Spirit Spider

Marvel's lying to you about who this is. Spirit Spider, a version of Peter Parker infused with the power of souls, uses his Spirit Fire suit to channel waves of ethereal energy. Okay, "no." No this isn't "Spirit Spider," this is Ghost Spider. The Peter Parker of Earth-11638 is a cross between Ghost Rider and Spider-Man, his name is obviously going to be "Ghost Spider"! Ghost Rider, Ghost Spider... yeah. They even made a logo for him when he first appeared with these powers! But because Marvel is trying to make fetch happen with the idea of calling Spider-Gwen "Ghost-Spider" instead of Spider-Gwen, this one had to have his name changed. Sadly, not the only time we'll be talking about this kind of foolishness soon. But, she remains Spider-Gwen, and this remains Ghost Spider. Okay, so technically he's not exactly Ghost Rider, because he's not bonded to a Spirit of Vengeance - instead, he did some bad things and his mind ended up in hell, where his reality's Sorcerer Supreme infused him with "the spirits and power of the repentant damned - the souls crying for justice... and redemption." But the important thing is he's got a flaming skull like Ghost Riders do, and that's what counts. Surprisingly, they didn't just reuse their existing Ghost Rider head, but instead sculpted him a new one: the mouth is unarticulated, and the big translucent flames billow out to the side. The shocks don't end there, either! Ghost Spider doesn't have much in the way of a costume, so you'd think he'd be a prime candidate for the "just reuse all the existing molds and paint details on" style. You'd think right - Hasbro could have just picked a body and painted it. But they didn't. He's got the limbs (and feet) from Hellstorm, but the torso is an original sculpt, which is easy to tell because the creepy spider-symbols on his chest and back are etched in. The skin around them is even puckered, like that's a real thing pressing into his physical body. Wow, why? Like, yeah, this is better than not doing it that way, but why is a store-exclusive variant costume getting more love than real characters in the real lines? The spider on his chest has a body that looks like a tiny skull, while the one on his back looks almost like a fat, engorged tick. So gross! But hey, Hasbro: Ghost Spider is barefoot, right? You sure you don't want to put some stupid imaginary boots on him for no good goddamn reason? I understand that's your thing now. Ghost Spider in the comics is just plain white, with black for his symbols, and blue flames for his head. This figure is based on an alternate skin from the PS4 game, though, and Insomniac spiced up the suit a little by having it fade from white in the center to Williamsburg blue at the extremities, so that's what the toy gives us. The fade is really nice, and looks better as a toy than plain white would have. The game also had exaggerated "cel-shading" lines outlining the muscles on the torso, which could have looked nice, but they might also have blended in with the spider symbols, and that wouldn't have been great. Maybe a dark paint wash, at least? There's one on the face to make those bones more distinct, even with the shadows airbrushed in the eye sockets. There's detail in the sculpt that gets lost because it's all just white. It's odd that Hasbro would pay for this new torso and not give it pec hinges - after all, the body these limbs usually come with has them, so why not here? Were they perhaps worried about them interfering with the spider-symbol legs? If so, why not just design around them? Other than that, he's got all the usual points: swivel/hinge ankles, swivel shins, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, swivel waist, hinged chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, a hinged neck, and a balljointed head. He includes no accessories, just swappable hands: fists, splayed, or thwips. They couldn't do flame effects or something? We know they have some that fit this body. Ghost Spider was introduced in 2011, and appeared as an unlockable skin in Spider-Man Unlimited (not the cartoon, the 2014 endless runner) before showing up in this game. And even if you don't care about Gamerverse toys, he could always be part of your Spider-Verse collection. I wasn't too worried about getting this exclusive, because I thought it was just a Ghost Rider head on a plain body, but when I actually found it in person at Walmart, I decided to give it a chance. Improvements could have been made, but I'm not disappointed. -- 10/06/25