Welcome the the first in my monthly series entitled “The Franchise” where I break down one of the major movie/comic/book/television franchises in Geekdom and examine what makes it tick. And with all the noise lately concerning the Sony-Disney deal to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the talk of multiple spider-spinoffs, and the Spider-Verse event going on right now in the comics how could I resist starting this column off with everyone’s favorite web-head.
Core Concept: “With great power comes great responsibility.” This is the crux of Spider-man. Every great story that can be told about him must start and end here. Which means that the most important figure in any Spider-man story is Peter Parker (or sometimes Miles Morales). That seems obvious right? Not really. You don’t read Superman for Clark Kent’s reporting or watch a Batman movie for Bruce Wayne’s latest playboy stunt. The X-Men and Fantastic Four may be about families but those families don’t keep regular lives outside of the team. So it is worth repeating that any good story isn’t about Spider-Man, it’s about what Peter Parker gives up to be Spider-Man and that decision is one that he’s presented with daily. That’s what makes him a hero.
Essential Moments: For as long as Spider-Man has been along and for as many tales that have been written about him there are really only two key moments that are absolutely essential to his story. The first is the loss of Uncle Ben at the hands of a burglar Peter could have stopped earlier on. Now this can be reworked and retold in a myriad of ways but the key has to remain that as a direct result of Peter’s inaction Uncle Ben dies. This shapes everything and serves as his primary motivation. Spider-man is meant to both serve as penance for letting his Uncle Ben die and as a mantel of responsibility that signifies Peter won’t stand idly by ever again. The second moment is the more complicated one: The Death of Gwen Stacy. This shades everything that Peter does. Originally it seemed as if there was some ambiguity in how she died. Was it the shock of being thrown of a bridge or was it Spider-Man’s attempt to save her that lead to her demise? These days its generally accepted that he neck snapped when Spider-man’s webbing caught her. And that guilt lives inside Peter Parker. A separate kind of guilt from what he feels about Uncle Ben. These two guilts form the crux of Peter Parker. In one he doesn’t do the right thing and it costs him dearly in the other he does and it costs him dearly. Damned if you don’t. Damned if you do. Hence the constant push to be better and the constant question of if its all worth the cost.
Rouges Gallery: Spider-Man has one of the best rouges galleries in all of comics rivaled only by Batman and The Flash. It begins with The Green Goblin; but just as Spider-man is really about Peter Parker so to is the Goblin really about Norman Osborn. Rich, brilliant, and completely psychotic; Osborn is best used as puppet master manipulating events and staying untouchable above the fray. When done correctly the Goblin should only appear during Osborn’s endgame or as a result of Osborn no longer being able to hold his insanity at bay. After the Green Goblin there are numerous foes with significant history concerning Spider-Man. Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Venom, The Lizard, Kingpin; the list goes on and on and all of them have played a significant part in shaping Spider-man’s stories. The lesson here is in the comics its great to see these fully developed characters team up to take on Spidey but in the movies these villains are far to epic a deserving of screen time to have more that one or two introduced per film successfully.
Best Stories: “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” – See Essential Moments above; “Kraven’s Last Hunt”- Maybe the best Spider-man story ever “Death of Jean DeWolf”-this is dark and so good. “If this be My Destiny” -the inspiration for Spider-Man 2 which is by far the best of the five movies we’ve seen so far.
NEVER DO IT THIS WAY AGAIN: “Clone Saga” -synonymous with failure in the comics industry; “Brand New Day”- synonymous with WTF!?! in the comics industry; Amazing Spider-Man 2 – more endings than Return of the King on top of spending way too much time worrying about setting up the plots of other movies and way too little time setting up its own plot.