crowd cheering.
  • Mary Jane throwing a cement brick at Venom in the third movie; chiefly awesome because FINALLY she gets to to take a shot at her kidnapper and stop being a Neutral Female Damsel Scrappy.
  • Nobody agrees with me, but HOLY SHIT, Peter THROWING A BOMB BACK IN HARRY'S FACE in Spider-Man 3 was AMAZING. I was cheering at that point, even though Peter was clearly being a heel at the moment. And what about the part where he rams Sandman's face into a goddamn train? Again Moral Dissonance, but come on, that was badass.
    • Seconded. Harry had been such a jerkass for all three films towards his supposed best friend, you honestly couldn't help but feel he kind of deserved that one. One person in the audience of the cinema where I saw this even yelled, "YES! Kick the Son of a Bitch!"
  • The climax of the first movie is simultaneously a Moment of Awesome and Heartwarming Moments. The Goblin had previously stated that the people of New York would turn on Spider-Man eventually, and by this point of the movie, it appears to be true. However, as Spider-Man is dangling in the air, desperately trying to keep a cable car full of children from falling to their deaths while the Goblin attacks him, who should come to his rescue, but the ordinary people of the city. The fact alone that they are proving that Rousseau Was Right and the Goblin was wrong makes it a Moment of Awesome, but what they shout at the Goblin as they pelt him with garbage and debris is what really sells it:

Bystander 1: Leave Spider-Man alone! You gonna pick on a guy just trying to save a bunch of kids?
Bystander 2: You mess with Spidey, you mess with New York!
Bystander 1: You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!

    • Incidentally, this scene was added after 9/11. It shows.
  • Four words: "Go get 'em, tiger."
  • "I WILL NOT DIE A MONSTER!"
  • Peter's Eureka Moment & defeat of Venom.
  • Harry's Big Damn Heroes moment to save Peter from Sandman & Venom.
  • J. Jonah Jameson in the first movie lying to the Goblin to protect Parker. Just after Parker sells the photos the Goblin attacks and ask who takes the photos "I don't know who he is, his stuff comes in the mail"

Literature

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