5
CEO
Nothing screams ‘friendly neighborhood’ less than Peter being the CEO of a company, especially when that company is named after him, and that obviously makes it an immensely high-profile role. It doesn’t help, then, that Parker Industries was only manifested while Dr. Otto Octavius’ mind inhabited Peter’s body in Superior Spider-Man.
Being a CEO was proven to be particularly problematic in Spider-Man: Edge of Time, where Peter, in an alternate future, becomes CEO of Alchemax and seeks to control time and rewrite reality after losing so many loved ones.
4
High School Teacher
For an adult Peter, there arguably isn’t a more heartwarming or narratively enriching job that the character could have than being a high school teacher. Being able to impart a fraction of his wisdom onto students is one thing, but it is also an illustration of how lovely Peter is with the kids that he’s responsible for—an adorable prelude to if he was ever allowed to become a father in Earth-616.
Unfortunately, a teaching job is unsustainable so long as Peter would have to abandon a classroom full of students to undress into his costume and web-swing across New York City. It’d be negligent at best and perilous at worst, all without actually paying that well, either, and that is assuming Peter works more than two days a week at Midtown High School.
In an absolute best-case scenario, Peter would teach at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, where him coming and going to perform superhero duties wouldn’t be at all out of the realm of normalcy. Of course, that would be a considerable distance to travel to and from work and/or crime-fighting, as the mutants’ mansion is located outside the city.
3
Pizza Delivery
Peter’s pizza delivery job may be exclusive to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 and its video game adaptation, but it is easily one of the wall-crawler’s most iconic jobs throughout all Spider-Man media. It isn’t terribly flexible schedule-wise if he’s being tasked with delivering orders from Joe’s Pizza in under 30 minutes to ridiculously strict customers, either, and it’d be difficult to web-swing or fight crime mid-delivery without compromising the integrity of the pie.
Still, it could be decently lucrative in the contemporary landscape of food delivery services, depending on where he works, and also relatively low-profile, at least until enough pedestrians see Spider-Man soaring around with delivery bags and stacks of flat boxes and connect the dots. If nothing else, pizza delivery would certainly make Peter a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
2
Scientist/Research Assistant
Peter working in a scientific field is a pairing as good as peanut butter and jelly due to his tremendous intelligence, and it’s simpler to lump being a scientist and research assistant together as they’re more or less in the same realm. Peter has had fascinating gigs as a research assistant for Dr. Curtis Connors in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and for Dr. Octavius in Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man game, for example, while his role as a lead scientist at Horizon Labs in The Amazing Spider-Man was quite distinct.
These jobs are wonderful as they allow Peter to exercise his intellect and develop new technology, and would hypothetically be great in terms of a salary, but they have the same problem as a teaching job. For example, Peter is fired for missing work on too many occasions in multiple iterations of him being a research assistant, emphasizing how unfeasible it would be.
As is the case with any rigid job that would probably require full-time commitment, it would be difficult for Peter to juggle being in a scientific field and being Spider-Man simultaneously. Moreover, a job for Peter in a scientific field is only as gratifying and fulfilling as the writer can make it, with such jobs potentially being vague or uninteresting.
The only reason Peter still has a job at Rand Enterprises in Joe Kelly’s Amazing Spider-Man run, despite having been adventuring in outer space for the last little while, is because Ben Reilly was impersonating him. Plus, he only got the job via his childhood friend, Brian Nehring.
1
Photographer
Being either a freelance- or staff-based photographer at The Daily Bugle is a job that provides Peter with the balance that his career as a crime-fighter demands: it is reliable, flexible, and has the potential to pay decently well. It is essentially an excuse to go out and be Spider-Man full-time, as well as a job that Peter could have while he’s a high school or college student, let alone a young or mature adult—it’s timeless, though the modernity and sustainability of print and online journalism are always fluctuating.
Peter published a collection of his work called Webs, which demonstrates that there is a degree of creativity and success that he can derive from photography, even if he wouldn’t be CEO- or scientist-level rich.
A photojournalism job also comes with the bonus of interactions with characters like Betty Brant, Robbie Robertson, and J. Jonah Jameson, and freelance photography was Peter’s first job in the comics after becoming Spider-Man (there’s a reason why it has endured so long). Peter may be subjected to the editor-in-chief libeling Spider-Man to the public daily, but Spider-Man’s actions can be louder than Jameson’s sensationalized headlines.
Snapping what are essentially selfies for The Daily Bugle would seem like a shallow pivot away from monetizing his newfound abilities by being a show-business performer, which Peter was before Uncle Ben’s murder. Rather, his motivations are more pure and altruistic in this career path, as he initially sold photos of Spider-Man exploits as a means of helping Aunt May pay bills, rather than to bolster his newfound fame.
First Appearance
Amazing Fantasy
Alias
Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner
Alliance
Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors
Race
Human
English (US) ·