Background
I've only watched "Into the Spider-Verse" (and loved it!), as well as the Sam Raimi movies and the first "Amazing Spider-Man". Not sure if the other movies are relevant, but I'll be using "ITSV" as my point of reference. I haven't read any of the comics, but I've been searching all over the wikis, reading forums, and Googling articles, but I can't figure this out. The weirdest thing for me is that no one else seems to be asking this (not even from fan theory sites or behind spoiler tags):
Main Questions (tl;dr)
Why did the spider that bit Miles Morales end up giving him vastly different and non-"spider-like" powers, namely Venom Blast (electricity) and invisibility, compared to Spider-Gwen, Peter Porker, etc.?
On top of that, why did none of them think it was odd that Miles had not only all of their common powers but two more on top of that?
NOTE: I recognize that there might be small differences across the other Spider-People (like mechanical or organic shooters), but electricity and invisibility seem really out-of-place for doing "whatever a spider can", at least for me. Plus, some other Spider-People have a few unique powers, but they usually come from additional sources like already being a psychic mutant (Madame Web), additional substances, etc. I just want to focus simply on the formulas of "spider + radiation = Spider-Person" or "lab-engineered spider => Spider-Person", which match the ones in "Spider-Verse" and many more in the comics.
Questions and Leads
Here are the questions and leads I've thought of so far:
- My own answer to why none of the other Spider-People cared: they're too jaded and have seen too much to be curious about Miles getting electricity and invisibility powers, even if he's one of them. I get that it's not the focus of the movie, so it's probably just an oversight on the writers.
- And yet, even so, for them to barely remark on it? Not even quipping, "That's not fair" or "Why electricity?" while Peter B. Parker backs Miles up? They practically have three superheroes in one Spider-kid, two of them being decidedly NOT spider-like. Seems like quite an oversight, too big to not have been noticed across original comic writers, script writers, directors, etc.
- Spiders: Spiders use the Earth's electro-magnetic field to travel many miles on electric currents. However, generating electricity or manipulating one's own electricity isn't like sensing and using electricity outside of yourself. Are there any spiders that can generate or even direct electricity, or change their own colors to blend into the background? I'll even count what the crazy ants from "Ant-Man" can do, which is conducting electricity.
- Same or different projects?: Were all of the spiders that bit the Spider-People in the movie from the same Osborne project? If Miles was the only one of the six in the movie that got bit from that project, then who else got bit by those spiders, and did they exhibit different kinds of powers?
- Difference in kind: This is why Miles' powers stick out to me the most. Even if the spiders were all from different projects, why aren't there more variations? Clairvoyance and other mental powers could be seen simply as extensions of "Spidey-sense", but electricity and invisibility are clearly physical. With the number of Spider-People out there, you'd think there would be more variation, but Miles' powers stand out from among the others when looking at origin and kind. Just how special is the spider that bit Miles?
- Oz Formula: It seems the Oz Formula arc hasn't been completed yet in the comics, which might mean that they probably will address this point eventually. But if they've brought up the question or even already somewhat implied an answer, why isn't it a topic of speculation or fan theories, especially with the new movie and a likely sequel on the way?
- On that point: from what my comic-book-enthusiast friends say, no one really cares about the origin of the power or how it works; people care way more about what the character does with it. I understand why people may not care that much about the spider compared to the Spider-People, and I get that in the end it's all "science-magic", but there's been a clear pattern to the others' origins, and Miles' spider breaks that pattern by a margin of two whole powers. It's like a guy giving everyone a few spiders as pets, and maybe also a fly or praying mantis or other bugs, and then he gives Miles a few spiders, a mimic octopus, and a real-life Pikachu. My "Science-Sense" is telling me, even if you accounted for the randomness of "science-magic", something just doesn't fit.
Spider-People of note
- Peni Parker: I recognize that Peni Parker also has a major difference as well: having a psychic connection with the spider that bit her, which happens to be sentient. She also doesn't seem to have any shooters except through her robot, so that might be a clue, though I'm not even sure which Spider-People have mechanical or organic shooters. I haven't found anything on the spider that bit Peni either, except maybe that the spider belonged to her father originally, but I'm not sure if that means her father genetically engineered the spider or that it originally came from the same project as Miles' spider.
- Spider-Woman: Apparently, at least one Spider-Woman also had electric powers and even called it "venom blast"! I would have counted her because she was irradiated near spiders, or in another case, irradiated and given a spider serum to save her. Unfortunately, her origin story has been rebooted and retconned too many times, involving many other factors like Hydra experimentation, etc., so I don't think I can count her. I don't know about the other Spider-Women.
- Madame Web: Also psychic, but one was born a psychic mutant, and another was injected with a serum of spider and plant stuff, not directly from spider. I don't know about other Madame Webs.
- Venom and Carnage: Symbiotes. Aliens don't count.
Disclaimer: I ask not because I mind Miles having those two extra powers over the others; I think it works well in the movie (and apparently in the comics as well) to compensate for his lack of belief in himself, giving him a little leg up in confidence in his character arc. But the movie never addressed this, and nobody questioned why Miles had these extra powers. I still really love and enjoy the movie for all its awesome qualities, so this doesn't take away from it.
Still, it bugs me the more I think about it. If no one else is asking, maybe I misread, misheard, or misinterpreted a post or line or something.
Let me know if this hasn't been addressed in the comics yet and people are waiting on the answer, if nobody asked because they never cared, if it already has been addressed and I'm just being a dumb-dumb, if others have asked this question, or even if I'm just asking too many questions.