Everyone knows the origin of how Peter Parker became Spider-Man. Even non-comic-book fans know it by now. I mean, we got three different iterations of the character on the big screen in a 15-year span. I bet if you ask an average person to finish the sentence, “With great power…”, they’ll be able to tell you the rest.
I’m pretty sure three boys from Bolivia are just as knowledgeable about the character, too, because they did something pretty dumb recently. While tending to their mother’s sheep, three brothers ages 8, 10 and 12, discovered a black widow spider hanging out. Instead of avoiding it, they let it bite them in hopes that they’d develop some of Spider-Man’s powers. You can guess what happens next.
The mother noticed the boys crying and in pain so she rushed them to a hospital in Llallagua. When their condition didn’t improve, they were then sent to the Children’s Hospital in the Bolivian capital, La Paz. After taking medicine to counteract the bite and resting for five days, all three boys were able to go home.
The brothers allowing themselves to be bitten was revealed by Virgilo Pietro, Head of Epidemiology of the Health Ministry. During a press conference, he stated that: “For children everything is real, films are real, dreams could be real, and they (children) are the hope of our life.”
If this is what Spider-Man fans are doing, what about fans of other superhero characters? Are people jumping off of roofs to fly like Superman? Or maybe building an elaborate cave for all of your stuff while monitoring the city? The point is, kids have wild imaginations.
Come to think of it, why did the boys think this spider was going to give them powers in the first place? They’re nowhere near a lab with sensitive equipment and dangerous chemicals. That should’ve been their first clue, right?
Of course, it’s great to have an imagination, but they have to know how dangerous it was to be anywhere near a black widow spider. Luckily, everyone was fine and now they get to sit back and wait like the rest of us for Spider-Man 3 to eventually hit theaters on its new release date, November 5th, 2021.
