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

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...