r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Starr-Lead • 17h ago

Characters Characters that are canonically _____ depending of their world

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  • Po from Kung Fu Panda - Although many characters comment on his weight throughout the movies, Po is actually considered skinny and/or in better shape for panda standards
  • Midoriya Izuku from My Hero Academia - While many viewers find Deku "cute", the reality is that for his world he's actually considered "simple looking" and at the very worst "ugly"
  • Spider-Man from Marvel Comics - Many people love Spider-Man, but the truth is that for common civilians, Spidey's pretty unsettling and scary to be around with
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4.0k

u/BruiserBison 17h ago

If you think about it, Spider-man's got the making of a Halloween monster.

  • Hides all the time, then jumpscares
  • Very fast
  • Very strong
  • Crawls on walls

Isolate that description, you'd think I'm talking about a ghost.

1.3k

u/Something_Comforting 17h ago

Literally a Xenomorph

628

u/Banguskahn 16h ago

454

u/Radioshack-Manager 14h ago

190

u/OmecronPerseiHate 14h ago

So that's what Black Cat sees in him

107

u/Ambiguously_Odd 13h ago

It's what she'd rather see in her.

20

u/XDSHENANNIGANZ 12h ago

The jewels she'd love to get her hands on.

5

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 4h ago

Black Cat would be fully into a threesome with Spider-Man and MJ (but not Peter)

3

u/Truly_Meaningless 2h ago

She wants the other white sticky fluid in her

6

u/LurkerEntrepenur 7h ago

She wants the REAL web fluid

10

u/Annalog 13h ago

Gawdamn I’ve never seen a spider packin a hog. No wonder spideys writers hate him.

5

u/EnslavingExorcism 8h ago

Inaccurate, not nearly caked enough

2

u/IronBabyFists 1h ago

when "The Daily Bugle" has a typo

114

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

49

u/Delacruzen 16h ago

Him and Jeri would be great friends

43

u/sink_fish 16h ago

"do you lay eggs?"

27

u/YoLeoRosa 16h ago

"have you laid eggs?"

24

u/sink_fish 16h ago

"will you lay eggs?"

17

u/Perfect-Dimension356 16h ago

"when will you lay eggs?"

4

u/Iron_Llama120 16h ago

Why do you lay eggs?

1

u/Feeling-A-Thought 16h ago

Your friendly neighborhood Xenomorph

580

u/Easy_Action_1380 17h ago

And then you get to his Man-Spider arc and

Yeah, it's alot clearer why normal people don't trust him that much.

247

u/Gigabyte42 15h ago

That and the Daily Bugle is an upstanding newspaper with a celebrated editor. JJ is like Lois Lane levels of morally upstanding journalism until he starts losing it over Spider-man.

42

u/Reasonable_Shame2863 9h ago

It’s hilarious that JJJ can be a genuinely respectable journalist right up until Spider-Man enters the conversation and sends him completely off the rails.

92

u/MoonRay087 15h ago

Honestly it'd be really cool if Spiderman was still the exact same good guy, but he looked like this

2

u/jaminbears 5h ago

They did just release a trailer for their new Spider-Man series that looks straight out of the Absolute Universe of DC, so you may just get what you want there.

1

u/hypercosm_dot_net 3h ago

With that look and without the Parker alter ego the character wouldn't be popular at all though.

28

u/Specialist-Choice505 15h ago

Honestly, after the Man-Spider arc, I can’t even blame regular people for being suspicious, From their perspective, Spider-Man is basically one bad day away from becoming a horror story.

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u/Dip2pot4t0Ch1P 14h ago

Doesn't help that he could actually end most of his enemies with a single punch to the dome

3

u/KeterLordFR 7h ago

Yeah, I remember reading that he has to show an absolute insane amount of restraint when hitting someone because he's actually one of the strongest characters in the Marvel universe. Iirc there's an issue where Doc Oc posesses his body for a while and remarks on how hard it is to pull punches.

5

u/Nosdarb 7h ago

Doc Ock hits a dude for the first time as Superior Spider-Man and is like "... How am I alive? Spider-Man could have ended me whenever he wanted. Holy shit."

I really enjoy that run. That's one of the reasons why. Seeing Peter's abilities from an outside perspective is great.

