Spider-Ham

Spider-Ham is an anthropomorphic funny animal parody of Marvel Comics' popular Spider-Man character, created by Tom DeFalco and Mark Armstrong.

His first appearance was in the 1983 one-shot humor comic book Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1, which was then followed by an ongoing bimonthly series, Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. The series lasted 17 issues, all of which were published under Marvel's Star Comics imprint.

Background history
Spider-Ham was born a spider, but was bitten by an irradiated anthro pig, transforming him into an anthro pig himself, although still with the abilities of a spider. It's never established whether he is still a spider with the limitations of a pig or a pig with the proportionate strength and agility of a spider.

Spider-Ham begins to fight injustice and the occasional funny animal villain parodied of existing Marvel villains, such as Ducktor Doom, often alongside funny animal versions of Marvel heroes, such as Captain Americat and Hulk-Bunny.

Comic issues
The Spider-Ham series also included back up strips featuring such characters as Deerdevil (Daredevil), Goose Rider (Ghost Rider) and the Fantastic Fur (the Fantastic Four).

Some of these back-ups were contradictory, presenting different anthropomorphic versions of characters in different stories, such as two Namor counterparts: the Sub-Merchandiser (a dog) and the Sub-Marsupial (possibly a wombat).

However, the Asinine Torch (a donkey) that appeared in a story with the Sub-Marsupial and the Fantastic Fur's Simian Torch are not two variants of the Fantastic Four's Human Torch; since he was depicted as elderly in the 1980s, and referred to as an "old sparring partner" of the Sub-Marsupial's, he was obviously a counterpart to the Golden Age Human Torch.

Back into the mainstream
The character faded into cult status, alongside other funny animal super-heroes, such as DC's Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. It wasn't until recently that the Marvel crew decided to give Spider-Ham another chance.

Returning triumphantly in 2005 by popular demand in a poll in variant cover art for Amazing Spider-Man #528 by artists Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel, Spider-Man Family #1 featured a sixteen-page Spider-Girl story, in which May Parker (Peter Parker's daughter) watches a DVD showing a small portion of a fictional Spider-Ham animated series, discovering that it was created by one of Spider-Man's enemies, Jack O'Lantern. Also in the issue, there was a reprint of Marvel Tails #1.

Finally, after a nearly 20 year hiatus of Spider-Ham stories, in January 2007, J. Michael Straczynski authored the Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham one-shot, featuring Spider-Ham's attempt to find his missing "thought balloons" against a Civil War parody.