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Topic: Q for All: What is Your Preferred Strength Level for Spider-man? Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 02 July 2025 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply
This discussion has kept this childhood-favorite image front and center in my head for days now. I think this shows Romita's Spider-Man strength as pretty much the same level as Ditko's:
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Craig Earl
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Posted: 02 July 2025 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply
Ah, the common error.

Spiders are not insects!
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Richard Stevens
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Posted: 02 July 2025 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply
What a great image. Spidey tipping that bus is like me tipping a couch. I can't chuck the couch at Doc Ock, but I can tip it up to get something underneath. Relatable!
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Brian Rhodes
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Posted: 02 July 2025 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply
There was a Silver Age Pinup of Spider-Man holding a platform over his head, and standing on it were the “only heroes possibly stronger than Spidey”.  As I recall, those characters were The Thing, Hulk, Thor, Hercules, and Namor.  So I have always viewed Spider-Man’s strength as slightly less than the Marvel heavy weights.

But I think since the Silver Age, all of the above have been depicted with greater strength levels than then. So, do you want him to be slightly less powerful than them then, or slight less than they are now?
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 02 July 2025 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply
Being strong doesn't mean you can't be knocked out. Spider-Man has amazing agility and avoids getting hit... But if he is hit, it still hurts. I don't think that particularly changed in the 80s (e.g. I remember Daredevil punching him out in the Death of Jean Dewolff storyline).

As for what the strength level is... I think he can lift a small car over his head. Tilting a bus seems in that range.
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ron bailey
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Posted: 04 July 2025 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply
His strength was always the least interesting thing about him to me.
And can someone mandate that the side webs under his arms are not optional?
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Bob Harvey
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Posted: 04 July 2025 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply
Contrary to the assertion earlier in this thread, spiders are not generally "weak," at least when  compared to humans. Some of the larger, heavier spiders do have a pretty bad weight to carry ratio, but it's not the norm. 

Spider-Man's abilities seem closest to the "powers" of a jumping spider to me, though that obviously isn't what Ditko drew. Some species of such can lift as much as 100x their body weight. 


Edited by Bob Harvey on 04 July 2025 at 9:39pm
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Joseph Vecchio
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Posted: 05 July 2025 at 5:05am | IP Logged | 8 post reply
My favorite sequence from Spidey way the Roger Stern/Johnny Romita
Jr. run in the eighties, but to me that was less about how strong he was
than it was about how confident he was...there were no doubts as there
were before, but I recall Tarantula shocked at how much faster Spidey
was, and how impressed the Mad Thinker was when Spidey defeated
an android designed to take on the Fantastic Four.  I really liked that
time.  Spidey wasn't even afraid to tangle with Wolverine...

I didn't read the later years, so I have no idea if he got even stronger,
but it seems to me that he was stronger here simply because he didn't
hold back against the tougher opponents...


Edited by Joseph Vecchio on 05 July 2025 at 5:06am
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John Byrne
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Posted: 05 July 2025 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply
And can someone mandate that the side webs under his arms are not optional?

•••

From my earliest professional association with Spider-Man I have drawn him with the underarm webbing.

On one of those early jobs the editor called and told me to stop. “We don’t do that any more.”

I asked if he was aware the webbing was there on the corner symbol.

“Just stop,” he said, “and we’ll do a story explaining it.”

Oh frabjous day, I thought. Marvel has officially become DC.

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ron bailey
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Posted: 05 July 2025 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply
My guess is that for branding/merchandising they probably thought the webs made him look too creepy, same reason his blue is lighter in most merchandise and usually darker or "black" with highlights in straight comics.
One of the things I loved about Ditko's original look is that you just might assume this was a bad guy if you had no reason to think differently, so the mistaken public perception was totally believable (totally covered from head to toe, the name, webs, method of getting around, etc). Nothing traditionally heroic about his depiction.
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