Do you have any opinions on, or know of of any good articles or posts about the socio-economic changes made to the world of Spider-man in the MCU? Because I'm very bothered by it but can't articulate it. Especially the effective replacement of Uncle Ben with Tony Stark.
This is definitely a topic that I have a lot of thoughts on, though unfortunately Iām not aware of that many outside articles on the topic, which is a shame because I think the fact that it has to be addressed at all is very, very telling. @karenpages has a very good meta post about Spider-Man: Homecoming in general that heavily touches on the movieās economics here that I highly recommend.
I think thereās one thing we have to be very clear on, though: the MCU didnāt want Spider-Man to be poor, because it wanted to make a fun movie, and being poor isnāt fun. Iām not being facetious, and Iām not trying to be edgy by hating on the popular and current Spider-Man film adaptation; if you look at the film, this is literally whatās going on. You cannot, in good faith, argue that MCU Spider-Man honestly experiences financial difficulties in the finished film. I know thereās a deleted scene involving unpaid bills, and I appreciate that, but the point is that scene was deleted, and it is not in the final product. MCU Peter Parker, unlike basically every other version of the character, doesnāt need to have a job. He doesnāt need to work for the Bugle to support himself and his aunt. This too is related to the erasure of Peter Parkerās Jewish coding and history -- heās just an ordinary, relatable kid in the MCU, and for the MCU that means heās not Jewish and heās definitely not poor, because that wouldnāt be very relatable, would it, regardless of the fact that far more people are in bad financial situations than the opposite. In 616 comics canon, during Peterās teen years, Aunt May is too frail or in too ill health to work. Peter explicitly has to get a job in order to support his family. He even laments the fact that Medicare doesnāt cover enough of the costs for her healthcare, which, if weāre going to talk about relatable content, if youāre not independently wealthy and you have had an ill relative, Iām sure you can understand the stress involved there. In 616, thereās absolutely no denying that Peter is aware of the stress of being poor, and that he feels deeply not just for himself and for his family but for complete strangers who are also facing financial hard times. Heās very empathetic, the way only someone who has experienced these kinds of hardships can be:
Amazing Spider-Man #50 -- it is depressing how long ago this comic was published and how, when you look at it, very little has changed.
Spider-Man: Homecomingās ad for Marvelās partner, Synchrony Bank -- spot the difference. Not only is using Spider-Man to advertise savings accounts totally out of touch with the material when one of the things Spider-Man as a hero is most famous for is living paycheck to paycheck like an ordinary schmuck, but itās totally glossing over the fact that in comics canon Peter knows that banks are not the ordinary personās friend. In Marvel Fanfare #42, for example, he blackmails a bank manager with said managerās sexual affair in order to make sure he apologizes and gives a single mother her job as a teller back after sheās fired because she wonāt respond to said managerās sexual advances. This is the Spider-Man we deserve and that we need. When talking about superheroes and the economic climate, itās important to address the fact that superheroes shouldnāt only care about beating up the big bad guy of the picture. If they donāt honestly care about the disenfranchised, they arenāt super -- and thatās always what has made Spider-Man special, because he comes from a background where he uniquely suited to understand the plight of those in need. He defends people in apartment buildings where the landlords are trying to push them out so they can raise the rents and gentrify the neighborhood. He saves victims from muggers. These are ordinary people, without great financial means. Heās angry -- justifiably -- at the abuse of the elderly, at neglected children, at people who prey on the victims of society. He doesnāt whine because he wanted to spend time with his crush on a fancy European school vacation.Ā
The MCUās Spider-Man, on the other hand, eschews the idea that Peter Parker is poor, and it does this in a very subtle but very simple and powerful way that Iām going to outline, because this is very easy to miss. Thatās the point of it. They wanted to do away with the notion that Peter Parker is poor -- because thatās so depressing, nobody wants to think about poverty in their fun summer movie -- while being careful not to do it so blatantly that their erasure was noticed by their greater audience. Itās not as simple as moving Peter to a mansion, or having him throw around hundred dollar bills. No, the way you know MCU Peter isnāt poor is very simple, and it goes by very fast. Iāve said this before, but the way the MCU employs the concept of fun within their Spider-Man franchise is dangerous in terms of what it allows them to erase all with barely any fan reaction at all, because of course we all want to have fun, donāt we? If anything, those among us in more troubled financial situations are more desperate to have fun than most, because we see so little of it compared to the stress. Those in good financial situations are less likely to notice entirely because the notion simply never occurs to them; they exist in a place of financial comfort and a good portion of them donāt question that reality. They may be aware of the alternative, but itās not pertinent to them, because they donāt experience it personally. Everything is different when itās personal.
