How can he afford those WONDERFUL toys?


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Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
He did...but some of that stuff predates the latest film. The web wings, the web shooters- they go back to the earliest incarnation of the character, before the MCU was a thing.
 

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
The article talks about things like making Spidey's suit bulletproof which is not something it ever was - and is contrary to costume damage he gets in some comics. And about forking out for natural spider silk when AFAIK the web shooter fluid was his own design.

When you consider that Iron Man built much of his original suit with ingenuity, including having to partially rebuild it in the Netherworld. I think we can assume that Peter Parker with access to scavenged parts and a well equipped high school laboratory (of the type only seen in comics), could have rigged up the webshooters all on his own.
 

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
He did...but some of that stuff predates the latest film. The web wings, the web shooters- they go back to the earliest incarnation of the character, before the MCU was a thing.

Well, yeah, but...

1) his costume is not, classically, bullet proof.

2) The web wings are fabric and/or webbing from his arms to his sides. Not exactly a heavy investment there.

3) Most importantly - "how much the closest equivalents in the real world cost" is not really the cost for things that don't exist. Spidey can't actually do what he does with a ton of spider silk. That pricing simply doesn't have a relevance.

Tony Stark is, in fact, rolling in it. But when an F-16 cost about $19 million in 1998, and the plane doesn't fly as far or long, isn't bulletproof, and has nowhere near the level of miniaturization as Stark's armor... you'd need to be more than "rolling in it" to make it happen.

There is no effective price for things that are not possible with our technology.
 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
What’s the old saying, “impossible just costs more”?

I realize the cost of unobtanium is pure fiction, whether it’s the alloys that make up a suit of Iron Man’s armor or 10lbs of ground unicorn. But Spider-Man’s gear always bugged me more than most. What he did on his budget living in a small room in Aunt May’s place strained my suspension of disbelief as much as his powers’ origins.
 

Ryujin

Legend
What’s the old saying, “impossible just costs more”?

I realize the cost of unobtanium is pure fiction, whether it’s the alloys that make up a suit of Iron Man’s armor or 10lbs of ground unicorn. But Spider-Man’s gear always bugged me more than most. What he did on his budget living in a small room in Aunt May’s place strained my suspension of disbelief as much as his powers’ origins.

Weird Science Rules: Combining improbable things, to obtain impossible results.
 

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
I thought it had long been established that Peter Parker built his original web shooters from spare parts and chemicals he found in his High Schools lab - or at least from having access to an advanced lab as an afternoon job.

According the the Marvel Database
Spider-Man's web-shooters are twin devices, worn on his wrists beneath the gauntlets of his costume, that can shoot thin strands of a special "web fluid" (the chemical composition of which is not known) at high pressure. (Note: The fluid itself is officially described as being pressurized at 300 psi, but the actual number has been known to change.) The spinneret mechanisms in each web-shooter are machined from stainless steel, except for the turbine component, which is machined out of a block of Teflon, and the two turbine bearings which are made of amber and artificial sapphire. The wristlets and web-fluid cartridges, the latter of which Spider-Man wears on his belt beneath his costume's tunic, are mainly nickel-plated annealed brass. The wristlets have sharp steel nipples, which pierce the bronze caps when the cartridges are tightly wedged into their positions.

The hand-wound solenoid-needle valve on each web-shooter is actuated by a palm switch; this in turn, is protected by a band of spring steel which requires a 65-pound pressure to trigger it. The switch is situated high on the palm to avoid most unwanted firings. An additional safety measure, to prevent misfires while Spider-Man is making a fist or carrying things, is that the trigger has to receive a double-tap from Spider-Man's middle and third fingers. The small battery compartment is protected by a rubber seal.

The effect of the very small turbine pump vanes is to compress (shear) the web fluid and then force it, under pressure, through the spinneret holes, which cold-draws it (stretches it: the process wherein nylon gains a four-fold increase in tensile strength), then extrudes it through the air where it solidifies. As the web fluid exits the spinneret holes, it is attracted to itself electrostatically, and thus can form complex shapes. The spinneret holes have three sets of adjustable, staggered openings around the turbine which permit a single, incredibly strong line; a more complex, spreading spray; and a thick, tremendously adhesive liquid.[6]

The web line's tensile strength has been estimated to be 120 pounds per square millimeter of cross section. The 300 p.s.i. pressure in each cartridge is sufficient to force a stream of the complex web pattern an estimated 60 feet. (It goes significantly farther if Spider-Man shoots it in a ballistic parabolic arc.)
 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
I thought it had long been established that Peter Parker built his original web shooters from spare parts and chemicals he found in his High Schools lab - or at least from having access to an advanced lab as an afternoon job.

Yes.

But how long can he continue to supply himself with “spare parts and chemicals he found in his High Schools lab”. Never mind that Aunt May probably doesn’t have a machine press or welding equipment in hand- especially the kind of tools you need to work with Teflon- at some point, PP is going to look awfully creepy wandering the halls of his old HS.

Photogs have access to some unusual chemicals, but doubtful all he needs, in the amounts he needs.

Fast forward to today: how many of the ingredients in his formula are going to get him flagged by federal law enforcement? What looks like normal consumption for a business might look “terroristy” for some young dude.
 
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