Ununnilium's Land Of Mystical Wonders

skalja:

Talking about class and Spider-Man with spider-xan last night reminded me: One thing that strikes me about the changes made between 616 and USM is that Peter goes from working to middle class in the transition. Social norms in American society and plausibility norms in American superhero comics changed a lot between Lee’s 1960’s and Bendis’s 00’s. There’s no way Ultimate Peter could’ve been presented as the 15-year-old breadwinner of his family working for a major metropolitan newspaper after school, the way early 616 Peter was. But even if you put that aside Ultimate Peter (ironically) didn’t have the same worries about his future the same way 616 Peter did. Ultimate Peter worried about living through the next six months; 616 Peter worried about living through the next six months, and then he worried about paying for Aunt May’s medical bills, and then he worried about paying his rent, and then then he worried about losing his college scholarship, without which he couldn’t finish his education and achieve his career dreams…

I had half-articulated thoughts about this for a while during Ultimate Peter’s era, but it really jumped out at me once Miles Morales came to the scene — Miles, who, as a black/hispanic working class kid who is introduced waiting to see his future determined by lottery. The Uncle Aaron/Prowler plotline foregrounds what was background in the Lee/Ditko era: by being Spider-Man Miles isn’t just risking his life in the present, but also his future. So even though Miles is a very different person than Peter with different powers, supporting cast and setting, in that thematic sense at least I think he’s a stronger modernization of “Spider-Man, everyman hero” as a concept than ultimate Peter was. (Esp w/r/t the acknowledgment that “everyman” does not mean “white.”)