10 Crazy Things You Just Have To Accept To Enjoy Spider-Man

7. Spider-Sense Works When It Has To

There's a couple of leaps of faith readers have to take when it comes to Spider-Man's early warning systems. For one thing there's the fact that his powers derive from that radioactive spider bite he got as a clumsy, dorky teen, imbuing him with the proportionate strength and agility of the arachnid, along with the ability to climb walls. The webbing came later, made by Peter himself, so we have to assume that the Spider-Sense that's so often tingling is also supposed to be based off attributes spiders have. Which they don't. Spiders don't have an early warning system. Otherwise they'd be able to move out the way before we swatted them with a rolled-up magazine (Bourne style) or, for the more humane of us, trapped it beneath a glass and chucked it out the back door. The other thing we just have to go with is that the Spider-Sense only works, like, 50% of the time. Because if Spidey knew everything that was coming, there wouldn't be a whole lot of threat or suspense in any of his adventures. We know deep down he isn't going to die or anything, anyway €“ in the same way we make that assumption for any protagonist in a piece of fiction €“ but having him be able to dodge every single attack and avoid anything bad from happening to him ever would make for some lousy stories. Some writers have had the Spider-Sense clouded by bonking the wallcrawler on the head, others have done the in-universe explanation that whilst he is warned of approaching danger he's rarely aware of what that danger actually is, but most writers just choose to ignore the existence of Spider-Sense when the plot demands it, and bring it back for the same reasons. What can you do, huh?