Spider-Man Army

[Tomato]

So, to make a long story incredibly short, Hasbro's onslaught of absolutely amazing Spider-Man figures (shut up I'm not sorry) has finally broken me, and I've begun a sort of... "Spider-Man Unlimited" collection. In effect, the idea is to have an assortment of different Spider-Men/Spider-Women from all sorts of different realities and timelines. Now, admittedly, this is more or less just an excuse to have a collection that includes the original Scarlet Spider and Spider Girl from the MC2 timeline (I have a soft spot for both), but as I'm sitting here debating who I personally want to include, it got me wondering what you guys thought as well.

Placing images of all *currently* available figures in spoiler tags, just so people know what is available and what isn't. I'll be going back and work on updating it with the figures revealed at toy fair in a bit. Now, obviously you don't need to limit your responses to the ones here (I mean, really, there's not even a Black Suit Spider-Man yet!), it's more to give people not familiar with all these designs something of a visual guide.

Spoiler

Spider-Men

Spider-Women

[Tomato]

I feel a bit weird replying to my own topic, but I wanted to put my personal opinions separate from the opening post.

Anyway, as I stated above, there are a few Spider-Verse designs I'm already predisposed to. Scarlet Spider, 2099 Spidey, MC2 Spider-Girl, and Spider-Gwen are all pretty much guaranteed as far as I'm concerned. I'm a huge fan of all 4 designs, and they hit different mixes of nostalgia and awesomeness. Miles Morales isn't currently included in the above photos (he was just announced), but he's another figure I'm sure to be including later on. Finally, Ultimate Spider-Woman is another lock, mainly because she's the only Spider-Verse figure I actually found when I was out today.

Beyond that is where I start to get murky... While I certainly want a 616 Spider-man and one in his classic red and blue, ultimately the conundrum I'm having is... well, Ultimate Spider-Man (the Peter Parker version). It's a character I'd like to have represented, but both versions share the exact same costume. Shattered Dimensions more or less solved this by having USM show up in the black suit instead, but the reality is we're far more likely to get a black suited version of classic spidey down the line then one of his Ultimate counterpart. So while I'll probably pick up a Classic Spiderman JIC, I'll probably end up displaying Black Suit Spiderman as the 616 representative instead.

Similarly, Ben Reilly Spider-Man is another one I'd like to include, but I'm leaning toward displaying him with the Spider-Carnage pieces instead. MC2 Spider-Girl already has basically the same costume, and I will already have Ben represented by Scarlet Spider. Plus, Spider-Carnage brings back fond memories of the climax to the 90s Spider-Man cartoon.

Superior Spiderman... Meh. I have heard good things from people about how awesome the book was, how it was a breath of fresh air into the Spider-Man books... and it is all I can do to even entertain the notion of picking up one of these things. To me, Superior Spider-Man is one of those post-OMD storylines that further cemented my increasing distaste for how Peter Parker was being handled in general, to the point where seeing a supervillain take over Peter's body was more palatable than reading about the character. But even if I ignore all that for a second, I really wouldn't know which one to go with. I like the 4 arm addition of Superior Venom, but the design (particularly around the mask) is just ugly. The regular "Superior" Spider-Man looks better, but I don't feel like there's enough about it that says "Doc Ock." It honestly just looks like a variant of the Alex Ross Spider-Man design from a decade or so ago.

And finally, Arale. On the one hand, I love any sort of Spider-Girl/Woman variant, and the design does look awesome. On the other, I really have no clue who she is. If someone would like to fill me in on the basics, I'd love to hear it)

(Also... while she doesn't seem to be included in the line yet anyway, 616 Jessica Drew is a definitive no. Not because I don't like the character, but because she's pretty much completely separate from Spider-Man. This probably applies to several of the character who have used that moniker as well, but I'll take them on a case by case basis.)

Edit: Everything about Arale pretty much applies to Silk. I like the design, dunno who she is.

[Podmark]

Tomato I'm in the same boat as you. Already started my collection and if I see more in store I hope to continue it. So far I have:
Araña
Superior Spider-Man
Spider-Girl (a must have for me)
Scarlet Spider (which is an awesome figure btw)
Ultimate Spider-Woman

I also have a couple older ML Spider-Man figures.
Jessica Drew was included in an Avengers set that came out last year.
Also the Ben Reilly Spider-man and Spider-Carnage are the same figure with swappable head and hands. I thought that was a nice touch.

Personally I'd go for all of them, but considering your thoughts above, I'd say skip both Superior (if you do want a Doc Ock go with Superior Spider-Man), Ben Rielly Spider-Man (Scarlett can represent him), Arana, and Silk. Basically skip the characters you don't know well. I'd expect a Black Suit 616 by next year so maybe skip the classic (but it's supposed to be a great figure so I'd vote get it myself).

Anya Corazon was originally Araña. Created about ten years ago, she has no real connection to Spider-Man. Originally her powers were a blue exo-skeleton that she used to fight a cult of Wasp people (I'm not that familiar with her origins unfortunately). She was Carol Danvers side kick for a while. After Julia Carpenter became Madame Web she gave her old costume to Araña who then took the name Spider-Girl (that's what the figure represents). She lost her powers around this time and for a while fought crime powerless until she was given standard Spider powers in the Spider-Island event. She currently stars in the Web Warriors book about a group of alternate reality Spiders saving the day throughout the multiverse (May Parker is also featured).

