Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes Get Perfect Halloween Tribute

Published Oct 21, 2026, 10:05 AM EDT

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, two of the greatest comic strips of all time, just got an amazing shoutout from the world's most famous superhero, Spider-Man. The Webslinger's new Halloween special answers a question Marvel fans probably didn't even realize they needed the answer to: what do the Daily Bugle's funny pages look like?

The answer, as it turns out, are a couple of memorable twists on classic cartoons. The two that are the most attention-grabbing, of course, are the homages to the work of Charles M. Schulz and Bill Watterson. Both are flawless Marvel Universe reimaginings of their respective cartoons.

In the Peanuts parody, Spider-Man and Captain Marvel wait to meet "the Ultimate Pumpkin," a nod to Linus van Pelt's obsession with "the Great Pumpkin," as well as the Ultimate Marvel Universe. And Calvin and Hobbes becomes "Parker and Hulk," with a young Peter in place of the precocious Calvin, and Hulk swapped in for Hobbes.

Hilariously, there is also a version of Garfield with Rocket Raccoon from the Guardians of the Galaxy instead, along with references to several other classic newspaper comics.

Marvel Reimagines Garfield, Peanuts, And Calvin & Hobbes As A Halloween Treat

"Cobwebs," the Marvel equivalent to Peanuts, finds Captain Marvel hanging out with Spider-Man in a pumpkin patch on Halloween, much like many memorable Peanuts strips over the years had Linus and his sister Lucy, or Charlie Brown, or some other skeptical character sitting and waiting for the Great Pumpkin's arrival. The signature Spidey twist is that when pumpkins start raining down on them, and the hero catches one, it blows up right in his face.

Because it is a pumpkin bomb, tossed by his nemesis the Green Goblin, who remarks that Spider-Man "falls for this every year" and is "such a web-head." Aside from the exploding pumpkin, author/artist Ty Templeton flawlessly nails the rhythm of a Peanuts joke with this sequence of panels. The same goes for his other recreations of iconic comic strips, like "Rocket," in lieu of Garfield, which also features Peter Quill as the stand-in for Jon Arbuckle, and Groot as Opie. Perfect 10/10 casting, no notes.

These Classic Comic Strip Callbacks Absolutely Nail Their Imitations Of The Source Material

Perhaps the pinnacle of this Halloween homage is "Parker and Hulk," which is a beat-for-beat brilliant love letter to Calvin and Hobbes. In the strip, Peter goes to Uncle Ben for advice. "What happens if you encounter a drum of radioactive goo?" Uncle Ben tells him it will probably give him superpowers. Peter isn't so sure his uncle is joking or not, and the father-figure replies that he's "trying to teach [his nephew] how to figure out the world" without needing help.

Which makes it laugh-out-loud funny when Peter immediately walks out of the house in the final frame, where he finds Hulk bashing the radioactive barrel with a wrench, and says, "Open 'er up, my research says its all roses and sunshine." That highlights a deep understanding of Calvin and Hobbes and its joke structure, which is pulled off effortlessly, and hysterically, here.

Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, these cartoons are still as beloved, in their own way, as Spider-Man is popular, and these Halloween shoutouts showcase that. The only problem is, now fans are going to be clamoring for more of "Rocket" and "Parker and Hulk" and "Cobwebs" because like the strips that inspired them, just one is never enough.

Question 1 of 3

Amazing Spider-Man: Halloween Special 2027 #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.