# Spider Man : Is my memory failing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979 "2003-02-23T15:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jeevmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@jeevmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeevmon)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/21 "2003-02-24T23:07:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*But, if we go after these people first, it won’t exactly be random, will it? Besides which, they need to get in line behind all the fanboys who got bent out of shape over Wolverine’s claws coming out of his knuckes instead of the back of his hand. \*\* Oh please be kidding. There weren’t people complaining about that, were there? I mean, I could see complaining about the fact that Rogue didn’t have Amazing Mutant Boobs like she does in the comics, but not the claw thing. _sigh_ I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. It’s things like that which make Comic Book Guy and Larry Groznic realistic caricatures. (“When you are ready to have a serious discussion about Green Lantern, you have my email address.”) ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/22 "2003-02-24T23:14:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amp \* > You know **Revtim** , not all of us have that problem. Maybe you should go see a doctor about. Or at least take some vitamin C or zinc… ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/23 "2003-02-24T23:31:57Z")
Well, Stan Lee is on record saying that he completely understands why they changed to organic webs (story economy) and doesn’t really mind, so that sits well with me. ---
**Author:** ![hampster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/53a042/32.png) [@hampster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hampster)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/24 "2003-02-25T02:11:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > On the other hand, watching Toby McGuire shoot webs from the region where spiders generally have their spinnerets would have been amazingly entertaining to watch. \*\* Has anyone else seen an anime movie called The Ultimate Teacher? or am I just halucinating Spider-Asshole? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/25 "2003-02-25T02:20:07Z")
Ya know, these off-color spinneret remarks are starting to creep me out. It was bad enough in the movie, with the scene where Spider-man webs up J. Jonah Jameson’s mouth. Hilarious, at least until some part of my brain spoke up: "_Hey, he squirted that out of his own body! Ewww…"_ No wonder Jameson hates Spider-man. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/26 "2003-02-25T04:43:46Z")
Yanno, sometimes I have to wonder what the sex lives of various super heroes must be like. The Superman thing has been done to death but most of the others haven’t, or have they in another thread? I only ask because it seems worthy of its own thread and I don’t want to be redundant. ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/27 "2003-02-25T08:00:03Z")
I nominate Sock Munkey to start a new “Sex Lives of Superheroes” thread! Anyone second this? ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/28 "2003-02-25T10:35:42Z")
where would it go? GQ or MPSIMS? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/29 "2003-02-25T10:51:48Z")
Cafe Society of course. It’s just an oversight that this wasn’t included in the forum description. Here’s how it _should_ read: > [@](#): > > Our salon for art, drama, literature, movies, music, _the sex lives of superheroes_ – all the artistic disciplines – if it’s about art or entertainment, it goes here. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Improved\_Scott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f17d59/32.png) [@New\_Improved\_Scott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Improved_Scott)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/30 "2003-02-25T11:08:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\* > To paraphrase: [ul] > [li]Guy gets hit by nuke and becomes Giant Green rampaging monster. [/li][li]Guy invents shrinking formula…then invents growing formula…then invents shrinking AND growing formula. Then invents a killer robot. Then gets wings and zap-bolts. [/li][li]Guy who invents shrinking formula meets look-alike of dead (or captured by evil Ruskies) wife and A) gives her shrinking formula but also gives her zap bolts and gengineered wings that let her fly. [/li][li]Guy in a war-zone in “South-east Asia” steps on booby trap and gets shrapnel near heart, gets captured by warlord who just happens to have all the equipment necessary to make A) a new energy source (“transistor powered”!), B) microcircuits, C) a Starship-trooper level battle-suit…with "transistor powered magnetic roller-skates!). [/li][li]Mythological deity with psychological issues traps son (also mythological god) in a crippled human form which discovers mythological weapon and becomes god again. [/li][li]Super-Soldier from WWII is frozen in an iceberg and just now thawed. [/li][li]2 mutants (super fast one and one who breaks things by pointing at them). [/li][li]One carnival archer who was tempted into a life of crime by wiley Ruskie spy who now wants to make good.[/ul][/li] > By the time you got through the origins, the movie would be 2/3ds over and the non-comics fans would be rolling their eyes. \*\* _snarfs some Pepsi_ You know, it just seems so natural in the comics… ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/31 "2003-02-25T11:41:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jeevmon \* > \*\*Oh please be kidding. There weren’t people complaining about that, were there? I mean, I could see complaining about the fact that Rogue didn’t have Amazing Mutant Boobs like she does in the comics, but not the claw thing. > > _sigh_ I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. It’s things like that which make Comic Book Guy and Larry Groznic realistic caricatures. (“When you are ready to have a serious discussion about Green Lantern, you have my email address.”) \*\* I’ll admit I was a bit grossed out at first: the way they did it in the movie at first looks pretty oogly. After I got used to it it actually looks cooler I think, and obviously the comic artists agree cause they’ve started drawing his claws like that in the books occasionally. As for Spidey pulling the web out his arse, there’s an easter egg in the DVD where the special effects people actually animated that! ---
