Spider-Man Powers and Gadgets that have been retconned or forgotten/inconsistent

[Huntsman Spider]

Funny enough, Julia's psi-webs could also be (almost) invisibly spread through her environment, vibrating like real spider webs in response to detecting threats in her surroundings, though this ability only really got depicted in Grim Hunt.

[Lukmendes]

Funny enough, Julia's psi-webs could also be (almost) invisibly spread through her environment, vibrating like real spider webs in response to detecting threats in her surroundings, though this ability only really got depicted in Grim Hunt.

Yeah I remember noticing that Julia uses the Psi-Webs in ways she generally didn't use in Grim Hunt, what I saw from 'em genereally had 'em being just "Like Spidey's webs but they disappear if she's knocked out", kinda ironic the story that made her stop being Spider-Woman/Arachne is what gave a cool use for 'em to stand out, and while she could still use them like that now, it's like, how Mark of Kaine became a redundant power for Kaine when he could use the Stingers instead, 'cause why shuld Julia bother with using Psi-Webs to detect threats when she can already see the future? Unless she wants extra safety I guess lol.

[The Negative Zone]

Avengers # 11
Spider-Man shows up to fight Kang's robotic duplicate because his spider sense alerted to him for some reason. They then proceed to have an epic air battle, something I did not know was possible..

spider glide.jpg

[K7P5V]

Funny enough, Julia's psi-webs could also be (almost) invisibly spread through her environment, vibrating like real spider webs in response to detecting threats in her surroundings, though this ability only really got depicted in Grim Hunt.

Yeah! Julia was totally awesome during Secret Wars '84 (IMHO):

[Crazyspideyfan]

Re-reading and found this, in ASM #5, Doom contacts Peter through the frequency of his Spider-Sense. Don’t think anything like this has been used since, other than Spider-Tracers lol.

DF79E7FA-4867-4A96-80B7-5221970BF008.jpg E4304DB7-28D5-4262-A13B-6625E996ADBB.jpg

[Spiderfan001]

Re-reading and found this, in ASM #5, Doom contacts Peter through the frequency of his Spider-Sense. Don’t think anything like this has been used since, other than Spider-Tracers lol.

DF79E7FA-4867-4A96-80B7-5221970BF008.jpg E4304DB7-28D5-4262-A13B-6625E996ADBB.jpg

Chameleon did something like this IIRC but maybe I'm mistaken

[Lukmendes]

Re-reading and found this, in ASM #5, Doom contacts Peter through the frequency of his Spider-Sense. Don’t think anything like this has been used since, other than Spider-Tracers lol.

DF79E7FA-4867-4A96-80B7-5221970BF008.jpg E4304DB7-28D5-4262-A13B-6625E996ADBB.jpg

While this wasn't used like this again, Spidey references this early in Slott's run and even thinks about those radio frequencies affecting his Spider-Sense, and this whole thing is used to create the Spider-Sense jammers in No one dies, then used again to give him back his Spider-Sense in Spider-Island, and right before Superior, Fisk found a jammer to keep messing with his Spider-Sense, to amplify it to painful levels.



(ASM#654)

It's interesting that, in Slott's run, it's all but stated that Spidey's Spider-Sense and Julia's precognition are variants of the same power, since the jammers affect her too, the jammers in Spider-Island nulified her powers, then gave them back once Reed and Horizon Labs messed with them again, and right before Superior, the jammers that were just giving Spidey headaches were so brutal on her she was put in a coma,, she wasn't affected by that EMP blast in No one dies, but then again, I guess she just happened to be out of the range, as it is pointed out that SPidey could be out of range and not lose his Spider-Sense.

Chameleon did something like this IIRC but maybe I'm mistaken

He did yes, it's actually really weird that between AF#15 and ASM#1, Chameleon not only knows about Spider-Sense but could already find a way to contact Spidey, 'cause by that point Spidey barely started to fight crime lol.



(ASM#1)

[Crazyspideyfan]

While this wasn't used like this again, Spidey references this early in Slott's run and even thinks about those radio frequencies affecting his Spider-Sense, and this whole thing is used to create the Spider-Sense jammers in No one dies, then used again to give him back his Spider-Sense in Spider-Island, and right before Superior, Fisk found a jammer to keep messing with his Spider-Sense, to amplify it to painful levels.



(ASM#654)

It's interesting that, in Slott's run, it's all but stated that Spidey's Spider-Sense and Julia's precognition are variants of the same power, since the jammers affect her too, the jammers in Spider-Island nulified her powers, then gave them back once Reed and Horizon Labs messed with them again, and right before Superior, the jammers that were just giving Spidey headaches were so brutal on her she was put in a coma,, she wasn't affected by that EMP blast in No one dies, but then again, I guess she just happened to be out of the range, as it is pointed out that SPidey could be out of range and not lose his Spider-Sense.



