spidermen
Explanation
The Joke
The comic presents an alternate, cynically "realistic" version of Spider-Man's origin story. Instead of the familiar tale of a radioactive spider bite giving Peter Parker superpowers, this version states that "all nylon comes from a factory where web fluid is extracted from spider-men" -- implying Spider-Man's webs are an industrial product. The one Spider-Man people know about "has been spared so long as he keeps the public from discovering the truth." That is why he works for a news organization (the Daily Bugle) -- to control the narrative. He "only covers himself" and the reason "even more powerful villains keep trying to stop him" is because they are trying to expose the conspiracy.
The caption at the bottom reads: "Stan Lee's original Spiderman proposal was way better," sarcastically praising this dark corporate conspiracy version as supposedly superior to the actual origin story.
The Humor
The joke works by reimagining Spider-Man not as a superhero but as a corporate shill engaged in a massive cover-up. Every element of the Spider-Man mythology is reinterpreted through a conspiracy lens: his journalism career becomes propaganda, his villains become whistleblowers, and his very existence is a distraction from industrial exploitation. It is a parody of the kind of dark, "gritty reboot" thinking that pervades modern superhero storytelling, taken to its absurd logical extreme.
The votey panel adds "It almost goes awry when his Uncle Ben finds out too much..." -- reframing Uncle Ben's iconic death not as a tragic lesson about responsibility, but as a corporate assassination to protect trade secrets. This darkly inverts the famous lesson "with great power comes great responsibility" into something far more sinister.
References
Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, first appearing in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962. Peter Parker works as a photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper. His Uncle Ben's death and the associated lesson "with great power comes great responsibility" is one of the most famous origin story elements in comic book history. The comic also references nylon, a synthetic polymer actually invented by DuPont in 1935.