Warning: Spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #54!Peter Parker's true power as Spider-Man's high tech gadgets, including those that allow him to sling webs.

There's a heap of power in Peter Parker's arsenal, but The Amazing Spider-Man #54 reveals that Spider-Man's true power can be summarized in three words: "But he learns." Through all of his pain, through all of his trauma, and through all of his mistakes, Peter Parker always learns.

While it may seem like a simple ability, Spider-Man's ability to learn is part of what makes him such an amazing hero. This internal power is more important to Peter and his journey than any of his actual superpowers.

Spider-Man's True Power is Learning from the Past and Learning from His Mistakes

The Amazing Spider-Man #54 by Zeb Wells, Ed McGuinness, Mark Farmer, Mark Morales, Wade von Grawbadger, Marcio Menyz, and VC's Joe Caramagna

For much of Zeb Wells' run on The Amazing Spider-Man, the essence of the Green Goblin has tried to weasel its way into Spider-Man's body. Its first strategy is to force its way through a spear that stabs Spider-Man during a scheme by Kraven the Hunter and Queen Goblin. However, this backfires when Spider-Man uses his newfound dark side to uses the Living Brain to scramble the Goblin while he's in Peter's head.

The Living Brain uses the opportunity to ask the ultimate question: who is Spider-Man? He runs through Peter's memories of his past, guilt, and mistakes that led him down his journey as Spider-Man, deciding that ultimately, Spider-Man learns and Spider-Man is Peter Parker. The Living Brain uses this knowledge to expel the Green Goblin, permanently killing him. Readers can use this information to decipher that what makes Spider-Man a great superhero is that he not only grows, but he learns from his mistakes as a person.

Those Three Words Highlight Spider-Man's Core Theme in His Stories: Growth

His Most Important Mantra Takes on a New Meaning

This revelation adds a whole new meaning to Spider-Man's mantra of "With great power comes great responsibility." The level of responsibility Peter weighs on himself is often written into his stories as the manifestation of his guilt, but really, it should be Spider-Man taking responsibility for his actions. Take the death of his uncle, for example. Peter made a mistake by not intervening to stop the robber who later killed his Uncle Ben. Peter paid the consequences, and he felt the guilt, but he took responsibility for himself by changing his behavior.

He did just that by committing his life to superheroism. That wouldn't be his last mistake, but that also wouldn't be the last time that he'd learn from his mistakes and then change through taking new actions. That's what being an adult is all about, superpowers or not. Adults need to learn from the past, recognize their mistakes, and then change themselves in order to grow. Spider-Man's journey has always been about growth, and thus, those three words are the perfect way to illustrate his evolution.

The Amazing Spider-Man #52 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.