Peter Parker is Broken

What do you think about the state of Peter Parker?🕸 Do you want adult Spider-Man? Comment below!💥 Thanks again to Monopoly Go! 💰Download Monopoly Go for free: www.inflcr.co/SHJEu

This is why I'm loving Ismomniac's Peter Parker so far. We're following a Spider-man who has been at least 8 years in the business and he has real problems and he handles everything like an adult. An actual adult Spider-man. The way he's mentor to Miles, the way he treats everyone around him, the way he talks to people at FEAST, his final talk with Doc Ock. I love all that. I hope they nail it again with Spider-man 2. Cautiously optimistic lol

This is why I love your essays bro. The second you said, "trauma porn" I was literally yelled " yessssssss". I feel Peter's arrested development has been going on so long people think it's a personality trait for the character. Everyone complained that Tom Spidey wasn't really spider man but for the wrong reasons. The trauma is not was makes him good. Its not what makes him interesting. It was a by product of business decisions. You nailed it bro. 10/10.

This is why insomniac is having so much success with their franchise. They understand the character and what story needs to be told because they are actually FANS of the character.

Something I’d love someone to speak on is the Peter from the 90s animated Madam Web crossover who didn’t have the trama of loosing Ben. After Across the Spiderverse I immediately thought of that version and was curious how he’d fit into the conversation on what “needs” to happen

I feel like the Insomniac Spider-Man games have done better with this concept of letting Peter grow older. The fact we flat out skip high school and college was very refreshing in the 2018 game.... Interested to see how his story progresses in the new game!

I’ve been reading the spider girl comics, and I gotta say, they’re definitely some of the best spidey stories ever written. Not only is mayday awesome on her own, it also lets Peter (and MJ) change. Pete is a self acknowledged hypocrite about letting May fight crime. He knows he’s a hypocrite about it, but now he knows what it feels like to be the person waiting for a super hero to come home at night. The best thing about it is how it evolved the themes. Peter passes down the idea of responsibility to May. Peter became Spider-Man in response to tragedy. May becomes a hero to stop one. She doesn’t need to fail to stop someone dying in order to be urged into heroism Her dad already taught her that lesson

Two things... 1.) I agree with your take on MCU Peter. My hope is that, now that he essentially hit the reset button yet is still aware of his past, he'll be able to move forward in ways that build upon his mistakes. He has an apartment, he has a police radio, and he has his Spider-Suit—a perfect jumping-off point for what could be massive character growth. Fingers so, SO crossed. 2.) Read Spider-Man: Life Story if you haven't already. It's written as if Peter ages decade by decade, starting in the 60s and going all the way up to the modern day. Brilliant stuff.

Yuri Watanabe: “The doctor said you have 14 broken bones” Peter: “Which means I have 192 non-broken ones” guys I had 206 likes but I lost 14 of them I now have 192… ;-;

Funny that you didn't mention Insomniac's Peter Parker. I think this is the best recent adaptation of the character that allows Peter to mature and grow up, we started with a Peter that has been spider-man for 8 years already, have fought countless super villains besides his main 3 arch nemesis, and in the second game he will be Spider-man for 10 years, mentoring Miles for 2 years as a new Spder-MAN, not spider-boy, he's not Peter's sidekick, and by the end of the game Peter will pretty much be the same age he was when One More Day happened in the comics, but at least we know Insomniac will move on beyond that.

The main issue with the regression of Peter Parker, is that Marvel could have and should have committed to an older Peter Parker. It’s not like they couldn’t have released a new series filled with teenage Spidey stories. They created series like Untold Stories of Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man, etc. Spider-Man is a timeless character because you can always make new versions that strikes the chord of a teenage Spidey. Heck, both PlayStation Peter and Spider Verse has shown people WANT a grown up Peter. Heck, isn’t that the whole point of bringing Miles into Earth 616 after Secret Wars happened, to allow Miles to be the younger Spider-Man? Marvel needs to learn that we all want to see adult Peter because we all loved adult Peter… and besides, through the use of alternate universes and/or Miles Morales, there will always be a younger Spider-Man to keep fanning the flames for younger fans.

