APPROVED: BACKGROUND_1 Humble Beginnings
Peter Benjamin Parker was born to Richard and Mary Parker nineteen years ago. When he was five his parents had to depart on an important business trip and placed young Peter under the care of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. During that flight the plane lost contact and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. There were no survivors.
Shattered emotionally, Peter recovered with the love of his aunt and uncle and was able to rebound to something approximating a normal life with all the resiliency of youth. For the next fourteen years young Peter led a normal life, albeit a bit bookish one. He enjoyed High School for the most part save for some bullying here and there, but he had a few close friends that helped him get through even the rough times. It was during this time that Peter began to come into his own. He found he had a real talent for science and began work on advanced polymers to help him in his scholarship pitch for going to Empire State University.
It was at the end of his senior year in high school that the normalcy of his life would end.
APPROVED: BACKGROUND_2 Along Came a Spider
During a field trip to Dr. Connor's lab at Empire State University, Peter Parker found himself enjoying an impromptu lecture held by the good doctor. He was so enjoying it that he failed to notice that one of the genetically modified and radioactive spiders had escaped from its holding tank. As Peter was snapping a few photos for the school newspaper he felt a sharp sting on his arm. He instinctively slapped the spider away but failed to pay it any further attention. That is until he went home and abruptly passed out from the spider's venom. When he awoke he realized that the interplay of the Spider's venom with his own genetic structure led to his DNA being hacked over the course of the night. He also realized that he felt better than he had in his life. His body was stronger, his eyes sharper, and his senses were keener.
As he experimented with his newfound powers, Peter tried to realize what he should do with them. The obvious choice to him at first was to try and use them to get money for himself and his family in some way. There were powered people in the world, all of them seemed like such celebrities to him. He decided to try and start out small and work his way up. He entered a Toughest Man Wrestling Competition and won handily.
Unfortunately after the competition the fight promoter seemed to realize that something wasn't right and refused to pay Peter. Angrily, Peter stormed off. While in the hallway still trying to figure out a way to get what was coming to him, a man rushed past him having held up the gate receipts from the fight promoter. Peter had an easy chance to stop the man's flight, but purely out of spite he refused to use his powers to help the man. The gunman escaped.
It was only later that night that the gunman went on to kill Peter's uncle as he waited in the parking lot to pick Peter up. Peter was bereft and crushed with guilt. He swore to never again fail to lift a hand to help someone in need. But what is more he swore to find the man that killed his uncle and make sure he never hurt anyone else ever again.
APPROVED: BACKGROUND_3 Here Come's a Spider-Man
Putting on a mask and stalking the city, Peter tried to find Uncle Ben's killer. Yet the only description he had of the man was very vague. But that didn't stop him. He combed the city, and while doing so he would stop what crimes would come to his attention. Eventually he started to use the name Spider-Man when people asked who he was and eventually his makeshift sweatshirt, pants, and mask just weren't cutting it. So he cobbled together a suitable outfit and began to head out more and more often. He would fight crime that many superheroes wouldn't bother with, the down and dirty street level crime in New York that was far from glamorous. It's only recently that the name of Spider-Man's gotten out and about, with some measure of notoriety occuring when the Daily Bugle published its first revealing tell-all story about this new masked menace.
Currently, Peter is just now starting his freshman year at Empire State University. He managed to juggle life and home and being Spider-Man, but now as more and more things make demands on his time… he's finding himself stretched thinner and thinner.
APPROVED: PSY1 Motivations
Peter is primarily motivated by two somewhat opposing factors. First is his sense of idealism, his good heartedness, his inner feeling that things really _need_ to be right. This encompasses his desire to protect those who deserve to be protected, to insure no one feels such pain as he's felt. Yet the other aspect that motivates him… is his guilt. He carries with him the _fact_ that it was due to his inaction that his uncle was killed. It is his fault. He had the power, the opportunity, and the first inclination. It was by indulging his darker feelings for revenge that led to this man escaping and killing his uncle. So these two aspects drive him, combining to make him a hero.
APPROVED: PSY2 Goals
Right now, Peter has a few goals. On a personal level he hopes to finish college. Eventually he might go to graduate school. Then there's that whole thing about having a life and living happily ever after. But then he also has a sort of professional goal. He plans to, as Spider-Man, make sure that he finds Uncle Ben's killer. He also plans to use his powers to help people as much as he can so that people don't have to suffer the loss of a loved one like he did.
APPROVED: PSY3 Clever
Peter is quick-witted. His thoughts flicker through his mind fast and this in turn leads to his problem-solving abilities as well as his ease of turning a word. He can quip with the best (or from another perspective worst) of them. He thinks fast on his feet, sometimes too fast to be fair.
