No other fictional introvert understands the receiving end of bullying like Peanuts‘ Charlie Brown or Marvel‘s original Spider-Man, Peter Parker. The two wallflowers frequently get picked on for being wishy-washy, unconfident, and shy. Lucy van Pelt often tricks Charlie Brown by pulling a football away from his running punt, while Flash Thompson is more stereotypical, smashing Peter against a high school locker and teasing him about his lack of love life.
As every fan knows, Peter is eventually bitten by a radioactive spider, granting him super strength, agility, and other amazing superpowers. As Spider-Man, Peter manages to defend victims big and small. Sadly, Charlie Brown is not so lucky. In the 50 years of Peanuts comic strips, Charlie Brown never manages to kick the football while Lucy is holding it. Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, purposefully focused on Charlie Brown’s failures to develop a new kind of relatable character. Seeing him fail on a constant basis only makes fans want to see Charlie Brown succeed more.
Many Marvel fans may not know this, but the legendary Amazing Spider-Man artist—John Romita Sr.—also sketched out a newspaper comic strip for the Web-Slinger from 1977 to 1981. At one point, comic collector and fan Mike Burkey requested a commission in which Spidey meets Charlie Brown and helps him finally kick the football. Schulz’s name is also on the top of the page, suggesting he wrote or helped the creation of the comic in some way, though the art is unquestionably in the style of John Romita. This comic is the only time Schulz’s name appears on a strip that presents Charlie Brown kicking the football.
The Spider-Man/Peanuts crossover strip plays out exactly how someone might expect. The gullible, pure-hearted, and round-headed Charlie Brown falls into Lucy’s scheme once again, as he trusts that she will actually hold the football and let him kick it. At the last second, as Lucy was no doubt about to pull it away, a web appears from the sky and snatches her away from the idly standing football. Charlie Brown kicks the ball and shouts: “Yahoo!” and Peter, who most likely sees his younger and more fragile self in Good Ol’ Charlie Brown, exclaims: “Scores!!”
Peter Parker may be a loser with his infamous bad “Parker” luck, but Charlie Brown definitely goes through more struggles in his life. Charlie Brown and the rest of his friends in the Peanuts gang never get any superpowers. Schulz designed his Peanuts strip to deliver comedy and sincerity, though he also focused on realism, complex feelings of unrequited love, and depression. While Charlie Brown never officially kicks the football in the Peanuts comic strips, wallflowers can’t help but smile when they see Marvel‘s Spider-Man give the fellow underdog a chance.
