Marvel Studios has just revealed all the extra functionality in Spider-Man’s Iron Spider suit in the MCU. Tony Stark created the Iron Spider outfit as a next-gen uniform for Peter Parker, and intended him to wear it when he finally joined the Avengers. Spider-Man instead wound up donning it in Avengers: Infinity War; Stark summoned it to save Peter’s life when he got caught up in an alien attack on New York.
Tony Stark is a tinkerer, which means the Iron Spider will have had a lot of advanced functionality. It didn’t take Peter Parker long to discover the four retractable waldoes, which he used to deadly effect in battle against Thanos’ Outriders. A deleted scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home, restored as part of the extended re-release, saw Peter experiment with different web traps too. But that would only be to scratch the surface of the Iron Spider’s capabilities.
The Art of Spider-Man: Far From Home reveals just what the Iron Spider was capable of. According to Senior Visual Development Artist Rodney Fuentebella, it’s more formidable than anything Peter has worn since. “I wanted to show that Spider-Man could be even stealthier with the extra arms and sneak into places better than before,” he explained. “The Iron Spider can reach farther and maybe even faster than his other outfits.” The waldoes can cut guns in half, and shoot impact webbing with great force. It also has a whole range of additional features, which are demonstrated in sketches.
Spider-Man: Far From Home - Iron Spider Sketches
Most of these sketches are dedicated to the waldoes, and they prove they can do a lot more than just anchor Spider-Man in place. They’re perfectly designed for espionage and infiltration, enhancing Spider-Man’s natural stealth; when he presses the tips against a wall, they can detect the vibrations caused by sound and transmit them into Spider-Man’s mask. They contain torches - probably a range of them - to help Peter navigate in the dark. The waldoes can move at speed to block bullets; Fuentebella even considered giving them the ability to project sonic blasts.
The concept art also shows how the Iron Spider retracts into a case, which can then be placed in a docking port for charging. It’s unclear whether the docking part had some sort of Arc Reactor powering it, or whether it plugs into the mains. If the latter is the case, it would be amusing to see what Aunt May’s electricity bills look like, given she’s paying for a superhero to wear a high-tech super-suit. It might be a good thing Peter didn’t take the Iron Spider with him to Europe in Spider-Man: Far From Home; the hotels may have been shocked at a bunch of schoolkids’ energy consumption.
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