the Spider-Man problem

[ironymaiden]

i'll start by saying that Spider-Man: Homecoming is excellent. no spoilers for the film follow.

the movie has the feel of a Marvel comic, where the characters are clearly a part of a larger world that includes both superheroes and locations that are familiar, like New York City. Peter is a 15 year old boy who lives in this world. Homecoming is well-executed, and dare i say it, better than the Raimi films. if you like Spidey, you should see it. it is definitely Spider-Man, and all the ways that it breaks away from existing tropes are good and leave me hopeful for the future of the franchise.

i won't be seeing it again for a while, though.

i love my Marvel Unlimited subscription, and whenever a character comes up, i go off and read up on their history.* the one character that i like but can't seem to read much of is Spider-Man. i could never quite put my finger on why i would read an issue or two and then walk away. Peter Parker is a great character, and well supported with a-list writers and artists.

after seeing the movie the other night, something clicked. i can't deal with the Peter sad = story good** dynamic. he's perpetually unable to enjoy his personal life or be truly happy because Spider-Man gets in the way. and so often that "Peter sad" comes from him trying to maintain his secret identity and keep his patrolling secret from people who deserve to know. or, as mimerki noted, he doesn't leverage his connections with his wealthy superhero friends to help with his cashflow problems nor use normal legal means to achieve his needs when it would be completely reasonable to do so. so first, there's a hell of a lot of "Peter sad" and i can only take so much of that, then there's Peter's wit only being applied to the heroing side of his life.

it's like he's perpetually punished for doing good. that's not something i actually want out of my entertainment.

it's too bad. i can't help but like the guy.



*this has mostly been delightful. a detour like Night Nurse is surprisingly good. then again, The Great Lakes Avengers i tried reading is painfully unfunny.

**i'm paraphrasing one of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer writers here. and "Buffy sad" was also a problem.

Comments

[dorchadas]

i can't deal with the Peter sad = story good** dynamic

I don't read comics, but from what schoolpsychnerd told me about One More Day, this really comes to a head there because the editor decided that Peter being happily married made for bad stories, causing her to throw down the comics in disgust and not read any since. It sounds like the culmination of this kind of attitude.

[buhrger]

just saw it this afternoon. i get what you're saying, but feel it's kinda baked into the character?

baked in

[ironymaiden]

...which is why I can't read the book.

As noted by dorchadas, either there is an editorial belief that pain is the core of the character, or they are creatively unable to come up with other conflict to drive the story. I think it should be possible to be Spider-man and have nice things.

Clearly other people like sad Peter. It's the most popular Marvel title.