APPROVED: PSY4 Ethical
Peter has a strongly developed sense of ethics. He believes entirely in doing hte right thing, so much so that he denies himself what he wishes, denies obvious avenues of advancement, and strives to better himself all due to this moral compass that was instilled into him by his upbringing.
APPROVED: PSY5 Friendly
Overall Peter Parker is a nice guy. He's just a good sort. He gets along with most anyone and tries to be polite and cheerful. To be a friend of Peter Parker's is to have a high place in his esteem and he shows it. Sure sometimes he mysteriously flakes and misses a date here or there, and to be fair he's always late. But once he's there he's all smiles.
APPROVED: PSY6 Honorable
To Peter, his word means something. If he tells someone he's going o do something, or that he'll help them then he'll do everything in his power to do so. That isn't to say he'll always come through, a lot of times his responsibilities spread him very thin. But he will do his utmost to fulfill obligations to those around him and if he's unable to… well he beats himself up over it pretty well.
APPROVED: PSY7 SPIDEY!
When Peter puts on the mask of Spider-Man, his personality doesn't necessarily change as so much he perhaps simply becomes… more loud. His inhibitions are weakened, he is given to exulting in his life, his powers, and the moment. Peter is free from having to hide himself and instead simply is. His conversation livens up, he lets fly with comments or witticisms that he'd have just bit his tongue on before. It's still Peter Parker, it's just Peter turned up to eleven.
APPROVED: POW1 Spider-Sense
Due to his altered DNA, Spider-Man has been gifted with a strange form of a sixth sense. Similar to ways that some spiders can sense impending danger upon the currents of the air and shifts in pressure, Spidey has a form of awareness that keys in when he's endangered, something disruptive is about to happen, or when someone is about to attack with malice. It is rather accurate and the intensity increases with the power of the attack, also the sense is directional in that he knows which way the danger is coming from as well as the safest route for evasion. Also his spider-tracers are keyed in to operate off of his spider-sense, allowing him to track without the tracer broadcasting electronically.
APPROVED: POW2 Wall-Craling
Spider-Man's body is capable of extruding very small hooks, almost like a grasping form of fur or biological velcro, that allows him to stick to almost any surface or object. This allows him to easily scale walls and ceilings as well as to cling with extra strength to objects and surfaces. This effect works through thin fabric, but not through thick forms of cloth or leather. It is almost impossible to unstick Spider-Man from something he is clinging to, more often the material will break or tear than the stickiness will fail.
APPROVED: POW3 Spider-Strength
With the proportional strength of a spider, Spider-Man is able to strike powerfully and lift a great amount of weight. Approximately ten tons with his full exertion can be pressed over his head, slightly more can be supported for a short period of time should he need to. His light frame also allows amazing leaps and jumps to be made with such a large amount of strength as well.
APPROVED: POW4 Superhuman Speed
Due to his enhanced anatomy, dense musculature, and light frame Spider-Man is capable of running faster than a normal human. In the past when facing Kraven he's outrun a Cheetah sicced on him, and has caught an out of control bus as it hurtled down a road over forty to fifty miles an hour. This is not an aspect of his talents that he has explored to any great length and primarily has only reached those heights in short bursts of utter desperation. It is feasible he could grow this talent if given the time and focus.
APPROVED: POW5 Superhuman Stamina
Spider-Man's altered DNA has gifted him with deep wells of fatigue and reserves. Perhaps it's due to his increased constitution and more efficient biological systems making it so the fatique toxins are not as strong. Whatever it is, the bottom line is that Spidey can operate for a long time in a high state of activity on a small amount of sleep. He can function for several days without rest, but will then start to degrade in performance. And, of course, he'll whine about it.
APPROVED: POW6 Superhuman Durability
With a more dense musculature and a stronger epidermis, Spider-Man's altered DNA allows him to take more punishment than a normal man. He's not armored, and he still feels the pain pretty clearly, it's just that he is able to keep getting back up. He can be knocked down, but he doesn't always stay down. It's harder to break his bones or tear his flesh, but not to such a degree that it seems otherworldy. He's built tough, Spidey-Tough(tm).
APPROVED: POW7 Superhuman Agility
Due to his genetic alteration, Spider-Man's sense of equilibrium is perfected. He always has control of his balance, needs minimal support to maintain it, and has utter awareness of his placement in space. He can move in ways that would put trapeze artists to shame, and could tightrope walk while reading a newspaper and chatting on his iPhone.
