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Something that belatedly clicked for me after seeing Into the Spiderverse and immediately throwing myself into Peter B. Parker and Mary Jane fanfic was a realization: one of the reasons I loved this movie so much was that it was the first time in years that I had seen MY Spider-man.
See, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson got married when I was a toddler. Growing up, Spider-Man had been an adult married man pretty much my entire life. And when I actually started regularly buying and reading comics for myself in University and began reading Spider-Man on a monthly basis? Spider-Man was in a rough patch in his life. One of several that he's hit in a fairly rough and patchy life. He and MJ were separated, he'd lost his job, his life had fallen apart a little bit and he was starting the long slow process of trying to put it together again. But he could, and he did. I saw him working his way through it, rebuilding his marriage, finding a new path.
And that is exactly Peter B. Goddamn Parker in this movie.
It... just... it was MY Spidey. The one I lost in One More Day. The grown up who loved his wife desperately and loved his aunt and loved his city and couldn't help parenting any scared teenager he tripped over even though he barely knew how to parent himself and THERE HE WAS. It had been so long I'd almost forgotten, almost didn't recognize him, almost forgot that this WAS my Spidey. Every single reboot and retcon and bizarre deal with the devil plotline for years to keep Peter Parker in a state of permanent perpetual adolescence and make him more "relevant" had made him less and less relevant to my life. I knew they'd never let all these baby teen Spideys grow up into my Spidey. I'd given up on ever seeing him again.
BUT THERE HE WAS.
And at a time in my life where, well, frankly, I'M the thirty something mess trying to figure out how to put my life back together. When he's even more My Spidey than he ever was.
I know he's not everybody's Spidey. Some kids grew up and are growing up with various generations and iterations of Teen Spidey. And that's fine, that's wonderful, and that's something this movie gave all of us too.
We all get to have our own Spideys.
And that one's mine.
Loser Uncle Hobo Spidey wibbling over seahorse documentaries.
God I've missed him.
See, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson got married when I was a toddler. Growing up, Spider-Man had been an adult married man pretty much my entire life. And when I actually started regularly buying and reading comics for myself in University and began reading Spider-Man on a monthly basis? Spider-Man was in a rough patch in his life. One of several that he's hit in a fairly rough and patchy life. He and MJ were separated, he'd lost his job, his life had fallen apart a little bit and he was starting the long slow process of trying to put it together again. But he could, and he did. I saw him working his way through it, rebuilding his marriage, finding a new path.
And that is exactly Peter B. Goddamn Parker in this movie.
It... just... it was MY Spidey. The one I lost in One More Day. The grown up who loved his wife desperately and loved his aunt and loved his city and couldn't help parenting any scared teenager he tripped over even though he barely knew how to parent himself and THERE HE WAS. It had been so long I'd almost forgotten, almost didn't recognize him, almost forgot that this WAS my Spidey. Every single reboot and retcon and bizarre deal with the devil plotline for years to keep Peter Parker in a state of permanent perpetual adolescence and make him more "relevant" had made him less and less relevant to my life. I knew they'd never let all these baby teen Spideys grow up into my Spidey. I'd given up on ever seeing him again.
BUT THERE HE WAS.
And at a time in my life where, well, frankly, I'M the thirty something mess trying to figure out how to put my life back together. When he's even more My Spidey than he ever was.
I know he's not everybody's Spidey. Some kids grew up and are growing up with various generations and iterations of Teen Spidey. And that's fine, that's wonderful, and that's something this movie gave all of us too.
We all get to have our own Spideys.
And that one's mine.
Loser Uncle Hobo Spidey wibbling over seahorse documentaries.
God I've missed him.
