keeping it together !!!

🐈‍⬛🩷🎨 ★ mitzy ★ 17 ★ (any pronouns) ★ multifandom★ mostly reblogs but occasional art as well! (tag: mitzyart)

[polishwah]

caught

[traincat]

not to be dumb on main, but I’ve only rly seen the mcu and not read many comics and I was wondering if you could tell me the reasons you ship spideytorch? Esp bc it’s spideytorch week

I can do that, especially in light of it being Spideytorch week. (I can even tie it into the first two days of @spideytorchweek‘s themes because I’m brilliant like that.)  If you’re coming from a mostly MCU background, what you need to know about Spider-Man comics is that, by in large, they’re a very different animal, especially in terms of Peter’s personality and supporting cast. Unlike in the MCU, he doesn’t have a best friend in high school – there is a Ned Leeds in comics, but he’s a reporter for the Bugle who functions as Peter’s rival for the affections of his first girlfriend, Bugle secretary Betty Brant, and Peter wouldn’t meet Harry Osborn or become friends with Flash Thompson until he entered college. If Peter does have a male friend he’s close to during this point, for the relative value of “friend”, it’s Johnny Storm.

Peter and Johnny first meet in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man. This is partially because the Fantastic Four’s brief appearance in the issue were used promote this new superhero book. One thing you have to understand at this point is that the Fantastic Four were wildly popular at their debut, and featuring them in the first solo Spider-Man story was a surefire way to get people to pick up the book. What this ending up cementing was a long and storied in-universe connection between Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Peter’s served as an Avenger in 616, but he’s family to the Fantastic Four. 

Not that Peter and Johnny got along at first.

(Amazing Spider-Man #1)

(Amazing Spider-Man #8)

(Strange Tales Annual #2) There was some pretty extreme pigtail pulling going on at first from Peter towards Johnny.

This is one of the premier friendships – developing at this point as it is – in Marvel comics. It basically predates all of the other big ones: Captain America and Iron Man, Luke Cage and Danny Rand, any other big Spider-Man friendship. This came first. There’s a lot of reasons for that – team ups between the Human Torch, who at this point was big enough to have his own run on Strange Tales in addition to the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, an instant hit with fans, was good for the sales on both books, and the relationship made sense and was organic because both characters were teenagers who were the same age, who had gained powers in fantastic accidents, and who both had personalities suited to a banter-filled rapport filled with fun bickering.

In spite or maybe because of that early bickering, though, it quickly becomes apparent that Johnny really respects and admires Spider-Man:

(Amazing Spider-Man #18)

Peter Parker, on the other hand, who Johnny’s at the time girlfriend Dorrie Evans thinks is just so polite and gentlemanly? Peter Parker, Johnny doesn’t like so much at this point.

(Amazing Spider-Man #21) And here we have the beginning of our identity porn, practically a staple when it comes to superhero ships. This kind of dynamic between Johnny and Spider-Man/Peter Parker would continue up until Peter revealed his identity to Johnny in the middle of a crisis, having to silently trust him to understand:

(Spider-Man/Human Torch #5)

So you’ve got this amazingly long history, and from the beginning the shippy tropes are piling on – Johnny saying he could understand if his girlfriend fell for Spider-Man, Peter and Johnny having their own special meeting place, and then there’s the fact that Johnny gets kidnapped to use as bait for Spider-Man:

(Amazing Spider-Man #19)

Fast forward a bit. After the death of Gwen Stacy, who Peter was very much in love with and who he was seriously talking about marriage with, Peter unsurprisingly falls into a dark mood. One of the bright spots for him? Building the Spider-Mobile, which he’d been hired by an automotive company to drive, with Johnny:

(ASM #130)

In an updated version of this story in Spider-Man/Human Torch #3 (they even had their own team up comic!), Peter speaks to Gwen’s ghost-slash-memory, and says that when he’s with Johnny he feels like he’s “her” Peter again, the best version of himself:

“And for the first time in a long time, it doesn’t feel like I’m putting on act, or going through the motions. Suddenly, I’m Spidey again. No, I’m Peter again. Your Peter.” Considering Peter was head over heels in love with Gwen and planned to spend the rest of his life with her, that’s one hell of a romantic statement.

