Weblines: THE J. MICHAEL STRACZYSNKI RUN – Part X.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word Intermezzo has the following meaning:
noun [ C ]
UK /ˌɪn.təˈmet.səʊ/ US /ˌɪn.t̬ɚˈmet.soʊ/
A short piece of music written to be played on its own or as part of a longer piece.

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Quick recap: apparently, any hero present at the Times Square invasion of the Mindless Ones spearheaded by Dormammu could have their own stand-alone story as to how they got called into action at that moment. It could have been a real Marvel event with different characters’ titles being part of, the usual “a day in the life” in the Marvel Universe – a taste of what’s like to live in New York City with these customized heroes in villains constantly going against each other.
Sure, it could have been a massive event in scale to present unstoppable action and crude villainy, but the moment Spider-Man was punched into Dr. Strange and Dormammu’s battlesphere, the reader was immersed into the life and times of Spider-Man; not only with living through his own flashbacks but even glimpsing a possible future, wearing a different uniform. The event then became secondary, because our hero had more pressing matters to deal with – going through the victories and losses of his own life. It was an intense emotional ordeal – some might say even a spiritual one. But the journey proved decisive because he saw what was necessary to do in order to save NY from the demonic invasion.

Thus far, J. Michael Straczynski’s approach into the Arachknight has been nothing short of eventful either. In view of his vast experience of writing for TV, he knows how to make every single issue/episode part of a bigger story. His greatest contribution to comics in the dawn of the 21st century is that he is part of the generation of storytellers in North-American television that helped the fiction genre evolve in huge leaps since the nineties; being Babylon 5 his most celebrated legacies.
The pattern worked not only for superhero comics but for all categories – “writing for the trade” (or omnibuses, compendiums, and absolute editions) became the equivalent of “boxed seasons” – though every single episode/edition connected to one simple tread. Story-wise, a trend became often used: before or after the climax of each “season finale”, focusing on supporting characters. They are the ones that indicate the quality of the storytelling: there’s the difference between their purpose and who they are, how they act, and even speak – the freer, the better, because they can carry stories (or episodes) on their own.

Case in point in Peter Parker’s life: Maybelle Reilly – a.k.a (Aunt) May Parker.
Any long-time ASM reader knows how much she means to the whole Spider-Man Mythos. As one of the main supporting characters ever since the Ditko/Lee era, her function crystalized over the years – if many times over she could be quite unnerving, it was not only because of the level of reality she could embolden by being an old woman who believed everything the Daily Bugle said about that masked vigilante but also due to the constant danger she represented by getting close to discover Peter’s secret identity:

And the template stuck as the stories progressed.
But not for the lack of trying:

ASM #400 could have been the definite turning point in that regard, as she was depicted with excellence by J. M. DeMatteis; but the whole clone telenovela brought everything back to square one. Regardless of how Howard Mackie and John Byrne portrayed her personality in the first renumbering/revamping of the title, she was still the closest person to Peter unknowingly playing the forever hide-and-seek with Spider-Man.
So May Parker became stale. New supporting characters came and went: villains, neighbors, roommates, pets, members of the Stacy family… As May just stood there, being overlapped by new people in her nephew’s life, doing her thing, fulfilling her character’s purpose – if not function: the family member who cannot learn about Peter’s secret, often coming really close to discovering it.

Then came JMS, John Romita Jr., and Scott Hanna.

The 500th-anniversary issue of The Amazing Spider-Man and the long-expected return to the original (vol.1) numbering, Peter Parker’s birthday was nothing short of eventful. An intense moment in his life – even with a special apparition by the one and only Benjamin Parker. Now it’s time for a pause – an intermezzo -, that belongs to May Parker.

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Intermezzo n. 1: SATURDAY IN THE PARK WITH MAY – ASM#501 (vol.1 – January 2004):
(Cover by Tony Harris)

With the exceptions of issues #37, 41, 42 (vol. 2), and #508 (vol.1), which begin with a splash panel right on the first page, this run is also defined by its first pages going straight to the story – a technique that refined John Romita Jr.’s style; make no mistake, despite the issue being considered as “light story”, it is a master class in visual storytelling.