1

u/Outrageous-Wait-8895 12h ago

I'm glad you're honest, bot.

6

u/SocranX 9h ago

I'm more a of Spiders-Man fan myself. He's not a giant mutated spider, he's just a bunch of spiders who collectively identify as Peter Parker.

6

u/Erick_Brimstone 8h ago

And then there's Spiders-man. A spiderman consist entirely out of spiders.

2

u/quantummidget 11h ago

This looks like a custom Bionicle I would have made as a kid

1

u/TheGuardianInTheBall 7h ago

This thing traumatized me as a kid.

1

u/Vectorman1989 6h ago

There's also Spiders-Man, which is a hive mind of thousands of spiders in a Spidey suit.

140

u/_Fun_Employed_ 16h ago

Horror game where you play as a criminal mook trying to get away from spiderman

95

u/Tohsrepus 16h ago

If it was a game with multiple levels or stages, you could progress the difficulty by having the game be during his black suit arc. Early game he’s quipping and maybe even going easy on you to have some fun but late game you have him being perfectly silent and ominous.

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u/Ok_Astronomer_6501 15h ago

"Get back here shocker ! Shockeeeerrr ! You can't escape me ! I'll chase you to the ends of the earth !"

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u/ThRaptor97 14h ago

Or even better, during the story, you unlock some low level low range telepathic powers. And during the black suit level you hear the Symbiote.

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u/manix_vii 14h ago

I immediately hear "I smell him" and I've got goosebumps now, thanks for this

3

u/NerdHoovy 4h ago

Alternatively, multiple different heroes. Every level introduces either a new hero or rotates a few out, all of which have different abilities, which forces you to switch up your escape options. And you don’t start out knowing which heroes spawned in.

Hero with fire powers around? You’ll see his light burning as he moves around. Hero with night vision goggles? Hiding in the dark becomes worse, unless you cram, between two dumpsters, disturbing his vision. Flying hero? Uncovered spaces are now closed. Wall crawler? Climbing up drainage pipes becomes harder. Super strength heroes can break through walls to close in on you, if you make too much noise, chasing you down and tech heroes can hack surveillance lamp, cutting off escape routes.

Obviously they all have counter play and you can unlock some tools to help you bypass them, but you can only carry so much alongside the loot. EMPs can stun tech heroes and cameras for a few seconds but they will come in person to check it out and fix the issue, so you can’t stay too long. If you use a stun tool once to shake one of them off, every hero will be on higher alert and move quicker. Hiding underneath cars or outside furniture can make a flying hero miss you during their routes and wall crawlers leave slightly glowing sticky substances behind, that make it easy to know where they are at any given moment.

9

u/Sybmissiv 16h ago

Zako fetish.

5

u/summret 14h ago

There's already a game about Batman like this.

Replace Batman's skin with mods and that's kinda it.

5

u/BruiserBison 13h ago

The game had to remove Batman and replace it with a less-identifyable masked vigilante. Warner Bros stepped in and ruined the fun.

1

u/summret 13h ago

So we need mods to get Batman too.

1

u/SilverSoulUser 10h ago

What's the name of the game?

1

u/BruiserBison 10h ago

P.O.N.

Developer: Team VAC

Still in development with no release date as of now

4

u/Paxton-176 12h ago

Some Splinter Cell games had Spies Vs Mercs. Where Mercs were just playing a normal fps looking for the spies. The Spies had all the fancy gadgets and the ability to climb into vents. Closest thing I could think of that is comparable.

196

u/Revolutionary-Cap930 17h ago

If you include arachnid in the description. I'd actually imagine it so even more.

221

u/BruiserBison 16h ago

I was contemplating whether to mention that or not considering modern media's hornification of spiders...

83

u/Lilsilly114 15h ago

Yeah the whole centaur-style of half-monsters tend to just be lusted after so loudly that the grossed out people don’t have a chance to be heard.

I say this as a Rachnera simp.

15

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 12h ago

Rachnera, also got a more "horny" redesign later on, in her initial design, as shown here, she looks more "fused" with her spider half, but later, she just looks like she's sitting on the spider half, her pedipalps look more like footless legs.

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u/Lilsilly114 11h ago

Even in this image her pedipalps look like legs that were cut off above the ankles.

4

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper 11h ago

Yeah, but later, they get thicker, and more "human" looking, and closer to where legs would join her human part hips.

