Weblines: THE J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI RUN – Part III

“Stan (Lee) patiently disabused me of this tendency by repeatedly shredding the plots. Not picking them apart – throwing them out. Reminding me that he has to care about the characters and what they want more than about what they’re doing. And he was dead right”.
– Mark Waid.

Few writers in the superhero comic book lore understand this statement as a rule; J. Michael Straczynski is one of them.

In the last post of this column, JMS with Jonh Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Dan Kemp showed to old and new Spider-Man readers how much Peter and May Parker have grown as real human characters. The Spider-Man identity is no longer a barrier of lies and fake excuses that stands between them, who regard one another as the most loved and important person in their lives. And all they needed was a sit-down with a deep and sincere conversation. A comic book lesson in writing sheer character development.

Under the Mask, Spider-Man is Peter Parker; and he is a character imbued with a great sense of responsibility and an uncanny resilience to hard challenges. Because in his heart, he’s also a superhero; a trait ever-present in the members of the Parker Family: May, Ben, Richard and Mary (probably his newfound sister – Teresa Parker too)

And like any other person who must face a new truth about themselves or about their closest ones, and yet has no other choice but to move forward, what follows is a natural (and emotional) response of silence to take it in. A moment in which couldn’t have been better placed – and visually – translated into the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #39 (vol.2) – during the ‘NUFF SAID month: a challenge brought upon the writers and artists of every single Marvel Comic published in May 2002, conceived by the then Marvel E-I-C Joe Quesada and President Bill Jemas. The test was simple, but no less difficult: The writer had to craft a story using no dialogue or caption boxes to communicate information, leaving to the penciler’s storytelling skills the task of making sure that text isn’t needed to explain what the story from the issue is all about. And yet, in this ASM issue, the tale speaks volumes.
Drawing action is easy – telling a story about three different characters related to one another and yet being apart; and still without barely any superhero action is something else. This issue is a lesson in comic book storytelling.

Though Lois Lane with Martha and Jonathan Kent are the people most dear in Clark Kent’s life, their level of influence into the Superman persona is hardly comparable to what May Parker and Mary Jane Watson are to Peter Parker – and Spider-Man. Superman will always stand above humanity for what he is and how high his moral standards and overview of mankind are; his mythological function (or representation) is to guide us and show us the way to achieve the best of ourselves. From such a perspective, that’s his purpose.

Whereas Peter, by sole definition, is no more than a flawed human like any of us; he makes mistakes, he fails – but he learns. He has a learning curve. That’s why following his path can be sometimes so much more appealing than a super god’s, disguised as Clark Kent trying his hardest to be just like Peter Parker. From that perspective, Superman stories can be just as appealing when he applies the human traits learned as a kid through his foster parents; hence the value of stories such as Superman for All Seasons, All-Star Superman, Superman Birthright, and Superman – For Tomorrow, which depicts the dichotomy of the character:  a pure human heart inside the body of a super god, struggling to be and act like a human – and yet, in order to accomplish this personal ordeal, he has to hold his god-like nature back. Always. He can’t be fully himself to everyone – and when he is, he is there, up in the sky, the last son of a dying planet.

The relatability factor that helps us (the readers) to connect to this Man of Steel comes from his supporting cast – when they show the reader how they see the super god, how he relates to human characters, by grounding him down to earth – to our level. Something that Straczynski himself accomplished in the three volumes of Superman – Earth One and the Grounded storyline.

And right there is the purpose of Clark Kent’s supporting cast: they serve a function to keep the reader interested in Superman’s life when he’s not being Superman. They play their parts, just like the supporting cast for Truman Burbank in Peter Weir’s movie – The Truman Show. As an exemplification, it’s not difficult to imagine what would happen to Clark Kent if his supporting cast were traded with Peter Parker’s… Clark Kent’s fragile human heart and mind would certainly undergo a mental breakdown. The result has already been shown in the alternate timeline published in the Injustice series. Superman couldn’t possibly cope with the loss of his loved ones like Peter has. Lois Lane, The Kents, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen – they can’t have lives of their own and develop themselves as real human characters, making their lives also important to the reader. Most of them might never lose their jobs at The Daily Planet. And if there is ever a doubt that Superman’s private life and cast can never be equalized to Spider-Man’s, let us remember that the Man of Steel enjoys his privacy at an isolated place called The Fortress of Solitude; he does have real friends, though – one of his best lives in a cave full of bats and very expensive toys.

