Let's All Bitch About Organic Webshooters Again

By Rob Bricken in Comics, Movies
Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 3:10 pm

One of the ComicBookMovie guys claims to have found this early Sony promotional video for Spider-Man in which Tobey Maguire appears to be wearing homemade webshooters -- and not the organic webshooters that he actually sported in the film. This change tore the nerd world apart in 2001, with many claiming it was completely absurd that a radioactive spider could give a teen the ability to shoot webs out of his wrists, although the ability to climb walls, increased strength and basic precognition was imminently reasonable. Anyways, I don't think this video is real -- I can't really imagine a point where Sam Raimi would have shot a bunch of Tobey Maguire close-ups and had a bunch of the webslinging special effects ready, but not any shots of the other actors, fight scenes, or anything else -- but just in case, here it is. For my money, I never gave a shit. Organic, hand-made, whatever. I'm infinitely more perturbed about Peter Parker Sk8er Boi. (Via Blastr)
Tags: Comic Movies, Lies, Nerd Fights, Sam Raimi, Sony, Spider-man

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Timely-Tardis-Lego
Timely-Tardis-Lego like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @TheXenos @James.k.Polk @Lithroe @10glfan59  

http://adamvarga.com/strike/

 

http://www.fliptext.org/

 

http://copypastecharacter.com/

 

˙ǝsǝɥʇ ʎɹʇ 

Someguy
Someguy like.author.displayName 1 Like

@Timely-Tardis-Lego@TheXenos@James.k.Polk@Lithroe@10glfan59

Timely-Tardis-Lego, What are you doing here all alone?  

 

So we just need bold and italics substitution still.  That's the motto of TR.  Give us lemons and we will try to shove them up your ϖ   

 

TheXenos
TheXenos

Meh.  Organic web shooters were far from the biggest problems in the Rami films.  How about that awful Goblin costume?  Whoever the hell Kirsten Dunst was supposed to be playing and how they wrote her as the most cliche awful Hollywood love interest possible?  "Is that an angel" or did they seriously just riff a line from Phantom Menace?  Even in the first movie Tobey made the goofiest damn faces and voices?

 

Yeah. Organic web shooters is maybe not even in the top ten problems.

James.k.Polk
James.k.Polk like.author.displayName 1 Like

Hey does anyone know if html tags work here?

<i>testing</i>

TheXenos
TheXenos

[b] TESTICLES[/b]

 

[i]That is all.[/i]

James.k.Polk
James.k.Polk like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 5 Like

Guess not.

 

Has anyone mentioned that the new comment system sucks?

 

I mean in the last half hour or so...

10glfan59
10glfan59 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Why can i not like the more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This system really sucks.

James.k.Polk
James.k.Polk

Let's all bitch about organic webshooters later...

 

I confess I've been watching Futurama a bit more than I should.

vitaminsteve
vitaminsteve

Old news. This was some sort of early industry teaser, for like a NATO conference (hence the early, prefinal render webcrawler). In early cuts of the film, Peter developed a contraption to "control" the organic webbing, hence webshooters. The source of the webs was still organic.

spideylad
spideylad

It's real. This popped up a long time ago. And that's the Alex Ross suit they were originally going to go with.

ActualButt
ActualButt

Let's All Bitch About Spider-Man 3 Again?

SpindashShoryuken
SpindashShoryuken like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

I agree with you on the Sk8er Boi thing, Rob. I didn't buy it.

Someguy
Someguy like.author.displayName 1 Like

While I would have liked the Web Shooters to show the intelligence (natural or augmented) of Peter Parker, it never really bothered me or surprised me.   

Lithroe
Lithroe like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Best way to make your fake thing look legit?  Make it look like shit.

Someguy
Someguy like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Lithroe You have nailed it though, It's hard to tell but the web shooters scene looks just a tad bit clearer kinda standing out as fake.

 

 

Someguy
Someguy like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Lithroe Isn't that motto what lost you your job in plastic surgery?  

Lithroe
Lithroe like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Someguy No, what lost me my job was taking the plastic part literally. 

