Alternate Version of Spider-Man: Spider-Punk

Because we are nearing the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse I am posting about the alternate versions of Spider-Man that have appeared in Marvel comics. These posts will vary from explanations and origins of lesser known versions of Spider-Man to lists of lesser known facts about various versions of Spider-Men. In this post, we will be focusing on Spider-Punk. Because of his small number of appearances, I am going to summarize the character's entire publication history into this post.

The Origin of Hobie Brown

Hobie Brown was a teenage squatter who was bitten by a radioactive spider that was created as a result of illegal waste dumping by large corporations. Hobie lives in a world where the heads of large businesses also hold government positions. And the president of the United States is Norman Osborn. After Hobie gets his powers, he rallies other heroes and civilians that have been taken advantage of by the government to join his Spider Army and overthrow the government, spread anarchy and play punk rock music wherever they go. Spider-Punk hosts huge concerts to protest the government-businesses. Towards the end of his revolution, Spider-Punk performs a concert with his Spider Army and Captain Anarchy (this world's Captain America) when they are met with Norman Osborn and the police. Norman Osborn and all of the police have V.E.N.O.M (Variable Engagement Neuro-sensitive Organic Mesh) symbiotes that, on this Earth, were developed by Oscorp rather than being alien life-forms.

Those who read comics know that symbiotes are weakened by sonic-based attacks. So what Hobie does as President Osborn, equipped with his electric guitar, strums the guitar and disrupts the connection between the symbiote and Osborn. That gives Hobie enough time to use his electric guitar to smash Osborn's head in, killing him. Killing Osborn doesn't mean his revolution ended as there are other corporation heads that still hold government positions, like Adrian Toomes of Toomestone Records. However, his revolution is put on hold when he joins Superior Spider-Man's Superior Spider-Army during the Spider-Verse event.

Spider-Punk's Role in Spider-Verse

Spider-Punk does not have any major appearances or important roles in the Spider-Verse Event. Essentially, the Spider-Verse event centered around the idea that there is a family of vampire-like creatures called The Inheritors that feed on the powers of Spider-people, killing them. Superior Spider-Man faces one of The Inheritors and survives and takes it upon himself to rally as many of the Spider-People as he can to fight The Inheritors. The Spider-Army ends up winning by trapping all of The Inheritors on an alternate Earth that is completely contaminated with enough radioactivity to kill the Spider-People. Therefore, they leave The Inheritors on the radioactive planet with no food, but since they are immortal, they just starve for all eternity. After the Spider-Verse event, Spider-Punk makes an appearance in Web-Warriors.

'Web Warriors: Tangled States' Part One

Before the Spider-Verse event began the Inheritors killed quite a few Spiders from throughout the Marvel multiverse, and also managed to kill a few Spiders while fighting the Spider-Army (the army of Spider-Men and Women, not Spider-Punk's army of civilians) which left many worlds without Spiders to protect it. Because of this, Spider-UK created a team of Spider-People that would dedicate their time to protecting the Earths in the Multiverse without Spider-Men. Spider-Punk appears in four of the last five issues of Web-Warriors (He appears in issue #7 of Web-Warriors).

Spider-Punk's appearance begins with him performing at a concert protesting the government that he is broadcasting for free over Medianet, which seems to be their version of the internet. However, Hobie finds his concert interrupted by Adrian Toomes, owner of Toomestone records, who stops the concert and prevents it from being broadcast over Medianet. Toomes can do this because he bought Medianet so he can stop any performance that is being broadcast through it, and for fun, he decides to stop making Medianet a free service. Toomes then brings in a riot squad that he owns to attack Spider-Punk and those attending his audience, but the conflict is interrupted by Spider-Ham 2099!

After Spider-Ham 2099 appears, Hobie goes to Earth-001, the former base of The Inheritors and current base of the Web-Warriors, to ask the Web-Warriors for help. When Hobie and the other spiders arrive on Earth-138 they see that there is a rift in the sky with little robotic ducks lead by Ducktor Doom! The reason that there is a rift in the sky that connects one alternate Earth to another is a result of the events that transpired towards the end of the previous Web-Warriors story arc when the Web of Life and Destiny, the web that keeps all of the Earths separate, became entangled. Therefore, some Earths are now entangled with others.

