Re: Homages you would like to see officially
Michael Hopcroft and MitchellS:
Can you guess which of your ideas I'd like to jabber about?
Anyhoo, the VPP sounds like a pretty decent idea for a resourceful, Spidey-like guy. To keep it like Spider-man, you'd have to apply a mess of limitations (takes time to study enemy, work on a solution in a lab, etc.) if you were going to deal with gadgetry - but otherwise, as long as you defined that it couldn't create new powers (just add to current abilities and characteristics), I think that it could work extremely well, representing the well of determination and experience the hero posesses. Maybe with the limitation "Can only be used when DNPC's or innocents are threatened". Not a necessity - and it might work better for temporary boosts to some characteristics.
Trapped under tons of debris, with your elderly DNPC dying in the hospital, awaiting the cure lying 4 feet in fron of you? Throw your VPP into strength.
Mind being taken over by an alien being bent on destoying your home city, starting with the child in its talons? Put it into Ego.
Have to fight through 117 well-armed agents to save the world? Put it into END and Stun.
A decent Find Weakness ability, with the limitation "requires extra time to study opponent" could be a pretty simple fix for modelling some of the same resourcefulness too, IMHO.
I could go on for quite some time about Spider-Man homages (as I've made plenty) - I won't. Elements they all have in common, though, are high DEX and DCV (an important part of Spider-Man thematically, IMHO - as the little guy who may not be able to mount a huge offense against a cosmic foe, but darned if he isn't irritatingly hard to swat!), high movement and SPD (for much of the same, hard to pin down), good INT (for better background skills that can be used to take advantage of foes and the environment), and a decent EGO (being a solitary hero against impossible odds means you need a will of iron).
I'll say this much - building a truly accurate Spider-Man is really quite expensive! Homages are much cheaper.