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marvel - How does Spider-Man control his webbing?


In the cartoons, I've seen Spider-Man shoot a variety of webs from his web-shooters. the ones I can name now are:



  • Globs of sticky webbing

  • Lines of swinging webbing

  • Sticky lines of webbing



If these all come from the same device, how is he able to choose which type of webbing is shot?


(I'm as interested in the comics as the cartoons FWIW.)



Answer



Marvel's official website has this diagram of Spider-Man's web shooters:


enter image description here


The Wikipedia entry on Spider-Man's webbing states simply that Spider-Man "can do many things with his webs" and lists many different types of webbing (the ones you listed included). All of these different types of webbing come from the same shooters; they just occur when the wrist devices are used differently.


To paraphrase the Marvel Wiki (emphasis mine):



The wristlets had sharp steel nipples which pierced the bronze caps when the cartridges were tightly wedged into their positions. The hand-wound solenoid needle valve was actuated by a palm switch that was protected by a band of spring steel which required a 65 pound pressure to trigger... The effect of the very small turbine pump vanes was to compress (shear) the web fluid and then force it, under pressure, through the spinneret holes which cold-drew it (stretches it: the process wherein nylon gains a four-fold increase in tensile strength), then extrudes it through the air where it solidified. As the web fluid exited the spinneret holes, it was attracted to itself electrostatically and thus could form complex shapes. The spinneret holes had three sets of adjustable, staggered openings around the turbine which permitted a single web line, a more complex, spun web line, and a thick stream... The 300 p.s.i. pressure in each cartridge was sufficient to force a stream of the complex web pattern an estimated 60 feet (goes significantly further if shot in a ballistic parabolic arc).




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