Peter Parker Or Peter Pan?

Making Peter Parker into Charlie Brown meets Archie Andrews, the ever unlucky girl chaser, was bad enough. Now it seems the adaptation trend we’ve said was also desired by the comic writers is proving more and more true.

We’ll be looking at two different articles from Bounding Into Comics contributor Spencer Baculi that you may want to check out for context. First we have his response to an April 1st article that’s less interested in April Fools Day than I am. The actual article, also linked to for context, comes from AIPT Comics, whatever that stand for. It features new Amazing Spider-Man writer Joe Kelly, the same guy who thought giving Space Ghost a grimdark makeover that included his unborn child being ripped from his dead wife’s body by the hero’s former mentor and his psycho subordinates, was a great way to update a 1960s Saturday morning cartoon for kids that also aired in syndication in the 1970s and was back on air in the 1980s before getting a late night talk show parody that probably defines how people think of Space Ghost. Tim Burton and Len Wein you’re not, Joe!

The other article to be looked at is Spider-Editor Tom Brevoort at it again, again arguing with fans who want the Spider-Marriage restored on his Substack. Together they show the pattern we’ve seen with adaptations is where they might want to take the comic. Absolutely positively? Maybe not, but it does show that “regression” is the word for the day at the Spider-Man offices. Every Spider-Man adaptation tries to start Peter at high school even if it isn’t his origin story, and they love doing those as well. (Control the origin, control the character.) Ultimate Spider-Man started him as an adult with a family, which is not the same as watching Peter balance his two lives as we see the kids grow up. and all the joys of early fatherhood. (May I never hear the term “girl dad” again, unless someone finally shows the same excitement from being a “boy dad” because dad was a boy once. Nothing against girls at all. I wouldn’t mind one of each, though at my age that seems more and more unlikely.) It seems the writers who insist they never want Peter to be old (except when running a science company started when Dr. Octopus stole his body) are doing everything they can to shove him back into a teenager. These two articles certainly point to rather strong evidence I’m right.

I’m going to go to Joe Kelly first since he’s the final inspiration of this article and I don’t want to do a weekly attack on Brevoort. I already got on his case last week, but we’ll get back to him. Kelly is interviewed by ATIP Comics contributor David Brooke and went over his plans taking over on the original Spider-Title after the final issue of Amazing Fantasy.

With Amazing Spider-Man being a biweekly book, the workload is no small feat. Kelly was warned about the rapid pace but has embraced the challenge.

“The speed is a challenge,” Kelly said. “And then, obviously, like you just said, it’s the flagship guy. Besides being my personal favorite, who I just always want to do right by… he’s the superhero. He’s the best.”

Why is it biwee…YES, I KNOW THE REAL ANSWER IS MONEY! My point is does it need to be twice a month when there are other Spider-Man titles out there? Apparently there are four, with two being alternate continuities (one based on that Disney+ train wreck and the other being Ultimate mark II), that stars or features Peter, plus the army of spider-people currently in the Marvel Universe (many of which I found use for, and I’m going to come back to this). So what does Joe want to do with his two weeks a month?

One of the most intriguing aspects of Kelly’s run is his focus on Peter Parker’s past, specifically his pre-high school years. While Spider-Man’s origin story has been told countless times, Kelly is fascinated by an earlier, largely unexplored period of Peter’s life.

“I’m sort of fascinated with Peter as a young person, like pre-high school,” Kelly said. “Because we haven’t really spent any time with him at that time period. And I feel like we get a lot of our hard wiring at that age.”

Kelly believes this period was pivotal in shaping Peter’s worldview.

See? Even Peter’s bored with teenaged Peter.

