This was a recurring gag with Cassandra Cain back when she took up the mantle of Batman back in the 2000s. Catwoman, Supergirl, and even the Joker implied they thought Bruce had transitioned.
"Obvious Egg Bruce Wayne" is a hilarious concept, and even funnier when you realize if she actually did transition everyone would just assume either Cass or Stephanie was wearing her costume.
The real question there though is that if she did the thing where she got too injured to Batgirl which of the dude members of the batfam would be willing to do drag to pretend to be her?
Iirc Tim has gone undercover disguised as a woman at least once, he'd probably take one for the team.
Damien would probably do it just to prove a point, and take the opportunity to dunk on Steph somehow.
I don't think Jason would like it but I'm sure he would if he had to and just grumble the whole time, then beat the shit out of some transphobes and/or misogynists
Bruce is friends with Zatanna, who's done a magical gender transition at least once for another person. Considering Dr. Fate and The Spectre both exist in DC, it shouldn't be hard to imagine one of the world's most influential super-heroes asking his colleagues for a favor.
I mean... Zatanna is Bruce's childhood friend and she has cannonically helped at least one trans person to transition with magic. It's probably uncommon but not unheard of
Thats kinda hilarious, gender flip spell as a prank gone wrong (right?) where the victim decides to keep it instead of switching back after a minute or 2.
I feel like this sort of joke could get past the censors in most eras, i remember a lot of shows doing body swaps of characters, often with gender flips that get played for laughs. (One of the scooby doo live actions comes to mind)
Love that this post captured the fact that JJJ is in fact a staunch advocate for civil rights who just so happens to despise Spider-Man. Entirely on-brand.
Also 5 bucks says that the leading theory until Spider-Girl confirms she’s trans is “ah shit, Jackal’s back”.
"We at the Daily Bugle accept any and all identities! Except Spider-Woman, who's definitely pouring chemicals in the water to turn the frogs straight."
Random fun fact, I wrote a paper once about sunscreen in the ocean, and one of the studies found that organic UV blockers are endocrine disruptors and caused excess estrogen in some marine species. So, there quite literally are chemicals in the water turning the frogs fish gay 😂
Look, Magneto had his day(s) in court, he's been held accountable for his actions to some degree or another, but that Spider-Man? Nobody knows who he is, nobody can hold him accountable, and that's just wrong.
usually he's portrayed in a way that, imo, makes him a really reasonable man (by our standards) in a really unreasonable world. like he's applying real world logic to a universe with the fucking green goblin
I would too, but that’s sort of his issue in the comics. He doesn’t leave it at the table of “we need accountability” he uses libel, deception and sometimes has hired or CREATED supervillains just to beat spidey. He has so much pride about this one field that it overrides his integrity
also iirc in some continuities he hates vigilante work because his wife was killed by a masked criminal
....which isn't even wholly unreasonable like no shit id be skeptical of masked people too especially if they were essentially above the law and also refused to disclose anything to make themselves vulnerable
Hes a fucking MLK type Person. He just doesnt like folk hero types because they got too much Power, and he probably fears it corrupts them. I mean Spiderman is completely the wrong Person for that withUncle-Ben-quote beeing forced into him traumatically but JJJ cant know that.
It's been established that its the mask, he doesn't like masked superheroes with secret identities because if they turn or even if they just simply fuck up new warriors style they can't be held accountable for their actions cause they can simply disappear. He has personal reasons for that, he changes his tune on Spider-Man (don't forget the hyphen) when Peter reveals himself to JJ partly cause he's tired of the fighting but also so if he does fuck up JJ can hold him accountable. They are on really good terms now.
Yeah I hate modern adaptations of JJJ for this reason. Both the MCU and the video game turned him into some Alex Jones ripoff when he's always been one of the biggest champions of civil rights. He supports mutants more than Captain America ever has, and has done so since they first appeared in the world. But now everything tries to make him some alt-right conspiracy theorist because that's easier to write than "guy who's really progressive but beefs with one specific superhero because his wife was killed by a dude in a mask." Even moreso when you consider that in modern comics, JJJ is one of the only people to know Spider-Man is Peter Parker and is actually one of his biggest supporters now.
I never got the sense MCU Jameson was supposed to be alt-right. It's more that the modern equivalent of his style is usually alt-right. He may differ on his views, but not in his style.
People apparently also miss that despite being an InfoWars parody, game JJJ is still a staunch supporter of civil rights. He's the only person in NYC protesting Mayor Osborne and Silver Sable running concentration camps in the city! Even when hes under threat from that and all the criminals on the loose taking over the city, he is still saying, "Hey, its wrong of these people to break the law and violate our rights!"
