Fans know Spider-Man’s powers make him a human spider, giving him the ability to crawl on walls, leap, and in some stories spin webs like his arachnid namesake. However, his strangest ability – his Spider-Sense – also gives him the abilities of something a bit more... mechanical.
Weird as it might sound, Peter’s Spider-Sense can pick up unique frequencies, making Spider-Man the equivalent of a human radio receiver (or a "Radio Web Head"). In recent years, Marvel has termed this frequency the “arachnofrequency” in its Spider-Verse comics. According to the storylines, Spider-Man and all the Spider-people of the multiverse receive their SpiderSenses from unique arachnofrequencies tied to the Web of Life and Destiny.
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As the Web of Life and Destiny binds time and space, even those who can only use their Spider-Senses instinctively gain a heightened sense of their surroundings, and often tell what’s about to happen. Peter Parker, however, has found some extra uses for this spider frequency. Unfortunately... so have some of his enemies.
How Villains Have Manipulated Spider-Man’s Spider Sense
The first person to manipulate Spider-Man’s “arachnofrequency” was, surprisingly, not Peter but Spidey’s first super powered villain the Chameleon. Way back in The Amazing Spider-Man #1, the face-shifting villain was able to tap into Spidey’s Spider Sense using some sort of radio equipment and an antenna. How the Chameleon was able to accomplish this is unknown, but the effect is very dramatic. Not only does Peter Parker sense the Chameleon’s broadcast – he can actually hear the Chameleon’s voice in his head, indicating the Spider-Sense really is like having a radio in your brain.
Oddly enough, the Chameleon never repeated this feat (which seems strange since being able to manipulate Spidey’s danger sense would seem to be a huge advantage for a villain). Other bad guys in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery – notably Mysterio and the Green Goblin – have found ways to block Peter’s danger sense, but these usually involve chemical weapons rather than attacking the frequency itself. Spider-Man enemy Venom also doesn’t register as a threat to Spidey’s spider-sense. Most writers state this is because Venom’s alien symbiote spent so much time connected to Peter when he wore it as a costume and don’t give a specific explanation for why Spidey can’t sense Venom.
How Peter Parker Uses His “Arachnofrequency”
Since Peter Parker is a scientist, it was only a matter of time before he started experimenting with ways to use his Spider Sense’s unique frequency. Early in his career, Spider-Man designed “Spider Tracers” he could put on escaping villains to track down later. Originally, Spidey used a handheld radio receiver to locate his tracers (similar to how the MCU Spider-Man uses Stark Tech spider tracers and a holographic tracker in Spider-Man: Homecoming). Eventually, however, Spidey realized he could use his spider-sense to pick up on his Spider Tracers’ frequencies, eliminating his radio device in favor of the one in his head.
Peter’s use of his “arachnofrequency” is both clever and effective. Since he knows he needs his Spider-Sense to help him in battle, Spider-Man designs his spider tracers to make his Spider-Sense tingle in a different way than his usual warning tingles. This indicates that Peter has such a great understanding of his Spider-Sense that he can manipulate the way different frequencies make him feel. Spider-Man takes full advantage of this by giving different spider tracers a distinct “tingle.” This lets him place multiple tracers on different people and distinguish between them just by the way he feels as he tracks them down.
Interestingly, other spider-people can’t pick up on Peter’s frequency – as Peter discovered in the alternate MC2 future when his spider-powered daughter May couldn’t track Peter’s spider tracers, requiring him to reset their frequency for her unique Spider Sense. Thanks to Peter’s expertise in manipulating his spider tracers and spider sense, he’s even designed a special emergency frequency for his girlfriend/wife Mary Jane. If MJ is ever in trouble and needs Peter, she can trigger a special spider tracer she carries with her, alerting Spider-Man to her exact position.
So, apparently, not only is Spider-Man able to get a “Peter Tingle”… he also has a special “Mary Jane Tingle” (just don’t tell Aunt May).