Morrigan x Spider-Man

Submission 256

Part of a series on Marvel vs. Capcom. [View Related Entries]

About

Morrigan x Spider-Man is a ship pairing between the Marvel superhero Spider-Man and the Darkstalkers character Morrigan Aensland, both characters who appear in the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games. The pair have been shipped online since as early as 2016 and became the viral subjects of fan art and memes in June 2024 following the announcement of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection, which features artwork of Morrigan looking closely into Spider-Man's eyes.

Origin

Both Morrigan Aensland and Spider-Man have been playable characters in all three mainline Marvel vs. Capcom games, the first of which was released in 1998. The first two games include screens that suggest a romantic relationship between the two. For example, in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Superheroes, the is a screen featuring the two characters in which Spider-Man says, “Hope M.J. doesn't mind if I'm late tonight!” (shown below, left). During the credits of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, another image of the two posing together for a photo appears (shown below, right).

These images have been shared online as supporting evidence that the two hooked up.^[1]^[2]

The earliest known piece of Morrigan x Spider-Man fan art was posted by DeviantArt^[3] user kongzillarex619 on May 21st, 2016, garnering over 5,400 views in eight years (shown below).

Spread

On June 18th, 2024, the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection was announced, a collection of several fighting games including Marvel and Capcom characters. The cover art for the game features the characters fighting, except Morrigan and Spider-Man, who are staring into each other's eyes closely.

That day, several X users took note of this, including X^[4] user @ReignOfPride, who shared a crop of their artwork, writing, "Marvel vs Capcom is so funny because while everybody is always fighting, Spider-Man and Morrigan are always trying to get into each others pants," garnering over 24,000 likes in a week (shown below). The art was also pointed out that day on /r/marvelcirclejerk,^[5] garnering over 1,200 upvotes.

Fan art and memes depicting the two characters became increasingly popular over the following days. On June 18th, X^[6] user @peterchai58 posted artwork that gained over 20,000 likes in a week (shown below, left). On June 23rd, X^[7] user @Pickle147 posted art that gained over 16,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

On June 24th, X^[8] user @M1STERRYAN posted a comic depicting the two flirting, where Morrigan tells Spider-Man to "wrap it up" because she's "not trying to get cancer," garnering over 75,000 likes in two days (shown below). This is a reference to the comic Spider-Man: Reign, in which Peter Parker learns he gave Mary Jane cancer with his radioactive semen.^[9] The comic was posted to /r/PeterExplainsTheJoke^[10] a day later, garnering over 9,000 upvotes in a day.

On June 25th, X^[11] user @ChakkuX posted fan art that gained over 17,000 likes in a day (shown below, left). On June 26th, X^[12] user @michemashu55 posted artwork that gained over 6,500 likes in under a day (shown below, right).