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To expand on a quote from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Anyone can wear the mask, and almost anyone else can use the name.

The moniker of Spider-Man has bounced all around the worlds contained in the universe of Marvel Comics, sometimes more successfully than others. And since it's Spotlight on Spider-Man week here at Popverse, we cracked open our Marvel Comics omnibuses to see which of those who wore that name best. Check out our list of best Spider-Mans (or Spider-Men, whichever you prefer) to hear our thoughts.

Oh, but before you continue - we are trying to stick with the Spider-Man name here, or at least a close approximation thereof. In other words, while we love us some Spiders of the Ghost and Scarlet varieties here at Popverse, we'll be saving folks like Gwen Stacy and Ben Reilly for other lists.

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #7 - Peter Parker (Earth 616)

It's a little weird to have the character most people consider the regular Spider-Man at the bottom of a list of Spider-Men. But let me explain it like this: the "canon" Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is both the heart of most great Spider-Man stories and most of the hated ones. He was there for both the "Great Power/Great Responsibility" speech and there to sell his soul for One More Day.  Sure, none of us get to the ripe old age of 64 without some regrets, but then again, none of us are being ranked against alternate versions of ourselves.

God knows I wouldn't want to see where I stood.

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #6 - Hobart Brown (Earth 138)

Spider-Punk embodies one of my favorite aspects of the Spider-Man character: that is, he's the people's hero. Hobie Brown comes from a universe where Norman Osborn is literally the President (a feeling I'm sure you and I can't relate to), and is more concerned with fighting the power than wielding it. Brought into existence by Dan Slott and Olivier Coipel in 2015 and brought into the mainstream in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, this Spider-Man is a great example of how to keep an alternate reality character thematically similar to their predecessor. 

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #5 - Peter Parker (Earth 90214)

You might not know this, but Stan Lee once said that he was creatively inspired by a pulp fiction character called "The Spider," who also inspired Hellboy's Lobster Johnson. Those pulp roots sprang up again in 2009, when David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky, and Carmine Di Giandomenico cobbled together their own Peter Benjamin Parker for the Marvel Noir line of comics. Not only did this Peter become the breakout character of this line, but he also managed to snag his own TV show.

Well, kinda. The basic concept behind him did, anyway.

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #4 - Spider-Man 2099 (Earth 928)

A personal favorite since I was a kid, the Spider-Man of Marvel's possible future of 2099 succeeds in the Spider-Mythos the same way that Batman Beyond succeeds in the Batverse. A new character with new problems but the same kind of moral struggle makes Peter David's and Rick Leonardi's Miguel O'Hara a worthy successor to the mantle (whether he really is the future of Spider-Man or not).

And the cyberpunk of it all doesn't hurt, either.

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #3 - Peter Porker (Earth 8311)

American comic book readers know the medium primarily for its superheroics, but if you grew up reading a dessin animé in Paris, you might think of Disney's anthropomorphic characters when the medium comes up. Tom DeFalco and Mark Armstrong proved that there exists a glorious overlap in the Venn Diagram between the two, and in the punnily named Peter Porker, proved that it can fit under the Spider-Umbrella. 

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #2 - Miles Morales (Earth 616)

From the perspective of character arcs, few Spider-Mans have grown more since their creations than Miles Morales. First, the barely-teen kid dealing with a whole city's grief, then the multiverse-hopping inheritor of a legendary name, and now the star of one of the most important animated film franchises of the modern era, Brian Michael Bendis's and Sara Pichelli's Brooklynite wall-crawler might well be one of the most storied characters in Marvel history.

Best Spider-Mans ranked: #1 - Peter Parker (Earth 6160)

Yep - we're saying it. After six decades of alternate realities, clone sagas, and symbiote shenanigans, the most resonant character to don the webs and wide-eyes is the Peter Parker created by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto. Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) is not just a pristine distillation of what makes Peter lovable as a character, but it's also proof that he can grow and change as his history evolves. 

Maybe it's corny to say, but we think this is the Spider-Man who can do more than a spider can. 

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's...

• Best Spider-Man comic books 
• Spider-Man movie watch order
• Spider-Man's actors, ranked
• The best Spider-Man suits
• and the Spider-verse explained!

Just watch out for that radioactive blood.