comics - What are the webs under Spidey's arms for?

In the older Spider-man comics (although it pops again every now and then) he is almost always drawn with webbing in his arm pits as part of his costume.

Spidey's weird arm pits

Have these things been given any function in Spidey canon?

Answer

The Spider-Man costume was created by seminal Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko. The webbing under Spider-Man's arms had no particular purpose, other than ornamentation. Unlike Spider Woman's underarm webbing which actually helped her fly, Spidey's webbing was just for visual effect.

From Amazing Fantasy #15, origin of Spiderman story, 1962

The webs were something Ditko liked and continued to do on and off for years. They were drawn so large, for a time they looked like wings and even other artists questioned if they could have another purpose.

When John Romita started drawing Spider-Man after Ditko left he drew the webbing smaller and smaller and eventually left them off, altogether. If you have never had the pleasure of reading Amazing Fantasy #15, first tale of Spider-Man, no fears True Believer, you can read it here.

Amazing Spider-Man #1, 1964

When the Amazing Spider-Man #1 came out they included a list of things Spider-Man was able to create with his webbing. This included creating a parachute!

Uses of webbing

Comments

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