ILDC
ILDC like.author.displayName 1 Like

Why does he need the handmade webshooters anyway?

mosben
mosben

 @ILDC I agree.  Back in the day comics writers tended to make their super heroes awesome in every way possible.  Not only was Superman the most powerful person alive, he was super smart too.  Not only was Peter Parker lucky, he was a brilliant enough inventor to create something which would be revolutionary in its own right.  For some reason it just wasn't enough to be able to lift a truck over your head.

 

What blows my mind are the people that think these extremely detailed facts about the character are central to the character's identity.  The web shooters, the Spider Buggy, none of that stuff is what makes Spidey Spidey.  The central thing that defines the character in the books is his personal guilt, which drives him to heroism.    And even then, that's just what defines him in the comic.  Other stories can explore other themes or versions of the character.  Nerds are waaaay too committed to having one dogmatic view of characters and stories.

Nix.Nightbird
Nix.Nightbird

 @mosben  @ILDC WRONG!

 

The guilt is one thing. The other, equally-important thing about Peter Parker is that he is a science nerd. Science was the most important thing in his life outside of Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and that theme-- the science nerd superhero-- is central to Spider-Man's existence. All his original (best) villains were also science nerds or experiments gone wrong. He didn't have mutant villains. Or gamma villains. Or cosmic ray villains. He had villains with gadgets attached to them (rhino suit, octopus arms, vulture wings, goblin costume, mysterio stuff, scorpion suit,) and villains who were the result of a science experiment gone wrong (Goblin serum, Ock's explosion, Rhino/Scorpion both being stuck in their costumes, Lizard's serum, Morbius' serum, etc.)

 

Spidey had mechanical web shooters (as well as spider-tracers and a few other goodies) because being a science nerd was the point of Spider-Man's greatness. An average guy who got those powers wouldn't have developed web fluid to exploit his agility, wouldn't have figured out how to make tracers that work with his enhanced senses, and wouldn't have been able to out-think his mad scientist enemies to win the day... And that is what frequently made the difference with Spider-Man when he was facing the likes of Doc Ock, The Vulture, Mysterio, The Green Goblin, or evem the Jackal-- He outsmarted them. He didn't overpower them most of the time. He used his brain and his love of science to find a solution.

 

Take away his genius and inspiration, and you take away part of what he was doing to make Uncle Ben proud. You take away part of his essence. 

 

And don't talk to me about spider totems giving him the knowledge to make web fluid, or any of that other JMS crap... That was an awful retcon which is now, thankfully, ignored. 

 

Peter Parker always was, and always will be described as the teen science whiz and genius who got spider powers and, after learning a valuable lesson, combined them with his love of science to become the greatest hero of the modern age. 

 

mosben
mosben

 @Nix.Nightbird  @ILDC I'm willing to grant that being nerdy is important to Spidey but that doesn't mean he has to be a genius.  The important part of his nerdiness is the contrast between his powerlessness socially and his strength as both in his muscles and his sense of duty.  There's a big jump between having him be someone that's used to being persecuted for being smart and being able to out maneuver fairly intelligent villains, and independently creating a device and fluid which would be massively important discoveries in their own right.

 

The Marvel revolution in characterization was in making normal people with everyday problems, as opposed to the gods over at DC.  Making Peter a mega genius in addition to his bevy of super powers is just too much.  Smart, great.  Gifted, fine.  But even in a world where radioactive spiders can imbue people with their powers it's nuts to think that a 16 year old kid can create web shooters and tracers.  Moreover, that level of genius isn't the important part of  his nerdiness. The only important part about his nerdiness is how it affects his characterization and interaction with other people.  Nothing is lost by having him be merely the smartest kid in school, as opposed to one of the smartest people on the planet.

Lithroe
Lithroe like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @ILDC Man made is always better than natural, it's just the way things are.

chart001
chart001

Seems fake. I've never known a trailer (except maybe a Pixar film for obvious reasons) where the narrator discusses the companty the special effects is a 'selling' point.

 

Plus, for a teaser...seems there's an awful lot of info and scenes being depicted.

Mike_Pants
Mike_Pants like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @chart001 I've seen a lot of these kinds of trailers thanks to a VERY large VHS collection. They always put these kinds of ultra-detailed "Featuring music from blah blah blah!" in the spots before the feature presentation. Not sure if they still do that on DVDs...