Couple this with the fact that, in and out of the mask, Johnny’s consistently one of the best people at calming Peter down and making him take a step back. That might not sound too impressive if you’re not familiar with comics Peter, but in comics, when he’s angry and upset, he has a tendency to verbally lash out at people he loves and isolate himself. It’s generally not a good idea to get in the middle of one of his fights, either – think like inserting yourself into the fight when your dog’s trying to fight another dog. Your dog might love you, but there’s still a very good chance you’re gonna get bit. Johnny’s success record here is unmatched.

(ASM #591)

(Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #5)

Then there’s the fact that Peter clearly feels protective of Johnny. (Though, to be fair, 616 Peter feels very protective about everyone he loves.) When Johnny lost his powers and was on a self-destructive bender, Peter teamed up with Johnny’s other best friend, Wyatt Wingfoot, to snap him out of it:

(Fantastic Four v5 #12) Look at that hand on Johnny’s stomach, steadying him on the building’s ledge. Also look how pretty Johnny is – the real question is, why isn’t he shipped more?

Peter also spent served as Johnny’s personal taxi afterwards:

(Fantastic Four #642)

When the Red Skull recently possessed Johnny and failed to make Johnny hurt his teammates, he taunted Peter by threatening to kill Johnny in front of him, a threat to which Peter violently reacted:

(Uncanny Avengers #20)

So there you have your hurt/comfort, the second trope at play here. (Also, Johnny is a champion damsel of the Marvel universe. I once tried to average out how much he faints and came out with something like 1 out of every 3 issues in the early Fantastic Four days. If you like your hurt/comfort, Johnny Storm is right here, collapsing all the time and getting kidnapped by giant gorillas at least three, one time of which – Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 – Peter has to save him.)

There’s a million other factors that play into “reasons why I ship them” here – they canonically consider themselves family. They have an established tradition to meet up every Christmas morning at the Statue of Liberty. When Johnny died (he got better) he left a video will instructing that his place on the team be left to Peter and saying that “we all love you”:

(ASM #657)

They lived together when Johnny was recovered alive for a short period of time, during which Johnny cooked Peter breakfast in nothing but his underwear and a saucy apron, yes, really:

(FF #17 – there are word bubbles here in the finished issue, but they just distract from the rest of this, honestly.) And when Johnny’s family disappeared and Peter found himself unexpectedly a millionaire (long story), he bought the Baxter Building to keep it safe for Johnny. They’ve mentioned having movie nights in canon. Whether or not anyone ships them, it’s hard to deny in canon that they love each other, and that they have a bond forged over decades and decades worth of canon. They’re incredibly close, to the point where, when Peter’s identity was wiped from the minds of just about everyone on the planet, Johnny was one of the few people (along with Felicia Hardy, Peter’s ex-girlfriend) who knew that he used to know who Spider-Man was, and the loss of that knowledge hurt him deeply. They’ve fought together, they’ve saved each other lives, they’ve celebrated holidays together, and they’ve propped each other when the other needed it. It’s a ship with so much history it’s honestly hard to sum them up quickly or efficiently – honestly, they have more history and more reasons to ship them than, I would say, at least 80% of other popular ships and I mean ships in general, not just Marvel ships. It’s pretty amazing to have a relationship in canon that has endured the test of so many years and still remained incredibly relevant to each character. If you’re interested in checking out some more comics featuring them, I have a big long in depth reclist here!

Also, Johnny once slept naked in Peter’s bed:

(Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man #1)

Just platonic best friend things. You’re welcome.

[mimosa-sexypeople-contests-2026]

Tumblr Sexyman Contest 2026 Final Round

Senshi (Dungeon Meshi)

Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary)

Mr. Ant Tenna (Deltarune)

Voting ended onJul 20

Tenna art by @9Aaaalt29 on twt

[fwugradiation]

“And if you’ll give me 40% of the MOST POPULAR VOTE, I’ll give you my SPECIAL REWARD... A year’s supply of NON-GLOOBY SLIME!!! Never or BARELY used!!!” Tenna concluded his speech with a huge smile, jetting his hands up in double peace signs.

The crowd roared in confused enthusiasm as Tenna gave a gracious flurry of low-FPS bows, pausing only for the occasional stink-nose at his audience plants who weren’t throwing enough 3D roses.

Eventually, the room fell silent. It was Senshi’s turn to speak.

He puffed out his chest, took a long, sweeping look over the audience… and shook his head.

“I can see not all of you are eating properly.”

The crowd murmured with embarrassment.

“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it’s time to take the turkey out of your icebox. I have seen the ingenious technology with which your people store food... and I have also seen the waste which results from such convenience.

