Spider-Verse’s wheelchair user “Spider-Man” began with fan art

There’s a new Spider-Verse in town, and we’re most looking forward to the resurgence of the “Spidersona” – the joyful explosion of art as fans and artists showcase what they’d like to look like if they were a part of the Spider -verse. We have sticky spidersAnd dew spinningand spiders with cool spooky fingersAnd human spidersand… um. This is a pelican? I love that for her.

But the biggest fan-art Spider-Sona out there is undoubtedly Sun-Spider – because she actually made it Across the spider verse.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.]

Image: SonyPictures

If you’ve seen it Across the spider verse, then you know – when Miles flees from a whole multiverse of spider people, the group includes a wheelchair-bound spider who abuses Miles with one of her crutches. Then she makes a joke about how Spider-Mans tend to use humor as a crutch, followed by an apology for saying the joke is so awful. (Showing a genuine understanding of spider humor.)

This isn’t just any spider – it’s Sun-Spider (originally Sunspider), created by cartoonist Dayn Broder.

A comics editor, designer and freelance writerBroder then tweeted his Sunspider art for the first time Into the spider verse‘s 2018 release. A year later as Marvel geared up a new spider verse miniseriesthe company approached more than a dozen Spidersona artists to commission new artwork of their inventions and feature them on the pages of the series – and Broder was on the list.

“As a disabled person, I almost never see disabled superheroes,” Broder wrote in the issue. “I wanted to create someone like me: an ambulatory wheelchair user who can still kick butt in his own modified way. Sun-Spider is hyper flexible, but that has its downsides as it requires extra stability and the crutches help with that.”

Even the crutches shoot nets – because that rules.

In 2022 edge of spider verse, Sun-Spider (aka Charlotte Webber) got her own story from author Tee Franklin and artist Jethro Morales, in which she went to prom, battled Doc Ock from her own universe, and was recruited into a group of spider-men who were trying – something different? – Save the multiverse.

And now Charlotte is being voiced by comedian Danielle Perez, who is herself a wheelchair user, and she’s joining the side of the likes of Ben Reilly and Jess Drew Across the spider verse. It’s a beautiful moment that comes full circle for the fandom: Into the spider verse inspired its fans, and the fans in turn helped inspire the sequel. It all shows a real commitment to the power of the idea that anyone can be Spider-Man.