What does Smallville have in common with Spider-Man?

[GL1]

Alright, I had a huge perhaps insipidly stupid inspiration today while trying to conceive of a high school centric live action Spider-Man series. While tossing around principal characters it suddenly occurred to me.

I was doing Smallville all over again. Smallville is Spider-Man!

You've got a powered protagonist, and brownhaired at that, not quite fitting in (Clark = Peter) and you've got two girls, the down to earth blonde with a bit of a brain (Chloe = Gwen) and the hotgirl who is always looking for excitement (that SHOULD be a redhead-- Lana = MJ) while dating the big strong jock who makes the hero feel less than (Whitney = Flash Thompson) and those four create random love triangles as needed. The hero of course has a very rich best friend with dubious morality ( Lex = Harry) who's father is an evil corporate guy ( Lionel Luthor = Norman Osborn) who's son will inevitably follow in his footsteps.

If Pa Kent had died at the beginning of the series then it would be a total shoe in, though it should be noted that neither hero is raised by his parents. It can also be noted that Spider-Man in concept riffs on Superman in general (red and blue... Daily Bugle/Planet "Mary Jane" "Lois Lane," alliterative names and all that... he's grown beyond that, but the surface similarities are too many to be coincidental.).

Obviously, the show has grown a great deal beyond these origins, and this is just about character relationships and not overall plot and powers, however, it does make for an interesting observation as well as making it a bit challenging for a Spider-Man show not to be a "ripoff" of Smallville.

So, big coincidence, standard superhero setup or am I actually on to something?

 

[The Caped Knight]

First off I repeat don't even compare lana to MJ, because she not MJ in any way shape or form .

The list is like this
1. Clark Kent -Peter Parker

2. Lois Lane - Mary Jane

3. Lex Luthor- Harry Osborn

4. Jonathan- Uncle Ben

5. Martha - Aunt May

6. Lionel - Norman Osborn

7. lana - Gwen Stacy

8 . Chloe - Betty Brant/Debra Whitman

 

[04nbod]

its a standard superhero story of people who have lost people they love so fight to make sure more people aren't put in the same position- GA and bats in this catagory too

campbell(a mythology expert) said that a hero must lose his mentor to become the hero he was meant to be- uncle ben, jonathan kent, obi wan kenobi ... etc

as for the rest though- i wouldn't shout rip off at the top of my lungs but it is uncanny

 

[triplet]

What does it have in common with Spidey 2?

The same two dudes wrote it, Miles Millar and Al Gough.



Of course there are similarities.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

What does it have in common with Spidey 2?

The same two dudes wrote it, Miles Millar and Al Gough.



Of course there are similarities.

Yeah, if the same two people work on something. There is going to be some similarities.

 

[The Kid]

And every teen/school oriented drama ever I've seen follows a similar girl next door template. Fundamentaly I notice a lot of similarities between the two heros. I always thought spidey was sort of the child of superman and batman as awkward as that might be... err...

anyway yeah back when the show started it gave me a few spidey vibes except for the basic storyline being about superman, of course in spidey though peter's supposed to be extremely intelligent and inventive. Clark is smart but we won't ever see him invent stuff because that's never been a part of superman I think... And there were other little unexpected things like kryptonite's effect on all the people of smallville that I found interesting. I thought "what an interesting parallel, krypton's destruction killing both clark and lana's parents. hhmmm is this why they have such a strong bond?"

 

[SatEL]

Alright, I had a huge perhaps insipidly stupid inspiration today while trying to conceive of a high school centric live action Spider-Man series. While tossing around principal characters it suddenly occurred to me.

I was doing Smallville all over again. Smallville is Spider-Man!

You've got a powered protagonist, and brownhaired at that, not quite fitting in (Clark = Peter) and you've got two girls, the down to earth blonde with a bit of a brain (Chloe = Gwen) and the hotgirl who is always looking for excitement (that SHOULD be a redhead-- Lana = MJ) while dating the big strong jock who makes the hero feel less than (Whitney = Flash Thompson) and those four create random love triangles as needed. The hero of course has a very rich best friend with dubious morality ( Lex = Harry) who's father is an evil corporate guy ( Lionel Luthor = Norman Osborn) who's son will inevitably follow in his footsteps.

If Pa Kent had died at the beginning of the series then it would be a total shoe in, though it should be noted that neither hero is raised by his parents. It can also be noted that Spider-Man in concept riffs on Superman in general (red and blue... Daily Bugle/Planet "Mary Jane" "Lois Lane," alliterative names and all that... he's grown beyond that, but the surface similarities are too many to be coincidental.).

