Spider-Man boasts a skill set that is well ingrained in pop culture: web-shooting and slinging, super-strength, agility, durability, and reflexes. However, not all of the character’s powers make it to mainstream media. There are a lot more of them in the spider-lore, bizarre as they are, that are very useful in combat.
Most of these abilities are born from decades of comic book writers trying their best to logically input proportionate spider abilities into the character. Some of Spider-Man’s lesser-known powers are likely to be better explored, as audiences likely tire of the ordinary and crave a new Spider mythos. The others, though, may never see the light of day.
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Spider-tracking
Spider-Man can track thanks to his spidertracer technology. These are devices he uses to bug other objects and individuals. Initially, he did require handheld receivers on his end, but he later learned to do so purely with his sixth sense. Fans have aptly dubbed this “Spider-tracking.”
Also, Spider-Man can track the pheromones of another human. The catch is that the human in question is Spider-Woman Cindy Moon, also known in the comics as Silk.
Such is the case in Jason Aaron’s Original Sin crossover. Peter’s vision reveals Cindy’s existence and location to him, and he subsequently frees her from her decade-old imprisonment in a bunker. The suggested reason for this biological connection is that Peter and Cindy were bitten by the same radioactive spider.
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Toxin Resistance
Spider-Man boasts accelerated healing, less potent than Wolverine’s or Deadpool’s but far above the average human. The same immune system that heals Spider-Man’s wounds also makes him purge toxins from his body faster than any human. However, he is also toxin-resistant rather than full-on toxin-immune. In other words, toxins can still enter Spider-Man and do harm.
Key examples are Green Goblin’s gas pumpkins and the pesticide ethyl chloride, the latter of which he succumbs to as helplessly as Superman to kryptonite. But on other occasions, his body has been shown to be actually quite good at quickly combating the effects of poisons and harmful chemicals.
In one instance, during an encounter with the villain Swarm, Spider-Man was incapacitated by thousands of bee stings. For an ordinary human, the resulting reaction would be almost certainly fatal. But the superhero fully recovered in less than 24 hours. Spider-Man has even resisted vampirism outright, his blood chemistry simply incompatible with the transformation.
It’s a cheeky tie-in to spiders’ fame for their venom-laced fangs. If Spider-Man isn’t going to be bringing down his foes with venom, he might as well show some resistance to it.
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Command of Spiders
In the main Marvel continuity, Spider-Man does not control spiders. What he has, at best, is communication with spiders (like he did in Spider-Island). However, in other alternate timelines, Spider-Men and other Spider-people have had some form of command of spiders, although not to the degree of Ant-Man’s command of ants or Aquaman’s command of marine life.
Peter Parker of Earth 11580, styled as “Spiders Man,” easily comes to mind. Unlike the regular Peter who was a victim of just one radioactive spider, Earth 11580’s Peter fell into a pit filled with thousands-strong radioactive spiders. The spiders absorbed his consciousness, forming Spiders-Man: a single being made up of the swarm itself.
It’s a harrowing origin story that sees Peter depressed beyond measure. Undoubtedly, it would be a tall order for Sony or Marvel Studios to greenlight such an adaptation.
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Retractable Wrist Stingers
Yet on the growing list of bizarre and hidden Spider-Man powers are the stinger-like bones that protrude from his wrists. First manifested during The Other storyline, these stingers are razor-sharp and retractable, just like Wolverine’s. Unlike Wolverine’s, though, they release a polyamine-based venom that causes minor paralysis when deployed.
Peter has rarely used this in the comics; it’s his clone, Kaine Parker, who’s gotten used to it and truly mastered it. Since this power can be unlocked by fear and rage — just as it was against the vampiric villain Morlun — it’s not far-fetched to imagine it making the jump to a live-action portrayal someday.
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Spider-camouflage
Miles Morales’ creators gifted him with some abilities that would make Peter Parker jealous. One of these is camouflage, a trait rife among insects and arachnids (eight-legged critters). Not all spiders use camouflage, and since Miles was bitten by a different, genetically altered spider than the one that bit Peter, that difference explains the gap in their skill set.
This ability was teased early in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, in the scene where the radioactive spider that bites Miles crawls into a spray-paint can and shifts its color to match the paint. Throughout the film, Miles goes on to harness this trick to great effect.
Miles’ is more of cloaking and invisibility than the typical camouflage. He can hide his frame and change the color of his clothes from outsiders, much like Fantastic Four’s Sue Storm, allowing him to sneak up on enemies or, in some cases, flee from them.
Creators Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli have never explained the in-universe science behind this, nor should they, since this is a fictional world after all. But many fans have come to link it to Miles’ unique bio-electric field, the same source behind his signature venom blasts.
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Venom Blasts
Another unique trait of Miles Morales, this power has nothing to do with venom at all, but rather electricity — it’s some form of bio-electricity generation. The term “venom blast” is a nod to actual spider biology since the ability functions like a paralytic sting. To activate, Spider-Man has to touch his opponent, after which the latter is stunned or incapacitated.
As Miles matured and gained more control, the power expanded dramatically beyond that original concept. Now, it is basically an entire electrical toolkit that includes indirect strikes through conductive matter (like water or his own webbing), long-range blasts, forming projections like a bioelectric sword, propelling himself through the air, and even charging devices.
For maximum effect, Miles relies on the vaunted Mega Venom Blast. This is a full-body discharge of all his stored bio-electricity at once, potent enough to knock out amassed foes and even the wielder himself.
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Combat Precognition
“Spider-sense,” “spider-instinct,” “the tingle”… Spider-Man’s ability to sense danger around him seconds before it happens has been given many names both in the lore and in the fandom. It’s a well-established part of the character since his introduction in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15.
The concept holds up scientifically: actual spiders do sense vibrations in the air and on surfaces through tiny sensory hairs on their legs. However, Spider-Man has a more detailed evolution of this power, which is best described as “precognition during battle.”
Not unlike the Sharingan of the Uchiha in Naruto, Spider-Man’s sixth sense lets him read a fight before it fully unfolds. His sixth sense anticipates strikes, senses openings, and instinctively chooses the optimal counter-move in real time.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, after Doctor Strange forcibly separates Peter’s astral form from his body, Peter’s now-mindless physical body blocks Strange’s grab for a stolen mystical box on instinct alone. In other cases, like in The Spectacular Spider-Man #28, it even lets him pilot a drone and track threats while temporarily blinded — à la Daredevil.
- First Appearance
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Amazing Fantasy
- Alias
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Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner
- Alliance
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Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors
- Race
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Human