Do you know why it’s unexplored? BECAUSE HE HAD NO SUPERPOWERS! This isn’t the Disney Junior series where Peter, Miles, and Gwen all fight crime together and drive around in cars while they’re still in fourth grade tops. There might have been a time or a story that could have had Peter flashback to something Uncle Ben or even Aunt May taught him and I wouldn’t mind some adaptation going that angle. I’d also like to see that with Clark Kent and his family. Remember something you learned in the past and how it affected you today. Worked for Kung Fu, the David Carradine franchise of his journeys in the Old West and the equally forgotten sequel where his descendant (also Carradine) joined his present day cop son (not Carradine, he was played by Chris Porter).

Nevertheless this is a rather boring period to focus on for more than a storyline, and Peter using memories of his past to solve problems in the present was rarely or never utilized in the series, so why go there?

“You hit that age where you’re like 13, 14, and you start processing things differently,” Kelly said. “He lost his parents when he was younger, but what does that really mean to him as an adolescent? Does he act out? Is he more reserved? We always see him as the nerdy kid, but was he angry? Because when I go back and read those early books, Peter was mad a lot.”

This emotional exploration will play a key role in Kelly’s Amazing Spider-Man, shaping not just Peter’s past but how he handles challenges in the present.

Speaking as a former bully victim who never got teenage superpowers and fought bad guys while messing with my bullies, I can tell you why without that story. We have seen moments of Peter having friends until he got further drawn to science and they got further drawn to people like Flash Thompson. Kurt Busiek’s Amazing Fantasy #16-18, the first few months of Peter being Spider-Man, was a great story even if I didn’t care for the painted art style. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if this is the basis for your whole run and not just a story I’m a bit concerned.

But Kelly is also interested in exploring Peter Parker’s emotional depths. His examination of Peter’s past feeds directly into his current struggles, making for a more layered and complex take on the character.

I don’t know. His past is kind of long even in universe. He graduated school. He graduated college. He’s been to space, across realities, and all of that. I know I carry a few scars from high school, but I got over some of them. I tried bonus classes at community college (the ones you don’t have to join the college to attend) and found it just wasn’t for me. I had a job. I went to nightclubs. I did move on, but I think we know enough about Peter’s upbringing to fill in most gaps. We even learned he was almost molested once, and I believe that PSA was canon. Then we get this, emphasis added by me:

A long run on Amazing Spider-Man is never guaranteed, but Kelly hopes to leave his mark.

“I’m hoping to have a couple of years,” Kelly said. “That’s certainly the plan. If people are happy, then, you know, I’ll keep chugging along.”

But Kelly isn’t overly focused on legacy and wants to tell good stories.

“It’s not even a longevity thing to me,” Kelly said. “It’s a potency effect. Did this story hit you? Cool. And hopefully, you get a bunch of those in a row. And that makes a run.”

When it says “isn’t overly focused on legacy”, I hope he means Kelly’s and not Peter’s. You’re building on his legacy if you’re going into his history. So many times “leaving (my) mark” means something that future writers are forced to use even when it’s dumb unless they can retcon it out, and some writers retcon things out that fans like. Which brings up back to Mary Jane after this article mentions “a promising romance”. Remember Brevoort’s Substack?

Clonegeek

So nothing in ASM is going really matter in the long run? Then why should I care what happens in it? Getting rid of the marriage got rid of any sense that what happens in ASM going forward with the character will really matter.

{Breevort’s response} I think you have a very limited grasp as to what constitutes nothing, Clonegeek. Plenty of things have happened to Peter Parker and Spider-Man over the past seventeen years and most all of them have mattered, both to the character and to the audience. Things change in the world of Spider-Man all the time, always have. So sometimes, he has a black costume and then he doesn’t, and sometimes he’s a school teacher and then he isn’t, and sometimes he’s married and then he isn’t, and sometimes Doctor Octopus takes over his body and then he gets it back. It’s all kind of the same thing. But as always, if you just don’t like Spider-Man without him being married to MJ, you can always stop reading it (or simply read ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN at this point, whichever suits you.)

