The Spider Project

[Anderson]

Cool - chomping at the bit to read it and throw my two cents in, especially on the MJ/Gwen stuff and Parker's personality issues.

Well, I debated throwing up the rough draft in the private area last night for people to peruse. I still might do it.

Basically, the central issue with Parker is apparent throughout the run. I've read every issue of Amazing Spidey and select runs of outside titles to prepare.

Peter Parker is a damaged child from a poorly structured family unit. When he finally has something of substantial merit dropped in his lap, he loses one of his chief anchors. Now, he has to be his own guiding force without any real direction.

The result is a whiny teen that can punch you through a Buick. Slap a lightsaber and a pissy attitude on him and you could have Anakin Skywalker.

[Timothy225]

Whiny? Yeah, true, but IMHO, I always felt he had every right to be.

Parents are dead, raised by his aunt and uncle. Sure, they loved him and he loved them back, but they weren't his real mom and dad, so you get that orphan/adopted kid angst.

He's a nerd, constantly harassed by his peers, bullied, socially awkward, etc.

He's a teen-ager, in the throes of puberty, when he becomes Spider-Man. He's changing physically and mentally, trying to figure out who he is and where he's going.

He hits the big-time, has powers beyond imagination, but isn't mature enough to handle them, though he does have the decency to kick most of the money he makes to his aunt and uncle, the only folks he gives a damn about.

Then he fucks up, pride fucks with him, he lets a bad guy escape when he could have stopped him, if he wasn't acting like a big shot. Said bad guy kills his uncle/surrogate father, fucking up his and his aunt's life. The guilt he feels, and the fact he doesn't dare tell his aunt due to her weak heart or her reaction to the news that Parker very well could have been the cause of his uncle's death, would easily break many people. The fact that he uses that guilt to push him to an altruistic life by helping people with his powers says a lot for his personality. The guilt, however remains.

Then you have J. Jonah Jameson, who runs a massive smear campaign against him, turning public opinion, making Spidey the superhero analog to Mel Gibson/Lindsey Lohan/Insert your favorite celebrity on the world's shitlist here. Public hates him, cops hate him, even when he does something heroic. The fact that Parker makes his money by shooting pics of himself as Spidey in action is self-hatred of the highest order. Plus he's short-changed a lot of the times by JJJ, too. He can't say anything though, as he needs the money to give to his aunt.

Finally, after all the shit he goes through, he wins one - he graduates high school, gets a scholarship to college, only for his aunt to get seriously ill. He starts college, meets Harry and Gwen, who think he's a snooty asshole, but fail to see he's more worried about his aunt. plus, he's got super-villains gunning for his ass, more photos he needs to shoot or lose the paycheck he and his aunt depend upon, a girl he really likes and had a relationship with (Betty Brant) has moved on to another guy, and he's gotta juggle all this, plus keep his grades up or flunk out of college, a dream his aunt and uncle always encouraged him to pursue.

There's more, but so far, Parker's had a lot of shit thrown his way by outside forces, tangentally due to his earlier mistakes, but the fact that he doesn't give up, and mostly keeps his bitching to himself (who's he going to talk to and let all this shit out?) says something about his character. It'd be real easy to channel the rage, give it back to the world at large (hence the very appropos Anakin Skywalker reference), and become the very menace JJJ writes about. But he doesn't. It's not who he is, how he was brought up.

I'll hold off for a bit until the article comes out. MUCH more to say about this.

[Anderson]

Betty Brant is an interesting point to all of this, but I only touched upon her sparingly.

Brant kickstarts the Parker obsession with unattainable women. Brant's about 5-7 years older than Parker and has a nearly identical background as Parker. But, she's mature and has had to deal with her shit. Maturing far beyond Parker, she lets her guard down and embraces Parker/Spidey. What happens? Doc Ock kills her brother.

The major obsessions with May don't really start until after Betty tells Peter to fuck off.

The fact of the matter is that it feeds into Parker's growing personality issues, as he grows more comfortable with staying in the Spider-Man mask longer and avoiding his persona life.

[Timothy225]

Re: Betty Brant, she was also the first girl to sort of positively respond to Peter, too. Prior to that, Peter was always going after unattainable women, as you would in high school - he tried asking Sally out on the first page of his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, and her reply pretty much established he'd tried asking her before ("For the umpteenth time, little man..."). Then Flash Thompson walks over and knocks Peter's books out of his arms. So there was a precedent that Peter was shooting beyond his social circle before Betty.

I'd argue that Peter became a bit more self-confident after he became Spider-Man (he stood up to Flash, even boxed with him and won, and started with the wisecracks, too), and with that he was much more attractive to the opposite sex. Flash's girlfriend Liz even crushed on him, tearfully revealing so when she and Peter graduated high school, though by her insistence they could never be together (ASM #28).

Also, Peter's always been worried about Aunt May, especially right after the events of AF #15. With Uncle Ben gone, Pete is now the bread-winner, hence his looking for work after JJJ's inadvertent ruination of Spidey's showbiz career with his attacks on Spidey via the newspaper. Again, prior to Betty, the precedent was there, although once the series found it's stride, the drama would ramp up, and Aunt May's condition would get more serious especially after Peter and Betty started dating.

[Anderson]

Re: Betty Brant, she was also the first girl to sort of positively respond to Peter, too. Prior to that, Peter was always going after unattainable women, as you would in high school - he tried asking Sally out on the first page of his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, and her reply pretty much established he'd tried asking her before ("For the umpteenth time, little man..."). Then Flash Thompson walks over and knocks Peter's books out of his arms. So there was a precedent that Peter was shooting beyond his social circle before Betty.

I'd argue that Peter became a bit more self-confident after he became Spider-Man (he stood up to Flash, even boxed with him and won, and started with the wisecracks, too), and with that he was much more attractive to the opposite sex. Flash's girlfriend Liz even crushed on him, tearfully revealing so when she and Peter graduated high school, though by her insistence they could never be together (ASM #28).

Also, Peter's always been worried about Aunt May, especially right after the events of AF #15. With Uncle Ben gone, Pete is now the bread-winner, hence his looking for work after JJJ's inadvertent ruination of Spidey's showbiz career with his attacks on Spidey via the newspaper. Again, prior to Betty, the precedent was there, although once the series found it's stride, the drama would ramp up, and Aunt May's condition would get more serious especially after Peter and Betty started dating.

Self-confidence isn't the issue. Even the biggest sociopaths are self-confident. The issue is that Peter has a warped personality. You bring up Flash and I was going to leave him for a future entry. But, look at that guy. He hates Peter, yet idolizes Spidey. Follow that through the decades of hero worship until he willing becomes bonded with the Venom symbiote, so that he may continue as a US soldier.

[Anderson]

Liz never got together with Peter because she was shamed by her brother Mark aka The Molten Man.

[Timothy225]

Oh, without a doubt, Peter's got issues. Enough to fill several long boxes worth. I'm just saying that he might not be as big an asshole as you might think (a smart-ass, yes), but, again, it's just my opinion. I'm eager to read your stuff, though, so I can fully get your POV on this, see if it alters my take any.

Good point, though, on the Liz Allan/Molten Man connection - been awhile since I read #28 and the follow-up issues, and almost forgot about that.