Werdsmiffery

When he pulls the mask on, however, Parker becomes The Amazing Spider-Man. “Becomes” is the most important word in that sentence. He doesn’t have the innate goodness of Superman, but he does have some idea of how superheroes are supposed to act. It’s easy to miss, but the Spider-Man persona is an act. He’s a teenage boy’s swashbuckling, one-liner-tossing idea of what a hero is supposed to be like. He is suave, he is fearless, he is daring, he is cool, he is everything that Peter Parker wishes he was.

That performance element is vital to understanding Spider-Man, and an inversion of the relationship between Clark Kent and Superman. Superman plays Clark Kent as square and uncool as he can possibly be in an attempt to secure his secret identity, but Kent and Superman have the same righteous nature at their core. (Kent is often portrayed as an investigative journalist, after all.) Peter Parker, on the other hand, is a teenager first and a superhero last. He has to work for his heroism. He has to remind himself why he fights. When his faith cracks and he quits, he returns out of guilt. He eventually grows into his own righteous nature and to embody the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility,” but it takes some time.