SPIDER-MAN:
SOAP OPERA SUPERHERO
Spider-Man 2 opened this month to rave reviews and much anticipation. The sequel to Sam Raimi’s 2002 smash hit film has already taken over $300 million at the US box office, and looks set to take a great deal more before the end of the summer.
As with the original movie, much of the box office money will come from repeat business. People will go to see Spider-Man 2 twice, three times or more. And not just die-hard fans, but ordinary people: the sort who wouldn’t know Stan Lee from Stan Laurel, and who went back for more of that upside-down kiss in 2002.
To understand why the films are so universally popular, it is necessary to return to the source material.
Created in 1962 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spider-Man broke the superhero mould. Before Spider-Man, superheroes were generally lantern-jawed father figures of the strongest moral fibre. In stark contrast, however, sixteen year-old Peter Parker was not only the same age as many of his readers, he was also weighed down by the same real-life problems, and the sort of angst that only a teenager (or a lapsed Catholic) can truly understand.
Lee and Ditko established a soap opera structure for Spider-Man, with Peter Parker (and his alter-ego) at the centre of a large, well-rounded cast of characters. In much the same way as BBC’s EastEnders tend to interact with each other above and beyond simple neighbourly how-do-you-do’s, Spider-Man’s cast has become quite incestuous, over the years. Peter Parker’s boss, the irascible publisher J. Jonah Jameson, sponsored the creation of Spider-foe The Scorpion. And übervillain Doctor Octopus, played by Alfred Molina in the new movie, once asked Aunt May Parker to marry him! Eat your heart out, Dirty Den!
The enduring popularity of Spider-Man owes as much to simple human drama as it does to any wacky villains. Peter Parker spends as much time out of costume as he does in, and his interaction with the rest of the cast – co-workers, friends, and girlfriends – provides the dramatic impetus of the series, especially where it carries over into his other life. Indeed, without this grounding, the superhuman powers and spectacular acrobatics for which Spider-Man has become famous would lack both context and meaning.
The fundamental dichotomy of Spider-Man’s existence can be boiled down to one sentence: save the world, or save the girl. Do the right thing, or do the thing that will make you happy. When you look at it like that, Spider-Man’s not so very far removed from real life, after all. And while the character has evolved, both aesthetically and internally, in the 42 years since his creation, that conflict is still very much at the heart of the Spider-Man story.
And speaking of the opposite sex: for such a shy, introverted boy, Peter Parker cuts quite the romantic figure. From J. Jonah Jameson’s secretary to the Girl Next Door, Peter Parker has always been defined, at least in part, by his relationships with women.
He’s had the sorts of girlfriends that most men will recognize: the sweet-but-dull college student, Gwen Stacy, who was killed by the Green Goblin; Felicia Hardy, aka the Black Cat, a sultry (if unstable) superthief who was obsessed with Spider-Man, but cared little for Peter Parker; and Mary Jane Watson, who combined the beauty and joie de vivre of the Black Cat with the stability of Gwen Stacy.
And while Gwen and Felicia were excised from the movie mythology, their effect on Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship was not. While both Gwen and Felicia virtually threw themselves at Peter Parker’s webbed feet, Mary Jane always approached Peter as an equal. Unwilling to be taken for granted, Mary Jane Watson made Peter Parker come to her on the same terms, and the two were friends long before they were anything deeper.
Sam Raimi’s masterstroke, with the Spider-Man movies, was to adhere religiously to the source material. He understood that, far from being juvenile bum-fodder, the comics bore a depth and charm that would captivate audiences all over the world, if presented in the right way.
And while a fast-paced Hollywood blockbuster is all well and good, now and then, the only way to really find out what happens next in the great Spider-Man Story is to make a beeline for your nearest comic shop or bookstore…or dare I say it…the Web?
Essay text (C) Matthew Craig