- What is going on you wonderful nerds?
Scott here, and I was sent these amazing 3D printed
web shooters from my buddy Andrew on Twitter.
He made these and they're so cool.
Got the little trigger right here,
each one of these web cartridges is removable and magnetic,
it is super rad.
He sent it to us through our new P.O. box,
which we just set up, right here,
all the info right there.
These things are super cool, they're perfect for our month
of Spider-Man videos for Web-ruary,
and it got me thinking about Spider-Man's web shooters.
And by got me thinking, I mean I planned this topic
months ago and this was just serendipity
that I could fit these in.
Spider-Man's web shooters are no doubt iconic.
Two thirds of movie Spider-Men recommend them.
I mean, look at all the things they can do.
Shields and parachutes and skis,
I mean, what can't these things do?
And yet, Spider-Man is not the first comic book superhero
to have wrist-mounted web shooting accessories like these.
The first one actually happened 20 years
before Spider-Man was ever created.
But first, a little background
on the origin of Spider-Man's web shooters.
So as I'm sure we all know, when Stan Lee
came up with the character of Spider-Man,
he sent it off to Jack Kirby to do all the heavy lifting,
really flesh out the character
and design what he would look like.
But when Kirby came up with his idea and sent it back
to Stan, Stan was not happy with what he'd come up with.
Not too much is known about Kirby's design of Spider-Man,
but reportedly in his eyes the hero would have used
a web shooting gun instead of wrist web shooters.
This is very similar to the character of The Fly
which Kirby helped co-create with Joe Simon,
who used a Buzz Gun, which sounds similar
to another previous character called The Tarantula,
who could shoot steel silken strands
from another web gun type thing.
Kirby may have taken inspiration from that
and thought of Spider-Man having a web gun.
But again, Stan Lee was not super happy with Kirby's design
so he sent it off to Steve Ditko,
who created a character with wrist-mounted web shooters
that used web fluid cartridges.
In the comic book we can see that Peter Parker
himself invented these web shooters.
Believing a spider needs a web, Pete invented them
in his room shortly after gaining his powers.
Later, in Amazing Spider-Man annual number one,
it tells us that Pete has studied spider webs so much
that he's probably the world's leading expert,
and this was all the way back
when he was still a high school student.
He creates and compresses the web fluid
into small cartridges that he carries on his belt,
and he can control the spray to be a fine spray,
a thick goop, or a strong line that allows him
to swing through the city, as well as all that
other stuff from earlier, like skis.
Of course there is that famous sound
that these web shooters make, thwip,
which we've actually talked about in another video here.
But again, Spider-Man was not the first character
to have web shooters like these.
To find that character we have to go all the way back
to Fox's The Eagle number two, featuring the Spider Queen.
Shannon Kane was the assistant of her scientist husband,
Doctor Harry Kane, but Harry was killed by enemy spies.
After his death Shannon wanted to carry on his work
and found a formula for spider web fluid.
Yes, web fluid.
She discovers that she can shoot it into the air
and make a web line strong enough to swing on.
Yes, web lines used for swinging.
Shannon Kane then designs a set of bracelets
that contain and shoot the web fluid.
Yes, wrist-mounted web shooters.
How incredible was that?
I mean, as far as I can tell Steve Ditko
was not inspired by the Spider Queen
when he was creating his interpretation of Spider-Man.
The Spider Queen was created by someone named Elsa Lesau,
which is probably a pseudonym
for Arturo and Louise Casanueve.
Louise was a fairly popular comic book artist at the time,
having an incredible run on Golden Age Aquaman.
But again, as far as I know there is no evidence to say
that Steve Ditko even knew that this character existed,
which would make for one incredible coincidence
that only the Parker luck could provide.
But what ever happened to Shannon Kane,
the Spider Queen, you might be wondering?
Well interestingly enough, she fell into the public domain.
But that is not the end of her story.
In 1993 Marvel created a series called Invaders,
and with issue number one we saw the Spider Queen.
And I want to point out that this Marvel character
is technically not the same as the Golden Age
character of the Spider Queen,
it is a character inspired by the public domain version.
She was a member of the villainous Battle Axis
along with several other Golden Age heroes
that also slipped into the public domain.
Together, they were all turned from heroes into Nazis.
She also made a brief appearance later in Avengers 1959,
but really not much has happened with her character.
So there you go, just a little bit of fun
Spider-Man history for you about these web shooters.
I would love to know your thoughts about this, though,
do you think that Spider-Man's web shooters
and the Spider Queen's web shooters are so similar
that it would be impossible for Steve Ditko
not to have taken inspiration from there?
And I would especially love to know if you have
any information regarding that.
I haven't been able to find anything yet
but maybe there is something out there.
This video was a part of our larger month
of Spider-Man videos for Web-ruary.
So if you want to catch up on that
you can go ahead and click right here.
I would especially recommend this video
about the history of Spider-Man's mechanical
web shooters versus organic webbing.
I will see you guys on Wednesday for another video.
My name is Scott, reminding you to read
between the panels and grow smarter through comics.
See you.
(light ambient music)