Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man is not only one of the best and most popular superheroes in Marvel’s fictional universe, he is also one of the youngest. His adventures generally start during his high school years and continue later into his life. Now, Peter Parker is certainly a very interesting character and I have already written about him in an earlier article about two of his major publications. One of these two publications, The Spectacular Spider-Man, is going to be the topic of today’s article as well, as I am going to talk to you about Peter Parker’s age.
Although his age did vary from storyline to storyline, as far as it is known, Peter Parker was a junior in high school during The Spectacular Spider-Man, i.e., he was sixteen years old at the time.
In today’s article, I am going to tell you all the necessary information about Peter Parker’s age, as well as some other additional info like his height and weight. You are also going to find out how his age compares to some other recurring characters from the series so that you can know where Peter Parker stands among these other characters. Let us begin!
How old is Peter Parker in The Spectacular Spider-Man?
Peter Parker’s age is a very interesting topic to discuss. Namely, Spider-Man is undoubtedly one of the youngest mainstream superheroes and he has, at such an early age, managed to become an Avenger at one point in his career. Most stories portray him as a high school student at the moment he receives his superpowers; after having learned how to use and control them, he becomes Spider-Man and continues his crime-fighting career well into adulthood.
Now, his age, of course, varies. He usually starts his career in high school, but even that is not a fixed fact and since his career always spans for years and years, he also gets older as the storyline progresses. There is no fixed age we can attribute to Peter Parker, both because of the reason mentioned right before, but also because his storylines have been rebooted several times over the years, so after several decades, a twenty-something Peter Parker would once again revert back to being a teenager.
The Spectacular Spider-Man, which interests us the most, is one title that gave us some specifics about his age, although this can only be applied to his age at the beginning of his crime-fighting career. Namely, The Spectacular Spider-Man also encompasses a larger period of time, so the inevitability of aging is something we have to consider even in this title.
So, as far as The Spectacular Spider-Man is concerned, Peter Parker is sixteen years old when he becomes Spider-Man. The series provides us with a very detailed look into his private life, which reveals a lot of elements that we could not see in titles like the main The Amazing Spider-Man title, which is actually great from a character-focused point of view.
How tall is Peter Parker?
Just like the question of his age, the question of Spider-Man’s height is also something that can be quite an intriguing topic of conversation. This is where biology and the passage of time, once more, play a vital role, as we initially see Peter Parker at an age where boys still grow. This means that his height, as well as his weight, vary from time to time, but Marvel has nevertheless provided us with some data that we can use in this instance.
For example, we know that the Earth-616 version of the character, i.e., the main universe version of Spiderman is 5′ 10″ (1.78 m) tall and weighs 167 lbs (76 kg). On the other hand, for example, the Earth-26496 version of the character, a sixteen-year-old iteration of Spider-Man similar to the one from The Spectacular Spider-Man, is 5′ 6″ (1.68 m) tall and weighs 135 lbs (61 kg).
These two examples, although I could list a lot more – but they’d all point to the same conclusion – show us that these physical traits vary from iteration to iteration and that Spider-Man is a very versatile character that appears in all shapes and sizes.
Is Black Cat older than Peter Parker?
In the final section of this article, we are going to discuss Peter’s age in comparison to Black Cat’s. Black Cat is a very specific Spider-Man character and her relationship with Peter mimics that of Batman and Catwoman in DC’s fictional universe. But who is Black Cat?
Born as Felicia Hardy, Black Cat is the daughter of Walter Hardy, a world-famous thief. She trained in various styles of fighting and stunts and, after deciding to follow in her father’s footsteps, adopted the identity of the Black Cat. As Black Cat, she has the subconscious ability to affect probability fields, producing “bad luck” for her enemies.
The character was originally a supervillain and an adversary of Spider-Man, but over time the two fell in love, prompting her to become an antihero and even a sidekick in several instances. However, their relationship got complicated after it became apparent that Black Cat was only attracted to Spider-Man’s alter ego and had little interest in the civilian life of the hero as Peter Parker.
After splitting from him, Black Cat maintained his role as one of Spider-Man’s most trusted allies and for years the pair shared romance over and over again before she finally reverted to her criminal ways.
Felicia Hardy is portrayed as being of similar age as Peter Parker, but several comic book stories have revealed that she was, in fact, a year or two older than Peter. Since she appeared when Peter was in his twenties, she is usually portrayed as having 25 or 26 years around the time Peter was 23 or 24, depending on the story.
The age difference is present, but it is truly so minor that it can be easily labeled as both insignificant and completely irrelevant for the two characters in question.