The Web-Warriors have some trouble fighting the robot ducks, but the day is saved by Spider-Ham (regular Spider-Ham, not Spider-Ham 2099). However, immediately after Spider-Ham deals with these robot ducks, he gets stepped on by a giant robot Doctor Octopus that is fighting a giant robot Spider-Man. (This is the end of Issue #7 of Web-Warriors).

'Web-Warriors: Tangled States' Part Two

Issue #8 of Web-Warriors reveals that the Web of Life and Destiny is "sick" and dying through Octavia Otto's (an alternate version of Otto Octavius) study on the Web. Meanwhile on Earth-138, the Web-Warriors are watching the fight between the giant robot Spider-Man and robot Doctor Octopus take place before they decide that the best course of action is to fight the robot that doesn't look like Spider-Man. However, they get beaten quite easily and realize they need a miracle to win this fight.

Octavia manages to figure out why it is she and Karn are unable to contact the rest of their team and the Lady Spider's home-world (Earth-803). The reason is because there are hundreds of Electros (Spider-Man villains) from multiple Earths on Earth-803. That's when Octavia gets the idea of using Karn's (the keeper of the Web of Life and Destiny) legs to manipulate the Web and fix it. This ends up (sort of) Spideworking and allows Karn and Octavia to get in contact with the Web-Warriors on Earth-803, but this leads to the Web-Warriors on Earth-138 being stranded and separated on different earths. And to make matters worse, the Electros on Earth-803 broke out of their prisons.

'Web Warriors: Tangled States' Part Three-Five

Before we get into Spider-Punk's role in the last few issues of Web-Warriors we will quickly go over what the other groups are doing before they meet at the final battle of the series.

On Earth-001, Octavia gets the idea to gather an army of Spiders to help Mayday Parker (A version of Spider-Girl) and Spider-UK. Octavia goes to Mayday's house on her home Earth to recruit Anya (the leader of Web-Warriors) and a version of Uncle Ben that has Spider-Man's powers. They then go to Earth-803 to help Spider-UK and Lady Spider fight the army of Electros. This version of Uncle Ben goes to Earth-001 to get a helmet allows you to absorb people's minds into your own.

On Earth-138, Spider-Punk, Spider-Girl (Anya), and Lady Spider are with the giant robot version of Spider-Man. They also manage to find their way to Earth-803, and help with the fight against the Electros. A giant version of Electro (this Electro absorbed the mind of other Electros) manages to take over the Spider-robot. Spider-Ben then uses the helmet we talked about before to transfer his mind into the giant Electro's consciousness to show him that with great power must come great responsibility. Spider-Ben dies. The giant Electro then stops fighting and helps the Spiders prevent the Web of Life from being destroyed...by playing a rock song.

Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man India, and Spider-Ham end up getting stranded on Earth-90214 (Spider-Man Noir's Home-world). In this world, Norman Osborn is dead, so Spider-Man Noir was surprised and angered to see that Oscorp is still running. Spider-Noir, Spider-India, and Spider-Ham go to Oscorp to investigate. The Spiders reach the top floor where they are met with Harry Osborn who also has spider powers. The Spiders choose to trust Harry and tell him about the Multiverse, the Web of Life and Destiny, and how they are stranded and need to find the other Web-Warriors. Harry realizes that he could use the power of the Web of Life to create powerful weapons so he knocks out Spider-India, Spider-Noir. Harry reveals that he inherited his father's powers and was also bitten by a radioactive spider. He then leaves to go attack the Web and look for Spider-Ham. Harry doesn't find Spider-Ham because he left to get a burrito. When Harry gets to Earth-001 to destroy the Web of Life, he faces Karn (the keeper of the Web) but Spider-Ham helps to beat Harry. Harry gets electrocuted after the Spiders defeat the broken-out Electros. After the ordeal is done, the Web-Warriors recruit some more Spiders into their team. Spider-Punk is one of them.

Conclusion

We've come to the end of Spider-Punk's appearances in comics thus far. He has been the focus of Edge of Spider-Geddon #1. However, we will not go over this issue because I will go over the Spider-Geddon event as a whole.

Note: I do not own the characters, panels, text, and images shown in this post. All characters, panels, text and images belong to their respective owners.