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Art is subjective and its subjectivity gives it the ability to make its way through people differently. While being subjective art can be unanimously interpreted, although very rare. The Bible is the “word of God” and is taken as truth. Different sects of Christianity interpret the Bible differently but all still have the basic premise for what constitutes their faith. Subjectivity is closely aligned with divisiveness as well. Differing interpretations can either be received positively or negatively. The essence of subjectivity is the basis for what art is supposed to be. Now on the subject of art, let’s talk about the Mona Lisa of fiction, The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Peter Parker in particularly has touched more fans and regular media consumers since his debut in 1962 with Amazing Fantasy #15 from the minds of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko. Lee’s most well known interview about Peter Parker is how he came up with the idea for him. While he was pumping out titles like The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and The X-Men he found himself with a form of writer’s block. There he, “saw a fly crawling on a wall. And I said, ‘Boy, it would be great if I could get a superhero who could stick to walls like an insect.’ ” and then the greatest fictional character was born. Lee’s writing combined with visual input from Kirby and Ditko formed Parker’s personality as a nerdy teenager that goes through tragedy and had been given enormous amounts of power. The choice to make him a teenager in a time when younger people were more rebellious and blasting Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan was the most relatable thing they could do. When talking of relatability, Parker is the vessel of relatability.

Relatability is appealing. To go see an alien from Krypton throw buildings, shoot lasers from his eyes, or any other incredible feat is good and fun, but only for a spectacle. Clark Kent has to put on a mask every day when he hides as some mild mannered reporter at a newspaper. All of the problems he faces in that area are only present because he strives to be human. Humanity is what Peter Parker embodies. When Lee was workshopping the character he wanted him to be imperfect and fallible. When Lee says, “Okay he’s pretty good at catching bad guys, but he’s apt to get an allergy attack while he’s fighting” or “we try to bring comics a little more into the real world” he’s saying that yes, DC Comics was popping off with these crazy powerful characters, he thought that maybe the reason people read these books is because people project themselves onto the characters. Peter Parker was the gateway to comic fans feeling like they could put on a costume and go fight criminals. Americans struggle to pay rent more and more as the years progress. When you see Peter lose the twenty dollar bill his aunt gave him in Spider-Man 2 (2004) to his landlord then accidentally make his laundry red and blue from messing up his wash, it grounds him more and more. No one reading comic books is a billionaire Bruce Wayne type bathing in money, equipment, or a black belt in every form of martial arts. They’re all regular people making every day decisions to put food on the table. Clark Kent never asked to Superman. Peter Parker never asked to be bitten by the radioactive arachnid, but he chose to be Spider-Man. The ability to make the selfless choice and use something unnaturally thrusted upon him is what sets him apart from all the other heroes.

Parker redefined the superhero. Like previously mentioned, he was the first hero to deal with real life problems just as much as his costumed foes. In several incarnations and storylines Peter gives up being Spider-Man. The most well known instance was in The Amazing Spider-Man #50 where Peter weighs his options of balancing the double life. He was getting into fights with his friends, dodging girls, and spending no time with his Aunt May. Any normal person can relate, especially a working college student. Going from working thirty five to forty hours a week and juggling class work, projects, and tests is a hard thing. Peter made a very human decision. He thought that the root of his problems was Spider-Man and decided to give up. When Peter returned to his normal life he found that his problems were rooted in his behavior as a human, and not the result of poor time management. It’s perfectly human to misread your friends and loved ones. He found that giving up his super heroing had little to no impact on his personal relationships. This was more of a personal problem that he had to fix as a regular person.

You don’t see any fictional character so mainstream and popular get beat down so bad like Peter. Yes there will be the occasional magical, space, and other fantasy elements added to his stories but the thing that keeps him the most is how he fits into these elements. For example, in the already established Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peter Parker who is Marvel’s most profitable character debuted in a Captain America film. The introduction of his character was filmed in a small apartment and away from the world ending threats the MCU was accustomed to showing us. The way he spouted out pop culture references to people over twice his age and naively fought his opponents brought levity to the situation. Since then his solo outings have been described as John Hughes like by the creatives. The Ferris Bueller’s Day Off vibes were a heavy influence to have Peter return to his roots as a young and relatable kid. As of right right now Spider-Man’s latest film Spider-Man: No Way Home, which saw the return of the three actors reprising their roles has earned a world wide gross of over 1.8 billion dollars. In a pandemic world we’re living in, the hope and optimism of Peter Parker shines bright.

References

CBC/Radio Canada. (2018, November 13). Why Stan Lee saw Spider-Man as a regular guy | CBC archives. CBCnews. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/archives/why-stan-lee-saw-spider-man-as-a-regular-guy-1.4902887

Rubin, R. (2022, February 15). ‘Spider-Man: No way home’ takes down ‘avatar’ to become third-biggest movie ever at domestic box office. Variety. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://variety.com/2022/film/news/spider-man-no-way-home-avatar-box-office-record-1235180474/#!

Sacks, E. (2019, January 10). Spider-man got his start as a fly on the wall of Marvel’s Stan Lee . nydailynews.com. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/spider-man-start-fly-wall-marvel-stan-lee-article-1.1102658