How Did Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Get His Powers?
As Tom Holland’s Spider-Man first appearance in the MCU wasn’t in a solo movie but rather in Captain America: Civil War (a movie with 10+ superheroes), some of the details about his origin story were left out. The most important one being the source of his powers. So, how did Tom Holland’s Spider-Man get his powers?
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man got bitten by a radioactive spider, but the producers decided to skip yet another origin story since the third one in less than 20 years would have certainly been redundant. In the MCU, we see Spider-Man already being a seasoned superhero.
Saying that, there is still a lot more to be said about the origin and extent of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and his powers. Furthermore, I am going to list them for you so that you know exactly which powers MCU’s Spider-Man has. Finally, you’re going to see just how powerful these powers make him.
Does Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Have Powers?
Due to the fact that Sony and Marvel decided to skip yet another origin story for Spider-Man (which would have been a third in less than 20 years), as well as the fact that this cinematic Spider-Man relies more on technology than any other Spider-Man before him, a lot of fans have been wondering whether Spider-Man actually has any powers, or is it all just a result of advanced technology?
Well, we can confirm here that the MCU Spider-Man indeed does have superpowers, just as every other cinematic Spider-Man before him. Everything you see in the movies is him; some of his powers might be enhanced by technology, but it’s all him.
The webs, the wall-clinging, the Spider-Sense – it’s all Spider-Man and the powers he has are 100% authentic, just like the powers of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, whose versions of the character relied on technology far less than Tom Holland’s version.
How Does Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Get His Powers?
As far as the source of his powers is concerned, there’s really no major difference between this version and the earlier ones, but we do see how the lack of a precise origin story might have confused fans. In fact, the MCU Spider-Man was, like every other major Spider-Man, bitten by a radioactive spider, which is confirmed in the MCU through several dialogues:
Ned: “You got bit by a spider? Can it bite me? Well, it probably would’ve hurt, right? You know what? Whatever. Even if it did hurt, I’d let it bite me. Maybe. How much did it hurt?”
Peter: “The spider’s dead, Ned.”
– Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
As well as here, albeit indirectly:
Tony Stark: Yeah. Look at you go. Wow! Nice catch. 3,000 pounds, 40 miles an hour. That’s not easy. You got mad skills.
[…]
Tony Stark: You know what I think is really cool? This webbing. That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?
Peter Parker: I did.
Tony Stark: Climbing the walls, how you doing that? Cohesive gloves.
Peter Parker: It’s a long story. I was uh…
Tony Stark: Lordy! Can you even see in these?
Peter Parker: Yes. Yes, I can! I can. I can-I can see in those. Okay? It’s just that… when whatever happened, happened… it’s like my senses have been dialled to 11. There’s way too much input, so… they just kinda help me focus.
– Captain America: Civil War (2016)
As for the reasons why the MCU Spider-Man never got a proper origin story, this is what the production team said in an interview:
“We never talked about showing it, because the MO was always to not show anything we’ve seen before,” Watts said. “If anything ever felt slightly familiar, to try to figure out if there’s a way to avoid it or tackle it in a different way. But that was something that definitely felt like we’ve seen that before.”
[…]
By now, a third Uncle Ben death in cinema in less than 20 years would be redundant. “That’s why,” Feige said, regarding the choice to skip the scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming. “You didn’t really have to ask,” Pascal added.
– “Uncle Ben And The Spider Bite Were Never Considered For Spider-Man: Homecoming”, comicbook.com, September 5, 2017
What Are the MCU Spider-Man’s powers?
Now that we have established that the MCU Spider-Man indeed has superpowers and that he got them in the same way as every other major Spider-Man, we can see what these powers are, exactly. We’re not going to dig too deep into each of them, as most of it is common knowledge, but we thought it opportune to give at least one brief analysis of the issue.
His most pronounced human abilities are his exceptional intelligence as well as his vast engineering and science skills, but this is all augmented by his superhuman abilities gained from being bitten by a radioactive spider.
Thus, Peter Parker gained a lot of spider-like abilities, such as wall-crawling, the ability to shoot webs from his body, an enhanced immune system and his famous Spider-Sense (the famous “Peter Tingle”), used to detect approaching danger.
But, along with that, he has gained superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility and durability, along with a very specific healing factor that is always helpful in his fight against crime.
As for his actual strength, the MCU has never been as specific as the comic. He has superhuman traits, but how strong is he actually? He was able to fight against the other Avengers in Civil War as well as against Thanos and his army in the last two Avengers movies, so he certainly is quite strong.
In his solo movies, he has done several very interesting things that prove that his strength is on a very high level, especially in combination with this spider-like traits. We are going to compare those powers to other heroes’ powers in the paragraphs that follow.
Although we’re talking about the MCU, it is not a complete miss if we consult the official stats for Spider-Man in the comics, as presented in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z (2010):
| Score for Spider-Man (Peter Parker) | |
| Intelligence | 4/7 |
| Strength | 4/7 |
| Speed | 3/7 |
| Durability | 3/7 |
| Energy Projection | 1/7 |
| Fighting Skills | 4/7 |
As for his weaknesses, his most pronounced ones are the disruption of his Spider-Sense, which can happen by any means, and the chemical ethyl chloride, currently known as chloroethane (CH3CH2Cl), which is a possible side-effect of gaining superpowers.
Spider-Man might be younger than the other Avengers and one of the most underrated MCU superheroes, but the human arachnid has constantly proven to be not only great at his job, but also exceptionally strong. We shall now see how strong he actually is when compared to the other MCU superheroes.
How Powerful Is the MCU Spider-Man?
Now that we know everything, we can see just how powerful Spider-Man really is in the MCU, and we are going to establish that by comparing him to the other Avengers from the same narrative continuity. We have already done a detailed analysis of this issue so we’re not going to go into much detail, but we can affirm that Spider-Man is somewhere on the same level of power as Captain America and Ant-Man.
He would be able to defeat the likes of Hawkeye, Black Panther and Black Widow, but he would lose in a fight to Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel. And with this conclusion, we wrap up our article.
