In 1962 when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko unveiled Spider-Man to the world it became one of the most historic moments in comic book history. Not just because the two had spawned a character so creative and so original but because of how accessible he was. Along with The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man became the first comic book character with real world problems. This really jump started how Marvel Comics would differentiate themselves from DC by becoming less focused on mythology and more on street level heroes.
Spider-Man was the outstanding character in that world because his problems were not only real world but also dealt with the emotional toll superpowers could take on a teenager. Readers like me could put themselves in the place of Peter Parker’s daily life and then live vicariously through him when he became Spider-Man.
This idea was so powerful that fans become incredibly invested emotionally with Spidey. When Spider-Man chose not to stop a thief who ultimately gunned down his Uncle Ben we suffered right there with him. The burden placed at Spider-Man’s feet, the guilt he felt over Uncle Ben’s death, all us fans lived that with him.
Spider-Man gave us a hero with rich layers of psychological damage and a multitude of platforms from where to launch infinite stories. The classic struggles against his greatest foes, the deaths he endured, the disgust shown to him by the very people he was trying to save, it was such a brilliant landscape there seemed to be no end to it.
Then, something went terribly wrong. Peter stopped fighting real life problems, stopped facing the issues that made him so relatable. He married a supermodel, had a nice apartment, a good job and the stories began to suffer. The balance between the ills of Peter’s world and the excitement of Spider-Man’s got thrown off and things got boring.
Then came the “Clone Saga” an ill conceived idea where the Marvel folks took a story involving the Jackal from the seventies and tried to relate it to Spider-Man in the nineties. In the seventies story the Jackal created an army of Spider-Man clones to defeat the wall crawler. The real Spider-Man won out, or so we all thought until, nearly twenty years later, Marvel tried to say that the winning Spider-Man was actually a clone and the real Spider-Man had gone on to live a life under an assumed name.
It effectively meant that the Peter Parker people had been invested in between the mid-seventies and the early nineties was a fake and some guy named Ben Reilly was the real Spider-Man. Not only was this a confusing and silly storyline it backfired on Marvel Comics sending sales of Spider-Man plummeting.
Realizing their stupidity Marvel fixed it so Ben was actually the clone and Peter was returned to his rightful place as Spider-Man. It was too late though, the damage was done and from then on Spider-Man became the red headed stepchild or whipping boy for Marvel Comics.
If the powers that be wanted to do something stupid they would attach it to Spider-Man to see how it would fly. From the early nineties through now Spider-Man has become less of a relevant icon and more of a punch line; a vessel to hock movies and toys that has essentially wiped out what made him so important in the first place.
Though the stories were long suffering there were some real low points. Who could forget the “Spider Lineage” plot line where instead of being a random person given these powers it turned out that Peter Parker was part of a long history of folks who inherited spider abilities going back thousands of years. Wow, way to shitcan everything Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did Marvel. Nice move there.
Even worse was when Spidey was given that disco red and gold costume by Tony Stark and then publicly removed his mask during the Civil War story arc. Again Marvel showed no respect for the character instead fucking him as hard as they could to try and “shake things up.”
The worst of the worst came recently in Brand New Day where Marvel had Spider-Man make a deal with the Devil that vanquished the last twenty years of Spider-Man’s history. Suddenly his marriage to Mary Jane had never happened, long dead friends were suddenly back and so forth. While they maintained it was a long thought out story arc most of us believed Marvel had painted themselves into a corner when Spidey removed his mask. A problem they needed to rectify quickly.
Marvel expected that the long-suffering Spider-Man fans would just accept this stupid and inane idea as the new reality and go with it. Thousands of Spider-Man fans raised arms in outrage to this, vowing to never read Spider-Man again.
I chose another path.
Don’t get me wrong at first I was just as outraged as anyone else. I rallied and cried out for vengeance against those in power especially Marvel editor Joe Quesada. Then one day I stopped and really thought about it, really examined what was going on with Spider-Man and my anger began to subside.
I started to understand that Spider-Man as a true comic book icon, a character deserving of such love and devotion was dead, had been for a long time. It isn’t the characters fault; men who have grown to care more about the bottom line than comic books or their history decided his fate long ago in a boardroom.
It could’ve been The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America or anybody in the Marvel family but the bull’s-eye landed on Spider-Man. At some point it was decided that Spider-Man was a strong enough character to weather any kind of story no matter how badly written or conceived. The head honchos at Marvel also depended on the sheer magnitude of the love comic fans have for old web head and that they would take this abuse without blinking an eye. For a while that was true but with Brand New Day it’s all come crashing down.
Spider-Man sales are in the toilet and people are largely turning their back on the character, even going so far as to embrace the Ultimate Spider-Man series which has been left largely unmolested by those in charge. It’s too bad that fans are going down this road because the recent Spider-Man stories have been really awesome.
The Anti-Venom series with art by John Romita JR was seriously kick ass and the current story arc involving The Spider Tracer Killer has been great too. Are these stories on the same level as Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, The Sinister Six, or the other classic battles? No, not at all but that’s the point. It’s too late for Spider-Man so why not just enjoy the issues as simple entertainment stories?
The Spider-Man that captured our hearts and had us running to the stands or ripping through our comic folders is a distant memory. The charm is lost, the originality is gone as is that intangible magic long slaughtered by editors, writers and artists who just don’t get it. We’ll never get that back it’s gone forever and we must accept it. That doesn’t mean we can’t try to find the silver lining in these dark clouds.
Instead of just tossing Spider-Man out with yesterdays garbage why not let the hate go and simply enjoy Spider-Man for what he is. This assassination of the character didn’t just suddenly appear out of nowhere it’s been happening since the late eighties so why act surprised? Why rage against the editors and publishers who have never listened to you, it’s like banging your head against a building and wondering why it won’t fall. Nothing is going to change Marvel’s need to constantly bash Spider-Man so why be concerned with it.
This isn’t like Frank Miller’s All Star Batman or Grant Morrison’s Batman RIP where DC had long stood by the history of the character and just suddenly pulled the rug out from under us. In Marvel’s case what’s going with Spider-Man isn’t even as insufferable as Wolverine suddenly getting his memories back. Those things are all sudden and inexplicable downturns on the character where as Spider-Man has been steadily beaten into the ground for twenty years. This slow death makes it easier to accept that the Spider-Man we once loved is gone. At least it makes it easier for me.
Don’t mistake what I’m saying I don’t think this should be business as usual on any level. I mean that fans should pick up the new issues, thumb through them and if they like it great, if not then toss it. Don’t weather the bad stuff, don’t stick it out through bad storylines and certainly don’t collect it the way you once did. Marvel lost the expectations that we as readers would stay emotionally involved with Spider-Man the instant they decided to screw the storylines up so badly.
So now I think we have the right to treat Spider-Man the same as Marvel treats the character, as dispensable entertainment that doesn’t deserve your love or your scorn either. Spider-Man isn’t important enough anymore to get upset over so why waste your breath. If you enjoy Spider-Man then read it when you need to and don’t when it sucks. It may be the only way left to enjoy a character Marvel has gone to such great lengths to destroy.
