Superhero science is a topic that receives a lot of attention—both from myself and the general public. It’s not unusual for someone to wonder what a real-life superhero would be like now that superhero movies are a daily occurrence at multiplexes and aren’t only something that nerds on the periphery of society read.

This is the seventh appearance of the Marvel web-slinger in a contemporary film, and it all started with The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Although several of Sam Raimi’s modifications for his series have been changed back to the conventional design, the superhero remains mostly unchanged.

Peter Parker is endowed with remarkable abilities that are specific to spiders after being bitten by a genetically modified spider. I began to ponder while watching the new movies and wondering what powers Peter Park possesses and lacks. How plausible is it that Peter Parker has spider-related abilities, putting aside the actual process of infection?

What would the genuine “Spider-Man” look like?

The Answer: Horrible. It’s the stuff of nightmares.

The main abilities Parker acquires that make him resemble a spider are extraordinary strength and agility, the capacity to scale walls, precognition via spider sense, and the capacity for extremely long jumps. Even though many spiders appear to possess these skills, humans would not be able to use them as effortlessly.

The exoskeleton and open circulatory system of certain spiders, in particular, are essential to their exceptional, even astonishing, capacity for long jumps. Although spiders possess their own distinct set of muscles, they are arthropods and carry their skeleton on the exterior of their bodies in the form of a chitinous shell.

You are familiar with the sound and sensation of a spider being crushed? Its exoskeleton bursts at that point, dripping all of its life-giving fluids over the shoe you just killed it with. Spiders manage their blood pressure, as opposed to utilizing their muscles to achieve this leap.

Spiders have an open circulatory system, which means their insides are filled with an open bath of blood, as opposed to humans, who have a circulatory system with a network of veins and arteries to carry their blood. By tightening their abdominal muscles, spiders use this to perform their impressive jumps.

Drawing blood from their legs induces a region of low pressure, which causes the spider’s legs to fully expand and lift the spider into the air. Peter Parker would thus need to switch to an open circulatory system like those utilized by arthropods to jump like a spider.

He would then need to create a strong exoskeleton to prevent all of his blood and internal organs from oozing out while dangling above across the streets of Manhattan.

He might as well acquire the rest of the spider’s outward characteristics, such as coarse hairs all over his body and six to eight eyes that recognize basic pictures, such as light and shadow as well as some pigmentation because doing so would involve changing his external shape.

This doesn’t even touch on Parker developing extra limbs, which was covered in the comic books during the Six Arms Saga, along with a few less horrifying spider traits.          

And what about web shooters?

For The Amazing Spider-Man series, Marc Webb switched back to mechanical web-shooters after fanboys heatedly debated Sam Raimi’s decision to give his version of Spider-Man organic web shooters. Raimi, though, may have had a point.

The fact that all spiders have eight legs, two body sections (a cephalothorax and an abdomen), and the capacity to manufacture silk are among the few traits they share. Even those species of spiders that don’t construct webs to catch their food make silk.

Mechanical shooters wouldn’t be required because Peter’s borrowed spider’s biology should include silk creation as a key function. The catch is that there is.

Webbing does not emerge from a spider’s appendages. Between its sex organs and its anus, at the bottom of its belly, it spins silk. Yes, if Peter Parker were to acquire actual spider skills, his skin-tight outfit would require a simple hole to allow him to blast the web from his taint.

If one were to judge Spider-Man just by his physical look, he would be a huge arthropod with coarse hairs, eight eyes, and webbing projecting from his crotchless Spidey-Suit. Not exactly the hero you want to come to the rescue.

But is Spider-Man even a hero in this case?

Hardly. In David Cronenberg’s The Fly, Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) asks, “Have you ever heard of bug politics? Also, I haven’t. Politics are not a thing with insects. They are quite cruel. No pity, no bending the truth. The bug is not trustworthy.

Arachnids are a whole different class of arthropod than the one he is referring to, although they are still rather closely related. Although they are a vicious group of animals, spiders may help to reduce the bug population.

In the first place, every species of spider is a carnivore, except the Bagheera-killing spider in Central America. Either actively stalking or passively entangling their victim in their webs, they capture their prey.

Spiders must first liquefy their meal since they are incapable of developing any kind of rigid mandibles. For the body to disintegrate into liquid form, they occasionally inject their victim with venom.