50 free Hard Spider-Man trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This hard Spider-Man trivia quiz is for the reader who knows that Peter Parker's first appearance was in an anthology, not his own title, and wants to be tested on the rest: which issue Gwen Stacy died in, who wrote and drew Kraven's Last Hunt, how much Marvel paid the fan who dreamed up the black costume, why the Comics Code was rewritten because of a Spider-Man story, and what the Japanese live-action Spider-Man's giant robot was called. It also digs into the movies and games: the first film to open above $100 million, the Broadway musical that lost a fortune, and the video game record set by Insomniac. The questions cover six decades of comics (Lee and Ditko, Conway, Stern, Michelinie, Bendis, Slott), the alternate Spider-People (2099, Noir, Punk, Ham, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales), the villains' first appearances and secret identities, and the retcons that fans still argue about. Nothing here is a giveaway; expect issue numbers, creator names and production details. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and Marvel publication histories, and each question shows its source. All 45 are free, no sign-up. If this is too steep, warm up on our main Spider-Man trivia page or the Spider-Man for kids quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Amazing Fantasy #15 was cover-dated August, but on what date that year did it actually go on sale?
June 5
Cover dates ran months ahead of the newsstand date so unsold copies looked fresh longer. The series had just been renamed from Amazing Adult Fantasy for that one issue.
Q 02Which Marvel publisher approved Spider-Man only because Amazing Fantasy was being cancelled?
Martin Goodman
He objected that people hate spiders and that teenagers should be sidekicks, not heroes. Once the sales figures came in he asked Lee for an ongoing series.
Q 03Which artist drew the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 after Stan Lee rejected Steve Ditko's version?
Jack Kirby
Kirby had also drawn a first attempt at the character that Lee rejected as too heroic. Ditko inked the cover Kirby pencilled.
Q 04Steve Ditko left The Amazing Spider-Man after which issue?
#38
Ditko had been plotting the book himself by the end and was reportedly no longer speaking to Lee. Romita took over and immediately unmasked the Green Goblin.
Q 05Which 1971 arc, run without the Comics Code seal, forced a revision of the Code's rules on drugs?
#96–98
The US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare had asked Lee to run an anti-drug message. Harry Osborn's addiction was the storyline, and the Code was rewritten shortly after.
Q 06Who wrote The Amazing Spider-Man #121–122, the two-parter in which Gwen Stacy dies?
Gerry Conway
The editors originally asked for Aunt May to be killed. Marvel's 2001 fan poll later ranked issue #121 the sixth-greatest Marvel comic of all time.
Q 07Gil Kane's art in The Amazing Spider-Man #121 shows Gwen falling from which bridge, not the George Washington?
Brooklyn
Later reprints and stories have gone back and forth on which bridge it was. The 2004 series The Pulse stuck with the George Washington.
Q 08Which Spider-Man storyline crossed over all three Spider-Man titles in October and November 1987?
Kraven's Last Hunt
Kraven shoots Spider-Man with a tranquilizer, buries him for two weeks and wears his costume. J.M. DeMatteis first pitched the buried-hero idea as a Wonder Man story, then as a Batman one.
Q 09Which cannibalistic sewer monster does Kraven set loose on Spider-Man in the 1987 'Last Hunt' story?
Vermin
DeMatteis and artist Mike Zeck had created the character together earlier. Spider-Man had needed Captain America's help to beat him the first time.
Q 10How much did Marvel pay fan Randy Schueller for the idea of Spider-Man's black costume?
$220
Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter wrote to him in 1982. The costume debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #252 before its origin was shown in Secret Wars #8.
Q 11Venom's first full appearance came in which issue of The Amazing Spider-Man?
#300
Writer David Michelinie wanted a villain the spider-sense could not detect. The symbiote had picked up Peter's genetic signature while bonded to him, so it could slip past his sixth sense.
Q 12Before the symbiote found him, Eddie Brock had been a reporter for which newspaper?
The Daily Globe
Brock's career collapsed when the man he named as the Sin-Eater turned out to be a compulsive confessor, and Spider-Man caught the real killer.
Q 13Which two creators are credited with Carnage, who first fully appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #361?