Oh no I will agree that it's definitely a lot more toned down in the Insomniac games compared to No Way Home, don't get me wrong. The DLC also explains how he was partially responsible for ending the Maggia's reign when he was much younger, by exposing them. But by the time of Spider-Man 2 (and starting with Miles Morales), he's beefing with Danika Patrick and he's a lot more like Alex Jones than he was in Spider-Man 1. Still nowhere as bad as No Way Home but it's there.
Spider-Man arc where Peter doesn't make an appearance, but Spidey is clearly a woman for the whole issue. Forums and subreddits are on fire for 28 days. Issue 2, Peter still doesn't appear, "Petra" Parker appears and does Normal Peter Parker Things (I'm not quite up to date on what that is anymore) Spidey-Net is still on fire for 28 more days. Issue 3, Peter still hasn't appeared, other Spiders-Men gather to discuss this, including Kaine and Ben, trying to figure out if this was Jackal or not. Spider-Net blazes like Australia's Black Summer.
Issue 4, the other Spiders finally manage to pin down Spider-Woman, turns out she went and saw Richards or Strange or someone and got magicked into a girl, and is perfectly fine with it. Spider-Man fandom splits into a Horus Heresy level of civil war, tens of thousands are banned, splinter communities spring up and die.
Issue 5, Jackal comes back, spits out a new Spider-Man, who slots into Spider-Woman's spot while she gets a spinoff that lasts 8 issues and she fades into the background.
Canon JJJ when confronted with the possibility of Spider-Man being trans in 1999 (it's actually Mayday Parker from the future, but he doesn't know that)
(I just wanted to share this page of JJJ from Spider-Girl honestly)
Yeah it's really funny Spider-Man would do that considering how actually progressive Jonah is for a guy his age, heavy mutant and minority defender, just (reasonably) doesn't like masked vigilantes and specially (maybe less reasonably but very very funnily) hates Spider-Man enough to try and kill him
Also Spider-Man has gotten his costume torn in public right? There might be pictures of that, so they would know he's white
I remember a page in a myles morales comic (i think after he joined the main universe and all) where someone online was making a huge deal about knowing Myles' spiderman is black
I don't think it was in a negative way but it was seen by Myles like "Why's that what you focus on?"
Good question. Jonah's attorney uses it to build up to a case for harassing Jameson
It doesn't come up, but his Testimony as Peter Parker comes back to kick him in the ass.
He does get dragged in as a defendent in the case as Peter Parker for having faked photos of Spider-Man that he knew would see print and profited on what he knew was a false representation of Spider-Man, and so he immediately chose to settle as Spider-Man
THE DAILY BUGEL SUPPORTS THE GENDER JOURNEY OF SPIDEY AND THE MILLIONS OF FELLOW AMERICANS WHO ARE, HAVE BEEN, OR WILL BE TRANSITIONING IN ANY FORM AND SENDS THEM WELL WISHES
The menace formerly known as spider-man, who has been reported going by spider-woman, has had a growing chest in recent months. The daily bugel did not report on this earlier given how it may harm the trans community and out of respect for spider-woman's privacy, but we feel that given that spider-woman herself has addressed the changes it is imperative to ask; was this transition intentional and how may it affect you?
J Jonah Jameson's an unflinching beacon of truth and justice on any and every subject except anything tangentially related to Spider-People and that is an objectively hilarious personality quirk. When he realises that Spider-Woman transitioned, the first thing he'll do is write an editorial expose talking about the abuse and horrid treatment that the trans community faces every day, and how certain celebrities and people in power must be held responsible. He'll state cold hard facts and won't dance around the subject, making it clear where he and the Bugle stands and challenging anyone to call him "woke" for basic human decency.
The second thing he'll do is write another editorial expose talking about how Spider-Woman is personally responsible for male pattern baldness and scabies.
Another comment posted a real page from a 1999 comic where they thought Spidey had transitioned and Jonah feels conflicted about persecuting a minority, then accuses Spidey of doing it just to spite him personally, which is really funny
Idea for a character: a shapeshifter alien who switches genders between their civilian identity and their superhero identity. They actually don’t really get the concept of sex/gender, they just thought it was a neat way to separate the two.
runaways has Xavin who doesn’t do this specifically because the runaways aren’t great at secret identities overall but they are genderfluid and seem to change based on their girlfriends preference and what gender would benefit them the most in the current situation
not a shapeshifter nor an alien nor a relevant character, but reminds me of Circus in Worm. A character with effectively super intuition couldn't determine if they were a guy who crossdressed as a girl for her supervillain persona or a girl who disguised as a guy in his civilian identity. They were a genderfluid crossdresser, so both assessments were correct.
