GrandTheftTARDIS here, this is a brand new series I'm writing called 'Comic Book Science'. I want to explain to the best of my abilities the attributes of certain characters in the realm of comic books that simply don't have an explanation, or have a severely lacking one.
For my first chapter I've decided to write about the Amazing Spider-Man! Please leave a review on the story, tell me what you think, and suggest someone I could work on!
Spider-Man is probably one of the most influential superheroes of all time, no doubt. So many comic characters have pretty generic traits like super strength, super speed, flight, pretty basic stuff really. There's nothing wrong with that, but they're practically garden variety. Spider-Man is totally unique though, he has, and you guessed it, spider powers! He can cling to just about any surface, spin webbing and swing from it like Tarzan, and can detect just about any danger with a powerful 'Spider Sense'. Of course, these are things that really only exist in comics, no one could ever do such a thing in real life…could they?
Well, that's why I'm here. I spent awhile on this, and I hope you'll pay attention to! This is my theoretical explanation for Spider-Man's 'amazing' abilities.
First things first, how did he get those powers? We (hopefully) should all know the story. Young Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive/genetically modified/magical spider. Shortly after he learns he has the abilities of a human spider. Right off the bat, we know that the bite must have permanently altered his DNA. This may be possible if the spider transferred an RNA retrovirus into his bloodstream.
To keep it short, a retrovirus carries genetic information. This retrovirus would then enter the host's cell and then enter its DNA. The DNA then reads this new DNA and creates specific functions and proteins for that cell. This virus would have to make its way to almost every cell in the body and provide all different and new specific functions for each cell. This is highly unlikely, but it could indeed happen.
After the bite, Peter Parker was able to do nearly everything a spider can. How does he do what a spider can though? I'll start with probably the easiest ability to explain, super strength. This retrovirus would heavily increase the production of actin and myosin proteins. These proteins affect the contraction of muscles and could make a person much stronger than the ordinary human.
The next superpower I'm going to explain is wall crawling. This one I'm actually quite proud of. The comic book explanation for wall crawling is literally just mumbo jumbo, "Spider-Man is able to enhance the flux of inter-atomic attractive forces on surfaces he touches, increasing the coefficient of friction between that surface and himself." That, quite literally, makes no sense. The other comic explanation was just plain old static electricity, but this also doesn't hold up to his comic book feats. Just plain old static electricity would be far too weak of a force to make him impossible to rip off a wall! The movie explanation, where he has spider like hairs on his hands and feet, is the most realistic but still isn't strong enough to support his weight. He would also require far too little force to rip off of a wall. That's why I've come up with my own explanation that goes unmentioned anywhere in comics, and should make him fairly difficult to rip off of a wall.
There is a wonderful material known as "Geckskin" inspired by the feet of a gecko. You see, geckos have over 6,000,000 specialized hairs on one toe, and if all were used at the same time they could support, roughly, the weight of 2 people. The Geckskin material makes use of this idea, and rather than being super adhesive, sticks to walls using a method called "draping adhesion." One index card sized piece of this material can support 750 lbs. That's simply extraordinary! Another interesting thing about this material is that it is incredibly difficult to pull down off of a wall, in fact the harder you pull down on it, the stronger bond it has with the wall. If you pull the oppositedirection on the pads, it easily peels off. These two properties match the comic book feats because Spider-Man can easily scale a surface, but is incredibly difficult to pull off of a wall. Also, perhaps with enough force, he could be ripped off of a wall. However, the weight needed to pull him away may just be too strong for the wall to handle, and it would crack and break under the strain.
If you still are not convinced that Spider-Man's hands now act under a similar principle to draping adhesion, think that he still wouldn't be able to climb around on a wall; you are really hard to sway! Well, DARPA took Geckskin paddles, and attached them to a human's hands and feet. He was able to climb an 8 metere wall of glass with ease. Maybe because Spider-Man's wall crawling nature is biological, the attraction between surfaces is even stronger.
The next power I'll explain is spider sense, which was surprisingly easier to explain then I originally thought. I propose the idea that every hair on Peter Parker's body became ultra-sensitive to every small vibration in air currents. This is how spiders do it. To test the effectiveness of this ability, researchers took one of the world's greatest hunting spiders and had a bug fly over it. The spider easily leapt up and caught the bug while blindfolded. Apparently, spider hairs are so sensitive they can sense vibrations up to 1 billionth of a meter (roughly the width of an atom)!
Because humans have far longer hair than a spider, perhaps this ability is magnified? I'll be honest, that's pretty insane. Maybe that's why Andrew Garfield's hair is so long (Heyyo!)? Also, Spider-Man has been shown to navigate invisible laser fields, perhaps because he can sense disturbances in the air around him.
However, vibration sensitive hairs don't cover every bit of the spider sense's abilities. I also theorize that Spider-Man's sense of smell was heightened or modified to allow him to sense pheromones. Spider-Man has been shown to recognize enemies in disguise and makes him nearly impossible to sneak up on, yet his spider sense can be fooled. The reasons for this are because enemies and would-be assailants produce certain chemical pheromones that signal aggression, and disguised enemies may have a familiar scents that Spider-Man associates with 'bad vibes'. People that fool the Spider Sense can do this because they produce scents that Spider-Man associates with 'good vibes' (Mary Jane, or Aunt May), or he recognizes the person means no harm (Black Cat).
Lastly, Spider-Man's last great ability is his ability to shoot homemade "webbing" that is stronger than steel itself! Now this one, you must think I have no explanation for! It's impossible! Right? Right!?
You're dead wrong.
You see, based on the Ultimate Spider-Man handbook, we know that Spider-Man's webbing is comparable to steel or nylon in terms of tensile strength, needs to dry, and is super stretchy. This implies several things. This implies that the main component for the formula is nanocellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, or something else. These materials are biodegradable, nontoxic, fairly elastic, and stronger than steel in some forms or even nylon! A solvent is used to keep the material liquid inside the shooter, and then evaporates around the shooters nozzles making it harden. Or perhaps the formula is shear thinning, meaning it requires no solvent at all! Nanocellulose is shear thinning. The adhesive…I haven't quite figured out. Also, none of this is super experimental or anything similar to that. This is all perfectly affordable on a high schooler's budget. When nanocellulose hits the commercial market in a few years, it's said to be incredibly cheap for several grams.
The shooter itself is even easier to explain. It's basically just a pressurized polymer extrusion device worn around the forearm. It uses a double tap trigger to open a valve, and has an adjustable nozzle to change what sort of form the webbing is extruded as, sort of like a miniature nozzle to a garden hose.
Well, in case any of you have ever wondered how exactly Peter Parker can do anything a spider can, you now have an answer. At least my answer anyhow, while not officially 'canon' I consider my answer to be the definitive explanation, not to toot my own horn of course, I just think this is fairly believable.
Well, until my next super character analysis, Excelsior!