What Happened To The Spider After Biting Peter Parker?
Charlotte Adams The dreaded spider which would become endowed with radiation not only gave birth to one adept spider based Marvel Comics hero... but two.
What began as a relatively straightforward origin to set the character of Spider-Man into motion has evolved into an arc that has had major ripple effects on the world of Spidey and his supporting cast. Shortly after biting Peter Parker, the famed radioactive spider would be left to perish in an atomic research facility not long after, or so readers thought.
Unlike gamma radiation, super soldier formulas, or having superpowers activated at puberty, it was a lone spider hailing from the ceiling of a New York City atomic research exhibit endowed with a massive amount of radiation that gave the teenage Peter his incredible spider-based abilities.
After Biting Peter Parker, The Spider Bit Cindy Moon
Following its encounter with Peter Parker, the spider would move onto Cindy Moon, a fellow Midtown High School student in attendance of the atomic science public exhibition. Moon receives a bite in her ankle before life ebbs from the dying arachnid's radioactive body.
Peter Parker was in actuality only the first of the spider's unknowing contributions to the war on super villainy, as Moon would be the spider's secondary and final choice. Cindy is seemingly the last individual the radioactive spider would come into contact with before its swift death. While Parker would quickly become the premiere New York City protector Spider-Man, Cindy Moon would take on the superhero identity of Silk well after Peter's establishment as Spidey.
The Spider Created Spider-Man And Silk
Given that both Parker and Moon happened to be bitten by the same spider, the two have their fair share of similarities but also radical differences when it comes to their distinct superpowers and abilities. Silk shares Spider-Man's capacity for wall crawling, superhuman strength, agility, stamina, and durability. However, unlike the friendly neighborhood hero, Silk is equipped with completely organic webbing as opposed to artificial, claws which often protrude from her fingertips, and her own spider (silk) sense that goes even beyond Peter's awareness of his surroundings.
With Amazing Fantasy #15 acting as Spidey's introduction to the world, there was only so much time writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko could explore pertaining to the hero's origin before jumping into Parker's heroism. Now that Spider-Man has become this pop culture icon over the years, Marvel has earned the opportunity to further explore the iconic spider bite origin. The callback to the famous radioactive spider and its creation of yet another superhero has not only had a profound effect on Spider-Man but Marvel's original mythology as a whole.
