Comic Book Lit Crit: The Lee-Ditko Spider-Man: Anger

Some thoughts on the myth of "Spider-Man as Everyman", photographed lovingly by my beautiful wife.

Admittedly, the fact that Spider-Man is prone to anger and irrationality while most other heroes of this period are not could be taken as evidence of the everyman theory. I eagerly await your own thoughts on this matter.

And, finally, there are few things in life as satisfying as taking pot-shots at Steve Skroce.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• comicbooks
• spiderman
• therussells
• ofaw
• stanlee
• steveditko

[vasglorious]

Sooooo, you don't like the original comics done by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.

[TheRussells]

No; I *LOVE* Lee-Ditko! I think they're FANTASTIC. My argument isn't that the later comics are better, but that they're more "popular", that the things that make Lee-Ditko's Spidey truly amazing were gradually smoothed out by later creative teams, including Lee-Romita. Real art isn't about how many people like it, but about how good it is. B/c they're so unlike any other comics & b/c Peter is so unlike any other hero-- b/c of his anger and anti-socialness, Lee-Ditko's Spider-Man is Great Art.

[artistisgreat]

my opinion is that your opinion suX!!!!

[TheRussells]

Care to eludicate, my enthusaistic commentator?

[BushidoBen]

you got a great point bro. but if spidey was an average guy, then the story and movie wouldnt be that great to watch. we love to see a guy that was weak, but fought his way to be strong.

[TheRussells]

That's true. In the comics, that fight was a constant thing; I think the moment in the comics that made everyone say, hey, this dude is strong and never gives up, is the classic concluding chapter to the Master Planner story. It'd be interesting to see where Ditko would have taken it, had he and Lee not had their falling out.

[CartoonFan56]

I also prefer Ditko, mostly for his artwork. His characters always had a quirky and neurotic look about them, something that was lost when Romita stepped in. Your theory has very much intrigued me. Very cool.

[cha5]

I know that Spider Man is regarded as the most "human" and sympathetic superhero by alot of fans,

But just myself I always regarded

Jack Kirby's Ben Grimm The Thing as a far more tragic and touching character,

I'm one of those fans who feels that Kirby plotted the Fantastic Four storylines,

And I think Kirby really put alot of himself into the character of Ben Grimm,

All this is JMHO of course.

[GadGades]

@TheRussells Y'know I think Ditko was going to make him the nice guy he ended up being. I think it was more stan lee, not trying to give him to much credit, I'll explain what I mean. Ditko did the Blue Beetle, and his blue beetle is almost an alternate Spider-man, his, or a branch. I think he would have stablize Pete, and made him a scientist. Stan's not a great writer but he might be the fire that early spidy had.

[GadGades]

@TheRussells including just the fact that her famous stints should have made it impossible. If you look at daredevil ,issue per issue, daredevil wasn't a bad comic and it got increasingly good but for a long time, it was always one or two levels below spider-man. But afterwards, the more spider-man writers didn't seem to get Peter, or the more Daredevil surpassed him. Only recently has spider-man comics have been consistently good though no arc that's really moving.

[GadGades]

@TheRussells I somewhat agree, though the second big team still need interesting spider-man stories, for me, the amazing book went through a long period of it being bad. Decades, even when some good stuff was going on, it could be weird in the not so good sense. And it's because people didn't let Peter be a character. It's why the mary jane marriage lasted way longer than it was believable, if you take into account the problems it had.

[Chronosagaaddict]

wow... that's some deep shit, I never thought of it like that. Well played sir..

[spidercarnagevenom1]

HAHAHAHAHA, he's a teenager you idiot, he doesn't understand responsibility, until he is faced with head on,((later in the issues, later in the story, like in real life)) but even the most responsible adult would forget his morals and ethics to kick a little murderer ass....

[WatchThisReview]

It's an interesting take, but many of the early interactions were brought on against Parker by bullies (when he was actually attempting to join in) rather than his bad attitude which was more present as the run continued. Many of the antisocial behaviors were brought on by direct negative experiences with the individuals themselves (Flash, the wrestling promoter, etc). He definitely had more of a violent streak, though, and his anger has always been somewhat present to a much lesser degree.

[spideyhaswebshooters]

The Lee-Ditko Spider-Man era is the best and the Lee-Romita team is good until mid-1970. After that it's all rehash -- only with violence, death, and "darkness".

The seeds of Peter's anger were sown by his peers who ostracized him first. As he once said "the rest of the world can go hang for all I care". Peter has had to mature past the cruelty of adolescence in order to become more socially responsible but it's never easy for a hero to care in a world that is still cruel and full of hatred.

[Jenga666]

Agree with everything you've said. Spidey has defended his secret identity more jealously than any other comic book figure (Quesada has no idea what he's doing), but please don't look at him as a teenager anymore; Spidey has aged. Even after brand new day he's an experienced man.

[Xman78]

The first thing I would do with super powers - get rich, bang chicks. And I'm an everyman!

[batman6458]

this video is fail