Hello and welcome to Comic Drake where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake.
For people that just watch the live action movies of superheroes, I’ve heard a lot
of questions about “Does Peter Parker use organic webs like in the Sam Raimi trilogy
or does he web shooters like in the Amazing Spider-Man movies and the Marvel Cinematic
Universe?”
and the answer is that he’s actually used both in the comics and it’s a little weird
how he got those organic webs.
Dating back to Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 all the way back in
1962, Peter Parker designed and created two wrist mounted web shooters all by himself
that fire his own proprietary web fluid.
Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of specialty web fluids such as lead-lined, quick drying
cement, and I kid you not… fire webs.
The web shooters also have different settings that allow Spider-Man to use his webs in a
multitude of ways including as a paste and even create web constructs.
All in all, the mechanical web shooters are a huge part of Peter Parker’s genius persona
and are arguably one of the greatest inventions that he’s ever made.
However, a MAJOR change came to the character for his silver screen debut in 2002 with Parker
now having the ability to produce and fire his own natural organic webs, something that
has never been seen before in the comics with the exception of when Spider-Man briefly wore
the Venom symbiote.
Okay so it’s been pretty obvious that Peter has used web shooters since the very beginning
of the comics.
So where did this idea of natural webbing come from in the movies?
For that.
I think I’m going to need a little bit of help so Magic 8 Ball, who do you have for
me this time?
And if anyone’s gonna make you afraid of tentacles, it’s Sam Raimi.
Uh...Drake?
I’m I’m kind of in the middle of filming a retrospective about the Sam Raimi Spider-Man
trilogy.
Is there anything I can help you with?
Actually yeah, do you know where all the natural webbing stuff from the movies came from?
Hmm…
Well, one of the first drafts of the movie’s screenplay was actually written by James Cameron.
Yeah, that one.
It’s been heavily cited that he was the original idea man behind the organic webbing.
Ultimately (no pun intended) Sam Raimi decided to keep the organic webs in since in his opinion,
saying having Peter also go through inventing web shooters would stretch the suspension
of disbelief for viewers.
This actually ended up being a great decision for movie.
Despite not adhering to the source material one hundred percent, like every other superhero
movie in existence, this direction Raimi and Cameron took the character in really paid
off and the organic webs alone has led to some of the most iconic Spider-Man scenes
to ever hit cinema.
Wow, that actually is a really good point.
Thanks, man!
Not a problem, but I should be getting back to my video.
Unless you want to help.
Yeah, that sounds fine, but I’m kind of in the middle of making a video right now.
So I guess I’ll it you up afterwards.
Oh yeah, no, take your time.
Glad one of us is being productive...
Okay so the first Spider-Man movie ended up being a MASSIVE success and Spider-Man had
pretty much never been more popular.
However, in a move of corporate synergy, Marvel decided to adopt a strategy that they’re
still practicing to this day, make the comics more like the movies.
In this case, it was the organic webs, but how would Marvel go about granting Spidey
an all new and pretty complex super power?
Well, they did it with a makeout session.
Because comics.
Alright so in Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 2 in 2004, we’re introduced to a brand new
character called the Spider Queen.
This character is a World War II veteran who is the result of experimentation in an attempt
to recreate Captain America because let’s be honest, that’s Marvel’s all time favorite
way to give people super powers.
Fast forward to 2004 and The Queen appears in New York City with the ability to control
humans with a latent insect gene which apparently a good chunk of the world’s population still
has.
Funny thing though is despite the fact that Spider Queen is heavily associated with insects…
Spiders aren’t actually insects.
They’re arachnids.
There’s your biology lesson for the day.
Anyway, The Queen decided to claim Spidey as a mate and made out with him and then captured
him and then made out with him… again... and all this spit swapping ended up… starting
a transformation where Peter slowly transmogrified into a literal giant spider over the span
of a few issues.
You might think that’s already weird, but upon becoming full on spider, it’s revealed
that Peter… is somehow pregnant and then he dies.
Don’t worry though because this whole spider body seemed to actually be a kind of cocoon
and Peter ended up giving birth to... himself aaaaaand he really doesn’t look any different.
Because comics, but what changed then?
Well Peter now has the ability to spin his own organic webs.
That’s essentially it.
Peter’s spinnerets are mounted in his wrists and require the exact same hand motion to
release webbing as his web shooters which is like ridiculously convenient, especially
considering that if he had real spider powers, the silk would come out of his mouth or his
butt.
This natural webbing is limited by Peter’s health and nutrition, but regardless, we’ve
seen that Peter can produce a LOT of natural webbing at one time.
Like… somehow more than mass than his entire body.
Which just….
HOW?!
In addition to that, these webs apparently take a whole week to dissolve as opposed to
the standard hour or two that Spider-Man’s web fluid typically took.
That seriously sucks for all the buildings that Spidey uses to swing from.
Spider-Man ended up having these powers for about four years before they were silently
lost after the infamous storyline, One More Day, where a lot of Spider-Man’s continuity
was messed with thanks to Peter selling his marriage... to a demon.
Yep, all of a sudden without any explanation, Peter was back to his standard web shooters,
but we know that all of the previous events still happened and weren’t retconned since
the Spider Queen made a return appearance for the Spider-Island storyline and heck,
in that exact same story, Peter even reflects back to his time with organic webs.
So even though Spider-Man’s ability to create his own webbing has come and gone, they’ve
lived on in characters such as Peter’s clone, Kaine, and Silk who gained her very own spider
powers after being bitten by LITERALLY the exact same spider as Peter.
Regardless, this was a great excuse to dive into this… interesting…
story and hopefully you learned a little something new.
Again, thanks to my friend, La’Ron, for coming on and I actually went over to his
channel where we discuss the legacy of the Sam Raimi trilogy.
So if you liked this one then go over there and give that a look.
I’m in it so you’re going to like something there at least.