the strength of Spider-Man's webs is nothing to laugh about. However, the Thing has officially shown that webbing does have its limits.

Aaron Kuder's variant cover for The Amazing Spider-Man #61 by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness depicts the Thing wearing Spider-Man's signature suit and attempting to take on his role for a day. However, he quickly proves that he's not nearly as capable of the job as he thought.

The artwork shows Ben Grimm face-first on the ground with his web snapping at the seams. Clearly, something has gone wrong to make Spidey's usually strong webs snap without any interference, and a dive into the physics behind Centrifugal Force shows that the Thing never had a chance to swing through NYC.

How Much Force Makes Spider-Man's Webbing Snap from Centrifugal Force (and the Thing)?

Warning: Serious Science Ahead, Comic Fans!

Spider-Man clearly experiences Centrifugal Force when swinging at the lowest point, similar to how riders in a car are pushed to the side during a turn. Therefore, there's a limit to how much force the webbing can withstand before it snaps at that lowest point - if that's where the Thing fell to the ground in the cover. For the scientifically unfamiliar, the way to determine the force exerted at the highest point in a curve is mass multiplied by velocity squared, divided by the radius of the curve (or F = mv²/r). To determine what each variable represents, it's crucial to dip into known comic lore and real-world physics.

For mass, it's important to first determine the Thing's weight, which canonically is approximately 500 pounds. To convert this unit to mass, his weight is converted to Newtons (in this case, 2224.11 N), then divided by 9.8 m/s² (also known as gravity). This math results in approximately 227 kilograms. From here, velocity is substituted with Terminal Velocity (aka 53 m/s) since this is how fast a webswinger would be at the height of a curve, making it 2809 because of the second exponent.

Finally, the radius of the webbing can be estimated in this cover to be about triple the Thing's height (5.4 meters) based on how tense the web appears. After placing these numbers into the Centrifugal Force formula and following the order of operations, this results in 118,082 Newtons of force that would need to be exerted before a web snaps at the height of a swing's curve.

Spider-Man's Webs Have a Hard Limit of Force It Can Withstand in a Swing

Questions Remain About How Strong His Webs Truly Are

It's fascinating to see that, while they are certainly incredibly strong, Spidey's webs still have their limits when put into motion during a swing. However, this begs the question of why he's been able to web things far heavier than the Thing. The answer to this lies with how it's used. When stationary, Spider-Man's webbing can hold heavy things in place without much resistance, such as cars or helicopters.

Centrifugal Force in a swing can put so much strain on a web, so when calculating the weight of the swinger, it's clear that there's a breaking point.

The strands in each web are strong enough to hold together despite the weight of the object while in place. However, when motion is put on the table, everything changes. Centrifugal Force in a swing can put much strain on a web, so when calculating the weight of the swinger, there's a breaking point no matter how strong the material is.

Spider-Man's Webs Have Been Shown to Have Exceptions Before

This Isn't the First Time Webbing Has Inexplicably Torn Apart

When looking into took on a Marvel god with the help of the Hulk.

It's amazing to see just how much new information about Spidey's webbing can come out of a joke variant cover to celebrate the Thing's anniversary. However, with science putting it to the test, it's an outcome that's incredibly insightful for fans. Spider-Man will always be seen as one of the strongest Marvel heroes, but thanks to the Thing from the Fantastic Four, it's clear that his most common crimefighting tool has some serious limitations.

The Amazing Spider-Man #61 is available November 13th, 2024 from Marvel Comics!