I ramble about Spider-Man.
Marvel's Spider-Man for Playstation 4 comes out in about two weeks and I still don't have a PS4 to play it on. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to actually identify with why Spider-Man is such an important character to me. The short answer would be to say that Spider-Man is relatable. And that may be an obvious statement to say that Spider-Man is a relatable character, but in a universe of god-like superheroes, an outcast nerdy teenager is the one that stands out among them.
Spider-Man is the everyman. It's been said many times before. But to have a superhero who has normal everyday problems with making ends meet goes a long way.I can sit here and talk about how I've always been a nerdy outcast but that's sort of a given. Ever since I was two years old, I've always spent my time at home, watching Star Wars and pretending I was Spider-Man. Now obviously, I wasn't old enough to understand how relatable of a character Peter Parker was.
But as I grew up, I noticed what really separates Spider-Man from every other hero and that is his identity as Peter Parker.Peter Parker is the true reason as to why I love Spider-Man so much. He's given these crazy super powers and yet, he still faces the real hardships that life has to offer. Having super strength and being able to crawl up the walls does not mean that he's able to pay his months rent or land a date to homecoming. He is almost always at a disadvantage. He's like the Charlie Brown of superheroes. He is the underdog.
My favorite Spider-Man stories are the ones focused more on Peter Parker. I love Spider-Man Homecoming even if people want to argue that it's just another marvel movie. I am fully aware that that movie has its own set of flaws. But most of the time when I'm watching it, I simply do not care because of how well it does at telling a Peter Parker story. In Homecoming, Peter is still a fifteen year old in high school who wants nothing more than to run around Queens, pretending he's an Avenger. During class, he's counting the seconds on the clock so he can get out there and put on the suit. In that movie, Peter Parker is just an identity that serves no use to him anymore. He doesn't care about skipping class or dropping all of his clubs. Tony Stark gave Peter his own Spider-Man suit and now he thinks that he's on his way to becoming an Avenger. Tony Stark barely talks to him in the movie but Peter is still driven to go out there and prove to Iron Man that he's ready to go beyond the friendly neighborhood.
The moment where Peter gets his suit taken away is detrimental to reminding him that he is a true hero at heart. At that point in the movie, he takes time to go back to living his life as Peter Parker. He shows up for class, he finishes building the LEGO Death Star with his best friend, and he even manages to ask out his crush to the dance. But then Peter realizes that he HAS to be Spider-Man.In a hoodie and sweatpants, he confronts the villain and suddenly finds himself trapped underneath a heap of rubble. Peter takes off the mask and cries for help. In this moment, he's not playing Spider-Man anymore. He gives up the facade and it becomes more apparent than ever that he's really just a kid. But it's in this moment where Peter becomes Spider-Man right in front of our eyes. He grips the rubble and tells himself, "Come on Peter". But as he lifts the rubble even higher, he's shouting "Come on Spider-Man!"
That moment from Homecoming is by far my favorite moment out of any other Spider-Man film. Not just because it took something from the classic comic books, but because the notion of having Peter cry for help only to come out even stronger in the end is what touches me every time. (Okay, I think I'm done going on about Spider-Man Homecoming)
People come up to me every so often to tell me that they think Spider-Man is a lame ass superhero or something like that. "He's just a whiny teenager!" And those people can argue that they think Spider-Man is a lame character because he's just a kid that gets his ass kicked all the time, but to me that's honestly the best part about him.
There will always be a fight that he simply cannot win. Sooner or later, Spider-Man will find himself under the rubble. Sometimes he gives up and tosses his suit in the trash. There are times where he vows to never be Spider-Man again because he believes that playing superhero does nothing but ruin his life. But once Peter gathers himself, he puts the mask back on because he ultimately knows that with great power comes great responsibility.This new Spider-Man game for Playstation 4 is really catching my eye, not only because it's looking to be a spectacular video game on its own merits, but because it looks like the developers acknowledged the idea of Peter Parker being just as important as Spider-Man.So far, all we know is that Peter Parker is twenty three in the game and has been Spidey for eight years. He's much more experienced than say, Tom Holland's Spider-Man, but we still see this new version of Peter Parker going through all the same problems as before. We'll be seeing a much more adult version of Peter, one that we haven't seen in a long time. Also he get's this new fancy athletic suit that honestly really shows that they took the liberties in creating a genuine worthwhile Spider-Man story.I think all that I'm really trying to say is I love Spider-Man so I'm just gonna wrap up this post here.
