With Great Power Comes Great Relatability

Joseph Campbell wrote a fantastic book called The Hero With A Thousand Faces in which he describes a story thread called the Hero’s Journey. The book goes through a multistep act on events that occur in the “hero’s journey”. Peter Parker in his initial appearances in every incarnation goes through this journey. All of the steps in a heroes journey are universal and seen in other franchises like Harry Potter, Star Wars, or even the Lion King. Ruth Anne Roberts wrote a piece titled Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers, and Merlin: telling the client’s story using the characters and paradigm of the archetypal hero’s journey where she says, “We place ourselves into the story and walk with the characters. In terms of persuasion, we walk in the shoes of the protagonist. If we can marry the concepts of storytelling to the “collective conscious” in our statements of the case, we will potentially create powerfully persuasive undercurrents in the case that should help persuade in a more subtle way.”

In an article published from Parade they quote Stan Lee when he said, “I like Spider-Man because he’s become the most famous. He’s the one who’s most like me–nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he’s got a lot of problems, and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.” Other heroes of the Silver and Golden age, Spider-Man was thought of as more a person first before a hero. Where Superman lives up to the “Super” in his name, Spider-Man puts they hyphen to good use and has emphasis on the “man” in Spider-Man. Batman may be more of a man on paper than Spider-Man, their differences lie in their story portrayals.

Let us talk of loss. Where Batman and Spider-Man differ mainly is in their portrayal of their humanity. Batman is a billionaire who watched his parents get gunned down in front of him as a child, whereas Parker is a suburban kid who is gifted incredible powers with a strong moral compass. Batman on paper is the most human. No super powers, just a lot of money and resources. Batman fights mad clowns, solves crimes like the modern day Sherlock Holmes, and has a company to his name.

Looking at something like the run of Superior Spider-Man specifically issue number twenty from 2014. Peter Parker lost control of his body to Doctor Octopus and uses Parker’s body to become rich and successful in the science community. That isn’t in line with what we’ve been discussing, but if we look closer into the themes and plot of the story, we can see it is a story of Peter trapped in Otto’s mind debating the choices he makes and wanting him to do the right things. Peter’s sense of good in Otto’s sick and twisted mind humanizes the latter into becoming a better man and building the relationships we have in our everyday lives and the regrets of both men. There are other elements not in line with the Spider-Man story but the presence of Peter grounds all of those to tell a human story that all of us can relate to.

Although there are other characters now that try to focus on human stories, none have captured our attention like Spider-Man. A more up and coming character in the DC universe is Nightwing. Nightwing was the first Robin to Batman and now titles his own line of books. A paper Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University states that Dick Grayson,” serves as the quintessential example of the hero’s journey and provides examples of human qualities such as loyalty, charisma, optimism, trust, sympathy, as well as a general knack for heroics and a strong sense of justice in ways that Batman does not. These qualities allow Grayson to break ground in morality, human relations, and empathy in terms of comic books studies. Going through multiple coming-of-age style stories, Grayson’s growth is something that was decades in the making. This growth and development are things that Batman does not experience, specifically in the manner that Grayson did, as he is presented as having already completed his journey, and is fully developed. The presence of this coming-of-age narrative allows for the incorporation of Allison and Goethals’ heroic leadership dynamic and Propora’s theories regarding hero identification…”

Where Parker and Grayson differ is their overall purpose in the context to their larger universes. Spider-Man was born on his own account and forged into the hero he is on his own to feet. Grayson on the other hand is an emotionally complex hero with depth, but he is a supplementary character. His initial purpose as to make Batman more relatable and kid friendly according to Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and the other creatives. This makes his character purely supplemental. Without Batman, there is no Nightwing. Without Spider-Man, there is still a very interesting character in Peter Parker. He still goes through the girl problems, the rent issues, and all the other every day troubles.

The whole plot of Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No More are about struggles to balance identity. The comic is about human emotion and wanting to give up his responsibility to have personal pleasure with the people he cares for. The film falls in the same category with Peter giving up the hero act to try and live a life with the girl of his dreams. Stories like these two are more popular examples, but if what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby said is true, then he’s had the life of an every day person since his inception.

References

BBC. (2010, August 15). Superheroes ‘Poor Role Models for boys’. BBC News. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-10957590#:~:text=Modern%2Dday%20superheroes%20promote%20a,Psychological%20Association%20meeting%20was%20told

Campbell, J. (1968). The hero with a thousand faces. Pantheon Books.

Robbins, R. A. (n.d.). Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers, and Merlin: telling the client’s story using the characters and paradigm of the archetypal hero’s journey. Scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Harry-Potter-Ruby-Slippers-and-Merlin-telling-the-clients-story-using-the-characters-and-paradigm-of-the-archetypal-heros-journey/991031550247604646#file-0

Sidekick story: Robin spreads his wings. Hindustan Times. (2020, December 11). Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.hindustantimes.com/hollywood/sidekick-story-robin-spreads-his-wings/story-jmhJ34tbte3hUsnjs35HsM.html

Slott, D., Gage, C., Camuncoli, G., Sliney, W., Rodríguez Javier, & Briones, P. (2014). The superior spider-man (Vol. 20). Marvel Worldwide, Inc.

Smith, J. R. (2020). Dick Grayson: Relatability, Catharsis, and the Positive Development of a Superhero (thesis).