History Main / GiantSpider

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: In the ComicBook/WonderGirl Impossible Tale in #116 Ronno tries to steal a necklace from the cave of a sea spider, and gets caught in its web as the truck-sized arachnid approaches to make a meal of him.

* Franchise/{{Superman}} fights a giant mechanical spider at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanDoomsday'', while Creator/KevinSmith, in an animated cameo, looks on and says "Lame!". It's a TakeThat against the ExecutiveMeddling forced upon Smith's ''Superman Lives'' script -- see below.

* ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'': Quentyn reveals that his marvelous silken cloak is woven from the silk of [[http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00416.html biomancy enhanced spiders the size of tomatoes.]] (canonically, they are literally too large to walk on their own, and have to be hand-fed by their handlers.) Sam is not enthused.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame'': The stronger minions of the spider-god Atlach-Nacha range from Leng spiders (dog-sized) to really huge ones.
* ''TabletopGame/ClankADeckbuildingAdventure'' has a giant spider as the antagonist of the ''Gold and Silk'' expansion. It is the progenitor of the webs that ensnare treasures on one side of the board, and the guardian of abandoned Dwarven mines in the other. In any case, they serve as an undefeatable presence that stalk the players throughout their journey.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has several spiders as creature cards, and they're usually able to block creatures with flying, representing flying creatures (from small birds and insects to full-sized griffins and small dragons) getting caught in their webs.
** The first was actually called "[[https://scryfall.com/card/m19/183/giant-spider Giant Spider]]", and holds the distinction of having been the only card to have been in every base set printed until it was left out of Magic 2013, although it came back in Magic 2014 and still holds the record for longest continuous run in the core sets.
** A trend in card art depicts [[FoodChainOfEvil spiders in the act of subduing very large flying monsters]]. [[https://scryfall.com/card/ori/197/skysnare-spider Skynsare Spider]] is shown preying on a griffon; [[https://scryfall.com/card/rav/168/goliath-spider Goliath Spider]] is shown eating a drake.
** [[https://scryfall.com/card/uds/116/plated-spider Plated Spider]] has the amusing flavor text "Most spiders wait patiently for their prey to arrive. Most spiders aren't forty feet tall."
** Planechase gave us [[https://scryfall.com/card/pca/87/dragonlair-spider Dragonlair Spider]], which spawns insects. Spiders aren't insects, but then you read the flavour text. Those insects are not spawns of the spider; they're scavengers eating the bits of ''dragons'' that the spider discards. [[FoodChainOfEvil That thing eats]] ''[[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]]''.
** The planes of Shadowmoor and Innistrad -- both based on horror themes, fairytale horror in the first case and Film/HammerHorror in the second -- are both home to a specific species of giant spiders the size of cottages known as [[https://magiccards.info/shm/en/117.html gloomwidows]]. [[https://magiccards.info/shm/en/121.html They start out as ground-based hunters]] who kill their prey with their powerful venom, but become preferential web-spinners as they mature. Those from Shadowmoor cover whole cliffs with their webs, while those from Innistrad are often found in abandoned towns, with webs filling the air between spires and belltowers, although [[https://magiccards.info/emn/en/162.html others]] lurk in graveyards instead.
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* ''Film/{{Arachnicide}}'': The main antagonists are a horde of giant, super-aggressive spiders made by genetic engineering to destroy a commando unit for a drug cartel.

* The MonsterOfTheWeek in the ''Series/Charmed1998'' episode "Spin City".

* In the ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' episode "[[Recap/MerlinS01E04ThePoisonedChalice The Poisoned Chalice]]" Arthur is trapped in a cave with a bunch of giant spiders. They aren't as big as some of the beasties on this page, but they are bigger than his head -- not counting the legs. Oh, and [[ZergRush there's hundreds of them]].

* In the ''Radio/LightsOutEverybody'' episode "The Spider," two small-time down-on-their-luck thugs scour the Amazon basin for exotic butterflies, looking to make enough money to get back to the States. Instead, they spot a dog-sized spider, which appears to be their ticket out. But there's a problem...

* ''TabletopGame/LejendaryAdventures''. Jumping spiders are about twice as large as a human being and web spiders can be as much as 40 inches wide. They both inject a dangerous venom.
* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Arachnidae, a dreamscape created by the dreams of spiders, is inhabited mainly by the dreaming selves of the sleeping arachnids that sustain it -- with the caveat that common spiders appear as large as a human, while more substantial species are quite a lot bigger.

** ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Canoptek Spyders are floating robot spiders responsible for overseeing and repairing [[RobotWar Necron]] Tomb Complexes while their masters sleep in stasis. Even the smallest of Canoptek Spyders are larger than a human and there have even been a few encounters with such constructs, known as Tomb Stalkers, that equal or exceed the size of the Imperium's largest HumongousMecha.
** In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' and its sequel ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', Forest Goblins and Spiderfang Grots respectively ride giant spiders into battle with the rank and file riding spiders about twice their size while their bosses ride spiders twice as big as those of their followers. The largest spiders fielded by these tribes are the arachnarok spiders, spiders so massive that they can be fitted with howdahs bearing catapults or primitive shrines.

* In [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]] we have Arachne, a weaver of extraordinary talent who once challenged Athena with her work. Ironically, Arachne was turned into a spider by the angry goddess for her arrogance; [[DependingOnTheWriter some other versions instead have it that]] Arachne saw that she couldn't compare to Athena and hanged herself (or was about to) and Athena turned her into a spider so that she could keep weaving, out of pity rather than as a punishment. A lot of art depicts Arachne as either human with spider features or a giant spider altogether.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang]]" has the Doctor and theater manager Jago find one the size of the Doctor's hand in the theater's cellar. The Doctor identifies it as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linyphiidae money spider]], a real, harmless and very common variety. They're also ''tiny'', so he knows it's been affected by "genetic distortion" from the villain's experiments that also created giant rats.

* ''TabletopGame/Ironclaw'': Two of the sample wild creatures in the Omnibus are the Damhánalla, a spider about the size of a human head, and the nastier Tarantella, which is even bigger.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Elevator", a spider ate the super food developed by Roger and Will's father in order to solve world hunger. It then killed the smaller but still giant [[MegaNeko cat]] and [[CanisMajor dog]] and possibly the [[RodentsOfUnusualSize giant rats]]. When Roger and Will call the elevator in their father's factory, the giant spider grabs them with its pedipalps and kills them.