Who Is SPIDER-MAN?

Who Is SPIDER-MAN?

I'm going to try to explain to you guys who Peter Parker/Spider-Man is supposed to be, and how he should be portrayed on film...

Editorial Opinion
By Artsa94 - Jul 22, 2014 02:07 PM EST
Filed Under: Spider-Man



“He’s a criminal, that’s who he is!” – JJJ

This article is, hopefully, going to show you guys who Peter Parker/Spider-Man actually is. At least, from what I picked up after 52 years of Spidey mythology... (No, I'm not an old man. I'm 19.)

This article is mainly for the "Webb" Heads. I'll keep it short and sweet...

Peter Parker is a bookworm, not a cool guy. He’s not the type of guy who would kiss Gwen on stage and high-five the principal. He’s the kind of guy who has trouble getting dates and making money. Out of the costume, he’s a shy, nerdy guy. Sure, you could say that he was in the moment when he high-fived the principal and kissed Gwen on stage, but that's not Peter Parker. He doesn't get all confident and cocky just because he knows that he can break people in half. As Spider-Man, yes, but not as Peter Parker.

He’s not the type of guy who would use his powers while unmasked in a high-tech, state-of-the-art, multi-billion dollar corporate building filled with security cameras. He would also never web-swing in public, out of costume, in broad daylight just to catch up with Gwen. He’s the type of guy who would trip over a pebble on purpose just to keep his alter-ego a secret.

He would also never let a truck run over other cars while mocking the guy driving it for a good 20 seconds. He would take care of the situation ASAP and then mock the guy after.

He's the kind of guy who would point out mistakes in a certain eight-limbed scientist's fusion experiment, instead of having to watch YouTube videos on how electricity works. Just let that sink in for a second... PETER PARKER, the GENIUS, needed to watch YOUTUBE VIDEOS on how ELECTRICITY worked.

Peter would also NEVER break a dead man’s promise. That’s why he didn’t tell Harry about Norman in the Raimi trilogy. In Webb’s, Peter broke Captain Stacy’s promise, which is why Gwen died. BUT in the comics, just before Captain Stacy died, he told Peter (and he DID know that Peter was Spider-Man), and I quote:

“… After I’m gone, there’ll be no one to look after her [Gwen]. No one, Peter, except you! Be good to her, son! Be good to her. She loves you so very much…”

Then Peter says:

“I’ll love Gwen, and cherish her, as long as I live!”

Do you "Webb" Heads get what I mean? Gwen died later on, but it WASN’T because Peter broke his promise to her dad. It was cause he kept it…

Oh, and the REAL Peter Parker is actually RESPONSIBLE. For example, in Marc Webb's 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2', Peter quit being Spider-Man for five months because Gwen died, while his powers were perfectly fine (unlike Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man 2'). But wait, what happened to the whole "great power/great responsibility" thing? Oh yeah, that's right - Webb completely misunderstands the character.

And let's not forget that Peter Parker is not supposed to be a douche.

The only thing Webb’s movies got right about the character was that he told jokes. That’s it. Raimi’s movies captured everything else about the character that TRULY matters.

Now, I'm not saying that Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker/Spider-Man was perfect. All I'm saying is that his was much closer to the PP/SM we know from the source material than Andrew Garfield's was.
 
Let me know what you guys think!

 
Thanks for reading,
Henry


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NightWatcher
NightWatcher - 7/22/2014, 3:20 PM
Nice drawing!
DrKinsolving
DrKinsolving - 7/22/2014, 3:26 PM
Good Article, I agree
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 7/22/2014, 5:23 PM
I actually totally agree with everything written here...but TheMexicanSUperman has a great point, too. It really hurts this argument when the whole article consists of nothing but you refuting everything that Peter Parker does in TASM 2 (and praising everything he did in Raimi's movies), instead of actually using examples from the comics to show us what Peter SHOULD be like. I genuinely believe you wrote it this way with the best of intentions, but it comes across like complaining about TASM 2, and nothing else.
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 7/22/2014, 5:25 PM
But I also believe that writers and directors DON'T have free reign to portray a classic character any way they want. There has to be some responsibility (hehe) there. And the Parker we see in the TASM movies? I mean, defenders can try to spin it that the filmmakers were adapting the Peter Parker from the Ultimate series and that he's a modernized take on him or whatever...but he's utterly unrecognizable. He's simply NOT Peter Parker.

