Warning: SPOILERS for Spider-Verse #1
Marvel Comics has finally revealed the truth about Spider-Man’s spider-sense! One of Spider-Man’s signature super-powers, the spider-sense is traditionally portrayed as a sort of “danger sense.” It gives Spider-Man an instinctive awareness of threats, and over the years he’s learned to trust it instinctively.
It may be a staple part of Spider-Man’s powerset, but the spider-sense has always been pretty mysterious. It doesn’t always trigger in response to immediate danger, which means Peter Parker sometimes struggles to interpret it; for example, it warned the wall-crawler when Glory Grant was dating a werewolf, but he had no idea what it was that was setting his senses tingling. The spider-sense has always seemed to operate on some sort of specific frequency, with Spider-Man creating spider-tracers that he can plant on a target in order to trace them.
The new Spider-Verse #1 written by Jed Mackay, finally lifts the lid on Spider-Man’s spider-sense. It does so, ironically, through Miles Morales rather than Peter Parker - another Spider-Man, who has some different abilities, but shares the spider-sense. Miles learns that the technical name for his spider-sense is an “arachnofrequency,” and that it is tied to a cosmic force known as the Web of Life and Destiny. The Web of Life and Destiny binds all of time and space together; by accessing it on an instinctive level, every Spider-Man has an innate sense of the world around them and even of what is yet to happen. Apparently each Spider-Man, from every alternate dimension, has a unique and distinctive arachnofrequency.
Interestingly, the issue sees another alternate universe Spider-Man, called Spider-Zero, use Miles’ specific arachnofrequency in a smart way. Situated at the center of the Web of Life and Destiny, Spider-Zero sends a signal through the Web, which only Miles can hear. She’s able to use this to locate Miles’ precise position in the time-space continuum, and then extract him.
It’s fascinating to get a sense of just how the spider-sense works. This interpretation corresponds perfectly with everything that’s been shown in the comics before; it explains why Peter Parker has been able to identify some sort of unique frequency for his spider-sense, which he’s gone on to exploit, and it also fits with the spider-sense’s sometimes indistinct warnings. At the same time, it also ties to modern Spider-Man lore, which has capitalized on the idea that Peter is one of the Multiverse’s “Spider Totems,” chosen to play a unique role in the multiversal Web of Life and Destiny.
Spider-Verse #1 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.
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