Spiderman’s preferred form of locomotion is one of the truly great logistical fictions—we simply want to believe it is possible. If other superheroes fly (or can run and jump with enough force to approximate it), the idea of sticky spiderweb as means of transportive connection seems (in contrast) a realistically (super)natural alternative. But while Times Square is a somewhat believable scene for the Web Crawler, there are far fewer parts of the city than one might imagine that are “web accessible.” While organic production has its own materiality, prior formulations leave questions about exactly how the scientific mind of Peter Parker was able to come up with a web-shooting device that works as long (or as reliably) as it did—failing only at the most (in)convenient of moments.