But that doesn’t make The Amazing Spider-Man comic book the perfect superhero soap opera; many of the supporting cast members outgrew out of proportion in the title, leaving the hero to clean up after their mess when Peter Parker could barely do anything for them; the idea became a template to be applied ad nauseam in the title throughout the years of its publication.
JMS understands the nature, the minds, and hearts of who he writes; he gauges what is important to the main character: what they want, what they need, and who they Love. In Spider-Man’s world, it all boils down to May Parker and Mary Jane Watson – and how they relate to him at this point in his life. Because they matter to him.

Consequentially, their private lives end up mattering to the reader as well. After washing off the weight of the supporting cast whose members were used as either a crutch or cannon fodder to push endless plots forward, Straczynski focused in these two women’s lives; not as a reminder that he can a social or “normal” life when he’s not wearing his spider-tights, but because like everyone else in the reality outside comic books, we also have our dear ones to depend on when the going gets tough; when life is either too hard or too good – it urges us to share our feelings and life experiences, to remind us that we are not alone. That we are under a constant process of learning, and the ones we love the most can also teach us if the truth from our minds and hearts are shared without judgment. We grow up, we experience good and bad things together. We forgive one another.
That’s what the Spider-Man stories – the personal life of Peter Parker and his loved ones – under the guidance of J. Michael Straczynski are all about. The most human of superheroes leveled up. And because of the structured chronology presented in the ASM title, MJ and Aunt May also evolved as people/characters.

In issue #39 (vol. 2), the ‘Nuff Said story follows a day in the life of these women:

MJ – faraway and yet so close to Peter, struggling with her own heart. Whereas May is having a hard time dealing with the truth about Peter being Spider-Man; working her mind to accept the fact and forgive him in her heart, and still trying to understand why the city he nearly gave his life so many times to protect views him as a menace.
Finally, Peter is shown leading his life as Spider-Man, helping people, and enjoying a new chapter of their lives together. But in his heart, he still misses the woman of his life – Mary Jane.

A cinematic tale of intimate thoughts from different people and how they are connected to the identity Spider-Man; how it drastically changed the lives of these three people who care and Love each other so much. And so it remained until the end of JMS’ run in the title.
Still, it is a fine example of how John Romita Jr. with Scott Hanna and Dan Kemp delivers the scenes with subtlety and precision; the characters display their thoughts and feelings, and facial expressions. Definitely a visual evolution. And J. Michael Straczynski excels in his craft and style. He not only writes Spider-Man from his core, he knows how to define each in every character in it and let them act and react like any other real person outside the pages of a comic book would.

It’s also worth noticing that this is the only issue in the entire JMS run which mentions in its credits that Spider-Man is a creation from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

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SENSITIVE ISSUES – ASM#40-42 /vol.2 (June – August 2002):
(covers by Jason Pearson)

Before “The Conversation” issue (ASM #38), – also analyzed in the last post of this column -, a plot thread was sowed in ASM #37 – Spider-Man saved the life of Jennifer Hardesty’s brother: Steve. As a teacher, Peter first noticed her as a student of his with serious personal problems. This interest in helping a young student led Peter to broaden his mind to what happens below when he’s swinging up above the city – unbeknownst to him, there are people and children in desperate need of help; unfortunately, the danger they undergo cannot be punched down or scientifically defeated. But even with all his powers, there isn’t much Spider-Man can’t do against the harsh reality of abandonment, near-poverty, and exposure to the dangers of drugs and their consequences.
Still, he cares. And therein lies another masterstroke from JMS and co. to the character: by making him a teacher, he does not only make Peter Parker older – he makes him more mature. Gone were the days in which Peter’s concerns about money relied upon his skills as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle, while being driven by guilt. Now, his personal goals and values have changed. Spider-Man will always have the power, but the responsibility is now shared to the Peter persona as well – with the initial push given by Aunt May, he decided to share his knowledge to young minds whose need goes beyond just knowledge, but also guidance.

From there onwards, whenever Peter is seen teaching his classes, though the mind belongs to a genius, the heart was molded by his Uncle; filled with knowledge, experience, reason, compassion, and truth. As a teacher, he’s found some redemption by working from his heart, doing what is right for youngsters who can use the knowledge gained with the proper responsibility. In a sense, Peter becomes Ben Parker.

