Spider-Man and the X-Men was a six-issue superhero limited series published by Marvel Comics, written by Elliott Kalan, and drawn by Marco Failla. It was a continuation of the series Wolverine and the X-Men, which ended when Wolverine died.
Before his death, Logan had learned that there was a mole within the Jean Grey student body. Narrowing it down to Hellion, Rockslide, Shark Girl, Glob Herman, Eye Boy, No Girl, and Ernst, he enlists the aid of Spider-Man to find out which one is the mole in the guise of an adjunct teacher for the "Special Class". Except no one there likes him.
The first issue was released December 10, 2014. The series ran for 6 issues, with the final issue released April 29, 2015.
Spider-Man and the X-Men provide examples of:
- Awesome Achievement, Petty Purpose: Spider-Man confronts Sauron, who is in the processing of turning people into dinosaurs with a machine, and points out that rewriting DNA with the flip of a switch could be used to cure cancer and probably countless other diseases. However, Sauron defiantly remarks that he doesn’t want to cure cancer, all he wants to do with his invention is turn people into dinosaurs.
- Amazon Chaser: Hellion, after a tryst with with X-23, is now into Shark Girl.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Once provided the image on the trope page. Sauron starts turning people into dinosaurs. Spider-Man remarks that with such genius he could cure cancer:Sauron: But I don't want to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs.
- Designated Villain: In universe. Just about all the students in the special class have proved their loyalty to the X-Men at no small cost but are treated as possible villains. Hellion even brings it up in the first issue.
- Double Knockout: Sauron and Stegron end up knocking each other out simultaneously by draining each others' life energy (Sauron had shared his vampire powers with Stegron earlier).
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The mole is revealed but is vouched for by the other students as they've become True Companions. They defeat Mister Sinister and have their morale greatly improved thanks to Spider-Man's guidance.
- Eccentric Mentor: Ultimately, Spider-Man is this to the Special Class; while most of them start out not liking him, he ultimately helps all of them come together and realise that they're better than they believed they were, such as Eye-Boy realising his powers have greater potential than he thought.
- Fake Defector: Shark Girl pretends to join Sauron and Stegron, using their crushes on her to manipulate them into telling her how to undo the dinofication process and eventually tricking them into fighting each other.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Spider-Man questions why Sauron is using his genius tech to turn people into dinosaurs instead of curing cancer, overlooking the simple fact that Sauron doesn't want to cure cancer.
- Hidden Badass: Invoked regarding the special class; after Sinister is exposed and the team defeat his cloned X-Men, Storm notes that it's an impressive feat for a class of students to defeat Sinister with the only "casualty" being the empty mall where the villain had his base.
- Hypnosis-Induced Slumber: In the first issue, Sauron uses his Hypnotic Eyes to force Spider-Man to sleep.
- Jerkass Ball: All the X-Men in this comic treat Spider-Man with nothing but contempt. Justified in that Storm was shown in other books to be suffering from The Chains of Commanding while the team as a whole were going through a schism which left them a little jaded. Probably the reason why Nightcrawler doesn't appear as he probably would have been more welcoming.
- Jerk Justifications: Most of the students barring Eye-Boy have pretty bad attitudes. But with the way they are treated by their teachers, you can hardly blame them.
- Lighter and Softer: This title and Amazing X-Men stood out among the increasingly dark X titles at the time focusing more on adventure and wackiness the X-Men would encounter.
- The Mole: The whole reason Spider-Man is at the Jean Grey School to find out which of its students is aligned with one of their enemies. It's Ernst who's only giving information to Mister Sinister so he'll give No-Girl a new body.
- Nice Guy: Spider-Man as per usual, and boy did the Jean Grey School need it. Eye Boy also counts.
- Riddle for the Ages: We never do learn how Wolverine found out about the mole or how he came to the conclusion that it was one of those students.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: What Logan and the other X-Men failed to realize is that treating your students like they're already Mutant terrorists was only making it worse. Thank god Spider-Man came in when he did.
- Small-Minded Villain: Sauron is obsessed with using his incredible knowledge of genetic engineering to turn people into dinosaurs. When Spider-Man notes he could cure cancer with his skills, Sauron retorts he prefers making dinosaurs.
- Unexpected Inheritance: What sparks the series: Following the events of Death of Wolverine, his will stated that he wanted Peter to come teach at the school, mainly because he thought Peter could help find the mole he suspected.
- Villain Team-Up: Just as Spider-Man is teaching a class at the Jean Grey school, rogues from both his and the X-Men's galleries happened to decide to team up. Highlights involve thematically similar rogues like Sauron with Stegron and the Brood with Symbiotes. Missed opportunity not to have Spider-Slayers and Sentinels to be honest.
- Villainous Crush: Sauron and Stegron both have a crush on Shark Girl, seeing as there's not a lot of options for non-mammal humanoid women. They end up fighting over her.
- You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: As Spider-Man points out, Sauron's DNA rewriting tech could be put to so many beneficial uses, like curing cancer. But Sauron doesn't want to do that — he only wants to turn people into dinosaurs.