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I know he had them for a time pre-Civil War, but why wasn't organic web spinning one of the powers Peter Parker got when he was initially bitten by the radioactive spider? His strength, agility and wall-crawling are all abilities that spiders have. I would argue that above all, a spider is known for spinning webs and Parker should have developed that natural ability as well, instead of having to invent his own webbing fluid.

With all his other powers, was natural webbing too much for a single hero in the 60's?

UPDATE

In recent Amazing Spider-man comics, Peter meets a girl named Cindy that was bitten by the same radioactive spider he was and she has natural web spinning powers (Amazing Spider-Man Vol 3 #4). How can that be?

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I haven’t been able to find any discussion by Stan Lee describing the deliberations over what Spider-Man’s exact powers should be.

Specifically on “was natural webbing too much for a single hero in the 60's?”, looking at the original comics it seems more likely that it wouldn’t have been enough.

Academic intelligence and scientific aptitude is sometimes as important to Spider-Man as his physical abilities, especially in the early comics. (He works out how to insulate himself against Electro’s abilities in Amazing Spider-Man #9, for example.)

Inventing his own web-shooters is a way to illustrate the extent of his intelligence. Spider-Man’s a nerd — if he’s nerd enough to invent his own webbing, that’s a cool thing.

Self-made web shooters also provide useful limitations to the power. Stan Lee has discussed how he intended Spider-Man to be a super-hero with everyday teenager problems – money worries, girl trouble, etc. Being responsible for making his own web shooters means they could write stories where he ran out of fluid, or his shooters stopped working, giving it the more practical, realistic tone they were going for.

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Spider Man 2099 did get natural spinnerets, which may support your theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_2099#Powers_and_abilities

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  • Yeah, he's the reason I began to ask the question about Parker.
    – The Unknown Dev
    Aug 17, 2014 at 15:14

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