From his character arc (or lack of one, actually), his mannerisms, his bullying tendencies, his douchey theatrics, his selfishness, and everything else...none of that is even close to what this character was meant to be IMO.
kong
kong - 7/22/2014, 7:00 PM
@TheMexicanSuperman
Wallymelon
Wallymelon - 7/22/2014, 7:01 PM
Agree
Artsa94
Artsa94 - 7/22/2014, 7:03 PM
This was just a basic overview of the character, with some examples from both series'. I kind of got tired of seeing how TASM fanboys so strongly believe that Garfield was a better PP/SM than Maguire. Had to get this off my chest...
Artsa94
Artsa94 - 7/22/2014, 7:32 PM
@TheMexicanSuperman: "They are allowed to express that just as much you can express what you think, even if it is complaining."

Exactly.
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 7/22/2014, 9:58 PM
Awesome stuff, man. Love the artwork. My first comic that i owned was a Spider-man comic, i got in to comics after watching Spider-man on VHS and i instantly fell in love with the hero. Spider-man mean's a lot to me.

I love the Raimi films except for the third, the third film is okay-ish. The Amazing Spider-man film was good, i didn't mind it. I thought some scenes where stupid eg. The Crane scene. TASM 2 was just, ughhh. I was so disappointed with TASM 2 it reminded me of when i was disappointed in Deadpool in X-men Origins Wolverine.

I'm still waiting for a film as great as Spider-man 2 and i honestly think that Sony and Avi Arad does not understand the character of Spider-man and it's mythos. Marvel Studios seems to be getting the characterizations rights with there characters, why can't Sony?
Artsa94
Artsa94 - 7/23/2014, 9:45 AM
@TheMexicanSuperman: But I never said Tobey was the REAL Peter Parker. All I said was that his version was much closer to the REAL PP/SM.
HOTSHOT
HOTSHOT - 7/24/2014, 2:26 AM
I love this article. Yep, sometimes I get the feeling that neither Marc Webb OR Andrew Garfield understand this character. Peter Parker was a nobody. Bookworm or not, the nobody part was important. As he grew, he started becoming more and more noticable and mature but the thing that hooked to Peter from the start was that he was a shy nerdy guy. Even with amazing powers, he made himself look weak. Sure, ADULT Peter Parker was a lot more smooth and talkative but even then, he was still slightly nerdy. Andrew's Peter was dressed all good looking and acted like any cool kid would at my High School. If he attended mine, he'd be one of the popular guys. Webb and the writers simply just tossed the label of 'nobody' in there and expected me to buy it. NOT gonna happen.

Also, this Peter Parker is not only a selfish punk, but bascially doesn't give 2 shits about human life. I could name a thousand instances where Spidey stopped joking if someone as little as a random armed thug got murdered. He'd be super mad about that. This Spidey not only allows Rhino to run over civilians when he could've easily stopped him at like ANY TIME, but he jokes about it aswell! Which doesn't even make sense, considering that he's late for his graduation. I swear, these guys just opened a comic book briefly: "Hmm, so spidey jokes when fighting bad guys? I think we know everything there is to know about this character now!"

