Know Superhuman Powers: Spider-Man possesses superhuman strength, reflexes, and equilibrium; the ability to cause parts of his body to stick with great tenacity to most surfaces; and a subconscious premonitional "danger" sense. The irradiated Common House Spider (Achaearanea tepidariorum) which bit Peter Parker was apparently already mutated from prior exposure to certain frequencies of radiation and received a final, lethal dose during Parker's attendance of the exhibition. The radioactive, complex mutagenic enzymes in the spider's blood that were transferred at the time of the bite triggered numberous body-wide mutagenic changes within Parker.

Spider-Man's overall metabolic efficiency has been greatly increased, and the composition of his skeleton, inter-connected tissues, and nervous system have all been enhanced. Spider-Man's musculature has been augmentedso that he can lift (press) about 10 tons. His reflexes are faster than an average human by about a factor of 15 (he is often able to dodge bullets, if he is far enough away). Spider-Man is extraordinarily limber and his tendons and connective tissues are twice as elastic as the average human being's, despite their enhanced strength. He has developed a unique fighting style that makes full use of his agility, strength, and equilibrium.

Spider-Man's exposure to the mutated spider venom induced a mutagenic, cerebellum-wide alteration of his engrams resulting in the ability to mentally control the flux of inter-atomic attraction (electrostatic force) between molecular boundary layers. This overcomes the outer electron shell's normal behavior of mutual repulsion with other outer electron shells and permits the tremendous potential for electron attraction to prevail. The mentally controlled sub-atomic particle responsible for this has yet to be identified. This ability to affect the attraction between surfaces is so far limited to Spider-Man's body (especially conetrated in his hands and feet) and another object, with an upper limit of several tons per finger. Limits to this ability seem to be psychosomatic, and the full nature of this ability has yet to be established.

Spider-Man possesses an extrasensory "danger" or "spider" sense which warns him of potential immediate danger by tingling sensation in the back of his skull. The precise nature of this sense is unknown. It appears to be a simultaneous clairvoyant response to a wide variety of phenomena (everything from falling safes to speeding bullets to thrown punches), which has given several hundredths of a second's warning, which is sufficient time for his reflexes to allow him to avoid injury. The sense also can create a general resonse on the order of several minutes: he cannot discern the nature of the threat by the sensation. He can, however, discern the severity of the danger by the strength of his response to it. Spider-Man's fighting style incorporates the advantage that his "spidey-sense" provides him.

Weapons: Spider-Man uses web-shooters which are twin devices worn on his wrists which can shoot thin strands of a special “web fluid” at high pressure. The web fluid is a shear-thinning liquid (virtually solid until a shearing force is related to nylon. On contact with air, the long-chain polymer knits and forms an extremely tough, flexible fiber with extraordinary adhesive properties. The web fluid’s adhesive quality diminishes rapidly with exposure to air. (Where it does not make contact with air, such as the attachment disk of the web-shooter, it remains very adhesive.) After about 2 hour, certain imbibed ether cause the solid form of the web fluid to dissolve into a powder. Because the fluid almost instantly sublimates from solid to liquid when under shear pressure, and is not adhesive in its anaerobic liquid/solid phase transition point, there is no clogging of the web-shooter’s parts.

The spinneret mechanism in the web-shooter is 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 wristlet and web fluid cartridges are mainly nickel-plated annealed brass. Spider-Man’s web cartridge belt is made out of brass and light leather and holds up to 30 cartridges. The cartridges are pressurized to 300 pounds per square inch and sealed with a bronze cap which is silver soldered closed. The wristlets have sharp steel nipples, which pierce the bronze cap when the cartridges are tightly wedged into their positions. A palm switch that is protected by a band of spring steel, which requires a 65 pounds pressure to trigger, actuates the hand-wound solenoid needle valve. The switch is situated high on the palm to avoid most unwanted firings. A rubber seal protects the small battery compartment. The effect of the very small turbine pump vanes is to compress (share) 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 electro statically and thus can form complex shapes. The spinneret holes have three sets of adjustable, staggered openings around the turbine, which permit a single line, a more complex, spun web line, and a thick stream. The web line’s tensile strength is estimated to be 120 pounds per square millimeter of cross section. The 300 pounds per square inch of pressure in each cartridge is sufficient to force a stream of the complex web pattern an estimated 60 feet (significantly farther if shot in a ballistic parabolic arc).