APPROVED: POW8 Superhuman Reflexes
Due to his heightened body chemistry, Spider-Man's brain functions at such a level that he is able to perceive movements and conflicts in an almost slowed state, able to process events and react almost instantly. This allows him to realize the best options for evasion or attack and then can implement them. All of this occurs instantly on an instinctive level.
APPROVED: ADV1 Apartment
Peter lives currently in the loft of a tall apartment building in downtown New York. It is suitable for his needs, though really it's barely three rooms. It does have one primary benefit in that it has a second floor window that allows easy arrival and departure of a costumed vigilante luckily out of line of sight of his neighbors.
APPROVED: ADV2 Web Shooters
Peter Parker's crowning technological achievment was when he was able to take some of the lab equipment and home electronic devices he had available at home to craft a pair of web-shooters. He created devices that could fire his web fluid in varying densities and spreads by changing the pressure of the nozzle. A palm pressure-plate also incorporated a touch-plate in the palm of his hand that could be fired in varying intensities depending on the pressure applied to the plate. A nozzle can also be adjusted to fire multiple webs to the side creating a larger net of webbing.
He has since made several modifications to them allowing him to utilize several tricks with ihs web-fluid. He can fire web-ropes that he can use to swing. He can narrow the nozzle and create dense web projectiles that he can fire to strike individuals with the strength of a thrown punch and able to stun attackers. He can widen the spread and narrow the focus to create a web shield that can protect him from up to an armor-piercing cannon round. He can create a parachute or air foil/glider that will allow him to fall from great heights or travel at approximately sixty to a hundred miles an hour.
APPROVED: ADV3 Web Fluid
A very successful invention, Peter Parker was able to create the amazing formula for his web-fluid at the tender age of fifteen. It is a curious concoction that is stored as a liquid. When it is initially fired it is extremely sticky, then quickly solidifes and only decays after approximately an hour of exposure. It has a powerful tensile strength capable of containing 50 tons of force or weight and thus is very difficult to break.
APPROVED: ADV4 Spider Tracers
Only recently, Peter was able to come up with a hodge podge device he created to allow him to follow someone using an electronic device tuned to the frequency of his spider-sense. These devices are small discs that are unremarkable otherwise save that they allow Spider-Man to follow their location at a range of up to two miles.
APPROVED: ADV5 Aunt May
May is the mother to Peter Parker that he never had. She has always been there for him, has always supported him as he's made his choices in life, has always been able to give him good touches of advice when it's needed. Aunt May plays a vital role in Peter's life and so does he in hers. If the world just becomes too much, Peter does take solace in the fact that he can come home to Aunt May's and at least be loved and get a good home-style meal.
APPROVED: ADV6 Indomitable Will
A unique combination of his mental composition has gifted Peter with what could be considered an Indomitable Will. His feelings of obligation, guilt, and morality combine to make it so that he never listens to the little voice inside his head that asks him to give up or to take the easy route. He's able to gird himself during times of strife and give it 'just one more try'. It also makes it somewhat hard for people to attempt to control him mentally if their attempts go against his core principles.
APPROVED: ADV7 Gifted Intellect
Peter is a very intelligent young man. If he truly gave of himself entirely to the pursuit of science it is likely he could be working with Reed Richards or Tony Stark. Though right now with so many other callings weighing upon his life and his time, he is primarily just a young man with untapped potential in this regard.
APPROVED: ADV8 Quips
When Peter puts on his mask he feels more free and this in turn allows him to have a more direct route from his brain to his mouth. This manifests in a rapid fire stream of commentary, jokes, and insults all while he's fighting. Oftentimes this doesn't have any effect on the situation, but others it can serve to unnerve opponents and infuriate them. Also it helps Peter deal with stress.
APPROVED: SKILL1 Photography
Ever since the beginning of high school, Peter's had a passing interest in photography. He didn't focus too much on it, the interest always was second to science and research. But he has always had a talented eye for picking out what makes a good picture. If he focused his efforts he could very feasibly make a living professionally.
APPROVED: SKILL2 Acrobatics
Primarily due to his spider powers, Peter has picked up quite the talent with acrobatics. It's more a natural development, performed instinctively on his part. He is capable of acrobatic stunts and maneuvars that would make any olympic athlete green with envy. But what is more, he is so acrobatic that he oftentimes increases the difficulty of his maneuvars if only to make them more showy.
