Spider-Man is famous for deg his web-shooters and web fluid in Marvel’s comics, but there was a time when he had the power to generate webs like Sam Raimi’s film version of Peter Parker.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy is renowned for not only having some of the superhero film genre’s best films but also for proving that a superhero movie can be successful while remaining highly faithful to the comic source material. One of the few major changes that the Raimi films made to Spider-Man, however, was giving him the power to create webs instead of a pair of devices, though the comics mimicked the films for several years, starting with a 2004 Spectacular Spider-Man storyline. In his iconic origin story, Peter Parker received spider-like powers following a radioactive spider bite, but his webs were not among his newfound powers. Peter Parker is a genius chemist and engineer deg both his iconic web-shooters and their web fluid after receiving his superpowers. Spider-Man’s web-shooters help him traverse New York City, subdue his enemies without harming them, and are extremely useful in a multitude of situations.
Although there are several notable alternate universe versions of Spider-Man who have the power to create webbing, the mainstream comic version received the power in 2004, at the end of issue 20 of Spectacular Spider-Man Volume 2, by Paul Jenkins and Lan Medina. After the villainous Ana Soria, a.k.a. The Queen, infected Spider-Man with a genetic retrovirus in an attempt to make him susceptible to her mind control abilities, he mutated into a human-sized spider-like creature but managed to return to human form by the end of the story arc. The Queen’s retrovirus permanently altered Peter’s physiology, however, and while he was mostly human again, he gained additional powers, such as spinnerets on his wrists.
Like his Raimi trilogy counterpart, Spider-Man could now shoot webbing from his wrists without a device, and the web fluid his body now produced had nearly identical properties to his synthetic webbing, though the organic webs took about a week to dissolve instead of one to two hours. Peter’s already-astounding physical strength and spider-sense were also augmented, allowing him to lift 15 tons (where he could only lift 10 tons before) and form mild psychic connections with spiders. Peter’s new powers were, unfortunately, reversed by Mephisto’s reality alterations at the end of 2007’s Spider-Man: One More Day, meaning that the mainstream version of Peter Parker only had organic web abilities for three years.
While most of the best film adaptations of Marvel superheroes are strongly influenced by the comics, there are some instances of the movies influencing the comics. In addition to Spider-Man briefly having the power to generate webs, James Rhodes used Norman Osborn’s title of Iron Patriot for a time (inspired by Iron Man 3) and the MCU’s original character, Phil Coulson, was brought into the Marvel comics canon in 2011. Spider-Man uses his iconic web-shooters in current Marvel comics, but thanks to the highly-influential Sam Raimi films, he briefly had the power to create webbing without the devices.
