Never Change

So one of the things that I think gets discounted when people take Peter’s powers into account is that Peter is fast. On a mental level, yeah, but that ties into his being physically extremely fast, much faster than the average human, and that both that physical and mental quickness ties into his spider-sense.

(Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #2)

(Web of Spider-Man #19)

Simultaneously, I think that same quickness leads to him being discounted as a major physical threat. He’s an interesting case: he isn’t the strongest man in Marvel canon. He isn’t the fastest man in Marvel canon. He isn’t the smartest man in Marvel canon. But he does possess all those skills in abundance: he does have superhuman strength, he is fast enough to dodge bullets, and while he might not be in the upper echelons of Marvel geniuses, he certainly is smart enough to be considered a supergenius, and when you combine that all together, it makes him a very versatile, very considerable threat, and that’s before you factor in his spider-sense, which is essentially limited precognition. His own clone, Kaine, remarked on it as the “ultimate edge” in a fight:

(Scarlet Spider (2012) #18)

The thing about comic recs where Peter’s super competent and good at saving people is that – that’s kind of the majority of Spider-Man comics. They’ve only been playing him up as semi-incompetent and clumsy the last couple of years. (And I hate it! I’m here for the competency porn! Why is he suddenly apologizing to muggers! Why is there a film scene in the MCU where he nearly gets someone killed for forgetting to silence his phone when:

Amazing Spider-Man v2 #56 knew perfectly well what setting it vibrate was all about. I’ll argue until the end of time that carelessness is not an endearing character trait, nor is it inherently sympathetic and relatable.) 

I wrote a post a little while ago about how the thing about Peter is that when he lets one aspect of his life slip – usually his personal or professional life – it’s because he’s balancing so many responsibilities at once that he has to choose between them, and he almost always chooses the responsibility that comes with saving lives. And that plays into a perceived irresponsibility/responsibility balance that just isn’t really there. Responsibility and with it competence is threaded through the character in everything he does, when he is at his best, and he’s pretty frequently at his best. He takes it very hard when he can’t save someone not because it’s a common occurrence, but because he’s very good at saving people, and it’s very important to him. The 80s are widely considered to be the best Spider-Man decade, and I largely agree – hit up just about anything in there for a fix of Peter’s super-competence. For more modern reads, I’ll never miss a chance to recommend J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man run, which runs from Amazing Spider-Man v2 #30-58, renumbering after that to Amazing Spider-Man #500-545.

(ASM v2 #31)

(ASM v2 #37)

(ASM v2 #42)

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12 would probably also fit the bill, featuring Peter going through the ringer trying to solve a time sensitive and villain-heavy mystery after Aunt May is mysteriously kidnapped.

(”Just hit him till he can’t get up anymore!” – Marvel Knights Spider-Man #3)

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man #8)

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 – both this and JMS’ run take place while Peter’s working as a high school science teacher, which imho tied really wonderfully into the character and his inherent sense of responsibility. Here Peter’s window for tracking May down is closing and he still takes the time to help a struggling student, even though you can see his conflict.)

But also, yeah, the 80s:

Peter hasn’t been played up as incompetent for the last couple of years. It began in 2008 in BND and Wacker, former editor, basically admitted they wanted to play down the scope of his prowess.

Whilst it is horrible in Spider-Man: Homecoming that Peter didn’t set his phone to vibrate and it’s s shitty character trait, ASm vol 2 #56 makes for a weak counterpoint because that’s a Spider-Man of a drastically different age and experience level.