The MCU has barely scratched the surface when it comes to all the different suits that Spider-Man has donned over his 60 years long career in Marvel Comics. From raggedy homemade costumes to sleek and elegant hi-tech super suits, Spider-Man has worn something to help him prepare for almost every situation imaginable. New fan art found online brings attention to one of his lesser-known suits, the Spider Armor, and fans who see will surely start to wish for its big screen debut.
The Spider Armor, formally known as Spider-Armor MK I, first appeared in 1993 in Web of Spider-Man #100 by Terry Kavanagh and Alex Saviuk. It was destroyed in that same issue, but not before doing its job of making Spider-Man bulletproof against the New Enforcers’ high caliber weaponry. Considered one of the weirdest suits Spider-Man has ever worn, its steel plates slowed him down and made him less agile, the very opposite of what makes Spider-Man who he is, but without it, the New Enforcers would have shredded right through him.
The fan art drawn by Colin Craker, creator of The Agency Case Files, was posted on Twitter. It depicts Spider-Man in the Spider Armor standing on a rooftop in front of a clear sky, armored plates glinting in the sunlight. Craker is clearly a fan of the suit, indicated by their comment of it being “one of the best Spider-Man suits.” Fan reception regarding the Spider Armor is positive, with most people liking it for its presentation of Spider-Man in a new light. In this way, the Spider Armor has a better reception than the Iron Spider suit, which even Marvel’s heroes hated.
Although the Spider Armor only saw use for one issue, it spurred the creation of other Spider Armor suits, from MK II to MK IV. The MK II was designed to compensate for Peter losing his Spider Sense, drawing on the bulletproof aspect of the MK I but with more flexibility. MK III is where Peter got creative with the suit’s capabilities. It was designed to counter all of the Sinister Six’s abilities and looks like a cross between Iron Man’s and Deadpool’s suits. The MK IV draws on all other previous versions of the Spider Armor and was even Peter’s standard suit after Secret Wars rebooted the Marvel Universe in 2015.
But before all of that, there was just Spider-Man’s original Spider Armor and its bulletproof capability. Colin Craker’s fan art has brought a new wave of popularity to Spider-Man‘s iconic suit, and although a version of it has been seen in the MCU, hopefully it will let fans see the suit in its original form.