Yes, but there were still new readers coming in who were also teenagers along with the long time readers, so it wasn't as though they were having difficulty in continuing the attract the younger crowd like they do today.
I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that ASM has a problem continuing to attract the younger audience these days, if this is the case however, I don’t think Marvel particularly cares.
ASM sales figures are consistently high plus the arcs these days tend to be more focused on the life/death repercussions of PP/SM recent decisions, so Marvel probably don’t care if there is not a significant percentage of the sales coming from the teen market.
Point is- ASM is selling well and possibly the current storylines are not aimed specifically at teens.
USM is designed for the teens and is filling that role.
Also, even though the readers got older and Spidey didn't, they could still appreciate the character even if he was still between 18-21 because they could remember what it was like at that age. Sure, there's nothing wrong with Spidey having to face adult decisions, that's been the cornerstone of his character since day one. Having him no longer be a student (and the thus roughly the same age as most of his readers) and involved with a seperated but still married woman moves him into makes him an adult and consequently no longer uniquely a teenage superhero pretending to be an adult, which was part of the characters appeal in the first place IMO.
Well apart from his clearly definable attributes in terms of his characteristics, Spidey appeals to many readers for a variety of reasons. I my perspective is that he probably lingered in college too long.
The character needed to progress, needed a writer who was not scared to evolve PP/SM beyond what Lee&Ditko created. Marv Wolfman was the guy who did that. He took Spider-man to the next level and the series was all the better for it, it gave ASM a realistic importance back that it had been lacking for a few years. Seriously it would be dumb if he stayed in college forever, none of us would be able to relate to him now or ten years from now.
And I agree, how Peter Parker handled balancing his problems was more important than what his specific age is. However, I don't think one can readily dismiss the importance of the character actually being a teenager. Why? Well, put aside the whole "he's the same age as the audience" concept and think what would Spider-Man had been like if everything else had been the same except he started off as an adult who was an underappreciated chemist picked on by his fellow blue-collar workers? You would still have the lesson of "With Great Power there must come greater responsibility" but it probably wouldn't have been as effective. By making Spider-Man a teenager, someone who was never really appreciated by his peers, someone who articulated the same emotions and feelings as teenage reader who too felt misunderstood, it makes his story all the more significant.
My last point stands. In contrast to your ideal scenario of having PP remain a youth forever, one of my favourite things about ol webhead is that he did age. Exactly how much more this will happen is questionable, but that’s another story. It gives the series a greater resonance and realism if it is a journey through someone’s life instead of a dumb cartoon scenario were no one ages (Simpsons?).
Also PP/SM is still unappreciated/ misunderstood- he’s on the run from the authorities right now!
Also, he doesn't come across as such a pathetic sad-sack if he had the same problems as an adult than he does as a teenager. Plus, by starting out as a teenager, his experiences help to mature him mentally as well as physically, something that can't be communicated well when he's a full blown adult.
But the point is we saw that evolution in the comics, and now Peter IS an adult.
Staying in the same status quo, age wise forever would have been dumb. I would not say his problems now are the same as when he was a youth, they are more an evolution of his decisions as Spider-man.
This takes us up to current ASM, which I think is pretty stupid because he would not be where he is now, it’s JMS fault and his crap writing.
Other problems he still encounters which I think are correctly written is the money problems he has from time to time. Since this is something we can all relate to. Well, I say that but how much exactly has MJ made during her various high profile careers?… You would think they would have enough money now to have a pretty nice nest. Well anyway, that is probably something we can all relate to no matter where we are in life.
You've also got the ultimate adolescent power fantasy, in which a teen simply by putting on a costume can be mistaken as an adult (just like Captain Marvel). Likewise Spidey's classic villains are all older than he is--the idea of a young kid outsmarting and defeating enemies who are not only stronger, but older and supposively more experienced is classic "David and Golitah," which works better if the hero is "just a kid" as opposed to being an adult.
Well, that angle of the old David and Goliath scenario does probably work better in the context of kid in a costume being mistaken as an adult,- but there’s so much MORE to Spider-Man than that.
What about how in those days Spidey was basically mocking his enemies in battle because he was nervous of screwing up, and how these days he has evolved into a highly trained and confident super powered professional, able to deal w/ way more dangerous and delicate situations than when he was 16.
What about the story of Peter’s personal life, and the story’s of the supporting casts lives? …what happened to Harry, Betty and Flash and co. That’s the stuff that I think makes Spider-man comics absorbing and unique. The MU is like a real world were times passes. By contrast Batman is 29 forever- how boring.
Hey, I believe that J.M. DeMatties was one of the best writers that ever wrote for Spider-Man. "Kraven's Last Hunt," "The Child Within" and "The Death of Harry Osborn" were fantastic stuff. What I was saying is that, rather that the tounge-in-check tales with equal amounts of comedy and tragedy in the vast majority of Spider-Man stories, making Spider-Man "dark and gritty" was becoming more and more common place. Yeah, it's fine to do it once in awhile, but month after month? It wasn't so much as deviation but becoming the norm. It's also one of the reasons why the writers came up with the Clone Saga in the first place: to get Spidey out of the constant dark and gritty stories that were becoming all too commonplace in comics.
True, in the eighties that stuff seemed to be one of the predominant themes in the comics.
Times changed and that era was left behind. Like you say it’s cool to have some dark arcs if there is a point to them, but Spidey is essentially a hipster- a feel good read.
It’s supposed to pump you up not depress you.
Obviously I'm all for Peter maturing as a character, but the focus should be mental growth rather than physical growth.
..and I believe in a bit of both. So that the series has a more realistic gravity.
I can accept the fact that Spidey is now an adult and married even though I think it's way past what the character intended to be.
This is true, but by Marv Wolfman taking that first step away from Spidey’s initial blueprint it only meant he could become a potentially more interesting and engaging character than before.
Might as well continue instead of attempting to constantly turn back the clock which has only resulted in worse problems. I'm just saying that Peter Parker/Spider-Man works better as a teenager, although that doesn't mean there haven't been great stories when he was an adult.
Fair enough.
I think he is great to read when he was a teen and also now, but I am glad he has aged.
I don’t think it’s the case that he is better as a youth or adult, although we both have a different perspective on his aging, what is most important is the person who the writer is.
Look at DeMatties and Stern- those guys have written arcs that are easily as good as Stan Lee’s stuff, yet they focused on Spidey in a different stage of his life. In fact a big part of what made them so good was that they knew how to write PP/SM as good as an adult as Stan wrote Spidey as a kid.
Well of course he wasn't your atypical teenager--that was the whole point. This was a guy who was arguably a gifted prodigy who, thanks to his being an orphan and not having enough money had to go to a public high school where he was mocked on a daily basis. This was a guy who, even though he could take care of himself, was still treated as if he were still a little kid by his doting aunt. This was a guy who BECAUSE he was a teenager believed he wasn't being taken seriously by most people, especially those who were the same age as himself, despite being incredibly brillant in science and, eventually, having all these amazing super powers. The sterotypical adolescents believes they know more than their parents, adults, and even other kids. Well, here was a adolescent who actually did and plus had the power to do somthing about it by donning a costume, cut-loose, and laugh in the face of danger. Again, adolescent power fantasy.
What about adult power fantasy? It still does it for me. I can still imagine what it would be like to be PP, it’s just now since he is an adult we can also have others layers to the central characters life that did not exist when he was a teen. That is of course when he is in the hands of a good writer.
Which he is not right now.
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