Chosen One of the Day: Peter Parkedcar, the Amazing Spider-Mobile

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s delights are endless, from the art styles it boasts to its tight scripting to its heart and humor. But when it comes to genius in-universe references that seem bonkers but are completely canonical, there is one thing the film left out: the Spider-Mobile.

No, I’m not talking about the Spider-Man themed car that Peter and Johnny Storm built together back in The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #127, which Peter then drives into the Hudson in Issue #141 because he’s a New Yorker who’s never had to drive before. (Truly, Spider-Man is one of our most relatable superheroes.)

I’m talking about a car who is also Spider-Man — Spider-Mobile, also known as Peter Parkedcar.

He first appeared in the 2014 storyline Spider-Verse (in Amazing Spider-Man #12), which featured the various Spideys of the multiverse teaming up against Morlun and the Inheritors (I’d see that power metal show!). While he was, obviously, not the focus, the fact that a talking Spider-Mobile showed up obviously, uh, pulled some focus.

You might be familiar with the phenomenon of willfully reading the Pixar film Cars as a post-human dystopia (IT’S THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES SENSE THEY LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THINGS ARE DESIGNED FOR HUMANS EVEN NOW MY MIND UNTETHERS AT THE THOUGHT). But the Spider-Mobile might be actually be the Disney sentient car from a post-human dystopia: he hails from Earth-53931, about which we know nothing. Sure, it could be a cartoony paradise, much like Spider-Ham’s Earth-8311. Or it could be a blasted hellscape where only the strongest personalities have imprinted on their cold, cruel destroyers.

And all of that destruction would be worth it just for the pun of Peter Parkedcar. Mwah. Amazing.