Let’s Talk Spider-Hands

So, while I’m gearing up for doing some actual full-sized sewing, I’ll take a little side-trip into the upcoming design side of the eventual costume(s).

Let’s cut to the chase: Spider-Man’s costume is a pain in the butt for an artist or designer. That web pattern! Not only is it time-consuming to draw in a comic (over and over), it is difficult to draw it consistently. In the comics, this didn’t matter a whole lot, right? As long as you stick the basic layout, who’s gonna notice? To an extent, that’s true, and maybe the casual observer wouldn’t notice minor changes.

But comic book fans are anything but casual observers.

Here’s how they did the webbing on the Raimi Spider-Man costume:

It’s actually kind of a cool idea. The pattern is reminiscent of the web expanding outward as it fires from his wrist (the fact that he had “organic” web shooters in the Raimi movies is a whole other discussion, but we’re not going there right now).

So, cool, but not “canonical,” in terms of Spidey Religion.

Honestly, I didn’t mind this so much in terms of the movie experience. If anything about the costume bothered me, it was the raised, silver-colored webbing. And the sharp edged eye lenses were a bit off, I thought. And the back emblem, designed as a larger version of the chest emblem, was cool, but jarringly non-traditional.

Am I making the point about comic fans not being casual observers when it comes to these details?

Anyway, back to the palm webbing pattern… Here’s how they did it for Amazing Spider-Man 2:

It’s basically just an extension of the pattern from the arms. It’s totally fine. Honestly, I didn’t even notice it either of the two times I watched the movie in theaters (wait, now I’m countering my point about comic fans). Overall, this was the most satisfying movie costume yet, but I can’t help but make the usual obnoxious comparison: “Well, in the comics…”

Actually, I suppose this isn’t so different from, say, the Hunger Games or Harry Potter fan who says similar things: “Well, that’s not how it was in the book.” (Did you ever notice that the drawings of Snape in the books showed him with a goatee/mustache, where in the films he’s clean-shaven? Maybe the [seemingly] evil guy with goatee is too cliche?)

Now, I pointed out that it is hard for comic artists to draw the overall web pattern consistently, and there have been some crazy aberrations from artists here and there, but there is actually a general “canonical” set of parameters for the webbing, even the webbing on the hand. This guy does an excellent representative drawing:

Source: http://www.lostonwallace.com/spideygloves.jpg

It’s sort of like the web rings from the thumb, index finger, and pinky spill down onto the palm and spread out to meet, like ripples. Non-overlapping ripples. Or something.

Anyway, for the “traditional” version of my costume, this is the way I want to do the web pattern on the palms. There are other aspects I am willing to alter, but for some reason this one is a sticking point when going for a “traditional” look, along with the “proper” classic back emblem.

All right. That’s enough about Spider-Hands I suppose. I mean, it’s like I can just go on and on about minor details of super hero costumes or anything…

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