By Tim Binnall
An eight-year-old boy in Bolivia is lucky to be alive after he allowed a black widow to bite him in the hopes of becoming Spider-Man. According to a local media report, the ill-advised attempt at acquiring superpowers occurred late last month in the town of Vichuloma. While playing outside one afternoon, the youngster stumbled upon a black widow under a rock and, recalling Spider-Man's iconic origin story, the boy proceeded to place the venomous arachnid on his hand and agitated it into biting him. After being struck by the spider, the aspiring superhero captured the creature in a jar and headed home to await the development of his web-slinging abilities.
Alas, the boy's dreams were dashed rather quickly as, around three hours later, he began experiencing extreme muscle contractions and felt intense pain throughout his body. Although he initially attempted to keep his worsening condition a secret, his mother eventually noticed that the youngster was in distress and he revealed what had happened earlier that day. In turn, the boy was taken to a local hospital where he was given an antidote to thwart the spider's venom. Fortunately, the treatment was a success and the symptoms started to subside in around thirty minutes, which is when the youngster offered his fantastic explanation for how he wound up in the hospital.
In detailing the peculiar case to the media, health official Ernesto Vasquez indicated that the boy said that he had purposely put the black widow on his hand and caused it to bite him because "he wanted to become Spider-Man." Aiming to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future, Vasquez implored parents to speak to their children about the consequences of trying to replicate the classic comic book story. Strangely enough, this is not the first time that such a misguided event has occurred in Bolivia as, back in 2020, three boys needed to be hospitalized after they also tried to procure superpowers by having a black widow bite them.