Parker went home, where his Aunt May sent him on an errand to deliver clothing to a charity driver located in a nearby National Guard Armory. There he saw a wrestling match which offered a prize for anyone who could remain in the ring at least 3 minutes with a professional wrestler. Interested in testing his new-found powers, Parker decided to accept the wrestler's challenge. Wearing a mask to conceal his features to avoid embarassment in case he lost, he easily defeated his opponent. A television producer's talent agent spotted him and promised him a segment on a network variety show. Parker, calling himself the Amazing Spider-Man, accepted the offer and decided to use it as a springboard to a show business career as a spectacular stunt performer. Over the next several evenings, Parker used equipment borrowed from his high school to fabricate a fluid that imitated a spider's silk web, and spinneret devices to project that fluid from his wrists in the form of a web strand. He also silkscreened his original design for a costume onto a body stocking and full-head mask. Thus prepared, Peter Parker appeared as Spider-Man on national television and was an immediate media sensation.

Just after the conclusion of the television show, a buglar, being pursued by a security guard, ran by Parker who impetuously allowed him to pass although he could have easily stopped him. When reprimanded by the guard, Parker arrogantly replied he was a professional performer and that chasing criminals was the guard's job. Parker promptly forgot the incident. A few days later, Parker returned home to find that his Uncle Ben had been murdered by a burglar. A police officer informed him that the burglar had been trailed to a nearby abandoned warehouse where the police had him trapped. Grief-stricken, Parker rushed to the warehouse to seek vengeance. At the warehouse Parker, as Spider-Man, easily captured the burglar and realized that he was the same person that he had allowed to run past him earlier that day in the TV studio. He realized that if he had acted responsibly earlier, he might have prevented the death of his uncle. Filled with remorse, he realized that with power comes responsibility, and he vowed to never shirk that responsibility again.

Peter began to use his powers to fight crime. He also tried to join the hero team Fantastic Four in their formative stages but was dismissed. As a solo hero, Parker took pictures of his fights as Spider-Man using an automatic camera, and then sold the pictures to the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man rapidly became one of the most well-known citizens in New York City, although, unfortunately, many people think of him as a menace due to the editorials of Bugle's editor J. Jonah Jameson. Parker's main concern about Aunt May was that, if she ever found out his secret identity as Spider-Man, it would aggravate her weak heart condition.

During this time, Parker dated Betty Brant of the Daily Bugle, although Liz Allen had a crush on him. At the same time, both Aunt May and her neighbor, Aunt Anna, were encouraging Parker to date Anna's niece, Mary Jane Watson, whom he would not meet until months later.

After high school, Parker enrolled in Empire State University, and divided his time as a hero, a student, and photographer. Eventually, Parker moved into his own apartment. During this time, he developed a relationship with Gwen Stacey. Unfortunately, during Spider-Man's conflict with the original Green Goblin, Stacey was killed. Some time later, Parker met Mary Jane and was interested in her, but didn't have the nerve to ask her out, she soon left Parker's life for many months.

Eventually, Parker graduated from ESU, and pursued his career as a hero and photographer. As he continued to live on his own, as his Aunt May decided to transform her house into a senior citizens' boarding house. At one point Parker began a romantic relationship and heroic partnership with the Black Cat, although Parker later broke it off due to the Black Cat's disdain for Parker's life apart from being Spider-Man.

Prior to this, Spider-Man was among the heroes kidnapped by the powerful Beyonder to fight in his so-called "Secret Wars." When his costume was damaged, Parker tried using the futuristic technology on the Beyonder's planet to repair it, and instead, replaced it with an alien "symbiote" which transformed into a black version of Spider-Man's costume, perhaps based on the newly appeared Spider-Woman. Parker used the symbiote for his costume, which was capable of transforming into street clothing as well as generate webs. When the costume behaves strangely, Parker sought help from the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic, who first discovered the costume was a living organism. He helped remove the costume by force, and kept it in the Fantastic Four headquarters for captivity. The symbiote would later escape, plaguing the life of Parker again and ultimately merging with Parker's enemy Eddie Brock, creating the villain Venom.

As Spider-Man, Parker has met and fought alongside nearly every hero in Manhattan, if not the world. Although he had fought with the hero team Avengers many previous times, he tried to join their number when he learned of the financial stipend their members received. Parker helped them stop an invasion and subsequent breakout of the energy research and villain interment facility, Project Pegasus. Spider-Man was deemed, however, to disrupt the team's cohesiveness, and was denied membership. Later, however, Parker would meet the international mercenary Silver Sable, and Spider-Man would often work on her behalf.

Later still, Mary Jane returned to Parker's life, and, after a battle between Spider-Man and the Puma, she revealed that she had known (or at least suspected) Peter Parker's secret identity from almost the beginning of his career. She and Parker started dating.