Pride Month is nearly upon comic book fans. And while Marvel fans have been left disappointed compared to some of the offerings from DC Comics, the announcements are still coming. Marvel has announced a series of comic book runs and variant covers featuring LGBTQ+ characters and queer creators from the Marvel Universe. And one recent announcement had some Marvel fans confused as to whether Peter Parker/Spider-Man might be bisexual.
Peter Parker/Spider-Man has been brought to live-action three times, played by Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire. Peter Parker’s onscreen romances include Mary Jane Watson (Kristen Dunst), Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and Michelle Jones (Zendaya). Each character was based on one of Peter Parker’s comic book relationships.
However, one of his primary love interests that he has not interacted with much yet on the big screen is Felicia Hardy/Black Cat. Felicity Jones brought Black Cat to live-action in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) with Andrew Garfield, but she was not given much to do in the film, which was poorly received y fans. Luckily, Garfield was able to reprise his variant of Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Black Cat first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (1979) by Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard. Felicia Hardy has a complicated romantic history with Spider-Man and has finally been confirmed as bisexual. That is why she got her very own Pride Variant Cover. But laying beside her was Peter Parker, which some Marvel fans took to mean that their favorite web-crawler was also coming out of the closet.
Questions quickly began pouring in under Marvel Comics’ official announcement of the cover, drawn by Jen Bartel, on Twitter. One user asked:
To which other users jokingly responded with
Peter Parker was only included as Black Cat’s love interest on the variant cover of Marvel Voices: Pride #1 written by Charlie Jane Anders, Christopher Cantwell, Andrew Wheeler, Alyssa Wong, Grace Freud, Ira Madison III, and Danny Lore. However, many Marvel fans have long suspected Peter could be secretly bisexual, and they jumped on the chance to point out other male Marvel superheroes he could have been in a relationship with.Yes he’s in a relationship with Johnny storm and sometimes Deadpool also
—(@TeddysManTits) April 14, 2022
Johnny Storm/Human Torch of the Fantastic Four has long been one of Spider-Man’s best friends. Some fans have pointed out they can be pretty flirty with each other, including the Human Torch inviting Peter over to watch a very special DVD with him in Amazing Spider-Man Digital #17 (2009) by Brian Reed.
Wade Wilson/Deadpool has never been shy about being attracted to both Peter Parker and Spider-Man (when he does not know they are the same person). The Merc with a Mouth is pansexual and actually has a “daughter” with Peter named Itsy Bitsy, who is a genetic combination introduced in Spider-Man/Deadpool #8 (2016) by Joe Kelly.
And in Moon Knight #4 (2019) by Brian Michael Bendis, Peter admitted having dated Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Moon Knight “a little bit.” It is not clear if he was joking, but Marvel has been poking around the idea of Peter Parker being bisexual for a while. But for now, he is still officially straight.