Issue #501’s first page says it all:

Both structure and language of the comic are already established: it’s May, not Peter, who’ll lead the ride. The reader is already plunged into the first panel having a conversation with May on a bench, in mid-dialogue no less, about her nephew – followed by flashbacks whose panels are roughly delineated -, a very important distinction. The exchange of looks between them in the last two panels speaks volumes: she’s happy for him, as he equally is for having her and MJ acquainted with his double life; that’s as far as their eyes can see in one another.
But as the story advances, May confides how her feelings are mixed since their conversation – which began and ended with her in tears.  Why? Though her name in the comics is preceded by “Aunt”, she is practically Peter’s mother. Imagine dealing with the fact that, the person you love the most is the masked vigilante you spent years learning to fear and hate. Imagine the turmoil of feelings invading her heart when the truth was revealed to her: being cast aside, lied to, considered not trustworthy, isolated, alienated from his life; the years of secrecy – not to mention the knowledge of the risk that he might actually die. Those are the motives she’s angry at him, not the death of Ben Parker.

NOTE: for a better understanding of how superhero secret identities can piss people off, watch Netflix’s Daredevil episode: “Nelson vs. Murdock”, in which Foggy discovers Matt’s secret after finding him in his apartment nearly beaten to death – in a quite similar way May discovers Peter’s. 

Definitely, a hard pill she must swallow; that will take time to adjust, accept and forgive because a whole new world has been revealed to her. This story is an insight into her heart in her own words.
The last time May was given a story as such, was in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #4 (vol.1), masterfully written by the great Bill Mantlo and drawn by the incomparable Sal Buscema. In it, Mantlo develops Maybelle’s past in a way that few other writers could; she gets layers. Straczynski goes beyond: May is given depth and dimension; the kind of growth equally given to Peter. She is no longer the “old Aunt May”, but a character in her own right. And it was about time. This line about the nature of people from the first part of  Happy Birthday justifies it:

“Some people by nature are kind and charitable. You could say that some people, including at least one person at this table, are by their nature heroes. Ben always reminded me that we each contain all the nobler and meaner aspects of humanity, but some get a bigger dose than others of one thing or another. Some are pretty, and mean, and uncharitable. That’s their nature. You can hope for better, even try to lead them to better, and you may even succeed.”

Never before May sounded so emotionally developed as a character. In the same year, coincidentally, comic fans and no-fans alike could watch what May is capable of in  Spider-Man 2 (2004, directed by Sam Raimi). But it took no less than four writers – Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Michael Chabon, and Alvin Sargent – to write a monologue for Rosemary Harris (best Aunt May in the big screen to date) that would come close to it, in a different theme though, heroes:

“You made a brave move in telling me truth and I’m proud of you. (…) Too few characters out there – flying around like that, saving old girls like me. Lord knows kids like Henry need a hero – courageous self-sacrificing people; setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them, cheer them, scream their names, and years later they will tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught him to hold on a second longer.
I believe there is a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble… And finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.”

The second coincidence (story-wise to the comics) in the movie is that May learns the half-truth about the demise of Ben Parker, from the Spider’s mouth himself: that Peter had the chance to stop the burglar when he could and let him get away still. She doesn’t take it lightly.

At all.

In Marvel Comics, the revelation of secret identities hurt – a lot. For a full-bore judgment, the Frank Miller and Brian Michael Bendis‘ runs on Daredevil – they provide the ultimate consequences. Such precedent goes all the way back to Amazing Spider-Man #121 -, the blueprint of how dangerous secret identities can be for the heroes’ loved ones. DC Comics somehow applied the lesson backward and left a stain in the concept with Identity Crisis, also published in 2004.

Between May and Peter, this is not the first time they got into a heated phase: when Peter had decided to drop ESU in Amazing Spider-Man #243 (Aug. 1983), it was a hard decision which he only decided to tell her in ASM #253 (Jun. 1984). May got extremely disappointed for months. One of the best plot points during the run orchestrated by Roger Stern. The familiar drama in ASM is there since its inception – especially because of Aunt May.

