By now, everyone on the planet knows that Peter Parker is dead…sort of. Even my 70-year-old father provided this insightful comment just days after Spidey passed: “So, I hear that spider-guy you like is dead.” Indeed. What fascinated me more than my father’s – and the rest of the world’s - knowledge of Peter Parker’s demise was the vitriol aimed at Marvel Comics, and the wallcrawler’s evil, husky murderer and most recent head writer, Dan Slott. With no shortage of death threats, boycotts, and downright disgust aimed at Mr. Slott and the path chosen by the House of Ideas, I began to wonder what got everyone’s spandex in a bunch.
The passing of our most cherished superheroes is not new to the comic book world. The likes of Superman, Batman, Aquaman (ever so briefly), Jean Grey and Bart Allen’s Flash have all bit the dust, or at least, the general public was led to believe that these iconic characters were defunct. But no death, not even those of Superman or Batman, created such a backlash from the comic reading (and non-comic reading) universe as did the death of the true Spider-Man.
I’m not saying that Superman’s death was not met with an outcry from fans. DC Comics no doubt had to manage harsh criticism, especially since this was the first time one of the industry’s biggies had died. I was young when Supes slept with the fishes, but I can recall the lack of death threats being slung at the minds behind DC. It is quite possible that had Facebook, Twitter, and the ever-expanding blogosphere been a mainstay in 1992, giving every one of us nerds, dorks, and weirdos a direct line to the creators of our favorite comics, the outrage from death of Krypton’s last son may have been more palpable and easily communicable. This is a fair argument but I believe an incorrect one.
Also, a complaint is that this is purely a money grab. There is no significance or in-depth meaning to the death of Spider-Man. Well, let us be honest. Comic books are a money grab. Cross-overs (I'll admit there are a bit too many), major events, deaths, characters coming back to life, etc. It goes on and on. Every issue is trying to think of a way to have you buy the next issue. While comics are a passion, an art, they also must make money. Fanboy love alone cannot keep an industry afloat.
What set waves of downright lunacy crashing on the shores of Marvel’s web presence was not simply the advent of the Internet. Nor was it the hatred that a decent percentage of Spider-Man fans had manifested towards Dan Slott, who unjustly got a bum rap for his run on Spider-Man. To digress for one moment, while not every storyline was a homerun, the majority of Slott’s Spidey tales were very well-written, entertaining, creative, and captured the comedic and hapless essence of Spider-Man. Slott injected a youthfulness and a freshness into Spider-Man. He also made common sense decisions for Spider-Man that left fanboys in a tizzy.
During his run, Slott donned Spider-Man with various new costumes. Whether it was a costume that was tailored to combat each one of his notable villains, or to protect him while he lacked his spider-sense, Slott took a realistic approach to a superhero that was constantly getting smacked around by villains (yes, I understand the absurdity of arguing for rationality about a man with spider powers). When most people were outraged when Parker left the world of freelance photography to work in a science lab, I slapped my balding head and yelled, “Of course!” If you are a science wiz, why in the world would you waste your time selling two pictures of Spider-Man a week for $400 when you can get a full time job pursuing your passion (and what you happen to be incredible at). Fanboys are not satisfied unless they have something to hate, to prove that they are the purists, the fans from the inception of all things comics. I know. I’m one of them. But I could never justify having anger at Slott for making such obvious decisions.
With anger already barreling down the tracks like the train at the end of Back to the Future III, it was only natural that heads exploded when word came that Spider-Man was going the way of the dodo bird. But was this anger justified? Was it based on Parker creating new costumes or getting a new job? No. People may scoff at this next comment, but let it resonate before you throw up your hands and declare me insane. The reason why the world had such a visceral reaction to Peter Parker’s death was that we are Peter Parker.
Okay. I’m out of my mind. But let me lay the foundation for this comment. Let us all look at the deaths of the big three. First is Superman. He died at the hands of Doomsday in 1993. An epic battle took place which practically leveled Metropolis and left Superman a pathetic, mangled, bloody mess stamped into the concrete. Even the cover of his comic book had Lois Lane holding him like a baby, screaming like an eight-year-old at a Justin Bieber concert. So, why were there no death threats to Dan Jurgens, the writer who beat Kal-El to a pulp? We are not Superman.
Like Superman, we know what it feels like to be different from everyone else, however, no one (that I am aware of) truly is their own species walking among humans. No one that I’ve met throughout my years was put into a space capsule by their soon to be deceased parents and rocketed millions of light years from a dying planet and tasked with the responsibility of saving us idiots from destroying each other. If anything, Superman is better than we are. He is what we aspire to be, and hence, he was never us. He was always noble, fair, doing what was right, even at the risk of his own life. People may say that Clark Kent was like the average man, but as anyone who watched Kill Bill knows, Clark Kent was the fake persona. “When Superman wakes up in the morning, he is Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent.”
What about Bruce Wayne? He met his maker in 2008 (or so we thought) at the hands of writer, Grant Morrison. He’s human. He lost his parents. Many people can relate to that. But that is where it ends. Bruce Wayne is a playboy billionaire who has a servant, a secret underground cave filled with custom-made vehicles and weapons. He also has a somewhat disturbing policy of recruiting adolescents and convincing them to risk their lives against some of the most diabolical villains ever created.
Which leaves Peter Parker. As Spider-Man, Parker has received little to no credit for the countless times he saved the world. As Parker, he’s been verbally abused, picked on, bullied, mocked, made to feel like an outcast. He typically has the worst luck and even when he tries his hardest, he doesn’t always succeed. In high school, he was the nerd. He had no friends (save Harry) and no one appreciated him. At the Daily Bugle, he is constantly verbally abused by his employer. We all know these feelings. We all have experienced them. And for the first time, when we were young, we read about someone who knew exactly how we felt. Whether you are a jock, a real estate broker, or one of the greatest scientific minds, at one point you were young and even if only for a moment, felt unsure about yourself, that everyone was against you.
This is why we always root for Parker and for Spider-Man. For once, we want to see one of our own finally get the recognition and glory he deserved. So when news came that he was going to be unceremoniously killed by an already divisive writer, it made perfect sense that outrage would ensue. Even worse, no one would even know that he died. There would be no funeral, no parades, no speeches.
Obviously, we all know that Parker will once again take over his own body. It is inevitable. We can all guess as to how or when, but we all know it will happen. And when Parker finally figures out the way to take over his own body again, no one will congratulate him. No one will pat him on the back, or welcome him back and profess how much they missed him. I think some of us can connect to that as well.