Pope Francis greets a person dressed as Spiderman after the general audience.

A different type of participant dropped in on Pope Francis' general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday - Spiderman.

A man dressed in a full, skin-tight, red, black and blue costume of the comic book character - including head cover - was sitting in a VIP section of the audience in Vatican's San Damaso Courtyard.

He sat quietly next to a priest dressed in black who appeared to be unperturbed by the colourful character with big white eyes in the next seat.

 Pope Francis receives a Spiderman mask from a person dressed as Spiderman.

It was not immediately clear why Spiderman had dropped in.

Maybe he just wanted to be his usual self, a friendly neighbour.