#general comicposting

Even in main 616, the thing that made his 28 issues in high school (only 3 years irl!) interesting was the fact that he was the bullied geek who grew a spine and bited back.

Daily Bugle photographer - Its what he did for decades and it keeps his extensive Bugle supporting cast present constantly in his stories.

High school science teacher for Midtown High - Helping his neighborhood, gets to do science which is what he loves while helping vulnerable kids like he was.

Scientist at Horizon Labs - Fully focuses on Peter's love for science and using that to help the world as Peter Parker.

These 3 are good choices, and are all jobs he's had in the comics. However, I wanna highlight a few options that I (and other people I've seen in the internet comic space) believe are even better. In no specific order:

University professor at ESU (either a Chemical Engineering or Biophysics course probably) - Similar to the high school science teacher idea, it meshes his love of science with his drive to help people struggling like he was, but in THIS case it's 5 billion times easier for Peter to have time for Spider-Man or ditch a class if he has to. Send a message to all students that he's sick or has an emergency or whatever, easy sleazy.

Science teacher at the Future Foundation - Similar to above, but he gets to teach younger kids, he's tied directly to his Fantastic 4 family, and he has to make 0 excuses to go Spider-Manning. They all know who he is, so if he's late to a class or has to dip because of an emergency he's fully covered.

Science editor for the Daily Bugle - This is a job he had for some time in the comics in 2017 (in the "Fall of Parker" arc that followed the demise of Parker Industries) and its great. Meshes his love of science with the Bugle setting and cast of characters and hell, if you take into account the several people at the Bugle that know he's Spider-Man (Jonah, Betty, Robbie has been HEAVILY implied to know for decades), he's also good on the excuse front.

The fact that Peter genuinely, truly believes its his direct fault that the most important person in his life got killed, to the point where he sacrifices every part of his personal life and happiness over and over and over again. Doing something NOW alleviates the bottomness pit of guilt that eats at him, a balancing of the scale that will never be satisfied because the ONLY way for it to be satisfied is to accept that it wasn't his fault, because how could he have known? How could he have predicted what would happen?

And so you get a guy that puts the entire weight of the world on his shoulders, that feels personally responsible for every bad thing that happens around him. That, in his own mind, might as well have pulled the trigger himself when Ben died. A guy who saves everyone at his own expense to make up for the one person he can never save. A haunting mistake whose pain he will take to his grave.

And more stories should play into the fact that, genuinely, realistically speaking, that is a horrible mental health rabbit hole and an extremely hurtful coping mechanism for his guilt, that nonetheless makes him one of the most selfless and dedicated heroes out there.

"The hero saves people to make up for his crushing guilt over a death that will haunt him for the rest of his life, and it will never be enough" is horrifying. It's tragic. It happened to Peter Parker.