Peter Parker can be nearly anyone. That's a part of his charm. He's been remade a number of times. His personality is malleable. And Spider-Man is not always Peter Parker. In essence anyone can be behind the mask. But Spider-Man nearly always tries to be the good guy (or girl in the case of Mattie Franklin that one time she posed as Spider-Man.)
Peter Parker is not gay. He has never been depicted as being queer. He's had long-term girlfriends and a wife (sometimes a daughter.) I recently stumbled on an article by the Huffington Post, which lays out a leaked legal agreement between Marvel and Sony Pictures. In the document it is reveled that Peter Parker cannot be a homosexual.
While I have never expected Peter Parker to be gay or necessarily want him to be gay. But he represents a queer perspective for me. In the clip below from Modern Family, Mitchel lays out his feelings on Spider-Man at the 2:52 mark:
http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family/video/pl5520993/VDKA0_gtckp8k1Peter Parker is not gay. He has never been depicted as being queer. He's had long-term girlfriends and a wife (sometimes a daughter.) I recently stumbled on an article by the Huffington Post, which lays out a leaked legal agreement between Marvel and Sony Pictures. In the document it is reveled that Peter Parker cannot be a homosexual.
While I have never expected Peter Parker to be gay or necessarily want him to be gay. But he represents a queer perspective for me. In the clip below from Modern Family, Mitchel lays out his feelings on Spider-Man at the 2:52 mark:
“Spider-Man, he… he spoke to me. I… I think it's because it's about this nerdy kid who has this special secret side of himself that he can't share with anybody, and… and that's how I always felt. Spider-Man made me feel like it was okay to be different. And... It made me fee tough enough to… to get through the rough times."As a straight character, he could have indefinitely continued to represent a queer perspective; however with the leaked agreement, it is clear that Peter Parker cannot be gay. So to reiterate I'm not troubled by the fact that Peter is straight; I am troubled by the declared fact that he cannot be gay.
After 20 years of reading the Amazing Spider-Man, I finally found out who Spider-Man cannot be: Me.
I found out that there is no Santa Clause around age 3, so I don't remember what it was like finding out (my guess is that I didn't care because I still got presents from mom and dad)... perhaps this is the closest to it that I'll feel. Or maybe it's more like checking a jug of milk and finding it's gone bad, you're going to drink milk again once you get a new jug, but... ugh.
I'm disappointed in learning this. In the back of my brain I always knew these were the rules to Peter Parker, it's just frustrating that it was leaked. I love Marvel comics. The only DC character that I really like is Ollie Queen. Marvel has a social conscious. They have always championed human rights and have been along time ally for the gay community.
It's also not like they intended for this to get out. And any controversial statements from Marvel that I have noticed seem to have been in response to this leak.
I guess the moral of the story is be careful of what you say even behind closed doors, and perhaps Roland Barthes was right: don't listen to the artist.
Below is a list of what Spider-Man and Peter Parker can and cannot be. Please note that under murderer and directly below pedophile, Spider-Man cannot be a homosexual:
a. Mandatory Spider-Man Character Traits.
Spider-Man (whether Peter Parker or an alternative Spider-Man character) must always strictly conform to the following “Mandatory Character Traits”:
• Male
• Does not torture*
• Does not kill unless in defense of self or others*
• Does not use foul language beyond PG-13
• Does not smoke tobacco*
• Does not sell/distribute illegal drugs*
• Does not abuse alcohol*
• Does not have sex before the age of 16, does not have sex with anyone below the age of 16
• Not a homosexual (unless Marvel has portrayed that alter ego as homosexual)
| b. Peter Parker Character Traits. Depiction of Peter Parker or his Spider-Man alter ego must conform to the following character traits: • His full name is Peter Benjamin Parker. • He is Caucasian and heterosexual. • His parents become absent from his life during his childhood. • From the time his parents become absent he is raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben in New York City • He gains his powers while attending either middle school or college. • He gains his powers from being bitten by a spider • He designs his first red and blue costume. • The black costume is a symbiote and is not designed by him • He is raised in a middle class household in Queens, New York • He attends or attended high school in Queens, New York, and he attends or attended college in New York City, New York. |
Alright done for now.
Liam '15
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