“The food you take had a life. Beasts grew fat on the grass of the field, plants grew from the sun’s rays, and mushrooms grew from minerals in the cracks of caves. And yet, it sits in your iceboxes, collecting moisture until it perishes.

“Eat what is given to you. Because its life will make you stronger, too.”

Without another word, Senshi left his podium and stepped away from the stage. The crowd murmured in confusion. “Is he really like that?” somebody said. “I only remember reblogging the photosets of him tripping and showing ass.”

--

Back in the Green Room, Tenna wrung his antennas nervously.

“Y-y-you think they liked me!? They HAD to!! I mean, I don’t know what Asgore was thinking, getting that weird haircut and running that food waste campaign, but… YOU thought I did good, didn’t you, Kris?”

Laios nodded aggressively, a streak of blue face paint peeling from his forehead.

“You did AMAZING, Tenna! By the way, now that we’ve seen all your insider campaign secrets, do you have any more videos of Susie? Especially her tail... If I could get a look at that, I could finally tell if she’s a dinosaur or --”

THWACK. Fake antlers butted Laios’s head.

“LAIOS?? Weren’t we dressed up to help SENSHI???” Marcille hissed, gesturing awkwardly with her hooves.

Suddenly, Tenna turned to the two adventurers.

“Hey, WAIT a second. SOMETHING’s not right here...”

Laios and Marcille held their breath.

“Where the heck are my POINTS!?”

Just then, the door opened. Chilchuck took one step into the room, whistling and holding a large bag.

Everyone turned to him.

Chilchuck paused, took a step backwards, and closed the door.

“CHILCHUCK!!!” yelled Tenna.

“How come Chilchuck got to stay Chilchuck!?” yelled Marcille at the same time.

--

Meanwhile, in outer space somewhere, some guy was making out with a rock.

[goblinintherock]

Redraws from TwT with the Bugle staff

[mjwatsonsworld]

the idea of peter photographing his partners makes me go wewwiwowo like imagine petermjjohnny and peter is so head over heels he grabs his camera everywhere they go and takes hundreds of pictures of them he just can’t get enough of these two gorgeous people

also peter gazing at them so it’s the classic “you’re staring” “you’re beautiful” whatveerrrrrrrrrr

[cada4us]

drew petermjjohnny with oomf in a dandy’s world-esque style. they drew mj, i drew the boys!

[cada4us]

you’re my reason for reason (petermjjohnny)

[spider-mann]

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Dir. Matt Shakman

[raffa-taff]

My very self-indulgent crossover comic, I’m surprised people haven’t thought of this crossover yet. This comic is kind of nothingburger but idrgaf

[p1rulito]

Don't know how to animate so I drew it

That one trend from tiktok

Will probably paint later

[ninicure]

More family

[fuckyeahandibenton]

Venom (2011) #36

Writer: Bunn

Art: Larraz, Loughridge

[tio-trile]

I had a sudden revelation while trying to see Project Hail Mary in Spiderverse's style in my mind

[traincat]

thank you for explaining your stance on the "friendly" thing. I always took "friendly" as "his power, strength, and abilities don't make him UNapproachable to the average person. You can - if he's not busy patrolling or in the middle of a fight - go up and talk to him. He's still a person who, more likely than not, will respond to your 'hey spiderman!' and strike up a conversation with you." Friendly = approachable to me, I guess.

I guess I’ve always associated that more with the “neighborhood” aspect, friendly or not, because you see this kind of thing with a few other superheroes who are specifically defined as being “from” the place they’re defending – like Ben Grimm and the Lower East Side. Yeah, he’s a big rock monster, but he’s their big rock monster. I guess the superheroes who define themselves as being quintessentially New York are always going to be sort of viewed as “approachable” by locals. 

(Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #14)

(Amazing Spider-Man v2 #41)

(ASM #502)

I do think that the kind of people who tend to feel comfortable casually being around Spider-Man in costume frequently tend to be less respected by society – the sex workers in the top panel, children, the elderly – and the fact that they’re the people he’s kind to is kind of important, especially compared to how he gets with cops (and I genuinely like his and, say, Lamont’s interactions, but there’s no missing Peter has a very definite attitude with him), rich men, and rude men:

(Spectacular Spider-Man #136)

[traincat]

So reading some of the early Lee/Ditko pages. Peter doesn't seem so shy as many interpretations have him. Like Lee has him walk up and ask Liz Allen in the first page out on basically a date. That's not something I or many could do. Not to mention Peter doesn't really hide his new courage as literally anytime Flash pokes fun at him, Peter insults him right back in front of everyone.