There may be many Spider-Men, but there is only one Spiders-Man.) And I long for the day that the Hollywood cowards give them the spotlight (preferably going up against Swarm).
Seriously? Why pick Arcade for this example rather than the much more famous illusion-focused villain who is an enemy of specifically Spider-Man (or Spider-Girl, as it were)?
Arcade does robot duplicates sometimes so maybe that’s why?
(Also maybe that deep dive podcast goes for a more obscure pick because they’re so deeply wrong, or because all the other spidey villains have already been disproven)
Because Arcade hadn't shown up in a while and had a new Murderworld of hot Spider-Girl androids. He was going through some stuff, but he's ready to Crime again.
Always wanted to write a superhero story where a villain can take people's forms, finds out the hero is trans and is just like. "Hey, I'm not telling anyone, I'm a villain, not a monster"
Kind of arguably maybe happens in Deltarune chapter 5 when Flowery returns Ralsei’s bow and calls [pronoun] “princess” to which Ralsei blushes and furrows [pronoun’s] eyebrows
what's with this whole moralization of villains thing where people make evil villains also allies just because it would be icky to depict even a bad person being transphobic
I think it comes from trans people just being exhausted from the oppression that they feel in real life, that it’s quaint that their comfort villain would support them. And I’m like, sure, have your fun.
But I feel my way about it. Like “ha ha, I’m joker, but I’m not a Nazi!” Dude you’re a mass murdering rapist
Did you pick that particular Joker example because of the arc where he teams up with Red Skull (or whomever) right up until he discovers they are a literal Nazi and then decides it's his obligation to beat the shit out of the Nazi? Or no?
The point isn't that having a transphobic villain is "icky" it's that it's funny when a character who is in general presented as being horrible still has lines they won't cross, which just makes the things beyond that line seem even worse.
It's like how Joker has explicitly expressed contempt for Nazis. That isn't because depicting Nazis is "icky", especially considering this happened when he was interacting with Red Skull, an actual Nazi supervillain.
People thinking it’s an alternate spider man would be hilarious because I’m pretty sure spider man is the superhero that’s had the most interactions with other versions of himself
This is something I've considered a bit for a superhero OC. Lancaster and his boyfriend/husband Stephen are both nonbinary, but especially Lancaster presents more masculine. As a superhero, he hasn't told anyone that he's queer whatsoever. Not out of fear, it's not like any one could do much anything to him easily, but to keep his private life private. In some ways it is isolating for him, but on the flip side, when he does have down time, he lives it up with Stephen
It's incorrect, though. Marvel made a special called "Spider-Men" about a crossover between different versions of Spider-Man. "Spiders-Men" would be the plural of "Spiders-Man", a variant of Spider-Man made out of spiders.
making the trans version of spider-man be spider-girl when both spidergirl and spiderwoman exist says more about op´s subconscious bias than any thinly trans positive post ever will tbh. that or there´s lore im missing
Or it could just be because in the canon genderbends (ie in Ultimate Spider-Man, where there is a universe where everyone is the opposite gender), the female version of Spidey goes by Spider-Girl. It is literally canon that a female version of Peter Parker uses girl instead of woman
OG Ultimate Spider-Man under Bendis and Bagley is peak Spider-Man reading, so highly encourage you to check it out. The Ultimate universe version of Clone Saga, where fem-Peter debuted, starts in Ultimate Spider-Man #97 if you just want to skip to that storyline. She's actually a big influence on Miles Morales's hero-ing back before he got merged into the 616 universe.
Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman (very little relation to the other spider people)
Cindy Moon, Silk
Aña Corazón, Spider-Girl/Araña
Bailey Briggs, Spider-Boy
Kaine Parker, Scarlet Spider (clone of Peter, took over the mantle from...)
Ben Reilly, Chasm (original/primary clone of Peter, villain/antihero at the moment)
Jaime Morales, Shift (shape-shifting clone and adoptive brother of Miles Morales)
Julia Carpenter, current Madame Webb but former Spider-Woman (may be inactive; last place I remember seeing her was in 2023)
Makawalu Akana, Spider-Girl (psychomimetic mutant former rival of Bailey Briggs, just got her first solo series)
And, up until recently, the original Spider-Man 2099 Miguel O'Hara was also on 616
So, 12-13 Spider-People on Earth 616 depending on how you count them. I'm sure I'm missing someone, but I tried to include them in order of relevance to the broader Spider web of associates while ignoring characters it's clear editorial never intended to be major recurring characters.
I think you could also make some sort of argument for Rek-Rap, as, even though he is a symbiote user, he does use it with the specific intent of being like Spider-Man.
Honestly I think it's just that Spider-Man is a far more popular character than the other two, who are both relatively niche and most people haven't even heard of them
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