Despite his perennial bad luck, Spider-Man has had many love interests. Peter Parker gained his powers when he was a teenager and then had to figure out how to become a superhero at a young age. But he also had another predicament to escape from — he was a nerd, an outcast, and a self-professed wallflower. Once he gained powers, though, he slowly gained confidence and eventually ended up dating girls who never gave him a second look before.
Peter Parker’s love interests changed over his time in comics, with some who knew he was Spider-Man and some who never learned his secret identity. Sadly, most of his relationships ended badly since he had to put many of these girlfriends on the backburner while he fought crime, and only a select few would tolerate that. Spider-Man’s love interests have included other superheroes, models, students, criminals, and more, and with no exception, none of his romantic relationships were easy on him.
Spider-Man’s true first girlfriend was Gwen Stacy. She was also his greatest tragedy as she died in his arms when he was unable to save her. That made Peter Parker’s romantic relationship with Jill Stacy so awkward.
Jill Stacy was Gwen’s cousin. At first, Jill was there as a friend to Mary Jane, but eventually, she ended up getting close to Peter when he and MJ had some trouble. When Peter thought MJ died, he moved on to a relationship with Jill, but that all ended with Mary Jane turning out to still be alive.
Amazing Spider-Man #196 by Marv Wolfman, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney, Frank Giacoia, Bob Sharen, and John Costanza
Out of all Spider-Man’s girlfriends, the one that remains the most disturbing was when he dated Debra Whitman. Peter met Debra when he was a teaching assistant at Empire State University, and she was a secretary. The two developed a relationship despite her being with an abusive husband.
She began to have delusions that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and the worst part is that he lets her believe it. After this ends, she decides to divorce her husband and then leaves Spider-Man comics for years.
One of Spider-Man’s most surprising girlfriends is Carol Danvers. After several years of working as a lone hero, Spider-Man joined the Avengers and became an even stronger hero, with much more confidence. This is when Spider-Man dated Carol Danvers – Captain Marvel.
At the time that they dated, Carol was still going by the name Ms. Marvel, and Peter even revealed to her his secret identity. They didn’t get much further than dating, but it was clear that Carol really liked Spider-Man.
Anna Maria Marconi was never a Peter Parker love interest, but she was Spider-Man’s girlfriend. This was when Doctor Octopus took over the body of Peter and became the Superior Spider-Man. It didn’t take long for Ock to become a hero himself, and this is when he fell for Anna.
Superior Spider-Man met Anna at Empire State University, and they fell in love. Ock was even going to propose to Anna and marry her, but that was all spoiled when Peter regained control and broke things off with her after that.
Amazing Spider-Man #1 (2015) by Dan Slott, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, Marte Gracia, and Joe Caramagna
Lian Tang is a more recent girlfriend of Spider-Man. After Peter Parker regained control of his body, he helped raise Parker Industries into a powerhouse company, and he began working in Shanghai, where he started dating a scientific designer named Lian Tang.
Lian even created the Spider-Mobile for Spider-Man. This Peter Parker love interest eventually fell apart when he learned she was working for Zodiac, and even after forgiving her for the betrayal, their relationship could never recover.
One of the most hated of Spider-Man’s girlfriends ever has to be Michelle Gonzalez. After Mephisto erased Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane, he had a new life and ended up roommates with Vin Gonzalez, a police officer who was partner with Carlie Cooper.
Michelle was Vin’s sister and while she and Peter did not like each other at first, they started to date anyway. She then became extremely over-possessive of Peter until Chameleon showed up and came between them, causing more problems until Michelle finally left for Chicago.
A more recent girlfriend for Spider-Man came in 2014 when he started dating the superhero, Silk. This was one that fans loved for a short time, but it remains one that never really developed into anything strong. Cindy Moon had an origin tied to Peter Parker, both bit by the same radioactive spider at the same event.
What led them together was the spider venom that both received, which gave them an animalistic attraction to each other. The two ended up as allies and fought together, but they never tried to be anything more than a short-time passionate connection.
Another one of Spider-Man’s surprising girlfriends, Mockingbird is best known as Hawkeye’s ex-wife. However, in 2017, Spider-Man and Mockingbird ended up in a relationship together. This was when Parker was the CEO of Parker Industries and worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. on different projects, which led him to spend time with Mockingbird.
Peter even created a new costume for Mockingbird and then the two ended up in a romantic relationship. This never matched up to most of Peter’s relationships though, and they eventually split when they realized they had nothing in common outside of working as superheroes.