No act of heroism is too small. Helping a girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders is the right thing to do. As both Peter Parker and Spidey, he ended up making a difference in Jennifer’s life; he saved her brother’s life and opened the channel to help her in whatever she needed because she has no parents to count on. In a sense, Peter is teaching us, real people, by example – which ended up being somehow repeated by Straczynski himself, applying the formula into Superman years later, in the Grounded storyline: when he helped a kid with a serious personal problem: the physical abuse from his violent father.

A lesson taught from the modern mythology represented by superheroes: the moral right to help those who are too young or too weak to defend themselves against stronger, unjust, and violent forces.

By helping Jennifer, little did Peter know that strange events would not only unfold but escalate in unexpected ways. When he encounters the one responsible for the missing children by chance and for the first time, he’s surprised by his powers: besides getting in the act while abducting another kid and sending him somewhere through a vortex, he displays the ability to become intangible at his will. The man in shades vanishes.
Willing to know how the other kids who shared a common living with Jennifer kept going missing, he starts to investigate the problem; he asks for the help of Lieutenant Detective William Lamont, a man who not only resembles Captain George Stacy but is also honest and incorruptible.

Lamont gives Spider-Man the benefit of doubt because both men want to find Shade and the whereabouts of the missing youngsters. So they start investigating together.

While waiting for a lead, JMS offers us a glimpse into the newfound relationship dynamics between Aunt May and Peter now that she knows about his secret identity: she wants to do something about it – and starts writing (many) letters to newspapers and magazines, suggesting more positive stories about Spider-Man to be published. Beyond that, she suggests that how Peter should wash his uniform more often.

When Spider-Man finds out who is responsible for the missing children – Shade -, he learns through the investigation that he has the power to access the astral plane, obtained by stealing his cellmate’s arcane knowledge.
How to chase down an enemy who can jump into another dimension and still defeat him? Though the astral plane and mystical elements are not strange concepts (pun intended) to Spider-Man, his only alternative is to seek the one man in Greenwich Village who can help him:

As Peter grows more mature in his life, the hero evolves as well. Within the superhero community, despite being the constant joker even when the going gets tough, his peers are aware that he’s not be underestimated. Spider-Man’s reputation also consists in his flexibility to fit into every corner of the Marvel Comics universe. This storyline with the participation of Doctor Strange won’t be the first and last in the title; given the path proposed by Straczynski to consider a totemic (or even mystical) explanation to Spider-Man’s very origin, the good Doctor will be an important character to guide the reader (and Peter Parker) for what is about to come.
In fact, issue #42 (vol.2) marks an important moment sowed in JMS’s entire run on the title – for both Strange and Spider-Man. But such a story will be analyzed later, and from a different perspective.

Here, Strange enables him to go to the astral plane to confront the Shade in order to save Jennifer and the other missing children.

Editorial-wise, with the new direction of keeping the storylines fixed in the core (Amazing Spider-Man) monthly book, there was no more need to chase the following parts of the same story divided throughout different titles – a trend that exhausted comic book readers (and their pockets) in the nineties. Joe Quesada with Axel Alonso saw the problem and kept the trend to a minimum if any. So whenever a different hero showed up in another one’s comic, it would remain like that until the end of the arc. If isolated storylines required many characters, the Marvel Team-Up title would save the problem, or the next big event in the Marvel Universe.
Plot-wise, JMS proves to be not only one of the greatest Spider-Man writers in his history of publication but also a fan with a great knowledge of the hero’s legacy and the Marvel Universe’s history. Putting the Arachknight beside the Master of The Mystic Arts in not only this storyline but many others to come, represents a homage to Steve Ditko’s most famous creations and how well they function together – as also examined in this post of this column. They are extremes of the same concept in superhero mythology: the possibilities that anything can be done and everything can be accomplished. Spider-Man and Doctor Strange have fought improbabilities many times over.

And the homage to Ditko is also visual – John Romita Jr. with Scott Hanna redesign the concept, whereas the great colorwork from Dan Kemp develops its atmosphere: instead of being separated, the colors blend in harmony, delivering a great visual experience – in a Spider-Man comic book, nonetheless. It’s a well-produced book leaving nothing to spare in its content.

Issue #42 (vol. 2) represents a pivotal moment in the JMS’ run. The Astral Plane is devoid of the normal concepts of organic life, matter, time, and space; although Peter will do anything to help his student, the ramifications of delving into such dimension will result in many unexpected consequences to his life – with and without the Spider-mask. It is a time nexus and Strange knows it. It is one of the reasons why he only guides Spider-Man to the Astral Plane and does not follow him.

