(gentle music)
- How much web could a web slinger sling
if a web slinger could sling web?
Well, I guess it depends on whether or not
that web is produced organically or mechanically.
(rock music)
A question I get asked a lot about Spider-Man
if whether is his web is organic, like what we see
in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man tril-duo-logy,
or if his webbing is created mechanically,
like in the Marc Webb series of Spidey films.
The answer, interestingly enough, is both.
Many of you will know already that
in the comics, Spider-Man built his own
web-shooters in the very first issue.
In fact, Spider-Man's web-shooters actually
pre-date Spider-Man himself, technically.
Spider-Man made his big debut in Amazing Fantasy
number 15 from 1962, a comic that tells
the origin of the web slinger.
And in this origin story, before Peter Parker
ever puts on this costume, before he ever calls himself
Spider-Man, he single-handedly invents
two mechanical web-shooters to wear on his wrists
since, quote, "a spider needs a web."
And also that radioactive spider bite kind of
left him hanging in this department.
Spider-Man's web-shooters are such an incredibly vital
part of who he is, they play up Peter's intellect
and showcase his inner scientist.
Sure, he gained incredible powers thanks to a random
spider bite, but he also worked for his abilities.
The web-shooters also give him a vulnerability
during times when they would get damaged
or he'd be out of web fluid, et cetera.
These scenarios would create tension in the story
and force Peter to be a little more creative.
And yes, as I just mentioned, the web in the wrist shooters
comes from capsules or cartridges of web fluid,
which get loaded into the devices.
The whole thing activates via a very sensitive trigger
right in the middle of Spidey's palm,
which is why he makes this gesture a lot,
which I'm just now discovering, I'm terrible at doing.
Ugh.
Though in most continuities, he does have to
hit the button twice, like a double-click of a mouse,
and this is to avoid unintentionally firing off the web
whenever he simply makes a fist
to punch people in the face.
The web-shooters also have different settings
that allow for things like a single web line,
which he notably uses to swing around the city
and grapple objects or even people.
Wait, no no no, wait! (groans)
Too soon! Always too soon.
Spider-Man can also adjust his web-shooters
to achieve a fine spray of webbing,
which is probably better for catching people,
or a thick goop which he mainly uses to blind people.
Right in the eyes.
The webbing also dissolves automatically
after an hour or so, though sometimes a special solvent
has been needed for certain kinds of webbing,
but you know, we can sit here all day
and talk in depth about how exactly the web-shooters work,
but we should probably discuss the idea of Spider-Man's web
being organically created by his own body.
It wasn't just the movies where this happened,
it made its way to comics as well
for a brief period of time.
There was, of course, the black Spidey suit,
which created its own organic webbing,
but that turned out to be an alien Symbiote
so Pete had to get rid of that as fast as possible.
Even still, that webbing wasn't really generated
by Pete's own body the way we saw it in the movies.
For that, we'll need to examine
a Spider-Man arc from 2004.
In Spectacular Spider-Man number 15,
a new villain arrives in New York known as the Queen.
Using her super-strength and sonic scream powers
she defeats Spidey, kisses him, kidnaps him
and then kisses him some more.
And if you're wondering what's up with all the spit swapping
it's not just because comic book writers liked
to use Spider-Man as nerdy wish fulfillment,
though I'm sure that's a factor.
You see, one of Queen's other powers
is that her saliva contains a mutagenic enzyme
which among other things, transforms the victim
into a giant spider monster.
When it came to Peter Parker,
Queen was more interested in the spider part
of Spider-Man so she used her super spit
to gradually mutate him into an eight-legged freak.
When he was full-blown spider, it was revealed
that the transformation was really just a cocoon of sorts.
I don't know, it was really weird.
Either way, Peter hatched from a giant
arachnid husk and was back to normal...
with one notable exception.
He now had the ability to shoot webs
out of his wrists organically.
He no longer needed his web-shooters.
There is speculation that the Sam Raimi movies
were the reason why they made this change in the comics,
and we certainly don't have to look hard for times
when movies were responsible for change in comics.
Especially with Marvel, we even recorded
a whole podcast about it.
But why did the Raimi Spider-Man Saga
include the organic webbing to begin with?
The answer is a bit of a long story,
but I'm gonna try to keep it brief.
Sam Raimi's script took elements from a previous treatment
by James Cameron, which is often cited
as the source of Spidey having organic webbing.
If you take the time to read Cameron's script,
which you absolutely should do 'cause it is completely
bonkers and I've linked it down in the description,
Spider-Man becomes a bit of a celebrity
and actually tells an interviewer that his webbing
comes from mechanical web-shooters even though it really
is made naturally by spinnerets in his wrists.
He does this partly to throw people off the trail
of his secret identity and also because if he ever is
found out, he doesn't want people to label him as a freak.
Back in the comics, Spidey's new organic spinnerets
that grew into his forearms still worked a lot
like his wrist shooters, they fired web
with roughly the same force, and he still had
to press two fingers in the middle of his palms
to activate them for no explained reason.
