*WARNING!* This entry largely plays off of an earlier post, if you haven’t read my essay on Barry Bonds, Spider-Man, and public perception yet. Check it out here. I hope you enjoy it.
Anyone who’s a fan of good blogging should love this post, because with this entry my newly repurposed blog gets a little more interesting. In my last column I had gone on and on about the comparisons between Barry Bonds and Spider-Man, trying to be as detailed as possible without letting my word count reach critical mass. Due to the constraints of editing I had to leave out some ideas. I realize some people might be interested in taking a little deeper look at some of the issues I raise in my columns. For them I will offer these follow up posts, while the general audience can read my columns in their entirety separately without having to suffer over exposure to the geek volcano that is my mind.
First, I’ll tackle the simpler suggestion I present which was how to get Spider-Man’s public image within his comic book world mirror Barry Bonds public image within the comic book world. The comic creators could accomplish this very simply with one issue of the comic book. Some reporters for The Daily Bugle publish a book filled with what appears to be some very damning evidence that Spider-Man gained his powers through an illegal procedure and was only fighting a crime for self-serving purposes, and then boom watch as Spider-Man becomes the most hated public figure in the Marvel Universe. This should sound familiar, and the fact that it has been empirically shown to work in the real world, lends all the more credence to my belief that it would work wonderfully in the comic book world.
Next, we have the much bigger issue which was how to keep the character of Spider-Man vital while not making him look like some stuffy, old married man. This seems to be the sticking point for Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, that Spider-Man being married has robbed past, present, and future comic creators working on Spidey of certain potential stories while adding no new are to develop. I personally disagree vehemently with this. Speaking as someone who is no longer a teenager (much like Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s secret identity), and on the brink of marriage, I believe that marriage adds a myriad of interesting angles to the character. Since I will always fear that Quesada will go crazy one day and have Mary Jane retroactively written out of existence until he has satisfactory evidence that Peter being married is a good thing, I will take it upon myself to demonstrate that married Spidey has lost no stories of value and gained a great deal of potential material.
As far as I can tell, though there’s really only one story that a single Spidey has that a married Spidey doesn’t, and it’s a fairly pedestrian story too. Step 1) Peter works his away into a fairly stable and healthy relationship with one of his love interests. Step 2) Peter encounters another love interest who tempts Petey to stray Step 3) Peter tries to stay true to his current relationship but complications from the other love interests lead to the relationship falling apart Step 4) Peter then loses the other love interest for some contrived reason Step 5) Peter realizes he truly wants to be with one of his assorted love interests and sets off to build something good with her Step 6) Repeat Steps 1 through 5. I acknowledge that there is no way you could tell that story now that Spider-Man is married because no one wants to read a superhero comic that stars an adulterer. The problem is that is back in the day this story line was used ad infinitum, to the point that I believe many writers became over reliant on it. Now without that crutch, some feel that something substantial is missing from Spider-Man’s world. After all, Spider-Man was conceived as a single character and he’s been cut off from a story that was used to define him.
For comparison’s sake, I would like to point out that Captain America was originally created with exactly one story in mind Step 1) Cap fights Nazis Step 2) Repeat Step 1. So far as I can tell no one is complaining that Captain America has been robbed of some important stories. I would further ponder whether recently Quesada believes he is limiting the stories of characters like Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, all of which have been married off under Quesada’s watch as editor-in-chief.
I would argue that, much like Al Pacino and Barry Bonds (see previous column for explanation of this theory), the only change here is one of perception. Just as many stories are possible with a married Spider-Man, the creators merely have to look past their perceptions to see them. My advice would be to identify those traits which you consider essential parts of Spider-Man’s character and build a marital conflict around that, just as you would any other storyline.
Some people (Quesada) are going to want to see some examples of how this works. Fine. I’ve got plenty of them. Say you consider Spider-Man’s relative youth and inexperience one of his key characteristics an essential part of his character. Use that by putting Spider-Man into a situation where it becomes apparent that he rushed into the marriage that he didn’t give himself enough time to settle his relationship with Mary Jane before marrying her, showing signs such as a poor understanding of Mary Jane’s deeper nature. You could focus on Spider-Man’s equation of power to responsibility and flip it on its head. Since Spider-Man has a great deal of responsibility to protect Mary Jane, he might try to claim a great deal of power over her life, especially if he believes it’s necessary for her safety. Use Peter’s staunch morality. He always does the right thing as Spider-Man and refuses to compromise his ethics. Peter may then have problems in a marriage where compromise is so critical. Spidey has to be secretive in his superhero life that could be bad in a marriage. If Spidey always feels guilty about every little mistake he makes, Mary Jane may become a constant source of crises for him. Lastly, Spider-Man has usually needed multiple tries to defeat his villains, when he makes a mistake in his marriage he will probably thin he’ll get a second chance to fix it. Of course as any married person can tell you, second chances aren’t always possible and the stakes can be higher than any battle with a costumed villain.
These are but a few of the many ways you could use Spider-Man’s marriage to make him a fuller and richer character without losing momentum to the dreaded possibility that he might be perceived as “old” (by which you apparently mean no longer a teenager). If enough of them seem worthy to you. I may even have the effrontery to recommend these ideas to those in a position to do something with them. For right now though I must keep reminding my self that I am just an angry guy with a blog.
On that note I will now show you that I can be a happy guy with blog, but throwing out some quick recommendations.
- I mentioned Marvel’s “Civil War” event which just recently began in the comics. It has impressed me so far, so much so that I am already growing ill at the thought of all the money I will spend to follow the event. I recommend any one who’s interested in the possible political ramifications of superheroes to give it a try. You are probably best served by reading the central title Civil War alone. I am also intrigued by a few of the tie-in titles Marvel will be publishing along side it, but since I am yet to read them I cannot officially recommend them yet.
- If we have any fans of old pulp-style sci-fi/fantasy action/adventure, then I highly recommend Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. It plays like a combination of the old John Carter of Mars stories and classic Conan. In fact since writer Kurt Busiek went from scripting Conan to this, Aquaman has replaced Conan on my shopping list.
- Calling all Kyle Rayner fans. For anyone who thought he got the short end of the central power battery during his reign as Green Lantern, here’s your chance to put dollars behind your opinion. Now instead of simply boycotting the current Green Lantern monthly which has fallen back to using the outdated and obsolete Hal
- Lastly for those of you interested in big superhero stories being unapologetically larger than life, I heartily recommend All-Star Superman written by Grant Morrison with art by Frank Quitely. Some have compared the story to the old Silver Age stories of the 1950’s, ‘60’s, and ‘70’s because it features a more powerful Superman, more archetypal characters, and grander storylines than DC comics can afford to try in a regular continuity monthly comic book. In reality it belongs in a whole other era, one where Grant Morrison sees the surreal with more clarity than some of us see the real. The rest of comics aren’t in whatever crazy Hyper Age Grant Morrison has been writing for yet, but until they get there you can preview the possibilities in All-Star Superman.
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