Silk is Cindy Moon a girl who was bitten by the same spider as Peter Parker and gained similar powers, but was locked in a bunker for years to prevent the multiversal enemies the Inheritors from hunting all Spiders (this was a major part of the Spider-Verse event) and only recently released so she's behind the times. She and Peter share a weird animal attraction. She stars in her own ongoing.

[Tomato]

Tomato I'm in the same boat as you. Already started my collection and if I see more in store I hope to continue it. So far I have:
Araña
Superior Spider-Man
Spider-Girl (a must have for me)
Scarlet Spider (which is an awesome figure btw)
Ultimate Spider-Woman

I also have a couple older ML Spider-Man figures.

Blah, I only have USW right now... mainly because I'm staying with my parents atm, and they disapprove of me getting box after box. I was able to find a USW in person, but I'm currently setting up a PO Box for anything beyond that.

Part of the appeal of the new Spider-men figures is that since the ASM2 wave, all the Spider-Man figures use the same modern buck. Pretty much every figure they've done on said buck has been amazing, and it's what finally broke me... but it's also why I don't really want stuff like Iron Spider or Scarlet Kaine on the older buck.

Jessica Drew was included in an Avengers set that came out last year.
Also the Ben Reilly Spider-man and Spider-Carnage are the same figure with swappable head and hands. I thought that was a nice touch.

I found the Jessica Drew shortly after posting, and I'm wavering on my initial, knee-jerk reaction. She's still far down on my list, but I might consider adding her as the shelf gets larger. Either way, I think I'm gonna add her to the initial post once I get home.

As for Spider-Carnage... I agree, it's an amazing touch. Pretty much guarantees I'll get the figure regardless of including the normal Ben Spiderman.

Personally I'd go for all of them, but considering your thoughts above, I'd say skip both Superior (if you do want a Doc Ock go with Superior Spider-Man), Ben Rielly Spider-Man (Scarlett can represent him), Arana, and Silk. Basically skip the characters you don't know well. I'd expect a Black Suit 616 by next year so maybe skip the classic (but it's supposed to be a great figure so I'd vote get it myself).

See, I don't like doing that, because part of the fun of this is finding out about all these different characters. I'd have never dug that deep into Spider-Gwen had I not been exposed to her figure, so that's why I'm still willing to give both characters a fair shake. Plus, I really dig Arana's costume.

As for the other two... I'm still more or less in the same boat with them as I was before. I will probably still get classic Spidey (again, my preference down the road is to have USM wearing the black suit, like in Shattered Dimensions) but Superior is... so bland I'm still not sure. He's probably gonna end up in the same boat 616 Jessica is in, where I will probably get him down the line, but I don't want him as badly as I want some of the others.

A couple of notable versions I want to include down the line if they make figures:
Iron Spider
Scarlet Spider (Kaine)
Spider-Man Noir
Spider-Armor (the silver one)

[Podmark]

The SS Kaine was in one of the last waves before the new ML Infinities line started so I'll be surprised if they make a new one any time soon sadly.

I really like the new male body, but the current female one is just okay. It looks fine but articulation is a little limited and they feel a bit fragile, I can just see an elbow breaking one day when I'm posing it. They seem cheaper, which I guess makes sense as there's probably less demand for a Spider girl than Spider-Man.

[Tomato]

Yeah, I've been contemplating a custom for Kaine... though, honestly, the more I look at him, the more I'm not sure what exactly I'd want there. I just read "The Clone Saga" as part of my general Spider-Man obsessing, and while the 90s costume for Kaine is just AWFUL, I did like it more standing against Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man than I do the current Scarlet Spider suit... I like the fact that he was bigger than both of them, I like his stupid 90s long hair, and I generally like the dark blue outfit more than his "Scarlet" one (minus the cape and the stupid "webbing" lines all over it). The more I think about it, the more I realize what I really want is more of a hybrid between the two looks. And if I have to make a custom anyway, I may play with it.

As for the females... Sadly, I think much of that is a consequence of having thinner pieces. Spider-Man's elbows are about 1.5x as thick as SW's, and that's a lot when we're talking plastic. I've collected a fair number of figures in smaller scales, and I can say that a LOT of them suffer a similar problem.

Lastly, I'm wondering if someone who's read a lot of the Spider-verse stuff could help me out... See, I'm looking to add Harry Osborn to the shelf in some way (I really like the character) and while I wouldn't have any problems if I did a Goblin army to match the Spider one, that is a can of worms I'd rather not open. However, despite there being Spider-Gwens and Spider-Bens, a Harry Osborn Spider-Man seems to not be a thing. I've found sort of a reverse... a Spider-Man who went crazy and became the Hobgoblin (and of course House of M), but nothing with Harry. The closest I've found is from the Ultimate Spider-Man toon, where Harry temporarily becomes Spider-Man with the Venom suit... but since that's more of a transition to Venom, and because I have other plans for the Black suit (if nothing else, I'm tempted to include Flash's Venom) I'd rather not include it.

[Podmark]

Not familiar with a Spider-Harry either. Which is a little surprising.

[Tomato]

I know, right? We've got Aunt May as Spider-Ma'am, Uncle Ben as Spider-Ben, a talking Spider-Mobile, Spider-Gwen, etc. but no Harry? I mean, think of the possibilities. Harry becomes Spider-Man due to being forced to go to the science fair, his dad still becomes the Goblin... I mean, the drama there writes itself!