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While Spider-Man is incredibly physically strong, he’s actually got a pretty lean and agile build. Usually, the bigger someone’s muscles are, the stronger they are, but that’s not the case in comic books. While Spider-Man’s case is often written off as just comic book fantasy, it turns out that there is real science that explains how Spider-Man could be so strong while remaining so slim.
There are so many physically powerful characters in the Marvel Universe, and they’re all absolutely ripped. Anyone can tell at a glance that a character like Thor or the Hulk wields incredible physical strength. Even if someone like Thor didn’t have Asgardian biology, someone with his build would still be incredibly strong.
So, standing next to characters like Thor and the Hulk, it’s easy to assume that Spider-Man must not be very strong at all, considering how much smaller he is. But that’s not exactly the case, as Marvel Anatomy: A Scientific Study of the Superhuman by Marc Sumerak and Daniel Wallace explains.
Spider-Man’s Muscles Are More Tightly Layered Than Most Humans’, Not Just “Stronger”
Marvel Anatomy: A Scientific Study of the Superhuman by Marc Sumerak, Daniel Wallace, and Jonah Lobe
The secret to Spider-Man’s strength is how his muscles are designed. They aren’t bigger; they’re more tightly packed together. This makes Spider-Man remarkably dense and deceptively strong. His muscles are tightly layered over one another, which makes it so he doesn’t actually bulk up or gain any significant size. It’s possibly one of the best parts of his mutation, and it’s why he’s able to move as quickly as he can, since he doesn’t have an excess of muscle slowing him down. Because of this, Spider-Man is capable of some pretty surprising feats of strength.
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While Spider-Man doesn’t outwardly look as strong as Hulk or Thor, he’s a lot stronger than people give him credit for. One of the most famous instances of Spider-Man’s strength is when he had to lift the Lizard’s collapsing laboratory. While it took him a while, he was eventually able to do it. Spider-Man is also capable of lifting and tossing cars with relative ease, which is a lot more than people would expect of someone with such a slender frame. But the density of his muscles isn’t the only secret that his body holds.
Spider-Man’s Secret Is in His Tendons, As Much as Muscles
Spider-Man Has Both Strength and Agility
While Spider-Man’s muscle density is certainly a major bonus, it’s not the only reason he can be Spider-Man. His tendons are also a major reason, as Spider-Man’s ligaments exhibit double the elasticity of regular humans, and they also have the tensile strength of braided cable, allowing Spider-Man to be both strong and agile. Usually, someone has to pick between having enough muscle mass to lift heavy objects, but they lose flexibility because of it. Likewise, prioritizing flexibility tends to come at the cost of raw physical strength, but Spider-Man’s body is perfectly balanced.
Having tendons that are both incredibly flexible and strong isn’t technically impossible, it’d just require a specific mutation.
Spider-Man’s unique tendons allow his body to be both physically strong and flexible, making him the best of both worlds. This could be true for real-life athletes as well. While they wouldn’t have the absurd super strength to lift a building, they’d be as close to Spider-Man as humanly possible. Having tendons that are both incredibly flexible and strong isn’t technically impossible, it’d just require a specific mutation. But that’s how the best athletes always are. While skill certainly goes into it, some are just more biologically predisposed to certain physical activities.
If Spider-Man Bulked Up, How Strong Could He Become?
What’s the Limit On Spider-Man’s Strength?
Spider-Man doesn’t really exercise, as he doesn’t have to. His mutation gave him all the strength he needed, but it begs the question of just how powerful Spider-Man could be if he actually worked out. Unfortunately, it seems like readers will never get an answer to that, because if Spider-Man did try to increase his physical strength, he’d end up ruining the balance his body naturally has between strength and flexibility. While he could certainly become far stronger than he currently is, he definitely wouldn’t be doing all those acrobatic flips through Manhattan, as he would simply be completely out of balance.
One of Spider-Man’s greatest strengths is the fact that everyone underestimates him. They think he’s just some clown in a mask who never takes anything seriously. But between his acrobatics, his strength, and his spider-sense, Spider-Man is possibly the strongest street-level hero Marvel has. He’s a remarkable hero, and every part of his biology seems to be finely tuned to make him as good as he can possibly be. One of Stan Lee’s biggest boasts about the Marvel Universe was that everything in it had some plausibility in real world science, and that certainly seems to be the case for Spider-Man.
Marvel Anatomy: A Scientific Study of the Superhuman is available now from Insight Editions!
“}]] Spider-Man is a lot stronger than he looks. Read More