**Author:** ![Gretchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@Gretchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretchion)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/32 "2014-10-05T19:38:06Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Kurt Busiek discussed this once saying essentially, for a comic-book movie to work you can get away with one “gimme”. “Peter gets bitten by radioactive/genegineered spider and gets Spider-powers”=1 gimme. > > “Peter is a super-scientific genius able to cobble together a super power (the webs) in his aunt’s basement AND Peter gets bitten by radioactive/genegineered spider and gets Spider-powers” = broken suspension of disbelief for non-comic fans. > > **This was in the context of why there’d NEVER be an Avengers movie.** > > To paraphrase: [ul] > [li]Guy gets hit by nuke and becomes Giant Green rampaging monster. [/li][li]Guy invents shrinking formula…then invents growing formula…then invents shrinking AND growing formula. Then invents a killer robot. Then gets wings and zap-bolts. [/li][li]Guy who invents shrinking formula meets look-alike of dead (or captured by evil Ruskies) wife and A) gives her shrinking formula but also gives her zap bolts and gengineered wings that let her fly. [/li][li]Guy in a war-zone in “South-east Asia” steps on booby trap and gets shrapnel near heart, gets captured by warlord who just happens to have all the equipment necessary to make A) a new energy source (“transistor powered”!), B) microcircuits, C) a Starship-trooper level battle-suit…with "transistor powered magnetic roller-skates!). [/li][li]Mythological deity with psychological issues traps son (also mythological god) in a crippled human form which discovers mythological weapon and becomes god again. [/li][li]Super-Soldier from WWII is frozen in an iceberg and just now thawed. [/li][li]2 mutants (super fast one and one who breaks things by pointing at them). [/li][li]One carnival archer who was tempted into a life of crime by wiley Ruskie spy who now wants to make good.[/ul][/li] > By the time you got through the origins, the movie would be 2/3ds over and the non-comics fans would be rolling their eyes. > > Busiek said that that’s why the X-Men movie was a natural. The origin? They were born that way. > > (I don’t much care about the web-shooter issue, but I haveta say that the carjacking was perhaps the ONLY time I’ve ever seen a movie improve on a comic. The idea that of ALL the houses in the world, the burgler jes’ happens to stumble into Peter’s always bugged me. And all the retcons in the world (Uncle Ben had met the thief earlier, their house used to be a speakeasy and there’s hidden money in it, the AWFUL idea that never got past the dumb-idea stage that Ben was a fence known to the thief, etc) haven’t improved things. > > Fenris My apologies for this resurrection, I just couldn’t help it. I’m sure we all felt the same way about the bolded text at the time, but now it just seems odd to read. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/33 "2014-10-05T19:46:27Z")
> [@Gretchion](#): > > My apologies for this resurrection, I just couldn’t help it. I’m sure we all felt the same way about the bolded text at the time, but now it just seems odd to read. [Still, your response seems to be missing something.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/34 "2014-10-05T21:36:25Z")
Still, if someone had told us at the time how Marvel would eventually solve the problem (four different origin movies! Joss Whedon!), we would have laughed them off the board. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/35 "2014-10-05T21:45:52Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Still, if someone had told us at the time how Marvel would eventually solve the problem (four different origin movies! Joss Whedon!), we would have laughed them off the board. The idea that Marvel Studios would become a respected heavy hitter on the Lucasfilm level, no less so. It’s gotten real, real quiet around these topics. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/36 "2014-10-05T21:54:33Z")
[quote=“Fenris, post:13, topic:156979”] This was in the context of why there’d NEVER be an Avengers movie. To paraphrase: [ul] [li]Guy gets hit by nuke and becomes Giant Green rampaging monster. [/li][li]Guy invents shrinking formula…then invents growing formula…then invents shrinking AND growing formula. Then invents a killer robot. Then gets wings and zap-bolts. [/li][li]Guy who invents shrinking formula meets look-alike of dead (or captured by evil Ruskies) wife and A) gives her shrinking formula but also gives her zap bolts and gengineered wings that let her fly. [/li][li]Guy in a war-zone in “South-east Asia” steps on booby trap and gets shrapnel near heart, gets captured by warlord who just happens to have all the equipment necessary to make A) a new energy source (“transistor powered”!), B) microcircuits, C) a Starship-trooper level battle-suit…with "transistor powered magnetic roller-skates!). [/li][li]Mythological deity with psychological issues traps son (also mythological god) in a crippled human form which discovers mythological weapon and becomes god again. [/li][li]Super-Soldier from WWII is frozen in an iceberg and just now thawed. [/li][li]2 mutants (super fast one and one who breaks things by pointing at them). [/li][li]One carnival archer who was tempted into a life of crime by wiley Ruskie spy who now wants to make good.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE] The rash of zombie threads over the last few days has been bugging the shit out of me, but they’re all worth it for this gem. How wrong we were! ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/37 "2014-10-05T22:42:57Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > The rash of zombie threads over the last few days has been bugging the shit out of me, but they’re all worth it for this gem. How wrong we were! We’ll it still wasn’t wrong really. The assertion was that you couldn’t introduce all of those things in _one_ movie. It’s still unproven that you _could_. Marvel found a way to do it without overloading on ‘gimmes’. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/38 "2014-10-06T00:45:30Z")
Back to the OP, I’m not especially fond of “organic webshooters in his wrists” _or_ “invented web formula”. In the first, we end up asking why his spinnerets are _there_ of all places, and in the latter we’re forced to accept that completely independently of his spider-related powers, he’s also a metatechnologist, whose only meta-invention coincidentally happens to also be spider-related. The explanation I prefer is that his spinnerets really are in his nether regions, but that with some relatively simple chemistry (dissolving it in alcohol, say) he’s able to turn what comes out of his butt into usable web-fluid. This still requires him to be smart, but only clever-high-schooler smart (which he’s well-established to be), not meta-smart. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/39 "2014-10-06T01:09:09Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > The rash of zombie threads over the last few days has been bugging the shit out of me, but they’re all worth it for this gem. How wrong we were! Just so everyone’s clear, that bit you quoted was absolutely not my opinion, but that of Kurt Busiek\* \*Although, in retrospect, I remember a Peter David column or two stating the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979/40 "2014-10-06T01:10:02Z")
So, did Sock Munkey ever start that “Sex lives of Super Heroes” thread?😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-man-is-my-memory-failing/156979.md?page=3)