While Avengers, he wasn’t always so well-received by the other heroes on the team–something that was especially true for one hero in particular whose unreasonable hate for Spider-Man sparked one of Marvel’s silliest feuds.
Spider-Man became a full-fledged member of the Avengers in New Avengers #3 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch, but the hero went through a number of preliminary trials with the team before cementing his position. In Avengers #236 by Roger Stern and Al Milgrom, Spider-Man decided to try out for the Avengers after hearing that it paid $1,000 per week, and Spider-Man has never been above using his heroism for profit. While he made a few appearances in later Avengers books as an occasional ally, and even earned the rank of ‘reserved member’ in Avengers #329 by Larry Hama and Paul Ryan, he didn’t get that full-time spot he was after until that issue of New Avengers. However, Spider-Man was considered for a position long before he took it upon himself to try out, and almost every founding member was on board for his inclusion–everyone except the Wasp.
In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3 by Stan Lee and John Romita, the Avengers are interested in recruiting Spider-Man on their team and invite him to try out despite the fact that Spidey had been a bit of a loner up until that point and none of the Avengers really knew anything about him aside from his heroic nature. While Spider-Man accepted their invitation, he later decided that it wasn’t the right fit for him and chose to remain a solo act for the time being–much to the pleasure of Janet van Dyne aka the Wasp. Before the Avengers reached out to Spider-Man, the took a vote on whether or not they even wanted him on the team at all and Janet’s was a resounding no, saying, “I vote no! I hate anything to do with spiders!”
The Wasp’s Spider-Man simply exhibits the powers of a spider as they are relative to a human being. In other words, Spider-Man isn’t actually a creepy-crawly bug himself.
Plus, Janet’s hatred is somewhat hypocritical as she, too, bases her superhero alter ego off of a universally-hated bug and she doesn't have to hear any complaints from her fellow Avengers team . So, for Wasp to have such a visceral reaction to Spider-Man (one of Marvel’s greatest superheroes of all time) just because of his name is both completely unfounded and downright silly.
