Red vs. Black Part 3: Ladies Choice

In this final instalment we look at how Spidey stories use two of the ladies in the web-head’s life to represent the meanings behind the red and black costumes in contrast to one another.

Last time out we discussed why the classic red and blue costume makes more sense for Peter’s character than the black costume. Namely because the latter represents an image that deep down goes against who Peter truly is whilst the latter is a better representation of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

Whilst I will admit most of what I’ve put forward up until now has simply been my own views on the character and costumes, this dichotomy between what the outfits represent can be observed within actual Spider-Man stories.

In fact their portrayals are reliant upon Peter’s relationships with two very special ladies in his life: Mary Jane Watson (Parker) and Felicia Hardy/the Black Cat.

Bye Felicia

For starters, in Spectacular Spider-Man #99 Peter’s then girlfriend Felicia Hardy/the Black Cat created cloth versions of his black costume, commenting that she preferred the black suit because it was sexier than the old red one.

Obviously Felicia’s own costume has the same colours as the black suit’s, creating an in-universe reason for why she probably finds it more appealing. However it also forms a subtextual connection between them.

This is significant since the suit by this point had already been established as dangerous and potentially harmful to Spider-Man, whilst in previous issues Felicia and Peter’s relationship was shown to be falling apart.

Felicia was keeping secrets from Peter and endangering his life as a consequence of her desires to be closer to Peter. The symbiote had of course been shown doing something rather similar.

The symbiote had been taking over Peter’s body whilst he was asleep and going on joyrides (Doctor Freud would have a field day with that I’m sure) leaving Peter exhausted and drained whenever he woke up. This was part of its long term ambition to permanently bond with Peter

For her part, Felicia had secretly acquired super powers to be able to fight crime better alongside Spidey. However her new bad luck abilities began causing Peter to experience bad luck the more he spent time with her, with his life being endangered even when she wasn’t around.

In Spectacular Spider-Man #100 Peter has a dream representing his conflicted feelings between Felicia and Mary Jane and their respective views of his identity; it soon turns into a nightmare wherein he’s taken over by the alien costume.

This dream sequence foreshadows the end of the issue where Felicia and Peter break up and the symbiote returns to attack Peter.

The narrative of Spec #99-100 thus created an association between Felicia and the black costume, showcasing that their respective relationships with Spider-Man were ultimately negative.

It gets even deeper when you consider that in Spectacular Spider-Man #100, the primary reason Peter ended his relationship with Felicia (and had been having problems with her beforehand) was because Felicia preferred Spider-Man over plain old Peter Parker.

In fact in ASM #246, back before she learned Peter’s true identity, Felicia had a day dream about Spidey whisking her out of hospital (after peeking whilst she was changing clothes), recruiting her to steal documents from a foreign embassy and then taking her to his yacht heading for Monaco. Oh, and revealing himself to be film star Cary Grant.

This highlights how, for Felicia, Spider-Man was a glamorous, sexy, mysterious rogue; very much a kindred spirit to herself. It is little wonder she didn’t take well to learning he was just a normal, humble, decent guy. Similarly it made a lot of sense that she’d prefer the black costume since it visually gave Spider-Man an impression much closer to what she initially believed, and deep down wished  Spidey was actually like. Which was also in line with what Peter at moments perhaps wished he was like; or wished to give an impression of.

So in a sense Felicia preferring the black costume over the classic one was subtextually further demonstrating that she didn’t really love Peter for who he actually was, but instead loved her own idea of him and what she hoped he could be like.

At the same time, the fact that the black suit was being championed by someone who’d already been established as holding those views of Spider-Man as person, was subtly coding the suit itself as ‘wrong’ within the narrative; as ‘not Spider-Man’.

Hi MJ

Things get even more interesting when we compare Felicia’s attitude towards both costumes to Mary Jane’s.

In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, Peter’s new bride-to-be states that she  prefers the red costume.

Symbolically of course whilst Felicia is associated with black, MJ is associated with the colour red, the dominant colour of the classic costume, thus her preference for it is not that surprising. However there is a far subtler significance to her preference.

The annual was partially written by David Michelinie and edited by Jim Salicrup, both of whom have expressed their own preferences’ for the red outfit. Eight months later they would bring it back, more or less permanently shelve the black costume and go so far as to turn it into a terrifying monster. In-universe they’d even use Mary Jane herself to facilitate this change when she is terrorized by Venom and grows uneasy over the black costume, presenting him with a copy of the red one.

Since the annual’s remit was to have Peter and MJ get married the fact that Spidey’s new wife is echoing the preferences of two major creators of the story conveys to the readers that Mary Jane is ‘right’. The red costume is the one you the readers should prefer because Spider-Man’s wife herself prefers it.

Whilst potentially it might have just been foreshadowing for the then upcoming ASM #300, MJ’s preference for the red suit over the black one could also be said to symbolise her relationship with Peter in contrast to the black costume loving Felicia.

Felicia, in love more with her idea  of a dangerous glamorous super hero than Peter the normal man, preferred the black costume that made him look more in line with that perception of him.

Mary Jane (the person Peter actually chose to marry) loves heroic, decent and somewhat square guy Peter actually  is, and prefers the costume that better reflects those traits.

Of course this works the other way around too.

The black costume represents a superficial idea of who Spider-Man might want to be (or be seen as), so Felicia preferring that codes her as the ‘wrong girl’ for him. In contrast the red suit is the outfit that truly represents who Peter is deep down, so MJ preferring that own codes her as the ‘right person’ for him.