Obviously, the show has grown a great deal beyond these origins, and this is just about character relationships and not overall plot and powers, however, it does make for an interesting observation as well as making it a bit challenging for a Spider-Man show not to be a "ripoff" of Smallville.

So, big coincidence, standard superhero setup or am I actually on to something?

Spiderman has always been a watered down copied version of superman i have stated it so much but stupid marvel fanboys jump to the attack everytime. Marvel have a knack for copying DC heroes i mean look at sentry now for crying out loud.

 

[Jack O Lantern]

What does it have in common with Spidey 2?

The same two dudes wrote it, Miles Millar and Al Gough.



Of course there are similarities.

But, and you may need to set down for this, Spider-Man 2 was not the first incarnation of the Spider-Man stories or characters that he is talking about and the similarities have been around since Season 1 before the first movie was even realeased.

But they didn't rip Spidey off directly, thing is that there are always genre sterotypes but Spidey apparently is the first teenage superhero, meaning that any other teen hero will follow some of the same paths

Spiderman has always been a watered down copied version of superman i have stated it so much but stupid marvel fanboys jump to the attack everytime. Marvel have a knack for copying DC heroes i mean look at sentry now for crying out loud.

They don't attack you because they are stupid but because you are stupid. You see a red and blue costume, a guy who works at a newspaper and who has a name that starts with a "s" and ends in "man" and think rip off without getting to know the characters, they're completely different, hell as Jeph Loeb once said Spider-man is the one of the most difficult character to right because most superhero books have fights with an occassional soap opera, whereas Spider-Man is a soap opera when a fight breaks out.

 

[Brainiac 8]

*Snore*

 

[November Rain]

a lot of hero stories that stem from kids learning to become superheroes on their own accord generally follow the same kinda line up..

it's no big deal that superman and spider-man share similarities in any medium or format.

 

[Brainiac 8]

a lot of hero stories that stem from kids learning to become superheroes on their own accord generally follow the same kinda line up..

it's no big deal that superman and spider-man share similarities in any medium or format.

dear lord, at least someone gets it.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

a lot of hero stories that stem from kids learning to become superheroes on their own accord generally follow the same kinda line up..

it's no big deal that superman and spider-man share similarities in any medium or format.

that and the fact Superman and Batman were used as the base for Spider-Man. Hell when it comes to Superman he set the standards most heroes.

 

[November Rain]

actually superman is based on old christian stories as well as parts of judaism and also greek mythology with tales of hercules and so forth.

superman didn't set the mould but was rather made from it

 

[Brainiac 8]

that and the fact Superman and Batman were used as the base for Spider-Man. Hell when it comes to Superman he set the standards most heroes.

Truth. Up until Superman was created, Superhero comics were considered a joke and not a true medium. So it opened the way for a franchise to flourish.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

the two characters have always had similarities. Stan Lee admitted to using Superman as an inspiration when writing Spider-man the first time. And through the years, Superman has been more humanized similar to the way the marvel characters are. They're both fantastic characters, and one's not ripping off the other in any way.
Most of what Smallville's done is inspired by the Silver Age Superman/Superboy/Lois Lane comics as opposed to Spider-man. Yeah theyre are similarities but the character dynamics are completely different. If you try hard enough you can find commonalities in anything.

 

[triplet]

Well, all stories like this will have some similarities.

Superhero myths owe a lot to traditional mythic traditions and their story structures. They've got a whole theory on mythic story structure and how stories can be told in a particular way that will make it more like a myth...

If you follow the classsic structure of the "hero's journey," which is based on Joseph's Campbell's "Hero with a thousand Faces", you almost can't miss.

George Lucas wrote the original Star Wars based on Campbell's book and it was brilliant.

Too bad he forgot to use that book as a template for the later films.

Yikes...

http://herbertholeman.com/Writer/myth.php

 

[Brainiac 8]

Well, all stories like this will have some similarities.

Superhero myths owe a lot to traditional mythic traditions and their story structures. They've got a whole theory on mythic story structure and how stories can be told in a particular way that will make it more like a myth...

If you follow the classsic structure of the "hero's journey," which is based on Joseph's Campbell's "Hero with a thousand Faces", you almost can't miss.

George Lucas wrote the original Star Wars based on Campbell's book and it was brilliant.

Too bad he forgot to use that book as a template for the later films.

Yikes...

http://herbertholeman.com/Writer/myth.php

If he had, we wouldn't have had to deal with Jar Jar Dinks.