He did yes, it's actually really weird that between AF#15 and ASM#1, Chameleon not only knows about Spider-Sense but could already find a way to contact Spidey, 'cause by that point Spidey barely started to fight crime lol.



(ASM#1)

Good thing the public doesn’t seem to know about the frequency and most villains have forgotten about it, people could just tune into the frequency and blast 10 hour loops of music to all heroes with Spider-sense lol

[Lukmendes]

Good thing the public doesn’t seem to know about the frequency and most villains have forgotten about it,

It seems only Chameleon and Doom were the only ones really aware of it, although, Iron Man did learn about it in his comic back in Civil War, and used it to trick Spidey, but I think he literally forgot since post Civil War Tony had backup memories from before Civil War.

Doom not using it is alright, he barely deals with Spidey as is, and he tends to outclass Spidey anyways, but Chameleon forgetting is just bizarre lol.

people could just tune into the frequency and blast 10 hour loops of music to all heroes with Spider-sense lol

10 HOUR PIZZA THEME LOOPS

[Huntsman Spider]

Avengers # 11
Spider-Man shows up to fight Kang's robotic duplicate because his spider sense alerted to him for some reason. They then proceed to have an epic air battle, something I did not know was possible..

spider glide.jpg

That time the Avengers owed Spider-Man their lives and didn't even know it. Heh. Kind of funny how that worked out. Wonder what would have changed if they did know, though.

Yeah! Julia was totally awesome during Secret Wars '84 (IMHO):

Oh, yeah.

Re-reading and found this, in ASM #5, Doom contacts Peter through the frequency of his Spider-Sense. Don’t think anything like this has been used since, other than Spider-Tracers lol.

DF79E7FA-4867-4A96-80B7-5221970BF008.jpg E4304DB7-28D5-4262-A13B-6625E996ADBB.jpg

Chameleon did something like this IIRC but maybe I'm mistaken

Doom and Chameleon both being able to manipulate Spider-Man's spider-sense, and the likes of Alistair Smythe and Iron Man in Civil War figuring out how to simulate it for themselves and/or even trick it into giving Spider-Man false alerts . . . Given that What If? Spider-Man vs. Wolverine showed a possible path for the spider-sense to evolve further and even become something beyond precognition and clairvoyance, perhaps we should be grateful the spider-sense gets overlooked by so many otherwise enterprising and brilliant villains. Speaking of the spider-sense resonating on certain radio frequencies, I recall the last Spider-Verse miniseries referring to it in the first issue as a signal on an "arachno-frequency," which may be a more "scientific" term for spider-sense.

[Hypestyle]

well, I want to see organic webs come back, and the insect/arachnid empathy. The "web-touching vision" was intriguing.

I hope the enhanced strength is still there, 25 tons?

I wouldn't mind more specified spider-sense uses and stunts. I'm sick of the "spider-sense canceled" gas that people conveniently come up with.

I guess any gadgets Ben gets will be canceled if Peter finally comes back to full time status. Peter will probably lose the patents on everything he ever made. (another forced loser-status angle)

[Lukmendes]

Yeah! Julia was totally awesome during Secret Wars '84 (IMHO):

Man, Julia's body looks hella awkward in the last panel lol.

That time the Avengers owed Spider-Man their lives and didn't even know it. Heh. Kind of funny how that worked out. Wonder what would have changed if they did know, though.

Maybe they wouldn't be as much jerks to him in ASM Annual#3 lol.

Doom and Chameleon both being able to manipulate Spider-Man's spider-sense, and the likes of Alistair Smythe and Iron Man in Civil War figuring out how to simulate it for themselves and/or even trick it into giving Spider-Man false alerts . . . Given that What If? Spider-Man vs. Wolverine showed a possible path for the spider-sense to evolve further and even become something beyond precognition and clairvoyance,

If we entertain the thought that that what if is supposed to represent the potential of Spidey's own Spider-Sense, then it can be seen as a good thing he doesn't develop it to such an extent, I just read the story, and Spidey being able to tell someone's gonna attack him if they just think of doing so, then being able to tell if someone's gonna attack him before they even consider it, and on the scene Black Widow attacks him, it's possible he knew she was coming days before she was gonna attack, absurd lol.

Funnily enough, this absurdity was given to Annie, but severely nerfed, 'cause her Spider-Sense is precognition, but much more random and vague, basically a shittier version of Madame Web's own precognition.

But yeah, while Slott's run all but states that Spider-Sense and Madame Web's precognition are variants of the same power, that assassin Spidey's Spider-Sense is unique, while we can have someone like Mayday who finds further uses for her own Spider-Sense, it's just not normal for it to develop like assassin Spidey, I never even thought Spider-Sense could evolve before this lol.