When the ordeal is over, Shade (literally) goes “boom” and the missing youngsters are sent back. Then, the Spider-Sense kicks in; but not as an alert to danger, but as a guide to something familiar – in the Astral Plane. Contradicting Doctor Strange’s instructions, he follows it to its source:

All Peter wanted was to help one of his students, to do the right thing – but he ended up discovering one truth about his own nature that might be bigger than he ever thought: the Spider within the man. But what is the nature of this Spider? What does it mean and what does it want? And what is the extent and actual function of the Spider-Sense? The more questions are made, the more elements into the totemic concept of the Spider-totem are added.
That’s the genius of Straczynski’s approach to every character he writes: not only great ideas and concise plots they take part in but the very resignification of their existence. Not writing about what happens, but about characters. What follows is a whole new journey about self-discovery; the origins and purpose of the character are the factors that propel the story, so they end up writing their own tales. All JMS does is to let them speak and act. They take time to talk about the things they want without rush; it’s what makes his style so unique. It’s a great writing technique, as he once stated:

“Before you sit down at the keyboard, you get to know your characters so well, so intimately, that whatever situation you drop them into, you simply write them down what they do.”

In the history of Marvel Universe, certain characters are drawn to elements or concepts in which they couldn’t be possibly related to one another, but somehow the mesh provides great results, like a certain Super Soldier and the Cosmic Cube; earth Mutants catapulted into the outer space and help to save the Universe by interfering with the M’Krann Crystal; so why not consider the possibility of May and Ben Parker’s nephew to delve into other realities and concepts which are somehow also connected to his nature?
Every journey to Astral Plane takes its toll, since time and space work differently in it – just like in the Negative Zone -, and Peter paid the price of sacrificing an important part of his personal life to save the lives of many. He missed the opportunity of seeing Mary Jane in NY for one day.

It’s all a day in the life of Spider-Man: unexpected turns.

Seldom are the good stories published by DC Comics in which Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne’s personal lives are seriously affected by their activities while wearing the capes. That’s the lesson the company had to learn from Marvel, right after their rise in the sixties: depicting how superheroes could be more relatable to us. With the exception of Asgard, Wakanda, and Latveria, all of them lived in real cities like New York; they struggle (to this day) with real-life problems; they undergo through real emotional responses; they talk accordingly to their age, personalities, and motivations. Simply put, Marvel’s 1st rule to their characters is to prioritize the person under the mask, shield, and armor – artifices regarded as secondary. That template has been established and standardized by Steve Ditko with Stan Lee within the span of 41 issues; the template became a rule. The rule, whenever applied had to be well done, otherwise, it was doomed to failure.

And whenever it was done, superhero comics made history:

• Bruce Wayne gets older and nearly dies – The Dark Knight Returns;
• Superman is seen crying because his alter-ego ruined the lives of his loved ones and friends – Superman: Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?;
• Matt Murdock’s personal life is destroyed once the Kingpin of crime discovers his secret identity – Daredevil: Born Again;
• Racism is an inherent part of our culture. It’s easier to hate the ones who are different from us by the way they look – X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills;

As for Spider-Man, there is no need for special issues or series; all of his victories and failures, his personal growth, his perspective in seeing the world changing around him, his struggles to live up to a promise that could never be fulfilled, the deaths of loved ones and near-death battles with his arch-enemies, and more. It is a life – both ordinary and extraordinary. To this day, since 1962, not many superhero characters have such chronological life structured in his/her core title as Peter Parker does. Most of his appeal comes not from his abilities nor the representation of his unique uniform – but from his personality, viewpoint, personal life, emotions, and needs. What he wants in his personal life is relevant; the people he cares for and loves matter. He was never a sidekick to be tutored.
By mixing such elements, it is easy to understand why he is one of the most flexible characters in popular culture. Spider-Man is not a super god, he’s just the most human of superheroes. And yet, he has walked and fought beside them. Straczynski understands the flexibility of the character and puts the concept into the test: he will do anything in his power to help those in need; no matter who. No matter the shape his enemies take form. No matter the battlefield: dark alleys, skyscrapers, even the astral plane – a place in which a new layer about the character’s very origin will be explored like never before.

And by every issue from his run with Romita Jr. and Hanna, besides being a testament to these creators’ skills, it clearly depicts that Peter Parker has evolved as both a man and a hero.

 

This is Spider-Man at his prime.