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How Does Spiderman Stick to Walls? [Comic Questions]


First of all, let's look at how real spiders stick to walls. Recently, scientists have come to understand that spiders use something called Van der Waals force, an electrostatic force that attracts all surfaces on a molecular level. Spiders have tiny hairs on their feet, and each hair causes a slight bond to a surface that's not much on its own. However, the thousands of hairs multiply that force until it can support the spider's weight.

The assumption with Spider-Man has always been that this ability somehow transferred to him with the spider-bite. The movie used this explanation, showing long hairs coming out of his fingertips. That's a nice idea, but it doesn't work. In real life, technical problems are plaguing scientists trying to duplicate the effect. Specifically, they've found that this works on tiny spiders, but the force is difficult to scale up to support a full-grown man. Even if it was, the force would be so strong that it would be hard for Spider-Man to peel off. It also doesn't address the problem of his shoes - are the hairs long enough to work through the soles?

Since the true understanding of wall-crawling was a mystery up until a few years ago, the comics had to come up with other explanations for Spider-Man's power. At various points, the explanation changed to static electricity. This became a plot point, because the supervillain Electro was able to absorb static electricity in the area and keep Spiderman from sticking to walls. But static electricity can't be the explanation for Spider-Man's powers, because static electricity is an extremely weak force. Besides, he would have to be able to shoot lightning from his fingers.

The entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe states that Spider-Man is able to "enhance the flux of inter-atomic attractive forces on surfaces he touches, increasing the coefficient of friction between that surface and himself." Uh, yeah. That seems to be the best explanation for his power, and the comics have gotten pretty crazy with it. They've had Spider-Man stick with other parts of his body like his back, and villains who tried to pull him off walls ripped pieces of the wall off with him.

This is a pretty complicated idea that would explain his ability, but doesn't explain how he got it, since spiders don't stick to walls that way. Let's just go with the obvious. Spiderman sticks to walls with the magical power of unexplained superpowers. Case closed.


  1. Alex J. CavanaughJuly 23, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    I certainly couldn't explain it!

  2. Thanks for the cut and paste from Wikipedia. I did use that as a reference, and you'll notice I addressed all the problems with that entry - namely that it's more about how he uses his abilities, rather than how they work or how he got them.

  3. Wiki:


    conscious control over this ability, and it is simple and instinctive
    for him to use—he first uses it in Amazing Fantasy #15 before realizing he has the ability. Originally, Spider-Man is able to stick to surfaces using his hands and feet,[6] but later he is shown to be able to cling with his back.[7]
    The strength of attraction between himself and the surface he is
    touching it with one fingertip. Spider-Man is also able to jump against
    the walls and he can also sprint against a wall which helps him climb
    surfaces a lot faster.

    Peter Parker needs to crawl without changing into the costume, he
    removes his shoes first.[8]

    notably a back up in Amazing Spider-Man #365 by Tom DeFalco. There
    DeFalco had Peter explain his abilities to Mary Jane and Peter revealed
    time he realized he could keep his mask firmly fixed to his face
    (previously used to prevent undesirable mask removal), protecting his
    secret identity.[9]

    wall-crawling abilities in a more offensive manner, burning distinctive
    digging five deep wounds in Norman's face. Despite the obvious offensive



  4. Good read ;) Wall-crawling to me had something to do with the Van der Waals force and the ability to mentally control that power in a fashion that applies to his hands and feet. But this is just my opinion ;)

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