Spiderman isn't a good guy, and he's in serious need of help

[TheRightToArmBears]

That's why I always preferred the film's idea of the organic shooters rather than mechanical ones, especially when you consider they seem to take up space inside his arm which makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Having a guy mutate spider-powers but make him sort himself out for webspinning seems like bollocks anyway.

Basically every thing about artificial webspinners is bullshit and they should have gone with organic ones, but this kind of issue isn't unique to Spiderman- pretty much any hero that uses specialised technology suffers from the same problem.

 

[SD-Fiend]

When you think about it, a lot of comic book superheroes are tackling the problem the wrong way round. Peter Parker works his insecurity issues out by poking fun at criminals, many of which he knows nothing about or of their background. Who?s to say that the small-time thief that Spider-Man (or Batman, or Superman, or Iron Man, or Mr. Fantastic) beat up in a supermarket the other day was actually a working-class father who was just trying to feed his children?

But no, Spider-Man beats him up, New York celebrates him, and job?s done.

Sorry but I don't get what you are trying to say here. Just because someone is trying to feed their kids doesn't mean they are immune to the law.

 

[katsabas]

Anytime one delves into the topic of business, one has to take into account that one of the things you 'use' is people. People are unpredictable. They are greedy, jealous and dangerous to invest in. Even if Peter went into business for himself, who is to say his formula wouldn't have gotten into the wrong hands.

It's the exact thing that characterizes Tony Stark. He is a technocrat. He takes steps to ensure that his tech won't be used against him or for unintended purposes. If a guy with a bottomless checkbook couldn't do that (which why the Stark Wars happened), what makes you think a poor student from Queens could do it ??? It's all about risk vs reward.

But let's follow your example for a bit. Suppose he went into business for himself. If the formula somehow made its' way into everyday lives, there would be people interested in a counter formula to dissolve it. Cause that's how people are. Green Goblin actually FOUND a formula to dissolve the webbing. Used at the right time, something like that could kill. Lots.

And even if we did involve the fantastic four into this, guess what. The FF have a 1st class engineer, wizard, chemist and scientist as their fucking archenemy. Hell, Doom created a time machine ! How hard would it be for him to figure out the formula ???

Besides, there are substances in the Marvel Universe that when compared to Pete's web formula make it seem utterly worthless.

When Peter first tried to sell his formula to someone, he was 15 years old. Smart but still underage. He still was fresh from the mistake that made him adopt his power and responsibility creed. He just came to realize that since a normal teenager's actions can go a long way, imagine what a superhuman's actions could do.

And no, wanting to help people in whatever way you can is not a complex. The driving force behind Peter's actions was always guilt.

Now about the real world arguments: maybe the writers didn't like the idea. Or how about the fact that we arguing about facts in a world where glasses are considered a disguise ?

 

[Nieroshai]

Okay, first of all his name's spelled "Spider-Man." Secondly, this is one of those things that you have to accept to make the plots possible. Like how Batman's got time for both a career and crimefighting.

I hate to be the Batman fanboy I am, but he pretty much does it through caffeine and autohypnosis, and conspicuously only appearing in person when there's a photo shoot--I don't even think he DOES his dayjob. He SHOULD look like a wreck though, but he probably has an unseen makeup artist, or hell, does it himself. In the animated series it comes up that he regularly sacrifices three sleep cycles, whether a human can actually adjust to that I'm not sure.

 

[Nieroshai]

My biggest problem with Spider-Man IS the webshooters. Teenage boy who's been bullied all his life has the only father figure he's ever known brutally murdered. He takes his share of the insurance money, and goes around town buying hazardous chemicals, and specialized machine parts to build wrist mounted shooters. He also gets in a ridiculously fit condition, spends hours alone in his room, AND builds an outfit that conceals his identity. All this in post-Columbine America and post-911 New York.

In '60's New York. All other tellings of Spider-Man are RE-tellings of the 60's tale in a contemporary way.

 

[FoolKiller]

People who drain all of the fun out of any particular interpretation of a superhero burn in a very special level of hell.

A level they reserve for child molesters, and people who talk at the theater.

Thank you Shepherd.

I'm not a fan of applying reality to fiction. I just get annoyed when the universe violates its own rules. And really, the bigger superhero question is not why Batman doesn't kill the Joker, but why he's put into an asylum instead of on death row.

