New Issues: In Praise of Spidey Sense

What distinguishes a superhero from a plain old "hero" are superpowers. The ability to fly, super-strength, heightened intelligence, etc. all qualify. Otherwise you're just a do-gooder who would likely fall victim to a Green Goblin pumpkin bomb or Doctor Octopus' tentacles. You need honest-to-god powers to compete in this universe.

After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker gained the proportionate speed and strength of an arachnid, as well as the ability to scale walls and jump long-distances (contrary to the Spider-Man movie, in the comics, Peter was not able to produce his own "webbing." He used his scientific know-how to engineer mechanical web "shooters").  But the superpower that always stood out to me was his "Spidey Sense." This power was an innate warning system; if a villain was in shadow ready to strike, or a floor board Spider-Man was walking across was on the verge of collapse or revealing his position, his Spidey Sense would "tingle," enabling him to use his lighting-quick reflexes to get out of harm's way.

When I was much younger and still trying to determine which heroes I most identified with, these distinguishable superhuman traits were vital. Superman was almost too perfect - stronger than everything, immune to bullets with only one real weakness, a foreign substance from his home planet called kryptonite. Sure, villains always found a way to procure kryptonite to keep things exciting, but as a kid, I viewed Superman as indestructible, even when DC inexplicably tried to kill him in the 1990s.

I was also never able to get behind superheroes with projectile powers -- i.e. shooting fire, ice or water (thus negating a number of the X-Men). It felt like cheating to me. When the going got tough, they were able to lean on the power of the elements to get out of trouble. Plus those were the kinds of powers reserved for super villains. It was up to the superheroes to outsmart the villains, not match power for power.

You could throw physical freaks of nature like The Hulk and The Thing in a similar boat. Yes, Spider-Man has strength, but as you might recall, when he was buried under tons of steal and wreckage in ASM #33, there was serious doubt on the reader's end that he'd be able to power his way out. It took every last ounce of strength and determination for him to succeed. Superheroes like The Hulk and The Thing seem to get by just on brute strength. In the Ang Lee Hulk movie a few years ago, the green guy was swinging tanks around like they were baseball bats. That's just not fair.

But Spidey Sense is both simultaneously beyond the realm of imagination and realistic. While it's a clear advantage for Spider-Man, it's a power that makes sense -- a spider is comparatively strong and fast in the insect kingdom, but a key part of its survival is its ability to elude danger. How hard is it for a person to sneak up on a spider? If you're looking to squash one, you generally need the help of a newspaper or something broad. And yes, just because Spider-Man had his Spidey Sense, doesn't mean he never got hit. In the comics, he gets beat up on a regular basis. But the Spidey Sense still gives him at least some kind of an edge headed into a fight. Spider-Man still has to use his intellect and speed against characters like Electro who can control electricity or Sandman, who's more immune to physical damage because he's made of sand, but the Spidey Sense gets him in a position to succeed. And the Spidey Sense also helped Spider-Man vanquish perhaps his greatest villain of all time, the Green Goblin (before Marvel brought him back to life in the 1990s, but let's not get into that right now). After a knock-down fight in ASM #122, Spider-Man starts to close in on the Goblin when the villain summons his Goblin "Glider" to act like a guillotine and slice Spidey in half. Spider-Man's Spidey Sense tingles and he's able to dodge the sneak attack, leaving the Goblin to get the sharp end of the stick.

New Issues: Amazing Spider-Man 655 and Power and Responsibility

As a companion to the "Remembrance of Comics Past" tomes I will post on Chasing Amazing, I thought it was also important to look at the other end of my collection -- the new issues. Amazing Spider-Man is still a living, growing entity, publishing issues twice a month. I've been a regular subscriber to the series for more than seven years and will continue to be one until the series is inevitably cancelled or goes completely digital (that's a rant for another day).

I think it's important to establish that while I'm a collector of these comics, at the core, I'm primarily a fan of Spider-Man. When I first started reading comic books, there were  certain themes, characters, storylines, etc. attached to Spider-Man that made me gravitate towards that series more than any other. I'd like to use these newer issues to illustrate that certain "je ne sais quoi" that makes me specifically a Spider-Man fan. These will not be reviews. There are plenty of other sites that provide that. Just my own interpretation of the current Spider-Man universe and how it ties into my past.

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Something that has always struck me about the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character is at the core, he's a loser. Look at other characters in the comic book universe: Batman is tortured and brooding, but is also a billionaire industrialist who surrounds himself with swank vehicles and contraptions. Superman is basically a demigod who gets interpreted as Jesus Christ by filmmakers these days. The X-Men face prejudices because they're mutants, but they also have an outlet at Professor X's mutant academy, where they are made out to be exceptional. Tony Stark, the man underneath the Iron Man suit is an alcoholic, but is generally awesome. But Spider-Man was always different. He's an orphan who lives with his elderly Aunt and Uncle and within days of getting blessed with superhuman powers after being bit by a radioactive spider, he's inextricably linked to the death of his Uncle when he refuses to stop a petty thief out of spite and then the man goes on to shoot his Uncle while he's fleeing the police.

While that may be enough to provide a lifetime of therapy and torture for any superhero, there's just so much more pain and suffering in store for Spider-Man. While dating a pretty, intelligent girl in college, Gwen Stacy, her father is killed by falling building debris while Spider-Man is fighting Doctor Octopus. Gwen goes on to blame Spider-Man, and since Peter has never revealed himself to her, he has to carry the burden of secretly being someone the love of his life hates.

Then, as if the screw needed to be turned some more, Gwen Stacy is killed when she's thrown off a bridge by Peter's arch-nemesis, the Green Goblin and Peter is unable to use his webbing to catch her in time (or depending on your interpretation of the comic panel, Gwen's neck might have snapped when Spidey's web snares her). Oh, and did I mention that the Green Goblin is actually Norman Osborn, the father of Peter's best friend, Harry? And the reason why Gwen is kidnapped and killed is because the Goblin figures out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, so he wants to hurt him as deeply as possible by killing the woman he loves.

It's worth noting that when Marvel Comics published "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" in 1973, this was considered groundbreaking, heavy stuff for a comic book. A superhero's girl was never really a casualty up until that point and many comic historians (if there is such a title. If not, I'm making it up now) define that moment as the end of an entire ERA of comics (the shinier, happier Silver Age, making way for the grittier Bronze Age).

There's even more I can ramble on about (Peter's marriage to Mary Jane which is annulled by the Devil, clones of Peter running around who may actually be the real Peter, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera). In a weird, sadomasochistic way, the pain that Peter has been put through has always been a draw for me. While I've been fortunate enough to not experience emotional distress on the level of what Spider-Man's writers have put their hero through since his creation, I've also lived a far from perfect life, filled with instances of emotional pain, abuse, betrayal and failure. As someone who was shunned and mocked when he was younger because academics came easier for me (aka, I was a "nerd" who wore glasses, "for shame"), Peter Parker, the wallflower who was abused outside-of-costume by his peers was easy for me to identify with. And because his life is still an emotional mess, even when he's wearing his Spidey suit, there's a level of imperfect humanism you just can't find elsewhere in popular culture. There's no question, Spider-Man is still a hero, capable of doing extraordinary things, but his superhumanism doesn't change the fact that he's also still human.