Welcome back, Spidey fans! I hope this month’s Spider-Tracer article finds you all well. Today, I wanted to discuss a particular Spider-Man look that’s been seen in the comics and other forms of media for years: Battle Damaged Spider-Man. If you’re wondering why I chose this topic when I did, stick around to the end and you’ll soon see why.
Spider-Man faces a wide variety of dangerous foes and situations, as we all know. Of course, our webbed hero doesn’t always walk away unscathed. Take the cover of adjectiveless “Spider-Man” Volume 1, #5. Here, writer/artist Todd McFarlane gives Spider-Man one of his most beaten up looks to date, complete with shredded costume and broken eye lens.
ToyBiz did a couple takes on a Battle Damaged Spider-Man, a few of which I covered on here already, but let’s take a look anyway. First, they did a take called “Battle Ravaged Spider-Man”, which featured a torn costume and cracked eye lens. With the exposed mouth, I’d have to assume some of this look was inspired by Todd’s art. This figure also came with a camera you can clip to his belt, or store in his web backpack, as well as a destroyed tentacle (perhaps from Doc Ock or someone’s security system?) and a pin.
Next, they did a figure in the second series of Spider-Man Classics, complete with a defeated Lizard base for him to stand on. He even came with a copy of “Spider-Man” #5! He looked cool, even though I never did pick this one up.
The climactic battle with the Green Goblin in the first “Spider-Man” movie ends with Spider-Man’s costume in bad shape; he has a cracked eye lens, a missing eye lens, an exposed mouth, and other shreds town out all around the costume. Of course, ToyBiz made a figure based on this look in their movie Spider-Man toyline, and the figure was pretty spot-on.
In the Playstation video game, “Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro”, players can unlock a battle damaged costume once Electro is defeated. Similar costumes could be found in PS4’s “Spider-Man”, “Spider-Man: Edge of Time”, and the games based on “The Amazing Spider-Man” film series, to name a few.
In the series finale episode of “The Spectacular Spider-Man” entitled “Final Curtain”, Peter’s costume is torn battling the Green Goblin, complete with an exposed eye for extra emotional effect.
Even more destroyed was Peter’s costume in the 90’s cartoon after Spider-Man returned to normal following a transformation into Man-Spider. Of course, it was caused by the transformation initially, but he did end up fighting both Punisher and Kraven the Hunter right before he was cured so SOME of it may have been battle induced, no?
So, what made me focus on the many times we’ve seen Spider-Man with a ruined costume? Recently, Hasbro finally released their own take on a Battle Damaged Spider-Man in their team-up line Marvel Legends and Magic the Gathering.
However, I ended up doing some modifications to my figure. First, I removed the hips and, with a Dremel rounded down the hip joints. You see, this figure has many reported QC problems, and man, were the hips on my figure stiff right out of the box! For a $40+ figure, stuff like this just shouldn’t be happening. Anywho, once the hips were reattached, I had to add a cracked lens to the mask on my figure; a Battle Damaged Spider-Man just doesn’t look right to me without at least one of the eye lenses looking cracked. I took a Gundam marker because of how thin the tips are, and drew in the cracks on his left lens, as you can see below.
It really adds a lot to the figure, I think. It’s not shown here, but I had an extra Spider-Sense effect from the recent Maximum Spider-Man figure that Hasbro made. With the Dremel, I sanded it out a little bit so it’d fit over the exposed hair tuft coming out of his mask. I think I’ll be placing him on my Spider-Man villains shelf, and the Spider-Sense will really add to the surrounding danger.
*Use your Spider-Sense: Make sure to ask your parents before making of these types of alterations to your figures if you’re under 18 years of age.
What’re some of your favorite examples of a Battle Damaged Spider-Man? Have you gotten the new figure from Hasbro, and, if so, what do you think? Let me know in the comments section below!
English (US) · 