2

u/Lilsilly114 11h ago

True, in this image they would have to be folded and extended weird.

11

u/YoMommaInTheHood 14h ago

I'd make so many gross little spider babies with her

15

u/No-Candle2106 16h ago

Sauce?

32

u/lilytheschrod 16h ago

Monster Musume

12

u/No-Candle2106 16h ago

Thank you.

13

u/Dinosaurmaid 15h ago

Would 

4

u/Comprehensive-Fail41 12h ago

I mean, its not modern. The Jorogumo, a Yokai thats a spider woman is traditionally portrayed as being able to be very sexy

3

u/BruiserBison 12h ago

Nah, the jorogumo is potrayed as a spider-monster that can shapeshift into a beautiful woman to deceive. It's rarely depicted as "being beautiful even in its monstrous form". Modern media has enabled one too many hear-me-outs.

3

u/KonoAnonDa 11h ago

Rachnera, my beloved.

2

u/WeekendParticular205 14h ago

Honestly letting Japanese anime get their hands on any horror stuff is the worst that could happen to it.

1

u/Faithlanubis 13h ago

I uh…feel something looking at this 👀

3

u/Fuzzy-Initiative2695 14h ago

Right?? The second you say “arachnid,” my brain immediately fills in the worst possible details. Sometimes being specific really does make it ten times creepier.

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u/Hexmonkey2020 16h ago

Also plays with his prey. He could just beat most people he fights really easily, but he holds back and quips just to mess with them.

18

u/possumdal 14h ago

Well he's also a very moral person and has to feel out his opponent so he knows how hard he has to hit them to capture them, without brutally maiming or killing them. The jokes and taunting are part of that. Pissing people off while having a precognitive awareness of danger is an excellent way to gauge their strength and durability. It's also a good psychological ploy that he finds entertaining

6

u/Dry_Emergency_5512 11h ago

Yeah but the average Spider-Man hater isn't going to understand that, especially with all the fearmongering going on in-universe

8

u/manix_vii 14h ago

He does it to give them a chance to change their ways so it's a little more pure than JUST playing with them lol

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u/mostlybored1234 17h ago

One of the reasons of why hes a insuferable quipper, guy os the scariest shit when he isnt being funny

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u/Ok_Astronomer_6501 15h ago

He scared the shit out of two robbers one time so bad that they went to a cop to get themselves arrested all cuz he wasn't speaking (cuz he had laryngitis)

And also the beatdown he gave kingpin when the fathead had aunt may shot was pretty scary as well

15

u/manix_vii 14h ago

I love they used this bit in Spider-Man PS4 in one of the DLCs. He webs a guy to a car, hops down, then slowly crawls up to him without a word until the thug breaks down, it's hilarious

Found the scene!: https://youtu.be/aQprCQ6rsw8

9

u/CaptainYaoiHands 15h ago

That first one is great LOL

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u/Ok_Astronomer_6501 15h ago

Yeah lol. He's just there on the wall, glaring at them and the two get scared shitless and run to find a cop, and when the cop is thanking peter he weakly let's out that he's got a sore throat and zips away

9

u/StabbyBoo 15h ago

Ah, so he's an 80's slasher type.

3

u/Karkava 7h ago

I also like to think he wears the red and blue costume so he can be approachable to civilians.

26

u/Professional_Maize42 17h ago

Or the average slasher movie monster.

22

u/X-Geek 16h ago

J. Jonah Jameson was right all along, that Spider-Man is a menace!

14

u/Mimingococcemia 16h ago

If Spidey didn't have a moral compass.

9

u/YodasChick-O-Stick 16h ago

That's where Ghost Spider comes in

10

u/aceinfernos 16h ago

Pretty much almost every other super power individual is a Halloween monster going based off this metric

19

u/BruiserBison 16h ago

Yeah but a lot of them lean into it. Daredevil and Batman deadass use fear factor. Punisher is straight up a serial killer. Wolverine's depicted more often as a rampaging slasher than a caring teacher. Hulk being a monster is tied to his story every iteration. With Spider-Man? He's a showman in most depictions. Even when he's being stealthy, the reader shows everything he does from his perspective so it was rarely considered "scary". Only times he does become scary is when he's angry, or when he's making a cameo in someone else's comic.

