Issue #16: Alex's Reflections on Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

    While my parents and my childhood toys may say otherwise, I was never the biggest fan of Spider-Man growing up. Batman, Superman, and Luke Skywalker (among others) were some of favorites, and as I have become older, I have reflected on why Spider-Man was not one of my favorites. It has to do with the anxiety the character embodies. Whenever I watch Spider-Man, I feel the strain of his life coming into my mind too often. Unlike Batman, where his focus is unshakable, Spider-Man is always distracted by life. If he is not worrying about Aunt May, he is worrying about his physics final. If he is not late to a party because he is chasing Green Goblin across Manhattan, he is awkwardly talking to Mary Jane. It is just teen angst at level red all the time, and I just cannot get into it.

       When Gian and I wrote our book Enter the Superheroes, we did a lot of research on Stan Lee and his process for coming up with the characters. I remember reading that Stan wanted a superhero a kid could relate to under the mask, so he went younger. As a point of reference, Spider-Man debuted right after the Fantastic Four which had mostly adult characters. Homecoming has its foot planted right on the line of a superhero film and a teen angst superhero film, and I am admittedly having trouble navigating my feelings on the movie. Using a decidedly scientific term, the film is “alright.” His suit is excellent, his banter while fighting is on-point, and the action sequences are smooth. However, the film gets bogged down in all of the “growing up” narrative. Sandy will chide me for saying it like that, but it is how I feel. There have been so many incarnations of Spider-Man, and they are almost entirely centered about him growing up. Where is the adult Spider-Man? Where is the Spider-Man who is a badass and is confident? The version of Peter Parker in Into the Spider-Verse (2018), where he is a depressed drunkard, is not what I am looking for. Homecoming, while a good film, just continues the tired narrative of Spider-Man being the awkward kid who has to get his homework done while fighting evil. The film being called “Homecoming” should have alerted me that is was going to be a quasi-traditional Spider-Man film, but I guess I wanted something more than, “If Aunt May finds out, she’ll kill me!”

Issue #16: Sandy's Reflections on Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Let me start by admitting that this movie is better than I originally thought. Honestly, I was so upset by the “MJ” reveal (I was not crazy about this version of Mary Jane) that I didn’t revisit the film at all after the initial premiere night. Even when we were getting together to watch this movie, I had Alex remind me to order it from Netflix DVD because it is one of the only Marvel films that I don’t own a copy of. 
 
Side note: I know what you’re thinking, dear reader, because if you’re at the sixteenth blog entry, you already know how I feel about Pepper Potts. And you’re mumbling to yourself, “But, Sandy, Pepper returns with an amazing cameo!” Yes, I know. And while volunteering at Pocono Cinema, I would sneak in to watch that scene each week while the film played. Ha. However, I had no desire to watch the actual film again. 
 
And I take it back.
 
One of my very favorite classes to teach is titled Writing About Young Adult Literature. I’ve structured the course around how to analyze an effective choice for a reading designed for the YA audience, allowing future teachers to learn how to deconstruct what makes a meaningful text and how to select beyond “I really like it” to books and stories that would hone in on middle school and high school students’ coming-of-age issues and offer samples of how to deal with the pains of growing up and becoming an adult. 
 
One of the first texts that I use to frame the course is Herz and Gallo’s From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges Between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. (It’s available on Amazon, if you’re interested.) Within the text, the authors present numerous strategies for thinking about what makes a text work for teens. Most importantly, they present four characteristics that separate a YA story from all others:
 

• the main character is a teenager who is the center of the plot
• the protagonist’s actions and decisions are major factors in the plot’s outcome
• the events/problems are related to teens and the dialogue reflects their speech
• the point of view is that of an adolescent and reflects an adolescent’s interpretation of events and people (pp. 8-9)

If we look at Homecoming through the lens of these characteristics, we can see it is a tight, meaningful story designed for a teen audience. 

First, of course, we know Peter is the main character. The film opens with his exuberant video of his experience in Captain America: Civil War. By filming on his cellphone, it is definitely teen behavior, but more importantly, this format reveals his perception of the events. He is eager, open, and so, so, so excited to work with Tony. He idolizes Tony Stark, and he has so much energy that it’s only when we see him in a frame without all the other Avengers—just Tony and Peter and Happy—that we can really feel how young he is. He thinks he wants to be a grown up, and that’s the thread of the storyline here: He wants to be a grown up, but to do so, he has to give up being a kid. And, in the beginning—even the middle—of the movie, I think he doesn’t really know all that that choice would mean.
 
Second, his actions and decisions are the major elements of the plot. He tries to be a “neighborhood” hero, and he does pretty good at it, all on his own. But when he makes the decision to stop the Vulture and his crew, he is in over his head. And it isn’t rosy. The Staten Island Ferry scene—where he is trying his best to hold together the boat on his own—shows that he’s trying, metaphorically, to hold together the two halves of his life: being a teen and being a hero, and he is not doing either very well. 
 
Third, the next criteria is that the problems are related to teens. What could be more of the quintessential teen experience other than a homecoming dance? Or asking out the girl you like? Or trying to fit in at school? The thread of Peter’s crush on Liz, and the montage of him asking Aunt May for help learning how to dance and put on a tie is not only emotional but specifically designed to show that Peter’s issues are universal to the teen experience. Even the idea of meeting your date’s father—and getting “the talk” in the car—is a rite of teen passage.
 
