Even My Fictional Role-Models are Letting Me Down

I grew up as a latchkey kid--like most American kids these days all four of my parents (2 biological, 2 step) held down day jobs so I spent a lot of time by myself after school. I hated jocks, so I wasn't about to get involved in sports. What did I do instead? Watch TV, videos and read comics. My real role models were all fictional and to this day I take lessons from them all. One of those role-models was Spider-Man. I had a lot in common with the guy. Suburban upbringing, grew up not very far from NYC, and had a keen sense of right and wrong from the working-class level.

He was a rational, real human being, despite the fact that he could swing from webs, climb walls and had a Spider Sense that allowed him to dodge bullets. Spidey was always a real person to me because he was always sweating the rent, his bills, his girlfriend and so on. In many ways, I'm kind of like him now, though I live in LA, instead of NYC. Can't do much webswinging here.

The thing is, at this point, I'm kind of glad I'm not like him because he just got way illogical--hypocritical, even. Now, mind you, I haven't picked up a Spidey comic in over ten years. I stopped reading right after they killed off Aunt May and introduced a bunch of Spidey clones (literally, they were clones of Peter Parker). To me cloning and time travel are the very height of cliche storytelling (although there are the exceptions) and so I knew when to let the price of modern comics get too high for me.

Tonight (Thursday night) I came across an article talking about a new storyline in Marvel comics (the line of comics Spidey appears in). It turns out there was a big super-hero-related disaster where the heroes survived but hundreds of regular folks died. The government decides to pass the Super Hero Registration Act which forces all superheroes to register themselves as living weapons of mass destruction.

This is Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada's idea of a great way to deal with the attacks on civil liberties we're all experiencing in today's world. The thing is, there's a stack of problems with this.

1) The Superhero Registration Act bears a striking resemblance to the Mutant Registration Act which was passed over a decade (15 years?) ago. Mutants (like the X-Men) have had their civil rights threatened since their genesis back in the 1960s. So this storyline is pretty damn far from original. It even begs the question: Did anyone at Marvel ever bother to read their own books?

2) Here's where the Spidey angle comes in. It turns out Spider-Man, working-class, underdog, unSuperman, is FOR this new law and thinks it's a good idea. This simply makes no sense for his character. What also makes no sense is another character's stance against the new law--yes, Captain America is against this law. This makes no friggin' sense whatsoever. If he hasn't left the country by now (with his boss being Bush, himself) Captain America isn't about to have a problem with something like the SHA.

3) As an extension of Spidey's support for this law he decides to set an example by taking off his mask at a press conference. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Does he never want to have friends, family, etc, again? I don't think he does. His mantra since the very first issue of his comic has been "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". I know it sounds cliche, now, but I think it's a pretty good slogan to live by. Now, he isn't.

Now, Spidey is jumping on this bullshit bandwagon so many American citizens have jumped on where you don't have to take responsibility for your actions or think about any possible consequences of your actions. This is something Spider-Man was always good at thinking about.

But not any more.

Now he's so flawed I'm disappointed in him as a human character. I'm disappointed in the writers at Marvel for once again failing to come up with a good and interesting way to approach the topic of civil liberties being attacked.

I suppose it's to be expected since the rest of America seems to be suffering from a distinct shortage of imagination.