Thursday, October 4, 2018

The two sides of the Spider-Man story

Having a small child means never watching movies when they came out. Which, I got to say, is something I knew going in and, since we live in a world where giant flat screen HD TVs, I don’t care.

Spider-Man:Homecoming was a really fun movie and might beat out Spider-Man 2 for the best Spider-Man movie I’ve seen. It’s a real testament to the MCU that I also consider it a middle-of-the-pack movie in the series :D It’s fun and engaging but it’s no Thor:Ragnarok.

Spider-Man is one of my favorite heroes and for a very simple reason. He’s got all the normal people problems on top of the super hero problems. In fact, his Peter Parker issues are more stressful for him than his Spider-Man problems. Sometimes it gets too much and his life becomes a train wreck of misery that people hopefully can’t relate to.

That said, there are two other elements of Spider-Man that I like. One: he was the first really successful solo teen hero. He wasn’t a sidekick. He was a teen on his own, even supporting his geriatric aunt. Two: He is now one of the most experienced superheroes, having been everywhere and fought everyone while still able to joke about it. I like Spider-Man the teen and Spider-Man the seasoned expert.

And I understand why, for so many reasons, why every movie has Spider-Man the kid. First of all, it’s iconic. Second, it’s the starting point. Third, it makes him super relatable, particularly to a major target demographic. 

In the MCU, it makes even more sense since he was a later addition. And, while I understand why some people hate it because it flies in the face of Spider-Man the independent outsider, I really liked the relationship between Tony Stark and Peter Parker.

Still, I would like to see a movie version of Spider-Man where he’s the voice of experience and the mentor. And I know that’s been done in cartoons and other media and will probably happen in Into the Spiderverse so I really am asking to get my paradox cake and eat it too.

Anyway, while I hated the Clone saga and _despise_ One More Day, I love Spider-Man and Homecoming did the character justice while respecting the medium of movies.

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