 

[Hainted]

My biggest problem with Spider-Man IS the webshooters. Teenage boy who's been bullied all his life has the only father figure he's ever known brutally murdered. He takes his share of the insurance money, and goes around town buying hazardous chemicals, and specialized machine parts to build wrist mounted shooters. He also gets in a ridiculously fit condition, spends hours alone in his room, AND builds an outfit that conceals his identity. All this in post-Columbine America and post-911 New York.

In '60's New York. All other tellings of Spider-Man are RE-tellings of the 60's tale in a contemporary way.

It's not set in the 60's anymore. If you're going to have him in the 21st century(and have him at Ground Zero helping firefighters) or "modernize' him in a movie, you need to reflect the times. Otherwise leave him in the 60's

 

[Nieroshai]

My biggest problem with Spider-Man IS the webshooters. Teenage boy who's been bullied all his life has the only father figure he's ever known brutally murdered. He takes his share of the insurance money, and goes around town buying hazardous chemicals, and specialized machine parts to build wrist mounted shooters. He also gets in a ridiculously fit condition, spends hours alone in his room, AND builds an outfit that conceals his identity. All this in post-Columbine America and post-911 New York.

In '60's New York. All other tellings of Spider-Man are RE-tellings of the 60's tale in a contemporary way.

It's not set in the 60's anymore. If you're going to have him in the 21st century(and have him at Ground Zero helping firefighters) or "modernize' him in a movie, you need to reflect the times. Otherwise leave him in the 60's

Even with modernization, comics STILL don't take place in our continuity, not really. Sure Spider-Man met Obama, but President Kelly was before him instead of Bush IIRC. I haven't read enough, but quite possibly this is a world in which the Columbine incident did not even occur. Marvel terrorism is less kids shooting up schools and various foreign or domestic organizations wreaking havoc and more the work of single costumed nutcases with delusions of grandeur or wizards obsessed with eldritch horrors.

 

[Hainted]

My biggest problem with Spider-Man IS the webshooters. Teenage boy who's been bullied all his life has the only father figure he's ever known brutally murdered. He takes his share of the insurance money, and goes around town buying hazardous chemicals, and specialized machine parts to build wrist mounted shooters. He also gets in a ridiculously fit condition, spends hours alone in his room, AND builds an outfit that conceals his identity. All this in post-Columbine America and post-911 New York.

In '60's New York. All other tellings of Spider-Man are RE-tellings of the 60's tale in a contemporary way.

It's not set in the 60's anymore. If you're going to have him in the 21st century(and have him at Ground Zero helping firefighters) or "modernize' him in a movie, you need to reflect the times. Otherwise leave him in the 60's

Even with modernization, comics STILL don't take place in our continuity, not really. Sure Spider-Man met Obama, but President Kelly was before him instead of Bush IIRC. I haven't read enough, but quite possibly this is a world in which the Columbine incident did not even occur. Marvel terrorism is less kids shooting up schools and various foreign or domestic organizations wreaking havoc and more the work of single costumed nutcases with delusions of grandeur or wizards obsessed with eldritch horrors.

The fact that most of their terrorism is single costumed nutcases makes Spider-Man's origin even MORE of a series of red flags.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

My biggest problem with Spider-Man IS the webshooters. Teenage boy who's been bullied all his life has the only father figure he's ever known brutally murdered. He takes his share of the insurance money, and goes around town buying hazardous chemicals, and specialized machine parts to build wrist mounted shooters. He also gets in a ridiculously fit condition, spends hours alone in his room, AND builds an outfit that conceals his identity. All this in post-Columbine America and post-911 New York.

Spider-Man was originally created in the 1960s, and the Marvel universe is only meant to reflect our own world to a certain extent. The writers don?t need the spectre of Bin Laden hanging over them every time they want to show someone buying dangerous chemicals or crashing into a tall building.

When you think about it, a lot of comic book superheroes are tackling the problem the wrong way round. Peter Parker works his insecurity issues out by poking fun at criminals, many of which he knows nothing about or of their background. Who?s to say that the small-time thief that Spider-Man (or Batman, or Superman, or Iron Man, or Mr. Fantastic) beat up in a supermarket the other day was actually a working-class father who was just trying to feed his children?

But no, Spider-Man beats him up, New York celebrates him, and job?s done.

Sorry but I don't get what you are trying to say here. Just because someone is trying to feed their kids doesn't mean they are immune to the law.

I wasn't saying he was immune to the law. Just that I never see Spider-Man working in any community schemes to help people get out of their criminal rut. I never see him look up their background much. Heck, even Batman has better record of helping the community than Spidey, what with his funding to improve the security in Arkham, and the second Robin being a former street punk.