But the biggest benefit was the fact that Pete
wouldn't have to keep reloading his webbing anymore.
Since it was all generated naturally
he could create a seemingly endless supply,
like when he let loose on Iron Man
and created this whole mess.
But these natural spinnerets didn't last forever, though.
It was only about three years later that the web head
would be back in his old wrist shooters.
In Brand New Day from 2008, Spidey has to deal
with a thug who stole one of his web-shooters
that he was, for some reason, using again.
So what happened?
Why did the mutation suddenly disappear?
Well, we need to take a look at the story
that happened before Brand New Day.
An infamous story in Spider-Man's history,
titled One More Day.
Just to catch you up real fast, during the Civil War
when Peter Parker revealed his identity
as Spider-Man to the world, Wilson Fisk
hired an assassin to kill Parker.
Unfortunately, the assassin missed Peter
and the bullet instead hit Peter's fragile Aunt May.
Desperate to save his dying aunt,
Peter and the love of his life, Mary Jane,
made a literal deal with the devil, Mephisto.
In exchange for saving May, Peter and M. Jay,
who were married at the time, must sacrifice
their unconditional love for each other.
Not only that, but history will be rewritten
so that they were never married at all.
M. Jay would do anything for Peter
so she willingly gave up her past, present,
and future with him in order to save Aunt May.
Peter followed suit, and a deal was struck.
Okay, don't even get me started on the two of them
giving up a lifetime of happiness to save an old lady
who looks as though she's consistently
on the brink of death anyway, and yeah,
I know that Marvel only did this because they thought
married Spider-Man was boring Spider-Man
and that Peter was more relatable
when he was young and single,
and I don't disagree with that.
I just feel like this was a dumb way to handle it.
But I digress.
When it was all over and the deal with Mephisto
was realized, the world was a little different.
Aunt May was alive and well, Peter's life as Spider-Man was
once again a secret from the public, and most importantly,
he didn't have organic webbing anymore.
We know that Spidey had his organic webbing
during One More Day, because that's where
this scene comes from that we alluded to earlier.
But in the very next story, the aforementioned
Brand New Day, the wall crawler
is back to his wrist shooters.
So while One More Day was never explicitly stated
as the reason why Spidey went back to his web-shooters,
it's really the only logical explanation that we have.
Except there's one problem.
It's not like the whole story with the Queen
was erased from this new timeline,
it still very much happened.
It was revisited later in 2011, Spider Island Event,
when the Queen came back partnered with Jackal,
and gave citizens of New York their own spider powers
including organic webbing, before turning
into a giant spider monster army.
The Queen even reflects on the interaction
she had with Spider-Man so we know
that that story definitely still place.
Even weirder, Peter himself makes a comment
implying that he did, in fact, at one point
have organic webbing.
When his girlfriend at the time, Carlie,
gets spider powers, she asks Pete
if he can hook her up with some web-shooters
since her organic webbing is all dried up.
He tells her to drink plenty of water
and eat starchy foods to replenish it.
Curious, Carlie asks how Peter would know that,
to which he simply replied that he's
friends with Spider-Man.
That is all the explanation we get,
and it is left kind of vague, but it does seem
like he's saying that at one point in time
he did have the power to create his own organic webbing.
This definitely makes it harder to determine
what actually did happen, and honestly,
we'll likely never know for sure.
Here's an awkward segway, if you're wondering
why they decided to switch to artificial web-shooters
in the Amazing Spider-Man movies,
you can thank Brian Michael Bendis,
an award-winning comic book writer
behind such works like Powers, New Avengers,
Ultimate Spider-Man, and much more.
Because of his history with the wall crawler,
Bendis was brought in during the development
of 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man,
and was unknowingly the deciding vote
in determining whether or not Spider-Man would have
organic or mechanical web-shooters.
He voted for the latter and that's what we got.
Live-action mechanical wrist-mounted web-shooters.
I hope the MCU follows suit with that.
I have no doubt that they will.
Although @Mortox7 on Twitter pointed out
that there is always a third option.
#MagicWebs.
What do you guys think?
Do you prefer Spider-Man with his
mechanical web-shooters or organic webbing?
Or perhaps you want to jump on the
#MagicWebs bandwagon, there's plenty of room.
It's basically just me.
If you want to learn more about Spider-Man,
click right here to learn what happened
to Peter Parker's parents.
The video also explores the story that Marc Webb's
Spider-Man movies were likely trying to tell.
It might just make you appreciate them
a little bit more for what they could have been.
So click right here to check it out.
We've also got a fun video examining whether
great power really does equal great responsibility.
We talk a lot about Superior Spider-Man,
which is one of my personal favorite Spider-Man runs.
So click here to watch that one,
and make sure you hit that big, sexy Subscribe button
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the history, science, art, and philosophy
behind your favorite comic book superheroes.
My name is Scott, and I will see you
right here on Friday for another video.
See ya.