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Spider-Man, Star Wars and the Power of Myth
Like Star Wars, Spider-Man has the classic elements of a successful myth. A typically American story, it's less pretentious and hyped than Star Wars and more accessible to kids and die-hard comic book buffs, who remember the great, golden age of Marvel Comics. I'm one of them, I was there.
The old form still has legs. One film analysts told the Wall Street Journal last week that with the success of Spider-Man, the blockbuster bar has been raised. In fact, he said, this movie has changed Hollywood's perception of what a blockbuster is. That makes it interesting for George Lucas, next up at your local megaplex.
It's tough to explain, in the age of cable, gaming, the Net and the Web, just how central comics were for years to a culture of brainy, nerdy, alienated pre-Net teenage boys. Now, hostile jerks can flame people on the Net. Before, they could only read sci-fi books, build model planes and erector sets, but mostly, feast on comics and dream of becoming more powerful.
In the 21st century, they can download, program and game, but in the 50s and 60s, comic books and rock-and-roll were prominent among the few accessible forms of popular culture for individualists with brain cells, a cheap, simple pleasure that cost a dime, then a quarter. How shockingly primitive when compared to the world of the computer nerd or hacker.
Mainstream culture was dull, religiously appropriate and homogenized. Comic books and rock music were rebellious, subversive and naturally came under murderous fire from parents, teachers and politicians.
Before, they could only read comics and fantasize about becoming more powerful. Elaborate ratings systems and restrictive codes eventually suffocated the comics' angry, biting spirit and made them as bland as network TV -- a cultural loss and free-speech outrage heading soon to a computer near you -- but not before Marvel and other comic creators cranked out some classic yarns, from Spider-Man and Batman to the X-Men and other superheroic tales.
What makes these stories so popular and enduring? Perhaps because they all embody certain themes. There's the split-personality hero, usually a nerd who acquires great powers but at enormous cost, who always gets something and loses something. He gets to zip along past New York City skyscrapers, for instance, but we know he isn't likely to end up with the girl. Or, he lives in a mansion and drives a Batmobile, but he's depressed and lonely. Or he's a mutant wolverine with fingers of steel who can't ever have a casual beer with his pals.
He cherishes his powers, but we know he can't ever be comfortable with his life. Robert Kane's early Batman: The Dark Knight was disturbingly dark and angry before the moralists turned comic books to bland mush. Few people remember that Kane ended his first Batman series with our hero giving up on life and essentially committing suicide by turning himself into the famed Arkham Asylum, where villains from the Joker to the Riddler were being held.
Stories like Spider-Man and Batman also have a uniquely American and, until September 11, old-fashioned sense of civics. Spider-man's motto is "With great power comes great responsibility, " a bizarre notion even to hackers. Wouldn't that have seemed clunky before the terrorist attacks? Now it has a certain resonance.
Batman's Bruce Wayne, along with the Superhero stars and any number of X-Men, never shirk their duty to the public, even though the fickle populace is sure, at some point, to turn on them. No matter how tempted, they are, they do what they're supposed to do.
The late teacher and mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote that myth was still one of the powerful forces in the world. The origins and power of myth are still central, from the comic book lover to the hacker. The success of revived yarns like Stan Lee's Spider-Man, while they rarely seem to take themselves as seriously as their fans take them, is amazing, and proves his point. We seem to constantly be turning backwards to myths for inspiration and entertainment, while we are busy making the myths of tomorrow but don't really know which ones will take.
The Spider-Man story is pretty basic, especially when compared to the lumbering twists and turns of Star Wars: wimpy outer-borough kid contracts enormous powers, learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, sacrifices much.
Peter Parker isn't as deep as the Skywalker brothers and Uncle Ben is no Obi-Wan. But as the box office receipts demonstrate, the writers at Marvel comics have held their own when it comes to myth-making. Sometimes, simpler is better.
"more accessible to kids"
Isn't it rated PG-13 vs. Star Wars' PG ratings?
Kiss my bass.
What about Steve Ditko?
Should have read this first. This article should be moderated -1 Flamebait.
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It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Batman is a DC Comic, not Marvel.
Marvel: X-Men, Spiderman, Hulk
DC: Batman, Superman, Justice League
do you mean Noam Chomsky, the linguist?
Yep, too much cofee already make my spelling even worse. Mr. Chomsky has a lot of interesting ideas, if you are only familiar with his linguistics then you are missing out on a lot of good mind material. I have a lot of respect for Noam's honesty in politics - but I wish he would spend more time in proposing solutions rather than just bash my culture. He repetidly make the clasic error of assuming that identification of a problem is the same as fixing it, and unfortuntatly he has collected enough groupies around him that parrot every word of his - so I doubt he'll change, unless he get a mind altering infection of the brain. Oh well.
