Spider-Man: Does Great Power REALLY Demand Great Responsibility?

Interesting. I love these sorts of ethical debates. I wish CBMs would deal with them more.

Two distinctions come to mind when considering this question:

1) Does "great responsibility" mean all responsibility?

2) Does "great responsibility" mean superheroics?

The video addresses the first question quite thoroughly, but I think a simple thought exercise drives the point home:

Imagine that you are Spider-Man, and two bank robberies occur at exactly the same time, but on opposite sides of the city. To which do you respond? You cannot respond to both, so how do you make the decision? If you know that one is an armed robbery and one is not, then that might influence the outcome. If both are armed robberies, how would you decide? Perhaps based on whether or not the police could respond in time?

What this demonstrates is that you cannot be responsible for all events in all places at all times. For every hour Peter spends in class, that's a killer or robber that commits a crime. Consider Superman: even with his speed in some stories, for every protracted engagement, there is another to which he cannot respond. The only solution then is to share responsibility with others who have the means to respond. This means police officers, firefighters, EMTs, etc. And because they share the responsibility, you don't share the entirety of the burden. In fact, it is more efficient and more effective to focus your efforts on a few areas and to let others manage others. This is the basic principle behind state and local government.

The second question is not addressed by the video, and therefore requires extended explanation:

In the BvS trailer, Martha Kent tells Clark that he doesn't owe the world a thing, and therefore he can choose to be their savior, monument and angel, or he can choose not to do that. This advice was criticized for bucking the superhero's ethic. But I think she makes a good point. Just because you have great strength or agility doesn't mean that you are responsible to act as protector and savior. You are much more than your strength. Peter Parker isn't just an athletic man; he's a highly intelligent man. He could choose to improve livelihoods through technological innovation; Clark Kent could choose to become a politician. Neither choice is very superheroic, but each provides benefits to a much larger group of people than everyday saves do. There is no ethical basis for thinking that these people MUST be full-time superheroes. At most, they may be obligated to engage in superheroics only in cases where no one else can act.

In many cases, it might be irresponsible for them to act. Consider the classic case of the burning building: comics might portray this as simply a matter of charging into a building and bringing trapped people out. But firefighters know that it's not that simple. Significant structural damage and the potential for backdrafts provide two reasons why we entrust such jobs to trained men and women. Or consider a hostage situation: any police officer or SWAT unit will tell you that immediately charging in is often the worst decision you could make. Hostage crises often require negotiation, and skilled negotiators, which does not describe most superheroes. If you are the Flash, then you are fast enough to disarm most threats. But if you aren't, maybe you defer to firefighters and police. This is one of the reasons why those criticizing Cavill's Superman for not participating in rescue operations after the World Engine are naive: brute force is not an appropriate tool for rescuing people from structurally compromised buildings. In these cases, responsibility lies only with those who know how to deal with the problem.

So I think in both answers, the maxim has its ethical limits. And I hope that superhero films better capture this complexity.

Superior Spiderman was a much better run of a story then some people give it credit for. It was a great shake up in a 52 year run of comics. Seeing one of the heroes arch nemeses take over his body but instead of using his body for evil is changed by the memories of the hero to do good is really interesting. Peter was always going to return but seeing Otto be the "Superior Spiderman" was awesome. Along with some great art it was one of the best Spiderman stories in a long time.