[The following article contains spoilers for the movie Spider-Man: Homecoming.]
I know I’m a little late to the party, but I finally got to see Sony’s most recent attempt at doing a Spider-Man story “right.” You can give Hollywood a lot of misery for its adaptations of Spider-Man over the years(my revulsion for the Raimi Spider-films is absolute and irreversible), but when you consider fifty years of source material, you have to admit that finding the best way to represent the web-slinger isn’t an easy task. Do you go with the angst-ridden photographer, who can’t ever catch a break because of the ol’ Parker luck, or do you make show him as an Avenger living in Stark towers? Do you film an up-and-coming scientist building a new Spider-suit every month, or the CEO of Parker Industries, travelling around the world with more money than Tony Stark ever dreamed of? Or do you really stick it to the fans and make it all about the clones?
Spider-Man has played many roles over the years, even without taking into account his many. Damned. Clones.
If you have a passing knowledge of comic book history, you can be forgiven for assuming that Spider-Boy Tom Holland’s portrayal was based on the Peter Parker of the Ultimate Universe, given that character remained in his teens for the entirety of his run. On a closer look, however, more similarities can be drawn between Spider-Holland and a much younger, newer Spider-Man – Miles Morales.
The history of Miles Morales and how he fits into comic book continuity is complicated even by comic book standards, but the essence of the character is this: he is a young, Black-hispanic boy who got bit by a genetically altered spider, and, inspired by the exploits of Spider-Man, decided to follow in his footsteps. So the Marvel comic book universe has two Spider-Men swinging around the city(not counting the sundry spider-women, spider-pigs, spider-symbiotes and those damned clones) which could be confusing, but Marvel makes it work. They have to.
Miles Morales first appeared in Ultimate Fallout #4, following the death of his universe’s Peter Parker – writer Brian Michael Bendis had brought the world a black Spider-Man, which created quite a stir in the comics community. It turned out far from change for change’s sake, though. As Miles Morales took over the Ultimate Spider-Man title, audiences quickly grew to love him. Some for the diversity he represented, some because he’s just that good a character. A principled, intelligent youth, trying his best to make the world a better place through spider-powers, punching and quips, no matter how hard that makes his life.
The very essence of what made readers fall in love with Spider-Man way back in the 1960s.
Now, before I start drawing specific parallels between Miles’ story and Spider-Man: Homecoming, I want to make very clear that I loved the movie. It was pure joy, from beginning to end. It was smart, full of heart, inspiring, thrilling, and from beginning to end, the entertainment value never dipped for a second. I hope the second movie is more of the same. The movie worked in a way very few superhero movies do. The borrowed aspects of Miles Morales’ character are worth highlighting, however – especially in light of the fact that Miles Morales himself is confirmed to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Spider-Teen
At 15, Spider-Holland is the youngest superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe(excluding Baby Groot), and by a wide margin. All other Marvel superheroes are well into adulthood, well past the age of the entertainment industry’s target audience. While it’s true that the original adventures of Peter Parker portrayed his life as a teenager, he hasn’t been one for decades. In the time since then, he’s graduated from college, gotten married, demonically annulled his marriage, received his doctorate, been a photojournalist, teacher, scientist and CEO. There are many comics readers alive today who have never read the adventures of a teenage Peter Parker. Miles Morales, however, is still in high school. Dealing with the high school problems of a modern American teenager.
It’s his stories that are far more relevant for the modern teenager. And if you can’t make Spider-Man relevant, you are definitely doing something wrong.
Entering a World of Heroes
When Spider-Man first appeared on the scene, he was one of the Marvel universe’s first superheroes. There weren’t many teams to join, or older heroes around to show him the ropes. Sure, he tried to join the Fantastic Four, but he wanted to be on the team as an equal member, not have them mentor him.
Mentorship, however, is a very large part of Spider-Holland’s story in Homecoming. Tony Stark offers to bring this new Spider-Man onto the Avengers team, and all the training and benefits that come with. Stark maintains supervision through cameras in Peter’s costume(which, as an aside, is a rather disturbing thing to be doing without telling Peter about it first), flies in personally when Peter screws up, and seems to have a say in whether or not Peter gets to be Spider-Man in the first place.
