I know in at least one comic he opened up a company.
I know it’s harmless, but honestly, I cringe a bit whenever some clueless sap says “It’s 2019! Why doesn’t Spider-Man have a Patreon? Why isn’t Spider-Man a podcaster? Why isn’t Spider-Man doin’ Vuze or whatever?” Homecoming even had Peter recording a vlog for… himself? I guess? I suppose Peter is one of those brilliant, tech-savvy nerds who somehow isn’t at all worried about the NSA or China or just regular blackhats getting into his files, because then he’d be screwed.
Anyway, they covered this in, literally, Amazing Spider-Man 1. V1. Back in the sixties. When Dikto was drawing it.
To summarize, even if Peter can find a way to monetize being Spider-Man, there’s the matter of getting that money from Spider-Man’s pocket into Peter’s pocket. Because once there’s a link from Spider-Man to Peter Parker, he’s screwed. Supervillains already come after Parker just for being Spider-Man’s ‘photographer’. You really think Kingpin or someone wouldn’t try to follow the money trail from any website Peter could go to?
Not to mention the fact that his responsible nature would go against making money off being Spider-Man (not in ASM1, obviously, but after Captain Stacy and Gwen Stacy, I just don’t think he’d be comfortable with it–that’s why he’s consistently depicted as donating any money he makes as Spider-Man to charity). And Spider-Man’s the original problematic fave–these days, he’d be ‘cancelled’ fifty times over. On the whole, I think Peter would much rather make the trade-off of working a 9-to-5 job or selling pictures of Spider-Man than assume the risk of giving away his identity for some easy money.
Also, Peter didn’t open a company, Otto Octavius in Peter’s body did. Peter ran than company into the ground.
Technically it got shut down because Otto plagiarized all his work thesises and patents from other people and Peter got busted on it much later.
Not quite, it got shut down because of that AND during the Hydra Cap stuff, Otto was working with Hydra and came for everything Parker Industries had, intending to use the technology to help the Nazis. Pete had to have everyone in his head office destroy all their files etc to keep it out of Hydra’s hands. That, combined with lawsuits from having to use/destroy all of their flagship product around the world to save it during Clone Conspiracy, bankrupted Pete. And the stress of everyone hating HIM for losing their jobs etc, rather than Spidey, made him sort of give up.
But of course Pete naturally should go back to the Bugle instead, rather than letting his charity, the Uncle Ben Foundation, live and help people >_>
And a bunch of kids at Avengers Academy pointed out how Pete could easily use Shell Companies to make money as Spidey, and in a What-If where Aunt May died instead of Uncle Ben, he made money by having Ben as his manager/agent for appearances etc. Granted, he was still a performer then, but I’m fairly sure mainstream Pete COULD do something like that with the dozens of people who know his identity, or even get more work at another science company, since he was outed to everyone as the genius behind Spidey’s tech and webshooters.
Hell, Horizon University, which Pete FOUNDED with Parker Industries, is still around and full of his old friends and coworkers. Surely they could open a New York branch or he could remotely work for them in San Francisco.
But that would require Marvel to not want to shit on every single one of Peter Parker’s aspirations beyond being Spider-Man
Pete lost the Doctorate Otto earned in his body because Otto plagiarized his own stuff, I don't THINK that was part of Parker Industries getting shut down, at least not that I remember.