In issue #501, the difference is how she deals with the fact and how her reality acquired a new shade, seeing how her surrogate son affects the cultural landscape of New York and its inhabitants, without even realizing it. Peter seldom sees it, because he’s above; she’s below – observing the kids playing on the street, listening to conversations about his battles (the one with the (Spider-Guy fighting the Bug-Woman), even watching one – when he’s fighting a newbie called The Shaker – a hapless crook who stole the prototype of an advanced mining suit that can transform rock and concrete into crumbs. Basic elements to build a Spider-Man villain: science and technology.
When he’s introduced on a splash page – in a spectacular fashion conceived by Romita Jr & Hanna – the cinematographic editing style in the comic hits a higher gear. Though written words do not emit sound, the way they’re written in her captions visually convey a transitioning fading effect between May’s dialogue to Peter’s; to emulate such sound that only the mind can reproduce.

Visually, the “camera framing” is still in May’s Flashback; then the next page switches back to Peter’s apartment – supposedly before May’s arrival – and the story’s perspective becomes his. The panel lines change again to May’s, but still in the fight on the rooftops. Three pages later, while still on flashback mode, another flashback is inserted: this time in sepia mode palette, in order to showcase how the webhead and the weekend villain clashed, and without hindering the story’s pace. Genius.

Then, the visual battle comes to a pause, returning to May’s dialogue and forwarding back to her day before sitting on the bench. In it, she details her victory against an annoying and loud-mouthed customer while standing in line to purchase a cellphone, being applauded for it and still worrying about her nephew while catching a glance of him fighting the Shaker on the TV set at the store; the image on the TV leads back to the fight, when Spider-Man finds a way to outsmart the Shaker’s short-lived criminal career with a swimming pool. How? Fact: Peter Parker is also a scientist.
The tale comes full-circle back to May on the park bench, facing the camera (or the reader as if sitting by her side) and finishing stating her thoughts about Peter being Spider-Man – possibly her most important line in the comic:

“I still worry about him, now more than ever, and I still try to look after him, as much as he’ll let me, and there are times it’s so hard to accept what he is– But never who he is. Never that.”

And that begs the question: just what is he according to May’s eyes – or heart? Hero? Vigilante? Symbol? Human personification of guilt? A boy who is playing superhero?
Her new mobile rings; it’s Peter inviting her for a dinner and a movie with MJ, still kept in the dark as to what she usually does on Saturday – into which she replies that she’s just saying hello to friends, them being…

Ben Parker, standing alongside Mary and Richard Parker – not physically – upon the Parker Grave. Spiritually? Perhaps. Nevertheless, the afterlife concept is not new in the Marvel Universe – notably in Straczynski’s body of work in comic books and in his Spider-Man tales, just like spirituality, the supernatural, religion, and belief. These are notions in which anyone can transpose into their life experience; talking to loved ones after their passing is just one of the many emotional reactions we do. Just like in the first Spider-Man movie (2002), with a scene of May on her knees praying to God on Ben’s behalf.
In the comic, what began as an impression of Aunt May breaking the fourth wall, was just a silent reward to the reader for being the only eyewitness to May and Peter’s thoughts, feelings, and how far they’ve come in their relationship.

This single issue alone is a cinematic class in rhythm and characterization in the comic book form. The kind that filmic storytellers such as Guy Ritchie, Edgar Wright, and Quentin Tarantino have already applied in their filmography. So Kudos to Romita Jr. who translated Straczynski’s script as a movie director in his storytelling style: his camera placement, zooms, pace, cuts, expressions, actions; Scott Hanna complements it, and Matt Milla provides one of his finest works in this run: aside from color adjustments in the flashback scenes, the external ones display an abundant natural sunlight luminance effect.

ASM #501 is one of the best issues in the modern era of comics to present Spider-Man comics to non-readers. It defines everything about the character: his personality, powers, intellect, heroism, sense of humor, his relationship with May – how she sees her Nephew and their family; how his very origin is built on tragedy due to the passing of a loving father figure, just briefly present in his life. A fine example of what (superhero) comics are able to do as a storytelling medium.

In that regard, J. Michael Straczynski delivers the essence of fiction:

“For me, writing is about emotion. That’s it. Action, pyrotechnics, stunts, complex plots, sure, all helpful… But even with all that the story will fail unless the audience feels something for the characters. Absent emotion, it’s all just noise.”