Although they’re both considered their companies’ flagship characters, Spider-Man and Batman have next to nothing in common. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire playboy who spent years honing his mind and body into weapons for his war on crime after seeing his parents murdered. Peter Parker is a nerdy kid from Queens who chose the responsible path of the superhero after his selfish actions resulted in the death of his Uncle Ben.
Nevertheless, there was a very brief time when Spider-Man actually forgot who he was – and almost claimed to be the Dark Knight. Sounds ridiculous (and it kind of is) but it led to a very interesting scene…
The 1990s were an interesting period for many superheroes. Although the superhero craze hadn’t reached the heights it would with the MCU, 1989 saw the release of Tim Burton’s classic Batman movie starring Michael Keaton, bringing superheroes back into style for the general public. This led to several big “event” storylines in the comics, including DC’s The Death of Superman story, which elevated the Man of Steel’s public image as well.
In Spider-Man’s case, however, Marvel had several offbeat ideas for everyone’s favorite wall crawler. One of them involved making Peter Parker the recipient of the Enigma Force, a powerful source of cosmic energy that basically turned whoever it empowered into a living god. This basically put Spider-Man on par with Superman – something Peter hated since he struggled with managing the power levels he had as a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Nevertheless, Peter tried to use his new powers responsibly, so when terrorists threatened to blow up the Statue of Liberty, Spider-Man arrived on the scene to stop them. Spidey entered very dramatically, leaping from the shadows. He then used the Enigma Force to turn his web lines into mini lassos that quickly ensnared all the terrorists before they could even get a shot off. Although one terrorist remained to activate their bomb, Spider-Man simply coated the bomb with his webbing, transmuted the webs into adamantium with his new molecular-rearranging power, and contained the explosion.
Grabbing the terrified terrorist by the collar, Spider-Man pulled him close to his face and struck a strangely familiar pose. Not knowing what Spider-Man had become, the terrorist gasped, “What are you?”
Spidey’s response? “I’m Bat—ahem – I’m Spider-Man!”
It’s a silly shout-out to Michael Keaton’s famous line from Batman, and one many fans were quoting shortly after the movie was released. Strangely, Spider-Man really didn’t know what he was back then with all of his new powers, so it’s understandable that he would suffer from a little identity crisis (that, or he really enjoyed Tim Burton’s movie). Oddly enough, years later Peter would briefly become a wealthy philanthropic businessman with access to all sorts of high-tech toys when he ran Parker Industries. Maybe he was trying to live out an old Batman fantasy?