Wait, What?: Why didn't the spider that bit Peter Parker bite anybody else?

Welcome to “Wait, What?,” a recurring column in which we examine confusing or incoherent details in crime movies.

I just re-watched Sam Rami’s 2002 Spider-Man. It’s amazing. I have nothing bad to say about it. In fact, I only have good things to say about it… and one minor logistical question.

Now, is this question directed at this specific (and again, fantastic) Spider-Man movie? Or is it directed at the whole canon? Probably the latter.

What I want to know is, why didn’t the spider that bit Peter Parker bite anybody else? At least in Rami’s Spider-Man, after it sticks its pincers into Peter Parker’s hand during his high school field trip to the spider research department at Columbia University, it falls to the floor and… scurries away? That’s the last we see of it!

So, what this means is… it’s on the loose! It’s perfectly able of biting anyone else in the lab! Why doesn’t it bite anyone else in the lab?

This is a biting spider! It bites! Why doesn’t it bite anyone else? By rights, that lab should be full of spider-people! Why isn’t the Columbia population full of people who can shoot webs from their wrists and climb up and down walls?

Yes, maybe the spider bite was a one-off. Maybe the scientists caught the spider and got it back in its tank, without any fanfare. After all, who wants to draw attention to the fact that one of the super-spiders wound up strolling around the lab? I wouldn’t,

Maybe it tried Peter Parker and didn’t like the flavor and now it’s sworn off all human taste tests… but I find this unlikely. It bit Peter pretty randomly, after dropping casually onto his hand from above. Why, then, does it bite? Had it been predisposed to the taste of human blood? Is it just a complete predator? What is its deal? And if it’s so bite-happy… again, why didn’t it bite anyone else in that lab, either then or in the coming days?

Anyway… this I wonder.