Funnily enough, despite how utterly busted he is, he got nerfed to shit when he showed up in Spider-Verse, he's just a Spider willing to kill and that's it, it actually looks like his Spider-Sense isn't there at all, and he gets killed so unceremoniously that I had to check ASM#10 vol 3 twice to be able to tell when it happens lol.

It's somewhat unfortunate, while he definitely couldn't have a Spider-Sense as busted as how he had it in his what if, it could be fun if he at least had a more advanced Spider-Sense to help in battles, instead of being basically "Lol I'm Spider-Punisher".

perhaps we should be grateful the spider-sense gets overlooked by so many otherwise enterprising and brilliant villains.

Precognition is overlooked in general, the government had Freedom Force once upon a time, and one of its members is Destiny, who's perhaps the most consistently right precog at Marvel, and instead of using her for power, money, political advantage or even to try to win the cold war, they instead have her doing basic mercenary jobs, and not even being someone who stays behind coordinating the team, she's on the field fighting alongside the rest lol.

Out of universe I can understand why that's done, it would be really annoying to always have to deal with a precog in either side if they showed up too much, and while we can have excuses of them not being right all the time, if they're wrong too much then the precognition just sucks, but if they're right too much they're basically unbeatable unless the character's a complete moron... Basically, it wouldn't be that interesting to always have to deal with a precog.

But in-universe? They don't even bother with an excuse, the closest I've seen is Hickman's run on X-Men where Moira is against precogs because, they could ruin everything, and that one is barely explained too, since Moira never says why, just that whatever it is, Xavier and Magneto agree, and that when Emma looks at Moira's memories, she agrees too, but it wasn't elaborated so far.

Speaking of the spider-sense resonating on certain radio frequencies, I recall the last Spider-Verse miniseries referring to it in the first issue as a signal on an "arachno-frequency," which may be a more "scientific" term for spider-sense.

That Spider-Zero seems to like talking with complicated-sounding words, she says "I'm nanocasting through your arachnofrequency to lock your ultraspatial coordinates", which's I guess is a fancy way of saying "I'm using your spider-sense to track your location through time and space" lol.

well, I want to see organic webs come back, and the insect/arachnid empathy. The "web-touching vision" was intriguing.

I hope the enhanced strength is still there, 25 tons?

It's technically not, but it doesn't really matter, Marvel says that Spidey's strength is 10 tons, but he has lifted much heavier stuff randomly.

Hell, Marvel doesn't seem to know how much stuff weighs, She-Hulk used to be put at around 50 tons, meaning, she would be weak enough to not be able to lift tanks (They're generally around 60 tons), something Spidey has casually done at least once lol.

I wouldn't mind more specified spider-sense uses and stunts. I'm sick of the "spider-sense canceled" gas that people conveniently come up with.

But, the gas hardly ever shows up to begin with lol

It showed up at least once in silver age in ASM#39 when Norman uses it on Peter, I get the feeling another issue before that had it but I'm not sure, Hobgoblin uses it on Spidey in ASM#249 as a deliberate call back to ASM#39, and then Norman uses it on Peter again on ASM#28 vol 4 as another deliberate callback to ASM#39.

Maybe there's more times the gas was used, but I doubt it was that much.

If anything the most consistent "Spider-Sense nulifiers" are symbiotes, even if it makes no sense any symbiote besides Venom to do so, those are overdone to death.

Aside from the gas and symbiotes, we have that Spider-Sense jammer Peter himself built, and some device Tony made back in Civil War to cause misdirections on Spidey.

So yeah, symbiotes aside, stuff that nulifies Spider-Sense just aren't around much.

I guess any gadgets Ben gets will be canceled if Peter finally comes back to full time status. Peter will probably lose the patents on everything he ever made. (another forced loser-status angle)

Makes little difference, post PI-era he stopped using any sort of gadget besides basic webs, Spencer's run didn't bring back anything too, so him losing those patents wouldn't matter when he's already not using 'em lol.

[Mistah K88]

Are we just taking about Spider-Man’s forgetten abilities and gadgets, or can some of his enemies join in too? When was the last time we’ve seen any of the Goblins use that ghost thing?

[Lukmendes]

Are we just taking about Spider-Man’s forgetten abilities and gadgets, or can some of his enemies join in too? When was the last time we’ve seen any of the Goblins use that ghost thing?

Probably ASM#17, where it was introduced lol.

ASM#17 also has him using a random frog:



All this did was snap Spidey's web, I think Spectacular replaced the idea of that with random blades (Think he used blades in Spectacular?).

The broom he used in his introduction is a one-off gadget too.

[blackspidey2099]

I would say that the vast majority of Spider-Man's gadgets get forgotten about, tbf