A/N: I've read most of the comments on the last chapter, and I'm honestly speechless at how many people criticized me, saying I nerfed Spider-Man or claimed this wasn't Spider-Man because he's too weak.
I made it clear from the very first chapter that this Spider-Man (Si) has only been active as a hero for a year, and that he should have easily won the fight against Crossbones....
I was even considering having him face someone weaker, like Scorpion or Shocker, since I didn't want to go overboard with his first battle. But then I realized there needed to be a sense of danger to push our MC to work even harder.
And let's not forget something important here—many people focused on the MC but completely ignored his opponent. It's easy to complain about things we don't like without considering the full picture.
Crossbones is at peak human levels (same as Captain America), with hundreds of fights behind him and a body fully developed for combat. Compare that to a Spider-Man who wasn't taking the fight seriously at the start and found himself in a bad situation. But when he finally let loose, he turned things around and won.
Yes, he won.
My Spider-Man cannot lift 10 tons—this should be obvious, as I haven't shown such feats in this story. Regarding the symbiote, as I've mentioned, it does not increase his physical attributes. Instead, it serves as a highly useful suit that provides benefits and helps him utilize his spider-powers more effectively.
This means that while the symbiote doesn't directly boost his strength or durability, it optimizes the use of his abilities. As for his spider-sense, that's something I plan to explain in the future, so I can't say much about it now.
Also, let's remember that the symbiote is still in its hibernation phase.
This story is meant to progress slowly because it's about Peter's journey if he kept the symbiote and eventually grew into a cosmic force. You can't expect him to win every fight right from the start.
He's already stronger than most Spider-Men from other universes at the same age, even without the symbiote, and he improves every second. He's steadily growing stronger, as he should.
At the end of the day, this chapter was mostly for venting, but the last chapter will probably be rewritten at some point to better highlight why he's "weaker" and improve it in other ways—I'll figure that out later.
I'm already working on the next chapter, so see you all soon! XD
P.S. Thanks to everyone for your comments about the waifu catalog! I've been working on that part of the story privately these past few days.
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