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Marvel’s new What If…? series had an episode planned involving a mutated Spider-Man that was rejected for being too disturbing.
During a recent podcast interview, one of the writers for Marvel’s brand-new What If…? animated television series on Disney+ revealed that one of the few stories planned that did not make it into the finished series was an adaptation of an actual Marvel What If…? story from the 1990s that was deemed to be “too dark” to be done on the current cartoon series.
As it turns out, a body horror concept that made it into print in 1996 for the Marvel comic book line was too much for the rating limit for the new What If…? series, which has to keep everything to the same PG-13 level that the Avengers films all maintained (the same ratings level as all of the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far).
Writer A.C. Bradley was on The Post Credit Podcast and he was asked about ideas that didn’t make it into the What If…? series and among others, he noted, “There were a couple of episodes that were just a little too dark. There was a an original What If run where Spider-Man turns into a real spider, and that was just too dark and too body horror for their PG-13 (rating).”
The original comic book was June 1996’s “Arachnamorphosus” from What If…? #88 by writer Ben Raab, artists Ariel Olivetti and Agostin Comoto, colorist Marie Javins (with additional enhancements by Malibu Coloring) and letterer Richard Starkings. The book was the second issue in a then-new approach for the famous alternate reality comic book series, where the series would spotlight specifically “darker” alternate realities.
In “Arachnamorphosus” (which has a strikingly disturbing Olivetti cover), it is set in the future, where Peter Parker and his son live a secluded existence were Peter is constantly studying both his and his son’s body chemistry. His son is a mutant and Peter is losing control of himself, as he turns into a disturbing human spider creature.
After Peter’s son is attacked by the son of Flash Thompson, his son’s mutant powers reveal themselves and Flash’s son is badly (possibly fatally) injured. Flash forms a mob to get revenge, but Peter sacrifices himself so that his son can escape. At the end of the issue, we see that Ben has traveled all the way to Westchester to come to the Xavier Institute for mutants.
The story would have adapted well, but it certainly had very scary visuals, so apparently it was too much for modern animation to keep from getting to an R rating.
Source: The Post Credit Podcast, via IGN
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