I guess I always just assumed that by the end of No Way Home, they had created an entire trilogy out of the build up to him becoming Spider-Man that usually occupies the first 20-30 minutes of other Spider-Man origin movies. By the end of No Way Home, he’s experienced his form of “get your shit together” moments/tropes, and ultimately took responsibility for himself and sacrificed his entire existence up to that point for the greater good of others; Ushering him into a less child-like Spiderman going forward. Now if they continue with the child-like spiderman in the next couple films, your theory of keeping him locked in development will be true. But until that happens, they definitely seem to be setting up a new phase for him and completing his initial journey into becoming Spiderman, and not just getting the Powers/suits. The next set of movies need to be centered around him BEING Spiderman, since they basically built a trilogy out of him BECOMING Spiderman.

I've been saying for a very long time that Marvel comics seriously needs to let Peter Parker Spider-Man grow up and move forward as a character, and letting him be married and have his daughter Mayday Parker Spider-girl alive and kicking in the mainstream marvel universe is the perfect way for his character move forward, that way we can have Peter parker finally move forward as a character and Miles Morales could be the new spider-man for this generation and boom problem solved everybody wins at least in my opinion.

I don't understand. The whole theme of MCU spiderman is about growing up. And he DOES grow up. I'd say he is the film adaptation of spiderman that has had the most noticeable growth. Precisely because of the contrast of how young he starts. But somehow he... didn't grow up? He is still trapped in adolescence? Did we watch the same movies? Each iteration of spiderman is basically a different character in of itself. Why are we treating Peter Parker like this cosmic entity that embodies each iteration and is somehow going through the same loops of development every single time. That's the whole point of rebooting something. To have a NEW take, not to carry the same story and expectations you had with the character from 20 years ago. You want to let Peter Parker grow? You also have to let an iteration of him DIE and accept that new iterations are different, and have different progressions.

I’m unfamiliar with the character. Have you heard of Daredevil?

I feel like a lot of people just don't understand MCU Peter's story. First, unlike popular belief NWH was NOT based on One More Day it was based on One Moment in Time which is the book that "explains" One More Day. (it also has one of the greatest negative space covers I’ve seen) There is dialoged that is ripped straight out of the book. Second, MCU Peter is not supposed to be comic book Peter. This is a Peter who as a young child was saved by Ironman (he's the little kid from Ironman 2) and has looked up to/worshiped superheroes for almost his entire life. This is a Peter who grew up in a world of heroes. Comic book Peter Parker was the first Superhero in the marvel comic. (the fantastic four are not superheroes they are adventures with superpowers) MCU peters childhood hero was ironman while Comic Peters childhood hero was his father.

I agree with a lot of your points, but at the same time I think in some ways the MCU Spider-Man’s continual vibe of being young and inexperienced through his movies feels kind of authentic for the current time period. The portrayal of Spider-Man has often had him be a teenager while having his superhero identity be justification for him to be treated in the narrative and BY the narrative as if he’s a fully grown adult. His stories often don’t let us think too deeply about the ethics of a teenage superhero getting beat up by adults because they’re too busy dazzling us with cool action. “It’s not messed up for a kid to fight adult supervillains, he has powers!” I definitely agree that Peter deserves to age and experience really solid character growth, but you have to let him be a kid, and VISIBLY, for the growth to really show. We’re more aware these days that our brains are still developing past 18, and so there’s still a lot of growing up to do even when he’s in college. I definitely agree that he needs to experience some of those changes without tragedy, but I think removing every single bad thing would be doing him a disservice. A lot of the time, people learn important lessons as a result of tragedy, and that’s not to say that tragedy is a necessary part of becoming a better person but it’s honestly a realistic one, and that kind of realistic characterisation is what makes Spider-Man my favourite superhero. Awesome video dude, I learned a lot

I tried rewatching all the live-action movies to see why I lost touch, but this video sums it up perfectly. Pete never grows up. Besides the crazy futuristic tech he shouldn’t have, the closest thing to adulthood, for me, is insomniac Spider-Man and Spider-verse. Also, Tom’s Spidey has been anything but a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. He’s barely in the neighbourhood. As Nick Fury once said, “bitch please, you've been to space.” Half the time, he’s on Avenger-level missions. 😂

I've never felt like the "endless trauma" kept him young. In fact, I've always felt the opposite and that kind of conflict tends to just lead to more emotional stories, which I like. I totally agree that we need to move onto some more adult Spider-man and stop hanging on to the kid, but I don't feel the traumatic events are really doing anything to hold him back.

I do think that some of the best Peter Parker stories are the ones when he became a high school teacher and living that domestic life with MJ... and (this might be a hot take) to a certain extent, his short run inheriting Parker Industries from when Doc Ock became Superior Spidey. The stories that involves adulting shit.