No, Tom, none of that currently matters. The black costume only comes out when he’s mad, and it’s not the symbiote. Have there been long-lasting results from Peter’s not-death number…what was it, three or four at that point? Maybe five. Like the marriage this was all either undone or moved past, though those didn’t require a deal with not-Satan to do it and nobody wants “Superior Spider-Man” again! I wouldn’t mind him switching to the black costume because he looks more like a “spider man” but it’s not his classic, iconic look. Meanwhile, Ultimate Spider-Man 2.0 is not the Spider-Man. It’s not the original, so it’s not as interesting and it has Peter starting off as an adult, not a seasoned hero by the time he has a family, which can be interesting to explore if you don’t hate kids.

Oscar Andreasson

Since OMD(and the current status) keeps on being brought up lets look at it from another angle. One thing that’s often being lost in the OMD discussions are what an awesome character MJ is and was, especially wife-MJ. So my question to you Tom is what are your favorite stories from the marriage years that you felt were really enhanced by MJ and Peter being together?

I…don’t know that I can really point to any stories that I feel this way about, Oscar. Most of the stories that I liked during that time would have worked just as well if Pete and MJ were still simply dating or just living together or whatnot. There’s the occasional story like that SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL that Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca did that was all about Pete and MJ’s married relationship, but for the most part, the marriage wasn’t a huge part of what was making those stories work for me.

You might not, Thomas, but the fans of the Spider-Marriage can. You know, the ones who actually buy the comics rather than the guy paid to make them with money gotten from the comic stores who get their money from the people who actually buy the comics and don’t buy the comics from you if the readers don’t buy the comics from them, thus meaning less money for your bosses to keep paying you to make them.

Caleb Wong

I would like to know if Marvel has any plan for Darkhawk in the future?

None that I’m aware of, Caleb, at least at the moment. But the character is a favorite of C.B. Cebulski’s, so you never know.

Off-topic, admittedly, but if they want a Darkhawk writer, I have an angle for at least one story that reconciles his two origins. Rather beautifully if I do say so myself, and I’m the deflated ego type.

As Baculi notes, Peter graduated high school in issue #28 (the first #28–I have to note that given Marvel’s ridiculous numbering system these years). He married Mary Jane in the 1980s. The latter is rectonned away and the former might as well given that every adaptation since the 1990s has stuck with Peter in high school. Even Sam Raimi did the high school origin before at least shooting to college, though he did have Peter meet his college years supporting cast in high school, or at least two of the three more important. It seems nobody wants to tell a veteran Spider-Man story. As I said in my article about using the 616 Spider-Folk:

What he should be is a mentor to the others, except maybe Spider-Woman or Madame Web. He already serves that role to Miles and either did or didn’t for Bailey at one point before he pulled a Sentry so it’s not that hard to see. Otherwise, Peter calls in the others when he needs help, but unlike the Bat Family the Spiders don’t really get together and protect New York on a regular basis. Spider-Woman doesn’t even live there as she’s a Cali girl and Kaine travels. They do their own thing more often than not, with Peter and Miles being the closest for various reasons in their story. He’s a narrative jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Where the Batcave dwellers are masters of one of Bruce’s individual skills, the other spiders serve a narrative purpose Peter either grew out of or was never able to do for more than a story or two.

Need a teen angle? We have three now. Need a secret agent adventure? We have Jessica. Something for a news person? Cindy’s been a reporter twice. Need something more paranormal? Kaine and possibly Aña and Bailey. Peter can now be allowed to mature, grow, undo the devil deal, have a family, and tell new kinds of stories while the stories he used to tell are handled by others. Peter finds new ways to play with the “with great power must also come great responsibility” theme and let others pick up the themes he missed out on or can no longer logically continue. This will allow these new spiders a chance to grow as characters as well.

Just do that, Spider-Writers. Let Peter grow up and let others take those spots and build their legacies while he builds on his own legacy.

And bring these two back together. You may not see it, but the people who want to read your comics do. Stop regressing Peter. Peter Pan can never grow up, but Peter Parker should, especially if you’re going to flood the world with other spiders.