Now Iāve always been very clear about my belief that the MCU didnāt do wrong by Spider-Man right off the bat; in his first appearance within the MCUās continuity in Captain America: Civil War, he appears to live in quite a nice and modernly furnished apartment (as opposed to his more traditional childhood home in a freestanding house in Forest Hills, Queens, usually somewhat old fashionedly furnished to reflect the Parker familyās current lack of finances and the age of both Ben and May, a setting that was dismissed by Homecomingās screenwriters are āold fashionedā), but the MCUās sets in general tend to be lacking in the department of personal character. Basically, every room looks like an IKEA show room. I mean, they put a cross in the room of Wanda Maximoff, the daughter of Magneto, one of the most famous Jewish characters of all time. To say the MCUās set design is both lacking and careless is to say that grass is green. Itās hard to fault the Parker apartment for this specifically when everything looks like a magazine layout or a Macyās showroom. In CACW, Peter dumpster dives for tech and has created, albeit shabbily compared to the more advanced wardrobes of the other heroes, his own costume. Everything is as we would expect of Peter Parker in the moment, being a bright and creative young man who is good at problem solving and creating his own tech with limited resources. Spider-Man: Homecoming near immediately changes that with about one line.
Early on in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter loses his backpack by carelessly tossing it on the ground, a scene that completely broke the suspension of belief for me. I find it hard to believe any inner city kid -- especially one weāre expected to believe is a genius -- would toss their belongings on the ground in public, walk away, and still expect them to be there when they get back. Itās especially grating when, in comics, Peter regularly does leave his belongings outside -- webbed up out of sight and out of reach. Surely no child who is aware of their familyās financial struggles would treat their personal belongings with such a lack of care, additionally. Sure enough, when MCU Peter returns to the scene of the backpack drop, his stuff is gone. Shocker. When he confesses this to Aunt May, she doesnāt express concern over how theyāll replace the bag or the contents wherein -- something that, depending on how many textbooks or how much school equipment was within, could be very expensive -- instead simply saying they can replace it, no problem, itās just like all the other backpacks heās lost, revealing that this isnāt the first time and that this is not an issue for them because they can afford to continually replace things due to his carelessness. The MCU Parkers arenāt poor. I cannot stress this enough. They arenāt poor because they movie has not portrayed them as such. They do not have financial troubles. They may not be billionaires, but the movie treats them as safely comfortable. Peter is not expected to be financially responsible or even to have the kind of common sense that prevents you from leaving your backpack on the street lest it be stolen. He feels no responsibility to provide financially, a total opposite to 616 Peter, who supported both himself and May with his job at the Daily Bugle.Ā
āSheās pawning her jewelry! She must be desperate for money! But she doesnāt want me to know! She doesnāt want me to worry!ā -- Amazing Spider-Man #1. As in, literally the second appearance of the character after Amazing Fantasy #15. This is not incidental stuff, this is not in the background; financial worries were baked into the character at his very inception and at his core. Itās like if you created a version of Batman who kept all his investigative tools in a storage rental he paid by the month and the plot frequently centered on him worrying about how he was going to make the rent.
