Those who’ve fought him know that Spider-Man has a unique and highly effective fighting style. Although Peter Parker never had any formal training prior to becoming a superhero, he quickly learned how to use his speed, agility, strength, and spider-sense to their full advantage in combat. Known to some as the “Way of the Spider,” this self-taught martial art is as effective as any of the dozens of fighting styles known to combat specialists like Batman.
Even so, Spider-Man is also a fan of improvising and learning from others – so he often tries out moves he’s seen other fighters execute on the field or even in movies. This proved particularly effective when he was up against an armored fighter and decided to use a move he saw performed by a certain Dark Knight. Specifically, a Batman played by Michael Keaton…
Spidey found himself in this predicament when he had to fight The Jury, a team of armored vigilantes brought together by General Orwell Taylor. Taylor’s son Hugh was a prison guard at the Vault, a special facility for supervillains, and had been killed by Venom during an escape attempt. In retaliation, Taylor recruited Hugh’s friends and outfitted them with armored suits specifically designed to take down Venom.
The Jury attempted to destroy Venom, but failed. Seeking to upgrade their firepower, they lured Spider-Man into a trap and put him on “trial” for bringing the Venom symbiote to Earth in the first place. They even brought in civilians whose children had been traumatized by Venom, increasing Spider-Man’s guilt. Although the Jury claimed that Spider-Man was guilty and deserved to be executed him for his “crimes,” the entire scenario turned out to be a sham to manipulate Spidey into helping the Jury sneak into a government facility to steal a weapon capable of killing Venom.
Still guilt-ridden and doped up on drugs, Spider-Man actually agreed to help the Jury and used his spider-sense to enable them to sneak past all the facility’s safeguards. Once he saw what the weapon could do, however, Spidey turned against the Jury and began taking them out one by one. While facing off against one of the armored thugs, Peter shot a web line but hit the wall behind him, apparently by accident. The thug mocked Spidey, claiming that he had “missed.”
In response, Spider-Man suggested that the thug watch more movies, and recommended he rent a copy of Batman Returns. As he did, he yanked on the web line, causing it to rip out an entire chunk of the wall and smash it against the thug. It was a brilliant shout-out to Tim Burton’s Batman Returns where Michael Keaton’s Batman executes a similar move on a clown threatening Selina Kyle – harpooning a wall with a line and then tearing out a chunk of the wall to knock out the clown. Much like Spidey’s thug, the clown initially thought Batman had missed, revealing that Batman and Spider-Man may not have time to make every shot count in a fight, but those who think they’re not hitting what they want to do so at their own risk.