Is Spider-Man's Secret Identity a Metaphor for Mental Health? - Deep Dive
'Anyone can wear the mask.', a simple, yet powerful line of Miles Morales towards the end of Into the Spider-verse about how anyone can choose to be a hero. However, after this deep dive, you're going to view it entirely differently.
I've been reconsidering Spider-Man's meaning recently, and whilst I'm not sure my current opinions are the writer's intended meaning, I have certainly found them of worthy enough note to share here.
So, what is Spider-Man as a secret identity? Well, the answer is this, in my opinion: Spider-Man is the strong, capable side everyone shows, in spite of their more vulnerable, Peter Parker qualities.
Let me go into more detail ...
Imagine that you're in a difficult place mentally, and so is everyone who means something to you? Some people may choose to completely avoid their own feelings, their own need for support, and instead choose to be there for other people. This is the essence of Peter Parker, and what made him choose to become Spider-Man.
To him, New York (his social group) is the main priority, not Peter Parker. So, he dons that red and blue costume and swings into battle, making sure that everybody is safe, but never considering his own mental wellbeing.
Obviously, its not unhealthy to want to put the needs of others before your own, but it gets to the point where you have to draw a line. This becomes most obvious in Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man.
Recently, I watched Unorthodox's YouTube analysis on how No Way Home changed the meaning of the Amazing Spider-Man 2's ending; how Andrew's Peter had completely lost himself in Spider-Man after Gwen's death.
This made me think - What happens if this therapist-esque role consumes a person completely? What if somebody slowly loses themselves because they've become so intrinsically attached to the role, to the 'mask' of looking after everyone else?
They don't have time for that 'Peter Parker stuff' because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if they're in tremendous amounts of pain - New York is safe.
What can we learn from this, exactly?
Well, I think we all need to consider the moments in our lives where we've been too much of Spider-Man and not enough of Peter Parker. We need to really wonder whether we are truly doing what's best by becoming a character of ourselves, someone so far away from who we actually are just because we want to protect the people we love.
Drawing from Unorthodox's video once again tells us about Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, who has learned to balance both Peter Parker and Spider-Man equally in his life.
This is where we should all try to end up. Not fully Peter Parker, not fully Spider-Man, but somewhere in between.
Like I said earlier, its not unhealthy to care about other people, its not unhealthy to be a hero sometimes, but we can't spend our whole lives being Spider-Man. We have to let other people support us sometimes, its essential that we do.
'Anyone can wear the mask' has suddenly got new meaning. It means that anyone can protect other people but forget to look after themselves, it means that anyone can be the self-sacrificing hero, but it also means that anyone can find the balance within themselves.
I myself am not at the balance point, and other people in my life aren't either, but I hope that one day I can find myself there, learn to figure out how to be both all my vulnerabilities and all my strengths.
I think we all hope that.
Anyway, that's my analysis on Spider-Man's secret identity. Hope you've enjoyed!
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