Yikes is right when mentioning the prequals.

 

[November Rain]

Well, all stories like this will have some similarities.

Superhero myths owe a lot to traditional mythic traditions and their story structures. They've got a whole theory on mythic story structure and how stories can be told in a particular way that will make it more like a myth...

If you follow the classsic structure of the "hero's journey," which is based on Joseph's Campbell's "Hero with a thousand Faces", you almost can't miss.

George Lucas wrote the original Star Wars based on Campbell's book and it was brilliant.

Too bad he forgot to use that book as a template for the later films.

Yikes...

http://herbertholeman.com/Writer/myth.php

well anakin's story was supposed to be one of tradgedy and consumption of the dark side...

it was never supposed to be the rise of a hero, which is the complete polar opposite of lukes...

 

[The Caped Knight]

If he had, we wouldn't have had to deal with Jar Jar Dinks.

Yikes is right when mentioning the prequals.

You known Brainy We don't agree on alot of things, But this is one of those times when we do. I don't like The Prequel Episodes I & II and mainly because of Jar Jar as well as Whiny imature Anakin in Episode II . [Episode III kick mega ass and is the best episode in the pequels.] But IMO The Original Trilogy with (Luke, Leia, Han & Vader) is still the best .

My Favorite to least favorite

1. RETURN OF THE JEDI

2. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

3. REVENGE OF THE SITH

4. A NEW HOPE

5. THE PHANTOM MENACE

6. THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES

 

[Kaboom]

..."Mary Jane" "Lois Lane," alliterative names and all that...

hate to burst your bubble but "Mary Jane" or "Mary Jane Watson" is not alliterative.

Nor is "Clark Kent".........

also, to the extent alliterative names are used in Spidey, Stan Lee has said that because he was creating so many characters at the time, he used alliteration so he could remember what name belonged to who.

To the extent the J's used alliteration, it was only the alliteration of "LL". While we don't know for sure why, the generally accepted rumor was that there was a girl with the LL initials that was very important to one of them, and it was done in her honor.

 

[November Rain]

hate to burst your bubble but "Mary Jane" or "Mary Jane Watson" is not alliterative.

Nor is "Clark Kent".........

also, to the extent alliterative names are used in Spidey, Stan Lee has said that because he was creating so many characters at the time, he used alliteration so he could remember what name belonged to who.

To the extent the J's used alliteration, it was only the alliteration of "LL". While we don't know for sure why, the generally accepted rumor was that there was a girl with the LL initials that was very important to one of them, and it was done in her honor.

clark kent is alliteration dude...

so is lios lane, lex luthor, peter parker etc...

MJ isn't though.

 

[Brainiac 8]

You known Brainy We don't agree on alot of things, But this is one of those times when we do. I don't like The Prequel Episodes I & II and mainly because of Jar Jar as well as Whiny imature Anakin in Episode II . [Episode III kick mega ass and is the best episode in the pequels.] But IMO The Original Trilogy with (Luke, Leia, Han & Vader) is still the best .

My Favorite to least favorite

1. RETURN OF THE JEDI

2. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

3. REVENGE OF THE SITH

4. A NEW HOPE

5. THE PHANTOM MENACE

6. THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES

You named them in my favorite order also actually.

Yup, hated the prequals.

You and I Kal don't disagree on as much as you think. Mostly it's just the creative decisions on Smallville we may disagree on. But as far as comics, actors, etc etc it's not so much.

Plus if we all agreed on everything, life wouldn't be interesting. It doesn't make me like you any less.

 

[Kaboom]

clark kent is alliterative dude...

so is lios lane, lex luthot, peter parker etc...

MJ isn't though.

did you even read what i wrote?

 

[Kaboom]

You known Brainy We don't agree on alot of things, But this is one of those times when we do. I don't like The Prequel Episodes I & II and mainly because of Jar Jar as well as Whiny imature Anakin in Episode II . [Episode III kick mega ass and is the best episode in the pequels.] But IMO The Original Trilogy with (Luke, Leia, Han & Vader) is still the best .

My Favorite to least favorite

1. RETURN OF THE JEDI

2. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

3. REVENGE OF THE SITH

4. A NEW HOPE

5. THE PHANTOM MENACE

6. THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES

finally someone elese (2 people in fact, K8 and Brain, of course!) places Jedi at One! I thought i was alone in the galactic republic on that one.

 

[November Rain]

yeah, you said clark kent was not alliteration....



i was bringing you up to speed