Summary

• Spider-Man's luck and family differentiate him from many of his enemies, including former friend Charlie Weiderman, who lacked these advantages and end3e up becoming a villain.
• The bullying and abuse Charlie experienced contributed to his violent behavior, contrasting with Peter's ability to overcome such hardships, given the of his loved ones.
• The importance of Spider-Man's family is emphasized in the "Back in Black" arc, where Peter's actions become darker when his family is threatened, demonstrating the influence his family has on his behavior.

Though Spider-Man has been considered one of Marvel's unluckiest superheroes for decades, as Mary Jane Watson famously points out, Peter Parker has hit the jackpot in a number of key ways. In fact, one Spider-Man foe shows that, without a bit of good luck, Spider-Man may have ended up a supervillain instead of the friendly neighborhood hero fans have come to love.

The Amazing Spider-Man #517 – by J. Michael Straczynski, Mike Deodato Jr., Mark Brooks, Joe Pimentel, Jaime Mendoza, Matt Milla, and Brian Reber – contains part three of "Skin Deep," a four-part story in which Peter fights a Vibranium-coated version of his childhood friend Charlie Weiderman. In the issue, Charlie — a victim of bullying and abuse Peter knows from Midtown High School — comes to Peter's apartment to threaten him into removing his metallic skin.

As Charlie leaves, he tells Peter there's only one difference between them: "You got lucky," he says. "You had family, and friends, and you got MJ and... and you had every break I never had."

Spider-Man's Family Outweighs The Dreaded Parker Luck

The Amazing Spider-Man #515 introduces Charlie Weiderman, a contemporary of Peter's at Midtown High described as "an even bigger geek" than pre-Spider-Man Parker. Now an adult, Charlie uses Peter's good name to gain funding from Tony Stark for the production of a Vibranium skinsuit. When Peter threatens to tell Tony the truth about Charlie's unsafe practices, Weiderman rushed trials, accidentally covering himself in the Vibranium. The accident left Charlie in a violent, volatile state. This aggression was driven by Weiderman's history of abuse from his father, Midtown High bullies, and – to a much lesser degree – a self-preserving Peter Parker, who saw Charlie as a bigger bullying target.

As Charlie himself points out, the Vibranium-coated villain makes an interesting foil to Peter. Both men were victims of high school bullying who, through an accident of science, were granted life-changing strength and powers. While witnessed the kindness of Ben's life. For Peter, the bullying ended at school; for Charlie, the bullies were everywhere. Without a family to him, Peter could have ended up very different.

Without His Family, There Is No Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

The extent Spider-Man will go to for his family — and the depths he will sink to without them — is explored later in the "Back in Black" arc of Straczynski's run. After the events of Civil War, Kingpin sends a sniper to kill Peter and his family, mortally wounding Aunt May. This sends Peter into a rage, causing him to wear his iconic black suit on a quest to kill Kingpin as revenge. It's a brutal arc, one which shows the darkness Peter will fall into when untethered from his loved ones. Peter isn't the only one who's lucky that a ive family guides Spider-Man's actions – his enemies are too.