Marvel Comics’ flagship character, Spider-Man is the angst-driven everyman we all can identify with. He has the strength and speed of a spider, sticks to walls, shoots webs, and a mysterious “spider-sense” that warns him of danger. He also has one of the most iconic mission statements in all of comicbookdom.
Over the course of a half a century there have been countless iterations of the character, but most of these are versions of Peter Parker. In the main continuity Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider to get his powers. It must be the kid’s destiny though, because some spider gets him in every setting, radioactivity or not.
To some people Spider-Man is Miles Morales. It was in the Ultimates universe that Miles first took on the identity after Parker’s death, but he has since gone on to big things as Spider-Man, Peter Parker or not.
Sometimes Spider-Man is Ben Reilly who is actually a clone of Peter Parker. Whole volumes have literally been written about Spider-Man’s clone saga and I am not about to try to understand or summarize it here. It’s enough to say that there are times when Peter Parker was retired for whatever reason and Ben Reilly went out as Spider-Man in his place.
There’s a chance that someone talking about Spider-Man is referring to Miguel O’Hara who is Spider-Man in Marvel’s 2099 future series. His timeline has been shuffled out of main continuity, I think, but Miguel still crops up from time to time.
References: [wikipedia.org: Spider-Man]
[fictionhorizon.com: 65 Greatest Spider-Man Quotes of All Time]
[Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness] [2022] [ref to; ]
[fauna]
Metahuman Database 