āThe way you supported [May] and yourself throughout high school by selling pictures to the Bugle. Weāre so proud.āĀ āSomeone had to.ā - Amazing Spider-Man #377
Previous movie adaptations of Spider-Man have never before left this aspect of the Parkers out. In the Raimi movies obviously Aunt May and Uncle Ben are quite a bit older than Peter as they are in the comics, and you can tell from the films that money is an issue. Peter works menial jobs such as pizza delivery in able to make money. In The Amazing Spider-Man series, the financial worries are directly addressed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which makes it clear that Peter is working for the Bugle and that he is contributing to the household finances:
Mayās plot in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is very rooted in the financial aspect of their identities -- here sheās hiding from Peter that sheās started taking nursing classes, explicitly stated later that itās so she can pay for him to go to college (āI have to take nursing classes with 22 year old kids so I can pay for you to go collegeā) because she doesnāt want him to worry. Spider-Man: Homecomingās screenwriters were very disrespectful to this version of May -- and I would say the character of May in general -- saying that their version is a professional, sheās notĀ āwaiting at home for Peter to bring the eggs.ā Except we donāt know what MCU May does for a living. Itās not important, because the MCU doesnāt view May herself as important. She clearly does something, but is it interior design? Is it investment management? Is it a whole lot of tax fraud? Itās never made clear. The Webb movies, on the other hand, tell us exactly what May does: she works as a waitress. She is taking classes to be a nurse. This information about May is viewed as being worthy of being in the movie itself, because it takes her seriously as a character and as an influence in Peterās life. It doesnāt gloss over the financial troubles she faces.
Let me be very clear in my beliefs that you cannot tell a valid Spider-Man story if you do not at the very least address the fact that the Parkers are not economically well off and go into Peterās social standing because of that fact. By having him jet set with his whole class -- really? a whole class of kids from Queens? on a whole ass European vacation to multiple countries? I 100% have a harder time believing this than I do a radioactive spider-bite -- or by removing the need for him to make his own costume because everything is provided by billionaires or above government agencies. The fact that J Jonah Jameson will be appearing in Far From Home when this Peter has no relationship with him and no need (and for Peter in comics and most adaptations it very much is a need) for a job at the Bugle is highly suspect -- JJJ doesnāt mean anything without his relationship with Peter and with Spider-Man. Without them, heās just aĀ ābring me pictures of Spider-Manā meme. Thereās no story. Thereās no meaning. Thereās no connection. Itās an empty appearance without that push and pull between the characters -- and without realizing that Jameson is a rich man, albeit a self-made one, and Peter is quite commonly his broke employee.
Amazing Spider-Man #99, where Peter is lobbying for a salary because he plans to ask Gwen to marry him and he wants to be able to support her financially. In 616 canon, Peter wants to provide and Peter wants to protect, and one way heās able to protect is by providing. Heās very aware of the value of money. Heās not naive about that in the least because he knows exactly what itās like to not have money. To erase that from the character is to lessen him, but the MCU doesnāt care about the character. It doesnāt care about the values put forward by Spider-Man as a story. It certainly doesnāt care about responsibility.
All the MCU cares about in relation to Spider-Man is fun. (Even itās emotional hits are hollow -- audiences are supposed to accept that Peter is going to cry over Tony Starkās death, but the only mention made of Uncle Ben has been a vague line from CACW and a piece of luggage that will apparently be appearing in Far From Home bearing the initialsĀ āBFP.ā (And stop trying to tell me that the MCU didnāt replace Uncle Ben with Tony Stark. It does a disservice to all the characters involved when Tony Stark was never meant to provide this kind of influence on Spider-Man because heās not a Spider-Man cast member, and when Uncle Ben canāt even be mentioned by name within four and counting films worth of appearances.) We get it, youāre borrowing the Richard Parker briefcase from the Webb movies.) And how are you supposed to have fun paying $15 for a single movie ticket if your main character is concerned about how heās paying for his auntās medication? Thereās responsibility and thereās relatable content -- real relatable content, not meme-worthy fluff moments -- in Spider-Mansā socioeconomic status and takes in the comics, but theyāre there so you think. Thatās the last thing the MCU wants you to do with its Audi-riding, bank-partnered, Uncle Ben-forgetting, āthe world needs the next Iron Manā Spider-Man. Shut up, stop thinking, and put up your cash so Disney can break some more box office records.
