How about the alternate history where Pete stepped into the elevator with the robber, snapped his neck with one hand, swung off into the night, took the money, dropped the body from a great height (onto its head)? Peter can then take investment tips from Green Goblin and only appear as Spider-man to maul some strikers that are interfering with his dividend re-investment plan.
There was an issue of What If? in which several scenarios were posited: Flash became Spider-Man, Betty Brant became Spider-Girl, ect. At the end of all these scenarios, Peter Parker ended up figuring out how it happened and becoming Spider-Man on purpose. You can’t screw with destiny.
I seem to recall that in some early stories Spider-Man’s senses could pick up all kinds of things. I don’t have a cite, but I’ve noticed that sort of thing happened with Daredevil, too – his powers were more broadly defined at the beginning.
I have this vague memory of the spider-tracer-attached-to-spider-sense backfiring violently one; a bad guy crushed it, and it caused Spider-Man immense pain.
…Whereas a biological gland necessary for web-shooting would be invisible, capable of firing web-juice at bullet speed, and conveniently located on the wrist.
Well, knowing the demands of filming being different than the demands of drawing comic-book characters, I always kinda assumed the webbing consisted of two seperate elements that expanded mightily when mixed, with enough force (assuming Spidey adjusted his shooters to release a narrow stream) to send a single strand two or three hundred feet, the minimal distance he’d need for swinging from building to building. Regardless of the method, any kind of launching system capable of firing a strand 300 feet would have a wicked recoil.
Pretty impressive, I’ll admit, once you agree to suspend your disbelief with an industrial crane.
I watched the “Mutants, Monsters, and Marvels” DVD. IIRC, the original idea for Spider-Man was to have the organic web shooter he uses in the movie, but the Comics Code Authority didn’t approve.
IIRC, he already had the shooters lying around his room, he just had to modify them (it has been a few years since i last read AF15). He also helped Doc Conners de-Lizard himself dozens of times, and seems to come up with wacky chemical formulas every year or so in some books story (for sme reason i remember Web of Spiderman doing this several times). And i always imagined the Spider-tracers were mini-bombs. They should write a story were he just detonates on that is on Doctor Doom’s helicoptor or something
Just wanted to thank Skeezix and Max Carnage for the backstories on Venom and Carnage. I was a Spidey fan in my youth and have always wondered about the origins of those other two characters.
I was always a huge fan of the Venom storyline, because it was the first time I’d ever seen a major change in a "headliner’s"continuity. I mean, this was Spider-Man, and to actually see him wear a new costume was a trip, once upon a time.
Then, to see him get a new title just to deal with this bizarre costume storyline, was pretty wild, too. And of course, it blew up into Venom, and Carnage, and the Maximum Carnage story-arc…
(which was doubly cool for me, as it was the first time Iron Fist re-appeared in public, after being presumed dead for years, and I’d always dug Power Man/Iron Fist…)
It was a lotta fun, once upon a time.
Now, new costumes happen once a month, major characters are completely re-written every few stories, everybody dies, since nobody actually stays dead anymore, anyway…
Eh. Comic books were fun and collectible, for a while.