A Historical Love Letter to the New Spider-man
Emma Liu (ISB 11)
Emma Liu is currently a junior at ISB and an editor at Buddy!.
Having not yet watched Endgame (she sincerely apologizes), her Marvel expertise is OK at best. However, her interest in art history and literature drove her to write the following piece. What follows is a social and historical analysis of the newest Spider-man franchise.
Contrary to popular belief, British heartthrob Tom Holland is not the highlight of Marvel’s new Spider-man series. Not even close. Sure, he’s charming and cute, but I think the main reason why the new Spider-man: Homecoming and Spider-man: Far from Home have been able to capture such large audiences worldwide is more because of their historic and symbolic weight. To understand this, we need to see past the CGI and the celebrity faces and try to analyze how Spider-man even became such a sensation in the first place.
Those that have taken Art I or II are familiar with the term “zeitgeist”— a fancy German way of saying “general vibe of a particular time in history.” Spider-man, in the many forms that he has taken from comics to the big screen, is all about capturing zeitgeist.
Our beloved Peter Parker was first introduced during the August of 1962, in the dying comic book series Amazing Fantasy. Despite doubt of it ever taking off, the first-ever teen superhero Spider-man became an instant hit. Before the arrival of Peter Parker, the comic book world was saturated with the cool and near-perfect adult superheroes of the Silent Generation (born 1925 to 1945)— think Superman and Batman. Having had a childhood tainted by the second World War, the Silent Generation is mostly characterized as seeking stability and leading successful lives. Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), on the other hand, were activists. Born after the war, they saw the dark world their parents lived in and sought to change it. Such change was only amplified with the sheer size of the boomer population: 78 million children were born during that generation. Despite their strong spirit, though, many young boomers felt lost— as they lacked both stability and the approval of the conservative generations before them. Such was the zeitgeist that the creator of Spider-man— Stan Lee— sought to capture.
(From Marvel Comics)
Where his predecessors are suave and, well, super, Peter Parker is neurotic, quirky, and full of life. Like always, Britannica sums up his character quite well: “Spider-man... was the original everyman superhero.” Born as a “sickly orphan” (thanks again, Britannica), the classically boomer teenager frequently worried about money and his love life. But this would all change with the fateful bite of a radioactive spider, which would allow Peter to gain enhanced speed, strength, and intuition. At once extraordinary and relatable, Spider-man swiftly became the person every secondary and high-school kid dreamed to be. In other words, Spider-man’s huge success was a direct result of his accurate reflection of the boomer zeitgeist.
History aside, though, the earliest memory that most of us have of Spider-man is probably Tobey Maguire’s version. Baby-faced and charming, Maguire brought Spider-man to the big screens for the first time, and everyone loved it. Though not exactly matching the original in physicality, Maguire brought to life the kind and vulnerable side of Spider-man’s heroism. As the years went on, however, Maguire’s Spider-man gradually declined (ending horrifically with Spider-man 3) and was supplanted by Andrew Garfield’s version, which was the one I first watched. Even with the ignorance and naivety that came with being a wee little pre-teen, Garfield’s version really didn’t do much for me. Sure, he cracked jokes, made a few one-liners here and there, but he blended into the landscape— slick and cool like all the other superheroes. Owed partly to the length of time but mostly to their lackluster portrayals, those Spidermen would gradually fade from the public’s memories— our beloved Peter Parker had lost his magic.
It’s no wonder that Far from Home is among the top 3 highest grossing Spiderman films with a domestic total of $373 million.
This all changed in 2017, with the arrival of Spider-man: Homecoming. Featuring a cast that— for once— actually resembled teenagers. Though not as soft as Maguire or handsome as Garfield, the new Spider-man was (alas) fun! Making nerdy quips amongst the formidable Avengers, being a head shorter than both of his love interests, Holland’s awkward and youthful portrayal captured the essence of the Spider-man that everyone knew and loved. Sure, it’s probably the least loyal to the original comics in terms of specific events (ironic, given that this one was actually produced by Marvel Studios), but the different backstory becomes an asset rather than a disadvantage. Instead of carefully cropping out the 1962 Spider-man and bewildering the contemporary audience, the new artists decided to preserve the essence of his character in a Millennial and Gen-Z backdrop. In short, Marvel Studio’s Spidey mirrors the original Spider-man in the most important ways: his personality and relatability! Zeitgeist! It’s no wonder that Far from Home is among the top 3 highest grossing Spiderman films with a domestic total of $373 million.
(From Marvel Studios)
The character arc that the new Peter Parker experiences from Captain America: Civil War, to Avengers: Endgame, and finally Far from Home, is nothing short of a reflection of today’s youth. First thrust into the world of the Avengers by the well-meaning Tony Stark, Peter is witty and naive— largely ignorant of tragedy. But after the events Endgame, having suffered the loss of a father-figure, Peter becomes unsure and hopeless— left largely alone to face the monsters of the big, bad world. The situation here is clear and resounding: Peter, like so many of us now, struggles to find his way as he dangles precariously between adolescence and adulthood. What’s worse though, Peter’s struggles are entirely new. Where Thanos is a mostly traditional super-villain— grandiose and alien— Mysterio is a modern threat— adept at technology and manipulating the public.
Just as Holland’s Peter dons his new suit to face mortal peril, our generation must shoulder the responsibility of overcoming never-before-seen hurdles like climate change, globalization, and automation. Perhaps, in this new and daunting world, our friendly neighborhood Spider-man might just be the hero we need.
