I don’t post on here frequently. In fact, I don’t think I’ve posted on here in over a year, but after seeing The Amazing Spider-Man, I felt the need to say something, and, while it's been touched on in "ASM: Stuff You Didn't Like", I think this is something that deserves it’s own thread.
I’d also like to preface this by saying that I enjoyed the majority of this film. In many ways I prefer this telling of the origin to the 2002 original. I find Andrew Garfield’s modern take on Peter much more relatable than Tobey Maguire’s more golden or silver age approach. Andrew manages to capture the anger of a child who goes through these experiences, while attempting to confront his anger through both logic and respect for his loved ones. I recognize and empathize with his frequent reconciliation and diffusion of anger, and I thought that the scene with Captain Stacy calling Spider-Man’s quest a “personal vendetta” was genius. I could really see it click in Peter’s head that Captain Stacy was right. After that, and the scene saving the child from the burning car, Peter is much more focused on being a more altruistic hero and role model. At the end of the film, he promises a dying Captain George Stacy that he’ll “Keep Gwen out of it”. While he didn’t outright say “I promise”, you can definitely tell he nodded. Peter struggles with this before eventually telling Gwen that the promises you can’t keep are the best kind.
And Peter’s characterization broke.
I'm 20 years old, and I can honestly say that Spider-Man taught me about responsibility, honor, compassion, and, despite his dual identity, he also taught me about honesty. I grew up with the 90’s TV show, the old comics from the 60’s and 70’s reprinted in big black and white paperbacks, and then Ultimate Spider-Man. While I started with the original Spidey tales, I consider Brian Michael Bendis to be one of the people who had the greatest effect on my development because of how he wrote Peter Parker. Ultimate Peter was, like Garfield, a modern take on a troubled youth learning to cope with his anger at the universe (and these new powers he suddenly had obtained).
Peter Parker is a character who, despite whatever issues he is going through, has the most altruistic core a person can have. Even though he was more relatable in this film, I found this particular scene showed us that this core doesn’t exist, and that Peter is a kid who does right by himself as opposed to the world. Any other Peter Parker, even at this early stage in the game, would have respected a promise made made, not just to a dying man, but a man who sacrificed their life to save his. The sole purpose for the drama seems to be a way of avoiding writing a scene in which Peter and Gwen confront Captain Stacy’s death with their inside knowledge of the situation, and it comes at the cost of Spider-Man’s integrity.
Breaking that promise is NOT the Peter Parker I grew up with, and it severely disappoints me to see that this is the Peter Parker many children will see as a role model in the same way I did when I was a child.
I’d also like to preface this by saying that I enjoyed the majority of this film. In many ways I prefer this telling of the origin to the 2002 original. I find Andrew Garfield’s modern take on Peter much more relatable than Tobey Maguire’s more golden or silver age approach. Andrew manages to capture the anger of a child who goes through these experiences, while attempting to confront his anger through both logic and respect for his loved ones. I recognize and empathize with his frequent reconciliation and diffusion of anger, and I thought that the scene with Captain Stacy calling Spider-Man’s quest a “personal vendetta” was genius. I could really see it click in Peter’s head that Captain Stacy was right. After that, and the scene saving the child from the burning car, Peter is much more focused on being a more altruistic hero and role model. At the end of the film, he promises a dying Captain George Stacy that he’ll “Keep Gwen out of it”. While he didn’t outright say “I promise”, you can definitely tell he nodded. Peter struggles with this before eventually telling Gwen that the promises you can’t keep are the best kind.
And Peter’s characterization broke.
I'm 20 years old, and I can honestly say that Spider-Man taught me about responsibility, honor, compassion, and, despite his dual identity, he also taught me about honesty. I grew up with the 90’s TV show, the old comics from the 60’s and 70’s reprinted in big black and white paperbacks, and then Ultimate Spider-Man. While I started with the original Spidey tales, I consider Brian Michael Bendis to be one of the people who had the greatest effect on my development because of how he wrote Peter Parker. Ultimate Peter was, like Garfield, a modern take on a troubled youth learning to cope with his anger at the universe (and these new powers he suddenly had obtained).
Peter Parker is a character who, despite whatever issues he is going through, has the most altruistic core a person can have. Even though he was more relatable in this film, I found this particular scene showed us that this core doesn’t exist, and that Peter is a kid who does right by himself as opposed to the world. Any other Peter Parker, even at this early stage in the game, would have respected a promise made made, not just to a dying man, but a man who sacrificed their life to save his. The sole purpose for the drama seems to be a way of avoiding writing a scene in which Peter and Gwen confront Captain Stacy’s death with their inside knowledge of the situation, and it comes at the cost of Spider-Man’s integrity.
Breaking that promise is NOT the Peter Parker I grew up with, and it severely disappoints me to see that this is the Peter Parker many children will see as a role model in the same way I did when I was a child.
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