I saw this ask come in and got totally excited about it because yes, that’s it, exactly, that’s what bothers me about so many more modern takes on Peter Parker, because in 616 he’s not a guy who couldn’t summon up the courage to talk to a girl or talk back to someone who insulted him. There’s a really great article about Spider-Man Homecoming called The New Post-Racial Spiderman Ignores His Jewish Superhero Roots written by Noah Berlatsky that explores the Jewish roots of Spider-Man in relation to Homecoming’s choices to purposefully erase that (notable following Andrew Garfield’s openness about how his own Jewishness informed his performance as Peter Parker and retrospectively with Into the Spider-Verse’s Jewish Peter B. Parker) and casts a very specific light on what could be the subtext behind his 616′s classmates’ dislike for Peter:

Parker fits Jewish and immigrant stereotypes in one other way — he is loathed. His classmates despise him. The reason for this dislike is never articulated. It seems to come out of nowhere — unless you read Peter as Jewish, or as an immigrant outsider. Then suddenly, the classmates unmotivated animosity resolves into prejudice.

There’s also a lot of visual shorthand going on in the very first Spider-Man page in Amazing Fantasy #15, though, filled with pop culture tropes that have long since gone out of fashion:

Not only are we told Peter’s unpopular, we’re shown it through the designs. How do we know Peter’s bookish? He’s wearing glasses. He’s the only brunet on the page – even the other dark-haired kids are raven-haired, and look at Peter compared to flaxen-haired All American-looking Flash Thompson, the popular kid. He’s holding school books when no one else is. We’re informed from this first shot that is serious and bookish compared to his more frivolous classmates. He “wouldn’t know a cha-cha from a waltz.” Look at even how he’s dressed compared to them: the dark colors compared to Liz’s red getup and Flash’s purple pants and striped sweater. He’s clearly a Serious Boy. And that’s part of my problem with how the Raimi films have pushed, in the public perception, this image of Peter as a sad sack nerd because I don’t think the important thing here is that Peter is a nerd, precisely: it’s that he’s an outsider. Something has to mark him as different than the other kids. 

And Peter’s confidence level clearly increases greatly after he gets his powers – which, like, who’s wouldn’t upon being able to suddenly bench press a truck and dodge a bullet? – but I don’t think he started from a place of zero confidence. I think he had all this stuff inside and the spider really frees that in him, but it doesn’t turn him into a different person entirely. And one thing I’ve pointed out before that I think is really pretty key to Peter’s personality: Peter’s good with women. He’s friends with plenty, including exes, of course, but I think there’s this false wish male fulfillment angle that gets played when people are talking about Peter Parker’s romantic relationships because there’s this idea of him as the nerd and then the women he gets involved with are all beautiful – Gwen’s described as a beauty queen, Felicia’s super elegant and sexy, Mary Jane is a literal supermodel. But it’s not that Peter gets the mega-babe because he’s the main character and it’s not the male wish fulfillment trope of “average guy gets beautiful girl” – Peter attracts women because he’s charismatic and romantic and charming. Like you said, one of the first things he does in canon is approach a popular girl and ask her out, and this is before the spider’s bite. And he gets turned down, true, but it was still a brave thing to do to put himself out there. Then only a few issues later, after he starts to notice Betty Brant, this happens:

(Amazing Spider-Man #7) I mean, this is some forward kind of behavior. He’s very flirtatious here, especially for someone who has never had a girlfriend before – the eye contact, complimenting her perfume, inviting her to rest her head on his shoulder and calling her “baby.” It’s some smooth stuff from a teenager. Then there’s Dorrie Evans, Johnny Storm’s girlfriend a the time, who was very charmed by Peter’s gentlemanly demeanor and remarked several times that she wished Johnny could be “more like that nice Peter Parker” while trying to make him jealous. (It should also be noted Dorrie regularly criticized Johnny for “flaming on” all the time so uh there’s some stuff to get into there, metaphor-wise.)

(Amazing Spider-Man #21)

And the start of Peter and Gwen’s comics romance is pretty hilarious because it’s some “I loathe you I love you” stuff until John Romita sweeps in and things get romantic, but Peter is pretty explicitly not shy around her:

(Amazing Spider-Man #34) He’s a definite flirt. He’s also, at this point, getting described a lot as handsome – Gwen at one point thinks he’s so “manly-looking” and at one point Peter gets offended when he thinks there’s a girl who is asking him out for his brains – and not for his looks.