Alternate Universes

The subtextual dynamic between the black and red costumes, often accompanied by Mary Jane’s association with the latter over the former, also shows up in other versions of Spider-Man story.

To begin with, in a three part arc from the 1994 Spider-Man the Animated Series, the black costume is explicitly coded negatively. In a departure from the comics the costume removes Peter’s inhibitions and feeds his darker impulses making him more arrogant, angry and violent. He is ‘cool’ and certainly intimidating but the story makes it clear that this is a corruption of who Spider-Man is truly supposed to be.

Mary Jane doesn’t appear or get mentioned until the third part of the Alien Costume story arc, when Spidey is back in his classic costume and back to his old self. In fact the episode ends with Peter and MJ sharing a romantic moment together following Peter’s victory over Venom.

To varying degrees, this depiction of the black costume is repeated in the 2008 Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series, the 2007 film Spider-Man 3, the 2008 video game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and the 2003 ‘Venom’ arc of Ultimate Spider-Man.

Whilst MJ herself isn’t connected explicitly to either costume in the Spec cartoon, the costume is still depicted as a corrupting force and something that turns Peter into something he isn’t. In the penultimate episode of the first season Peter enters a dreamlike state where he rejects the symbiote, adopts the red costume and fights the symbiote (represented by the black costume) to free himself and reaffirm his true self.

In the next episode he fights Venom ‘for real’, and triumphs over him whilst clad in his red costume, even employing the same tactic he used an episode earlier. This tactic happens to be focussing upon his friends and family and although MJ is but one of many people in this instance, she is there.

As a side note the black costume debuted in the same episode and Felicia, with her complimenting Spidey’s new wardrobe and telling him she was flattered that he’d copy her colours.

In contrast, Spider-Man 3 utilized MJ more explicitly in their depictions of the costumes. In the movie at the height of his corruption by the black costume Peter actually hits Mary Jane and it is this event that finally compels him to get rid of it. He dons his old costume again and consequently salvages his relationship with both Harry and MJ whom he’d hurt whilst under the costume’s influence.

Once again Peter’s relationship with MJ is associated with a return of the red costume, a reaffirmation of who he is and an overcoming and rejection of the black costume and who Peter is not.

In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows the player is able to make choices at various points in the game which enable Spider-Man to wear either his classic costume or the black suit, the latter being the more immoral of the choices presented.

Depending upon the player’s choices during the game the game could end in one of several ways, however all of the endings with negative connotations were the result of the player choosing the immoral/black costume options too many times, with most of these endings involving Peter clad in the black costume.

In fact the ending the player gets if they almost always chose the more evil options involves Peter in the black costume in a relationship with a symbiote bonded Black Cat. In contrast the ending resulting from the more heroic choices as Spidey in his classic costume accompanied by Mary Jane.

Over in the Ultimate universe we have perhaps an even more explicit example of MJ being connected to the red costume in rejection of the black one.

In the Venom arc teen Peter acquired the black costume and when confronted by a criminal reminiscent of Uncle Ben’s killer transformed into a Venom looking monster and lost control of himself. By chance he freed himself from the suit but was shaken up considerably by the experience. In Ultimate Spider-Man #37 he goes to talk to MJ in the middle of the night, hoping to get back together with her after she dumped him several issues earlier.

In the issue MJ comments that she saw Spidey in the new black costume. When he informs her it was just temporary she outright says “…it wasn’t you.”

In the Ultimate universe Mary Jane routinely makes Peter copies of his classic red costume, creating a subtextual association between her and that particular outfit. Combined with the way the black costume had been built up throughout the arc as a living nightmare, the authorial intention behind MJ’s line is very clear. Much like in ASM Annual #21 MJ is being used as a mouthpiece by the creators to convey that the black costume is ‘wrong’ and not who Peter truly is. However, the red costume (the one MJ, Peter’s best friend, closest confidant and primary love interest) is ‘right’ and better fits who Peter truly is.

Finally there is infamous Spider-Man: Reign.

For all its problems as a story, Reign presented some interesting ideas and one of those exemplifies all we’ve been discussing in this instalment.

The story is set in a future dystopia where Peter Parker is a sad, lonely, embittered and possibly mentally ill old man who long ago hung up his webs.

We learn that Peter gave up being Spider-Man when Mary Jane died, her death something Peter blames himself for.

However events conspire to temporarily bring him out of retirement, however whenever he goes into action he always wears parts of the black costume, not the classic red one.

This changes following a surreal encounter with MJ’s ‘ghost’ when Peter reaches a turning point and decides to truly take action and end the nightmare the world has devolved into.

At the end of the penultimate issue Peter arises from a coffin clad in his classic suit, singing the 1960s Spider-Man theme song and ready to take down the villains of the story, led by (surprise, surprise) the black costume itself, Venom.

The story’s intentions are explicit. Peter buried his red costume the day his red haired wife died because he was giving up on himself. Now though he’s not just back in action but truly back as a person. The fun, joke spouting, bombastic superhero ready to fight for the people of your friendly neighbourhood is here. Look out, because here comes the Spider-Man!

Conclusion

When you break it all down both the red and black costumes are beautiful designs and vital parts of Spider-Man’s rich mythology.

However, the red costume in-universe and meta-textually better represents who Spider-Man is as a person. The black costume works best within darker stories or as a way of showcasing something amiss within Peter’s life or with Peter himself.

But whether you like the former, the latter or both, we can all agree that Spider-Man just wouldn’t be the same without costume.