Another example of this: Peter Parker breaking Captain Stacy's promise. Showing he really didn't have a shred of guilt for his death. Even the sequel posed it up to show that Peter did what was right and Gwen's death was her own doing. Well, kids aren't learning responsibility from this.
nuyhm7ai
nuyhm7ai - 7/25/2014, 9:31 AM
it's funny how people are blind to see that all nerds are like tobey when clearly some if not most nerds i've encountered in real life are like andrew. seriously, i've seen nerds like him in my highschool, clubs, and convinent stores.

the other problem i had with tobey is that tobey never evolved much into a person. in the comics and cartoons peter evolved into a more confident man and even acted more human while despite tobey having some traits of peter parker like his sense of responsibility he never evolved much into a person. all the time i've seen him act more and more socially awkward and i get why raimi wanted to do this in a more artsy way but the thing is you can do that to an original character but you can't do that to peter parker. i'm not saying peter should act cool but i'm saying that peter should just act more like us. tobey just felt like someone out of a sitcom or maybe crispin glover back in the day but more awkward and uncomfrotable the more you watch him excluding some of 2.

andrew never acted nor felt like a cool dude. he just evolved into a more confident man and the way his shy awkward was handled felt more convincing see as how most people have acted like that even myself for that matter.

i also love how andrew delivered his lines in his movies excluding the car theif scene. i also don't found him to be much of a jerk besides how he got into oscorp

i also find it funny how people accuse him of being a hipster when clearly he isn't nor does he dress like one. that how some nerds dress like even socially awkward people.

i also find it convincing how he seems to figure some stuff out. yeah the webbing was a bitch but he seem to have handled well with making the web shooters while despite tobey being smart he just felt unconvincing in every scene trying to be smart when i believe he's trying to be more nerdy like some cartoon.

seeing as how the deleted scenes went down andrew seem to have perfectly nailed every aspect of peter parker with his growth, intelligence and charisma.

i'm not saying the amazing spiderman films are perfect. they have their flaws and i consider 2 from raimi to be the best but i'm saying you guys have gotten the wrong idea.

also, tobey is very much replacable. even before i got into spiderman i was never really fond of tobey as spiderman nor as peter parker. he just felt uncomfortable for me. i was waiting for the day that someone would replace the guy. andrew never disapointed but sony messed with both of his films.

i say the best interpretation of spiderman has to be the spectacular spiderman and the best peter parker and spiderman has to be josh keaton. no spiderman series has ever come close into beating it.
0mega140
0mega140 - 7/30/2014, 2:59 PM
"not a cool guy. He’s not the type of guy who would kiss Gwen on stage and high-five the principal. He’s the kind of guy who has trouble getting dates and making money. Out of the costume, he’s a shy, nerdy guy."

After the accident with the spider, peter parker is turned more arrogant, peter have beautiful brides (gwen stacy, MJ, cooper, bett brant, felicia hardy etc) never shamed of affection in public on several occasions he has used his powers for personal gain (money obtained by spiderman jameson).
peter try to keep the promise of the captain stacy not attend the funeral and away from gwen, gwen own but want to continue with peter. gwen would be in danger were still far from peter.

mcguire ignore a person being assaulted when peter comic use of his experience as spiderman and help that person aside and renounce lost their powers to be very stressful for not being around MJ.

The Batman of Bale of being batman waive the death of rachel, peter the death of gwen, very justified.

This article is pathetic.
0mega140
0mega140 - 7/30/2014, 3:00 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0HzCHvdpAA
15:36 the true of spiderman
0mega140
0mega140 - 7/30/2014, 3:14 PM
@nuyhm7ai peter parker of andrew garfield, is based more on the ultimate comics , which has a more modernized version of the nerds and not a cliche that does not evolve as a character, at least garfield tries to put into practice what he learn with mcguire do not.

the spectacular spiderman, sandman steals when in town, preferred practices continue in football and impress girls, causing damage to public property in a carriage persecurcion.

All these complaints show that believe this is DC, when the heroes of the marvel the interesting of them is that they are heroes to many flaws. the interesting about spiderman is to see a character with many mistakes that would make any teenager but seeing it try to repair their mistake like the peter parker of spectacular spiderman, the peter parker of comics and the peter parker of andrew garfield.
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