Skip to main content

Why didn't Spider-Man gain natural spinnerets with his initial powers?


I know he had them for a time pre-Civil War, but why wasn't organic web spinning one of the powers Peter Parker got when he was initially bitten by the radioactive spider? His strength, agility and wall-crawling are all abilities that spiders have. I would argue that above all, a spider is known for spinning webs and Parker should have developed that natural ability as well, instead of having to invent his own webbing fluid.


With all his other powers, was natural webbing too much for a single hero in the 60's?


UPDATE



In recent Amazing Spider-man comics, Peter meets a girl named Cindy that was bitten by the same radioactive spider he was and she has natural web spinning powers (Amazing Spider-Man Vol 3 #4). How can that be?



Answer



I haven’t been able to find any discussion by Stan Lee describing the deliberations over what Spider-Man’s exact powers should be.


Specifically on “was natural webbing too much for a single hero in the 60's?”, looking at the original comics it seems more likely that it wouldn’t have been enough.


Academic intelligence and scientific aptitude is sometimes as important to Spider-Man as his physical abilities, especially in the early comics. (He works out how to insulate himself against Electro’s abilities in Amazing Spider-Man #9, for example.)


Inventing his own web-shooters is a way to illustrate the extent of his intelligence. Spider-Man’s a nerd — if he’s nerd enough to invent his own webbing, that’s a cool thing.


Self-made web shooters also provide useful limitations to the power. Stan Lee has discussed how he intended Spider-Man to be a super-hero with everyday teenager problems – money worries, girl trouble, etc. Being responsible for making his own web shooters means they could write stories where he ran out of fluid, or his shooters stopped working, giving it the more practical, realistic tone they were going for.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more