Last, the final characteristic of a YA text is that the point of view is from a teen. I already mentioned the opening video—it’s adorable and shows how Peter is young and innocent and filled with excitement for life. But the best scene that illustrates Peter’s teen perspective is when he is sitting on the top of a building, perched on the edge to see the world below, eating a sandwich and telling Happy about his day. His perception of helping people, leaving a note about a bike, is adorable and sweet. He believes in the good, and it shows.
 
So how do I wrap up this entry? What have I learned? I still am not crazy about Mary Jane. Ha!
 
But the movie was far better than I gave it credit for, and by analyzing it critically, I can conclude that it fits all the criteria of what makes a useful, meaningful text for teens. It shows Peter struggling—he wants to be grown up, and he wants to be an Avenger, but as a result of the events of the film, he realizes that he also still is, truly, young. Instead of taking Tony up on his offer of a new suit, Peter declines becoming a member of the Avengers, knowing his time will come to be an adult in the future. However, for now, Peter will pause, allowing himself to enjoy a few more moments of being a teenager with young adult worries, rather than the worries of the world. As he walks away from Tony, Peter smiles. And so do we.
 
Maybe that’s what I missed the first time. I was so busy being mad at painting Mary Jane as a sarcastic, rebellious loner—that I missed that this version wasn’t designed for me. It was designed for the teenagers, like Peter, who could relate.
 
I’m buying a copy of the film, I guess. I think I might even use it in class!

Issue #16: Gian's Reflections on Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Spider-Man to Iron Man: “Mr. Stark, what do you want me to do?”

Iron Man: “I think you’ve done enough.”

 

In Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017, directed by Jon Watts) Spider-Man asks this question as a New York ferry is in danger of sinking. He has been fighting with the Vulture (played with unnerving menace by Michael Keaton), but the Vulture used a ray to slice the ferry in half, forcing Spider-Man to try to save the boat while the Vulture escaped. When Spider-Man’s efforts fail, Iron Man arrives to save the day, using his repulsor rays to fuse the ferry’s hull back together.

 

But Peter’s question isn’t only about the peril to the ferry, it’s really an open question to the man he sees as a father: Tony Stark. What do you want me to do? Who do you want me to be? How can I be like you? 

 

Tony doesn’t want to have to answer those questions. Peter needs a father, but Tony Stark (in the role Robert Downey, Jr. was born for) does not want to to be that father. He doesn’t want Peter fighting supervillains. He doesn’t want Peter being an Avenger. He doesn’t want Peter in dangerous battles. He wants Peter to stay safe: “Can’t you just be a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man?”

 

The answer is, no Peter can’t. With great power comes great responsibility. Peter (played by Tom Holland as if he really was Spider-Man) has amazing gifts, and he will have to learn to use them. And like all children, he will make mistakes. He has to try. He has to learn. He has to grow.

 

What Tony resists is the fact that we, adults, have to grow too. Tony wants to stay who he was, billionaire playboy Tony Stark. When we first met Tony in Iron Man, he was bragging about the Playboy models with whom he had slept. He was rich and drove sports cars and could do whatever he wanted. Except Tony had great gifts, too, a knowledge of technology that made him one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. With great power comes great responsibility. Tony built the Iron Man suit to save himself as he was dying from a shrapnel wound, but he didn’t know that building the suit would also change his life forever.

 

As Iron Man, he recruited Spider-Man when Captain America (played by the hero himself Chris Evans) went rogue. Tony was used to using people, and he recruited Spidey because he needed Spidey’s powers. But Peter needed Tony too. Peter needed someone to teach him how to use those powers. Peter needed a mentor and a father. Tony wanted to just use Peter and then send Peter back to his neighborhood. But what Tony didn’t realize was that once a child enters our life, they change us forever.

 

The job of being a parent is impossible. Children look up to their parents. They want them to be perfect, to know how to do everything, and to have all the answers. That’s what children look to their parents for, perfection. But of course, none of us are perfect. We make mistakes, we don’t know everything, and we fail all the time. What children need is not for their parents to be perfect, but for them to be heroic. Heroes make mistakes, they try things that don’t work, and they get knocked down. But then they get back up again. Children don’t need to see their parents never fail, but they do need to see their parents never give up. Keep trying, give it your best, and don’t be afraid to start over.

 

At the end of Spider-Man, Peter is trapped under tons of rubble. The Vulture has tricked him, causing a building to fall on top of him. Peter can’t move. He is running out of time, close to death. Peter cries out, but there is no one there to help him. He has failed again. Then he remembers Tony’s words to him, “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.” When Tony said that, he was taking away the high-tech Spider-suit he had built for Peter because he felt Peter was too immature to use it responsibly. So, Peter had ended up going after the Vulture in his old handmade Spider-Man costume. But trapped under the rubble, Peter remembered Tony’s words and understood their true meaning. It’s not powers that make a person a hero; what makes a person a hero is never giving up no matter the odds. Peter reaches inside and finds the strength of will to push through crushing tons of rubble in order to free himself. Then he defeats the Vulture and also saves the Vulture from death when he could have let the Vulture be blown up.

 

Peter still has much growing up to do. Tony does too. But they both take big steps forward here. Tony helps Peter to find his inner power, the strength of will that lets him succeed no matter the odds. And Peter helps Tony begin to understand the secret of being a great parent: Children try to be their parents, and once parents understand this, it helps the parent to become a better person than they really are. Tony knows what a flawed person he is, and so he doesn’t want to be pushed into the role of father to Peter because of all those flaws. But a person can be flawed and still be a great parent as long as they keep trying to be better than they are. When a child sees a parent fail but keep trying, the parent is teaching the child that we can all find the hero inside of us, we just have to never give up trying.