Question about Spider-man's wall crawling

[Baron Hauptman]

Despite Googling I've not been able to find an answer to this question: Can spider-man walk or run up building instead of crawling and if not why not?

[Hypestyle]

Yes he can. his leg muscles are strong enough to propel him.

[Baron Hauptman]

So why doesn't he just walk or run all the time? Crawling is much slower.

[SuperiorIronman]

Depends on the distance and where he needs to go/how fast he has to get there.

[Alan2099]

Balance and stability, I'd imagine.

When you're walking, but nature, one of your feet is almost always off the ground. When crawling, he's got at least two or three points of contact at all times.

[Baron Hauptman]

He has the balance and stability equivalent to a cat, if not more agile. I don't think he has anything to worry about in that regard. It doesn't seem to make sense.

[Baron Hauptman]

Crawling when you can walk or run doesn't seem to serve any purpose.
Or to put it another way would you rather do:

A) Parkour up a building

or

B) Crawl up much slower on hands and feet.

[SuperiorIronman]

Peter has been shown to be more than capable of balancing himself and he simply doesn't have the same stability problem. Peter's body has been portrayed as being able to stand up horizontally on a building and catch someone without much tug from the building in the catch (note this happened to Deadpool).

Peter should have no problem propelling himself up a surface (running) as opposed to crawling. Though it does depend on where he needs to go and how fast he needs to get there. We also have to be aware of what surface he is going up as there is a lot of force behind his legs and he probably doesn't want to break glass.

[Baron Hauptman]

Okay so you agree with me, in the case of glass he could carefully walk up it. There is absolutely no good reason for him to be moving on hands and feet when he's perfectly capable of moving solely by his feet and yet wall crawling rather than walking is the type of movement most often depicted in the comics. Honestly I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed before.

[MetalWoman]

Despite Googling I've not been able to find an answer to this question: Can spider-man walk or run up building instead of crawling and if not why not?

The simple reason is that it looks a lot cooler and spider like for him to crawl instead of walk. Comic books are a visual medium.

[Bor]

Okay so you agree with me, in the case of glass he could carefully walk up it. There is absolutely no good reason for him to be moving on hands and feet when he's perfectly capable of moving solely by his feet and yet wall crawling rather than walking is the type of movement most often depicted in the comics. Honestly I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed before.

It has been brought up before and its not really a big deal. Besides it looking cool, there is also a stealth element/hiding element. If he is docking into an alley to change into costume it would be much more obvious to see him if he is standing in a complete vertical position. Not to mention that what you are asking for as been shown at different times. There is also been several times when characters has asked why he is standing, sitting on the walll when there is really no reason for it and he has answered that he just feels more comfortabel doing that, so it seems there is a instinct behind it to.

[Kao]

Wall crawling looks cool....

[LOSTie-chan]

Wall crawling looks cool....

Agreed.

"Why does Peter crawl up walls?"

The answer is aesthetic.

[comicscollector]

I would say that when Spider-Man wants to be faster he just web slings away,wall crawling makes him more aware of his surroundings.
And could be a way of how Spider-Man emulates the way Spiders move around now that i think of this.