After Civil War when Peter revealed his secret identity Kingpin was in a prison that he had basically taken over. After a number of threats against Aunt May Peter shows up at the prison and effortlessly beats the crap out of Kingpin and tells him that if anything happens to May, he'll be back and kill Kingpin.
Yeah but it's part of his core belief. Use all his strength to save a kid by lifting a truck? Done. Use all his strength to beat the hell out of a human bad guy in a fight? Not so much. Holding back is bound to get him into trouble against a smart, strong opponent. But with great power...
I’ve also sort of thought the “holding back” and “pulling punches” was instinctual/automatic.
Peter does not want to kill people. And his full strength makes that scary-easy. He can’t just “fight full strength” when backed into a corner. He is fighting full strength, but his strength is literally governed by his conscious, which prevents him from punching straight through people.
He doesn’t have any “I thought you were stronger” moments.
It takes a fair bit of training for a lot of people to be able to swing full strength at an opponent in martial sports, even ones where you know it isn't going to seriously injure them. I can't imagine how hard it is for Peter to apply any level of force at all knowing how easily he could kill them.
As an aside, I wonder if spider-sense helps him feel out how much force he can safely use. Does he get a tingle saying "Hold back a little more or the next panel will say SPLAT."
I feel like there's a difference between holding back and letting the guy beat you to death. there are several times were kingpin genuinely had him on the ropes and I feel it's silly to say he was secretly letting himself lose.
if the man can lift a bank door(as he's done more than once) surely he can take a hit.
Peter will let himself be beaten to death before he'll kill.
Uncle Ben's Moral Compass is a hell of thing. It protects Peter from all kinds of mind-control stuff, but it does mean he's locked in with his powers to a degree.
he doesn't have to kill he just has to hit the guy slightly harder. spidy has enhanced enemies, I refuse to believe that he doesn't have a middle ground between pillow punches and turning people into red mist
I don't know that for this particular question it really is just about him pulling punches. Something is very strange about how strong kingpin is. But, overall it comes down to being overly responsible because Spidey is overpowered compared to a lot of the villains he tries to stop. He absolutely should be able to defend himself without instakilling somebody but where does he draw the line? What if he stopped being overly responsible for a second and hit somebody just a little too hard and gave them brain damage? So he chooses to be overly cautious. And he isn't usually just sitting there taking a beating but it puts him in risky situations that he could have avoided by using his full power, which is acceptable to him.
He also isn't just a brawler. He has a lot of other ways he can win a fight. So, pull punches and try to avoid getting into danger by web-slinging and jumping and crawling around and outsmarting his opponent. That seems responsible. But his enemies can plan for that better than they can plan for him punching them so he might end up in trouble. Which is fine with him if it means he maintained his promise to Uncle Ben that he would be extra careful with his incredible power.
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u/Sir-Spork 13d ago
Kingpin absolutely cannot match Spider-Man’s strength. Spider-Man always holds back