Spider-Man grasping the sides of his head in shock.
(Sony Pictures Releasing)

Why Did ‘X-Men ’97’s Daily Bugle Forget How to Spell Spider-Man!?

We got our first look at X-Men ’97 and fans of the cartoon X-Men: The Animated Series have been celebrating all day. But if you look closely at the trailer, you may see a recognizable newspaper asking some questions about the webbed menace. So why did they spell his name wrong!?

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In Spider-Man comics, J. Jonah Jameson is the editor of the Daily Bugle, a newspaper that prides itself on trying to make Spider-Man out to be a villain. Peter Parker also works for the paper as a photographer, and you’d think he’d maybe point out that a hyphen is needed between Spider and Man, as he is both part spider and a man!!!

I happened to be talking about how much I hate when people leave out the hyphen when writing our friendly neighborhood hero with fellow Spidey expert Sean O’Connell from CinemaBlend when he pointed out to me that the trailer for X-Men ’97 features the Daily Bugle doing just that. There is no hyphen in sight, and I guess I am going to have to walk up to the Daily Bugle myself and have some words with J. Jonah Jameson because what is this?!

Asking “Is Spiderman a mutant?” in the headline (yes, I got chills writing it that way), the paper is talking about the X-Men more than thing else. Calling out to the Hellfire Gala as well as a “mutant fashion show,” it seems like just another question of Spider-Man’s powers in that Jameson way.

What I am exhausted by is how this continues to happen! I do not want to be the lone voice in the fight for the hyphen in my man’s name. Now I have to fight all of journalism in this fictional New York? Enough!

Is this Jameson messing with Spider-Man or something more?

Whenever things like this happen in Spider-Man’s New York, I have to assume it is J. Jonah Jameson getting some kind of revenge on my boy for one reason or another. Did Spider-Man save someone a little too easily for Jameson’s liking and now he wants to tarnish his reputation again by misspelling his name? Did the copy editor just miss the hyphen when they were approving the front page?

Or is this a connection to Spider-Man: The Animated Series and we are just starting to see how Jameson hates the hero? He was part of the series back in the ’90s, but maybe something else is happening with this front page pull!

Personally? I think Jameson is messing with Spider-Man. It’s the only way that this got through multiple editors and Jameson’s own approval! Or does the Daily Bugle just not have hyphens on their keyboards?

Whatever is going on, I simply will not stand for the continued ignorance. It is Spider-Man! There is a hyphen there for a reason, and we have to keep fighting the good fight to make sure that our boy and his superhero persona are rightly named!

(featured image: Marvel Comics)


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Rachel Leishman
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.