(run-on sentance ballanced with a terse one)
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Check out some of the works of CS Lewis for some amazing insight on myth. He understood how myth fits into reality better than anyone else I've ever heard. I can't find any direct references right now, but he has a number of essays on the topic.
Science may someday discover what faith has always known.
The Spider-Man story is pretty basic, especially when compared to the lumbering twists and turns of Star Wars: wimpy outer-borough kid contracts enormous powers, learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, sacrifices much.
Actually this is the Star Wars story as well. First trilogy: Anakin contract enormous powers (the Force), learns to use them, succumbs to evil. Second trilogy: Luke contracts enormous powers (the Force), learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, and redeems his father.
Of course there's some other themes, like man vs. technology, but I'd say the main theme of Star Wars is similar to the main theme of Spider-Man. Spider-Man and Star Wars were inspired by similar source materials as well: a comic book for the former, matinee serials for the latter.
For once, a semi-decent read from Mr. Katz.. right up to this point:
Elaborate ratings systems and restrictive codes eventually suffocated the comics' angry, biting spirit and made them as bland as network TV -- a cultural loss and free-speech outrage heading soon to a computer near you -- but not before Marvel and other comic creators cranked out some classic yarns, from Spider-Man and Batman to the X-Men and other superheroic tales
For the record, the only real 'restrictive' code that comics have ever had was implemented in the 1950's, known as the Comics' Code Authority. This was a voluntary system, similar to modern movie ratings in the US today. It was brought in for the same reasons - the government was ready, willing, and able to deal with the issue itself, and the industry stepped up to the plate first.
Spider-Man and the X-Men weren't even a glimmer in Lee/Ditko/Kirby's collective eyes when the Code was introduced; what Katz is talking about here is beyond me. The bulk of early Marvel comics, well into the 1980's if not further, were highly sanatized due to the Code. Yes, they had some revolutionary stories, but they were 100% in compliance with the Code (or they wouldn't have gotten any decent distribution).
The only mainsteam comic to not abide by the Code until rather recently was, oddly enough, Spider-Man. Marvel did a 2 issue storyline involving drug use in the 70's - considered quite controversial at the time, and would never have passed the Code's strict standards. Marvel took a risk and released the issues without the Code approval on them. After that, it wasn't until the 80's at least, and moreso the 90's, before we really saw any comics without the Code prominent on their covers.
Now, the Code itself has changed radically over the years, and a lot of things in your average 'tame' comic these days would have been strictly forbidden in the 60's... but regardless, saying that Spider-Man and the X-Men did ANYTHING before the Code is not only false, it does a disservice to the original creators. Marvel in the early 60's managed to put out some amazing ideas, all while toeing the line nicely with the Comics' Code.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
... is NOT part of a weekend! Thus, all the fanboys that are going out to see Star Wars in the first one or two days are actually hurting the 'opening weekend' total... So no shit that the opening weekend will be less.
ALL of his bones are adamantium reinforced, not made of adamantium. He still has a skeleton, it's just supplemented by the adamantium. There was a storyline where Magneto figured out how to extract the adamantium from Wolverine and he managed to make it through that.
Wolvie's real power is his Mutant Healing Factor, which is what allowed the Weapon X program to implant the adamantium in the first place.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
One film analysts told the Wall Street Journal last week that with the success of Spider-Man, the blockbuster bar has been raised. In fact, he said, this movie has changed Hollywood's perception of what a blockbuster is. That makes it interesting for George Lucas, next up at your local megaplex.
... This film (Episode 2) is going to come out and not do nearly what Spider-Man did.' He noted that his film will not be playing in as many theaters as Spider-Man, because 'I'm interested in a good presentation, so I'm insisting that the film be released in theaters with digital sound and good quality theaters. ... So you don't look to us to break any records.'"
With all these comparisons between how Spider-Man has done at the box office vs. what Attack of the Clones will do at the box office next week, I thought I'd point out that in today's edition of Studio Briefing (under the "Spidey Keeps Climbing" headline), "...even George Lucas has conceded box-office supremacy to the Sam Raimi film. In an interview appearing in today's (Friday) Toronto Star, Lucas complained that the news media have 'turned it into a contest and it's not a contest. It's an art form.
Spider-Man fans have been waiting for this movie for 40 years -- Spider-Man first appeared in a comic in 1962. Okay, perhaps more reasonably we've been waiting for this movie since the first Superman movie of the 1970's. That's still a long time.
Meanwhile, Star Wars fans have been waiting for Episode 2 for 3 years. And some lost interest 3 years ago. I used to be one of the most rabid Star Wars fans I knew. After Episode I, I convinced myself it was decent. Only after I got the DVD did I realize that I had been fooling myself. I will still see Episode 2, but I'm in no rush to see it opening weekend. A lot of us Star Wars fans are realizing that IV-VI are going to be the classics. These new episodes are all going to be disappointments, I fear.