APPROVED: SKILL3 Brawling
TPeter Parker is not what you could consider a well-trained fighter. He has had very little instruction beyond his Uncle Ben once taking him into the garage and showing him how to box. But with the changes to his body and the discovery of his abilities he's become a natural at combat. He combines his enhanced reflexes, instincts, and perception to be able to gain an edge in most conflicts. His technique is one of movement, evasion, and countering for the most part. To him in a lot of ways it seems like most of the world moves much more slowly while he's still able to move at regular speed.
APPROVED: SKILL4 Sciences
The study of science and experimentation has always held a place in Peter's heart. It was through science that he expected to make his living. Before the bite of a radioactive spider changed his destiny, Peter expected to become a scientist. Since leaving high school and embarking on his college career he has not had the practical experience which he would need to follow a career in the sciences. He still keeps his hand in when he can, and keeps abreast of scientific advances, however. He can understand high scientific concepts and even contribute in such a situation. He posesses a knowledge level equivalent to a grad student in the field.
APPROVED: SKILL6 Invention and Improvisation
Not only does Peter have an understanding of the sciences, the broad over-arching laws that govern our world, he is also quite the talent when it comes to actually engineering and creating something out of his knowledge. His creation of his web-shooters and the web-fluid are evidence of his natural ability in this area.
APPROVED: SKILL7 Physics
One of the areas that Peter Parker has enjoyed studying as well as excelled in was the study of physics. He is not quite as versed in it as he is in say chemistry or engineering, but he is familiar with all known theories of physics and follows along with advances in the field. He would be able to serve well as an intern or research partner/assistant in a physics lab if he was given the chance.
APPROVED: FLAW1 Guilt
The single most defining aspect of Spider-Man's life is guilt. Everything that he is, everything that he does, every way that he lives is due to the guilt that he feels for the deaths of the loved ones around him. Yes he does a somewhat decent job maintaining a normal life, but the words of his uncle, 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility' are the words that are etched upon his soul. If someone were trying to manipulate Peter, his guilt would be the lever best used.
APPROVED: FLAW2 Secret Identity
To some superheroes their identity isn't hugely important to them. To Peter Parker it's intensely important. He has a semblance of a normal life, he has an elderly aunt, he has friends that he loves. If an enemy were to discover his secret identity then the damage they could do is enormous. Peter knows this, and so he does his best to hide his identity.
APPROVED: FLAW3 Naivete
Perhaps it's due to his upbringing, his partially sheltered life and loving family, but Peter Parker is what some would consider naive. He is definitely one of those sorts that tries to think the best of people, gives them a chance, and hopes they will live up to his expecations. This, however, can be played upon by the malicious. It is not hard for people to take advantage of Peter, though he is not unaware of when he's been abused in such a way. It's just that moreoften than not, Pete listens to the heart he wears on his sleeve, less so that big brain of his.
APPROVED: FLAW4 Fate's Doormat
So by his very nature, Peter Parker is lucky. He's had some extraordinary circumstances gift him with an extraordinary life and abilities. But for every blessing he's had he's had a curse. It seems that anytime he might have a moment of happiness that an instant of pain quickly follows. For some heroes they worry only about their enemies. For Spidey, he worries about his enemies, about paying the rent, about the health of his family, about keeping his job, about hiding his identity, about attending college. It seems that something is _always_ threatening one or the other facet of his life… sometimes more.
APPROVED: FLAW5 Aunt May
A lot of heroes are lone wolves, footloose and fancy free, able to devote themselves to saving the universe. Spidey, on the other hand, has an elderly aunt that he loves and that he must often look after. She is one of the main reasons why he must keep his identity safe for if someone were to find his secret identity the easiest and most powerful way to hurt Spider-Man would be to hurt his dear Aunt.
On the front page of the Daily Bugle is a headline for the tell all expose… 'SPIDER-MAN MASKED MARAUDER MENACES MANHATTAN!' Accompanying the headline is a grainy photo of a red and blue blur swinging on some rope of some kind in front of a skyscraper.
Within the pages of the Bugle is a six page article detailing the harm that this new supposed vigilante has wreaked upon the city's streets. There are tales of harassment and assault upon many of the city's citizens though some were purportedly in the process of commmiting a crime, though the reprisal was clearly more violent than the men deserved.
There are a few more grainy photos but nothing clear. The story ends with mentioning that supposedly several eyewitnesses were saved during a gas explosion but these supposed witnesses could not be reached for comment. Following the article is an editorial by J. Jonah Jameson opining how this Spiderperson is just a copycat of other much more reputable heroes. He declares that the world needs more heroes, not just adrenaline junkie thrill-seekers.
(OOC: And that is what most of the world knows about Spider-Man for the moment. Though a local television reporter is supposedly investigating another angle on this Spider-Man. Questions to Spidey.)