“Take away his looks… and his brains… and he’s nowhere!” (Amazing Spider-Man #54) So it’s also clear in the text that somewhere between high school and college, Peter got Hot, on top of his generally being an irrepressible flirt. And more than talking about when Flash pokes fun at him, Peter verbally spars with J Jonah Jameson fairly early on in canon – not as early on as he starts displaying this confidence with women, granted, but it’s really one thing on the confidence scale to ask out a girl in your class or have a fast comeback for your classmate, but it’s an entirely different one to talk back to your boss. 

In my opinion this is where the relatable superhero label starts hurting the character, because he really isn’t that relatable when you get down to it: he’s a hot super genius who almost always has a smartass comeback, and that’s on top of all of his superpowers.

[traincat]

There is a truth that needs to be heard. Peter Parker is not a "Baby Boy". He's a bastard man. He's a stinky, bastard man who likes beating up criminals. And that's why we love him. You must spread this message to the ignorant masses.

Is this not what my entire internet presence is about. This and hating Disney. 

[transgenderpontiacg6]

the comics spider-man fandom, holding peter: stinky boy. bastard man.

the MCU spider-man fandom: NOOO!!!!!

[wombatking]

There has never been a better portrayal of Peter “Disaster Man” Parker than the 40-year-old hobo who Miles teams up with in ITSV.

[confusedguytoo]

people have to stop going superfar in either direction.  If Peter really liked beating up criminals, there’d be a lot more beaten unconscious criminals instead of webbed up

[traincat]

I think there’s a weird grouping together of all types of crime Spider-Man handles here – like yes, he does web up criminals, but it’s disingenuous to act like he has never been violent in his response to protecting his neighborhood, particularly in  response to violent crime – violent muggings, assaults, murder. The fact is there are A LOT of “beaten unconscious criminals.” 

“I’m surrendering. You can’t me. You wouldn’t dare!”/”I was hoping you’d say that. (Spectacular Spider-Man #107)

“You’re getting in traction.” (Spectacular Spider-Man #115 – and before anyone gets any ideas, any black suit panels I’m using in this post feature cloth black suit, not the symbiote, which never affected Peter’s temperament in 616 anyway.)

“This one’s nose crumples like a hollow eggshell. That one loses some teeth. The guy with the knife won’t be holding it again any time soon.” (Sensational Spider-Man #38)

“I’m hitting him hard enough to wreck cards. An ordinary man would be wonder-Jello by now.” (Spider-Man vs Wolverine)

“ I want to grind her bones to powder with my bare hands. Fighting on sheer instinct. Not thinking, just fighting. And it feels good.” (ASM v2 #47)

“He drops the gun as I break his arm.” (ASM #540)

Also in regards to his “only” webbing up people, this disregards the fact that he can (and has) used that webbing to cover people’s faces and mouths which is not good for that whole breathing thing:

(ASM #539)

(Spider-Man/Black Cat: Evil That Men Do #1)  By Peter’s own admission, he can vary the density of the webbing spray to either enable or prevent breathing – and he’s not above a bit of psychological torment, as evident in Spectacular Spider-Man #128 when he essentially tricks a man who shot a child into ripping his own skin off. Peter can be cruel.

Divorcing the violence inherent in Peter Parker – for example, by insisting he “only” webs up his opponents – renders him a much flatter character. This is a character who is open about how much he itches for a fight, whose violence scares the people closest him – Mary Jane has openly admitted this when Peter’s gone a little off the rails, like when Stan Carter was released from prison. And I could theorize that I think this is at least in part a bad subconscious combination of Peter’s very heavy Jewish coding within the comics and the amount of antisemitic stereotypes prevalent in American media, particularly with regards to how Jewish men are stereotyped as being physically non-threatening, brains and no brawn, cowardly and ineffectual. People subconsciously recognize Peter as Jewish and then foist these stereotypes off onto him, even though he embodies none of them. But I think the problem ultimately comes down to this: if you strip the power away from Peter, what responsibility does he have with regards to it? If you say he only ever webs up people, he never actually hurts anyone, what is his responsibility to not hurt anyone? It is his responsibility to handle both the violence within himself and his ability to commit violence. If he can’t, there’s so much less meaning than if he can, and he has, but he frequently chooses not to. The responsibility is in the choosing. 

But also as the op of the original response, I have to say my reply wasn’t actually about physical violence but simply about how Peter can be rude as hell.

(ASM v2 #49)

[epsilonhybrid]