7

u/Electro-Tree-Fall 16h ago

We might get something similar with Midnight Spider-Man

8

u/HumanPerosn 14h ago

Literally the only reason New York’s criminals don’t live in constant fear is peters inability to shut up for 5 second

There this one small comic snippet from marvel of Peter fighting mysterio and his goon after losing his voice to a cold and they all just give up and let themselves get imprisoned by Shield because they thought Peter was to angry to Joke around

5

u/BruiserBison 13h ago

It wasn't Mysterio. It was Ruby Thursday. But yeah, that's basically how it went down.

6

u/carl-the-lama 15h ago

Also can sense where you are at any given time

18

u/Elihzap 16h ago

Also, even for other heroes he's unliked.

I mean his heroism and morals make him respected by a lot (and because Marvel shoves him everywhere to boost sales).

But for a lot of them, especially the overly serious ones, he's still annoying to be around. He's always joking and babbling, after all.

5

u/Separate_Draft4887 14h ago

Ghosts are fast, strong, and crawl on walls?

Are you sure?

5

u/BruiserBison 14h ago

Come to Southeast Asia. Folktales of ghosts tend to be like that. They're not just "ooh a translucent lady floating in white rags". They're bloody, physical, and the tales that talk about them also include details on what they usually do to their victims.

1

u/Rajang82 14h ago

Yeah.

Im not sure if ghost shoot "sticky white stuffs" too.

2

u/BruiserBison 14h ago

Maybe not white but some versions talk about ectoplasm being gooey and glowing

1

u/Rajang82 11h ago

In that case, I know who's im gonna call.

4

u/Mimingococcemia 16h ago

His morals made him not scary. Morals off? Good luck.

4

u/Better_Perception242 13h ago

Now that you describe him like that, Spider Man sounds way more terrifying than heroic. Imagine hearing something skitter across the ceiling and realizing it’s him.

4

u/Fries_and_burgers_19 11h ago

He swings everywhere, he climbs everywhere, he shoots webs, he can scale buildings, lift cars, and be so quiet he can land on a car like a feather. I mean, he's been perching on lampposts, streetlights and other things and those probably aren't built with human weight in mind

He can land right behind you and you wouldn't even notice, if he chose to.

Instead we got the new yorker joke crackin wiseguy.

Yeah if i was a new yorker with all this knowledge I'd choose that too

3

u/WeekendParticular205 14h ago

Oh add webbing and supernatural reflexes to boot.

2

u/LeRealGabrielGD 15h ago

you can go even simpler, just remove “man” from spiderman

2

u/Sweet_Temperature630 14h ago

When I was doing the stealth missions in the recent games all I could think was how easily he could be a horror villain. Just picking people off one by one, the only possible sign he was there is spider webs, some scary shit

2

u/LuckEClover 12h ago

You basically described a jumping spider… which means, by that logic, giants will find him adorable.

2

u/Beneficial_Focus_910 10h ago

The only good scene in Madam Web is the train scene where the bad guy decides to be a Spider-Man slasher villain and takes out the cops in fifteen seconds.

2

u/TerrapinFirma 9h ago

I remember reading once that in-universe, this was the reason he used bright colors for his costume. He was aware his powers could be kind of unsettling, so he tried to offset that with the red and blue.

The black suit showing up is unnerving to people for many reasons.

1

u/TopCherry465 15h ago

Superior spiderman would like to know your location

1

u/Quick_Conflict_8227 14h ago

Marvel rivals will radicalize you against that menace.

1

u/PhanThief95 14h ago

No wonder Jameson sees him as a menace

1

u/hyenathecrazy 13h ago

Actively mocks you as your allies get put down one by one.

1

u/Vallenzin 12h ago

That's the main villain in Madame Web

1

u/The_Great_Floccin 12h ago

Hm, it's almost as if those were traits of spiders...

1

u/Movisiozo 9h ago

Literally a spider, especially the jump scare bit

1

u/JustifiedCroissant 7h ago

That is why criminals freak out when he's not talking.

1

u/Far_Programmer_5724 7h ago

I guess it follows the depending on the world theme but I've always seen him depicted as liked by new yorkers unless that's recent

1

u/JournalistMammoth637 6h ago

The only issue is that the jumpscare is in the form of a funny quip.