Who Is Spider-Punk? The SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Hero, Explained
One of the scene-stealing Spider-people in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was Spider-Punk, voiced by Daniel Kaluuya (in his second Marvel role after Black Panther). While characters like Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and Spider-Man 2099 are Spider-People who have had many series of their own to their name, Spider-Punk is a more recent creation with a much shorter comic book resume. But he has had quite the journey so far, before ever hitting it on the big screen. Here’s the comics history of Hobart “Hobie” Brown, also known as the Spider-Punk.
In terms of the many spider folk we saw in Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Punk is among the more recent. He only first appeared in 2015, in the Marvel Comics event Spider-Verse. Which of course inspired the first Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film. Created by longtime Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott, he was originally designed by artist Olivier Coipel to be the Spider-Man of the UK. But Slott changed his mind, as he felt the UK deserved a Spider-Man that was more than just a tribute to ’70s punk rock icons the Sex Pistols. But he loved the design, so he was reimagined, and thus was born the Spider-Punk.
The Origin of Spider-Punk, the Spider-Man of Earth-138
Unlike Peter Parker, Hobart Brown was living on the street as a homeless youth on Earth-138. But as was often the case for his multiversal spider brethren, a spider bit him. This one mutated as part of President Norman Osborn’s toxic waste dumping. He gained powers that were identical to the 616 universe’s Peter Parker. A punk kid from the streets or not, Hobart was still a gifted scientist and invented his web shooters. But none of this stopped him from playing the guitar and being in a punk band. Thereby making him superior to 616 teenage Peter Parker in at least one way.
Becoming a punk rock-inspired Spider-Man, he led the subjugated citizens of New York against Osborn’s V.E.N.O.M. troops. While Peter Parker and Miles Morales had a strict anti-killing code, Spider-Punk was understandably a bit harder-edged. Despite having a soft spot for his universe’s Gwen Stacy. “Until she croaked,” he often said. He actually killed the Norman Osborn of his Earth during a riot by bashing him repeatedly with his guitar. (Dang, Spidey). Once Osborn died, this world’s Spider-Man unmasked himself to the rioting crowd, who now viewed him as a revolutionary icon.
Joining His Fellow Web Warriors
During the Spider-Verse comic book event, Spider-Punk was recruited by Superior Spider-Man, who was Doc Ock in Peter Parker’s body, to join an army of arachnid heroes. Hobie became a part of the so-called Web Warriors, in big spider-hero-centric events like Spider-Verse and later, Spider-Geddon. And he quickly rose to the pack of most prominent Spider-Man variants among the group. Not an easy task, when we’re talking about dozens, if not hundreds, of webslingers. He even fought the likes of the Red Skull and even Kang, and lived to tell the tale.
In His Own Series at Last
Finally, in 2022, Spider-Punk got his own mini-series, Spider-Punk: Battled of the Banned, from writer Cody Ziglar and artist Justin Mason. In the recent Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon series, Spider-Punk made his first non-comic book appearance. They gave him a cockney accent, despite the fact that the comics character was from New York City. That new character detail stuck, and the Daniel Kaluuya version we meet in Across the Spider-Verse is a Brit as well. Despite the odds, the original conception of the character as a citizen of the U.K. won out in the end. With Hobie no doubt getting even more exposure in Beyond the Spider-Verse, we expect him to become as prominent as the other Spider-people in the mainstream very soon.