Mentorship is very much a large part of Miles Morales’ story too. The Tony Stark of the comics recognizes the potential of Miles rather quickly, and invites him and two other teen heroes to join the Avengers for a brief period. Peter Parker checks in frequently on the younger Spider-Man, and gets rather authoritative in regards to how Miles should conduct himself.
It’s an aspect of the Spider-Man story that works well in a universe that’s already established a wide variety of iconic superheroes who are visible to the public eye. The Marvel Universe is colourful, exciting, and incredibly appealing. Miles Morales and Spider-Holland both act as young POV characters for this world, each with their own mentors doing their best to show the Spider-Boys how a world of superheroes works.
Who Will Wield The Shield?
I’m throwing this one in just for fun, because before Spider-Holland ever made audiences gasp by wielding Captain America’s iconic shield in Civil War, it was Miles Morales proudly holding it up in the air.
It’s interesting, because in the original Civil War event of the comics, Peter Parker also used his webs to divest Captain America of the shield in the midst of battle, but Peter left it there. Peter looks up to the shield – in his words, it is “the symbol of the whole freaking country” – and has tremendous respect for what it represents.
This is highlighted as he stops a few thugs from trying to take the shield to sell on ebay.
It’s an interesting point to consider – do Miles and Spider-Holland pick the shield up because they’re young and fail to recognize the iconic power of the shield? Or is it because they believe that they are as worth as anyone else of wielding that kind of symbolism?
Ganke
Finally, it’s time to talk about the most blatant bit of borrowing of concepts Homecoming took from Miles Morales’ world, and that’s Miles’ best friend and confidante, Ganke Lee. There was much buzz online for readers of the Miles Morales’ comics when the first Homecoming trailer hit, believing Ganke Lee was going to being brought to the big screen.
It cannot be denied that the visual resemblance is striking.
It’s not just the visual similarities. In the comics, Ganke Lee is a Lego-loving high school student who is Miles Morales’ best friend, and knows of his double-life as Spider-Man. Ned Leeds in Homecoming performs an identical role here. The Ned Leeds of the comics, however, is a reporter for the Daily Bugle who becomes the third man to become the villain Hobgoblin. It’s obvious who Homecoming’s Ned Leeds is really meant to be portraying.
Whatever his name is, however, it’s a good thing the movie decided to include him. Having a peer and ally who’s not just a romantic interest humanizes Spider-Holland to a degree that would not have been possible if the movies had chosen to go with the more traditional route and make Peter Parker a loner and social outcast.
Spider-Man: Homecoming did an amazing job of reinventing the Spider-Man story. It has fun. It makes you like the film’s protagonist in a way none of the previous films have done before. The Raimi films focused a little too heavily on the angst and soap-opera of the Spider-Man comics of the 60s, and they did not do it well. While the action holds up pretty well even by today’s standards, a lot of the story beats and character moments of the films could be downright cringeworthy. Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker was a wimp, which in itself isn’t a bad thing so long as the wimp in question is extremely unlikeable. The Amazing Spider-Man films held promise for a youthful, modern, fun Spider-Man, and while I liked them, Garfield never quite hits the mark as a likeable Peter Parker – and his convoluted backstory is about as far from relatable as a story can get. Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker was brash, and a bit of a jerk.
Spider-Man Homecoming, however, is movie that made me genuinely like Peter Parker as a person. It filled his high school with actual teenagers. It kept its comedy fresh, smart, and constant, and answered questions about Spider-Man that have been plaguing me for years – such as how he gets around when there aren’t giant skyscrapers to swing from. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is clumsy and naive, but endearingly so – at the end of day, he is a really good kid. It’s just a shame that so far, the best way to do a Spider-Man movie is to take the graft everything that makes Miles Morales appealing onto the more popular, whiter Spider-Man.