David Michelinie and Mark Bagley
Q 21Which 2014 Marvel event introduced Gwen Stacy's alternate-universe web-slinger and fought the Inheritors?
Spider-Verse
The Inheritors are psychic vampires hunting spider-people across realities. The event later inspired the animated Into the Spider-Verse films.
Q 22Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, was created by Rick Leonardi and which writer?
Peter David
Miguel is an Irish-Mexican geneticist in Nueva York whose DNA is half rewritten with spider code. Issue #1 is still that writer's best-selling single comic.
Q 23Why does Spider-Man 2099 wear that particular costume rather than a design of his own?
Stan Lee supplied the host's name, Cletus Kasady, and the idea that the bond was so complete he says 'I' where Venom says 'we'.
Q 14Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man #1 (1990) sold roughly how many copies, helped by multiple variant covers?
2.5 million
Two years later McFarlane co-founded Image Comics and launched Spawn #1, which sold 1.7 million, still a record for an independent comic as of 2007.
Q 15Under what name had Peter Parker's clone been living before he became the Scarlet Spider?
Ben Reilly
The clone had been created in a 1970s storyline. The saga was so unpopular that Marvel eventually undid it, but the Scarlet Spider identity kept returning.
Q 16The Jackal debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #129, but in which issue was he unmasked as Miles Warren?
#148
Warren himself had been in the book since #31 as an unnamed Empire State University professor. He is the man responsible for cloning Peter and Gwen.
Q 17Which Marvel villain murdered Richard and Mary Parker, according to The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5?
A successor Red Skull
Peter's parents were spies who posed as traitors to infiltrate Albert Malik's organization in Algeria. Richard had been recruited by Nick Fury.
Q 18Which Babylon 5 creator became the main writer of The Amazing Spider-Man in the 2000s?
J. Michael Straczynski
His run introduced Ezekiel Sims, who suggested Peter's powers were no accident. It ended in a public spat over how One More Day was resolved.
Q 19In One More Day, Peter and Mary Jane trade their marriage to Mephisto in exchange for what?
Saving Aunt May's life
Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada insisted a single Peter was intrinsic to the character. The world's memory of the marriage was erased, though the identity reveal from Civil War was undone too.
Q 20How many issues did The Superior Spider-Man run before Amazing returned in 2014?
31
Amazing had ended with #700 in December 2012. Otto eventually surrendered the body to Peter to save the woman he loved.
His only outfit made of unstable-molecule fabric
Miguel has non-retractable talons on his fingers and toes that would shred normal cloth. He also has fangs he cannot retract, so he learned to talk without showing his teeth.
Q 24Miles Morales made his first appearance in which 2011 comic?
Ultimate Fallout #4
Bendis and Sara Pichelli created him after the Ultimate Peter Parker died. Bendis was partly inspired by Donald Glover wearing Spider-Man pajamas on Community.
Q 25Which two abilities does Miles Morales have that Peter Parker lacks?
Camouflage and a paralysing venom strike
Against the Armadillo the strike proved useless until his venom energy shaped itself like a web lasso. He also has a bigger 'mega venom blast'.
Q 26Bendis and Mark Bagley's run on Ultimate Spider-Man broke a Marvel record previously held by whom?
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four
Bagley stayed until issue #111. Bendis stretched the original 11-page origin into a 180-page, seven-issue arc.
Q 27In the Ultimate universe, the spider that bit Peter had been exposed to what substance?
The OZ compound
The same drug created the Ultimate Green Goblin and Hobgoblin, and it later explained why Peter survived his own 'death'.
Q 28Spider-Man Noir, created by David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky, operates in New York during which era?
The Great Depression
He debuted in Spider-Man: Noir #1 in February 2009 and the miniseries touched on lynching, fascism and socialist agitation of the New Deal years.
Q 29Spider-Punk, the Spider-Man of Earth-138, is an alternate version of which existing Marvel character?
Hobie Brown
In the main universe that name belongs to the Prowler. Dan Slott and Olivier Coipel introduced Spider-Punk in Amazing Spider-Man #10 in January 2015.
Q 30Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, first appeared in a 1983 one-shot titled what?
Marvel Tails
The one-shot also featured Captain Americat and Hulk-Bunny. His later ongoing series ran under Marvel's Star Comics imprint for younger readers.