ANTI-MAGNETIC INVERTER
Classification: Terrestrial technology
Creator: Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
User/Possessors: Spider-Man
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man I#2/1 (May, 1963)
Powers/Abilities/Functions: The anti-magnetic inverter was a cylindrical hand-held electronic device which was originally built to nullify magnetic fields. It was later modified to reverse the polarity of an electrical field.
History:
(Amazing Spider-Man I#2/1 / Amazing Spider-Man III#1.3) - Following his first encounter with (and defeat from) the Vulture (Adrian Toomes), Spider-Man figured out how the villain's power of flight worked -- he had a hunch that the Vulture had discovered a way to harness magnetic power. Peter Parker then spent "long hours" building the anti-magnetic inverter.
(Amazing Spider-Man I#2/1) - During his next battle with the Vulture, Spider-Man activated the device, which disrupted the Vulture's power so that he couldn't stay aloft.
(Amazing Spider-Man III#1.3) - Peter later entered the device in the New York National Science Fair, but the judges were not impressed by the device Peter showed off by deactivating a magnet holding a fork. His classmates told him afterward that he should have used more showmanship like them with their superhero costumes, while Aunt May told him not to take the judges' rejection too hard. She was surprised though that he had entered the device instead of his far more impressive super-glue. After an embarrassing conversation between his aunt and Polly McKenna, who was working on the school's yearbook, Peter tried to explain the device to Polly, who stopped him from activating it because it would've wiped her digital camera's recordings. When Clayton Cole as the Clash wreaked havoc at the science fair in an ill-fated attempt to impress Polly, Spider-Man used the Anti-Magnetic Inverter to wipe Clash's sound files he used during the battle, forcing Clash to retreat.
(Amazing Spider-Man I#7) - Following his escape from prison, the Vulture modified his wings so that they could change magnetic poles instantly, and the anti-magnetic inverter would not work against him again. Once more meeting Spider-Man while he was on a robbery spree, the Vulture let the web-spinner get close to him and activate the anti-magnetic inverter. The Vulture feigned defeat and spiraled downward, but then swooped back up and pummeled the wall-crawler, proving that the device was no longer effective against him. Spider-Man was then forced to come up with alternative method to defeat his avian adversary.
(Untold Tales of Spider-Man#11 (fb) - BTS) - Peter Parker hid the anti-magnetic inverter in a closet, in a box of old radio parts (so Aunt May wouldn't wonder what it was if she chanced across it).
(Untold Tales of Spider-Man#11) - When Electro and the Eel (Leopold Stryke) joined forces and blackmailed New York City from a power station on the waterfront north of Coney Island, Spider-Man modified the device and attached it to the Eel. It reversed the polarity of the electrical field of the Eel's costume, causing the Eel and Electro to stick together like magnets. The two criminals were kicked into the water by Bluebird, which caused their powers and the inverter to short out. The villains escaped, and the anti-magnetic inverter was presumably lost in the waters.
(Web of Spider-Man II#10 (fb) - BTS) - Spider-Man used his scientific skills to determine that the powers of the Extremist (Tyler Smithson) were based on reading and manipulating electromagnetic frequencies, so he picked up the Anti-Magnetic Inverter to deal with him.
(Web of Spider-Man II#10) - The Anti-Magnetic Inverter needed some time to lock onto Extremist's specific frequency while Spider-Man fought him at city hall. Eventually the device turned Extremist's insubstantial form solid long enough for Spider-Man to crush his gun and defeat him.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Waitaminnit! He's only a public high school student, yet he knows how to build an anti-magnetic inverter??!! Holy deus ex machina, Batman! That Parker kid's a genius! I wonder why he was never an intern at Stark Industries?!
And in the what to do with this one category there was another appearance by the device in Spider-Man IV#5 (April, 2023). After Peter got severed from the Web of Life, he was retroactively just plain old Peter Parker on Earth-616 and Silk (Cindy Moon) had the early encounters with villains like Vulture, Tinkerer, Lizard, Doctor Octopus and Sandman he would've had. Peter tried to aid her by building tech for her, including the Anti-Magnetic Inverter, which she put to good use during her next encounter with the Vulture. At the end of the storyline in #7 the retcon was reversed through magic.
--Markus Raymond
Profile by John Kaminski. Update by Markus Raymond (2010-2023).
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Anti-Magnetic Inverter has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Amazing Spider-Man I#2, p12, pan6-7 (main image)
Amazing Spider-Man III#1.3, p19, pan5 (used against Clash)
Untold Tales of Spider-Man#11, p23, pan5 (used against Eel)
Web of Spider-Man II#10, p14, pan4-5 (used against Extremist)
Appearances:
Amazing Spider-Man I#2 (May, 1963) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Steve Ditko (artist)
Amazing Spider-Man I#7 (December, 1963) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Steve Ditko (artist)
Untold Tales of Spider-Man#11 (July, 1996) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Pat Olliffe (pencils), Al Vey & Pam Eklund (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Web of Spider-Man II#10 (September, 2010) - Fred Van Lente (writer), Nick Dragotta (artist), Tom Brennan (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man III#1.3 (September, 2014) - Dan Slott (writer), Ramón Pérez (artist), Nick Lowe (editor)
Spider-Man IV#5 (April, 2023) - Dan Slott (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), John Dell (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
First Posted: 03/26/2007
Last Updated: 04/06/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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