OminousFlare

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I Feel Sorry For Villains Sometimes...

By OminousFlare 4 Comments


Demon in the Night
Demon in the Night
So, I just finished ASM #188, and in the midst of reading it, there was a part of it when Jigsaw described Spider-Man as a demon, a 'forsaken demon' in the night that haunts the shadows with his demonic eyes. There were times when Spider-Man utilizes stealth effectively (note Spider-Man Noir), especially with the existence of his Spider-Sense. I had a really great time reading this part of the issue, laughing out loud several times at how pathetic Jigsaw seems to be, and how hilariously ironic this situation is. Let me explain.
 
I'm a huge fan of the anime, Detective Conan, of which its English dub is known as Case Closed in the States. And in the anime, there is this ongoing joke where Conan keeps popping up everywhere a crime scene occurs (though that blame is put on Kogorou/Richard Moore who brings Conan to every of the crime scene he investigates). This is a reoccurring aspect of the fictional universe I haven't got to see much myself - heroes popping up wherever any (and I emphasize on any) villain resides.
 
So, I got to thinking, Spider-Man (and just about any Marvel superhero) will nail their bad guy without fail. Marvel won't kill off a profitable titular character, least of all the Spider-Man. So, if he will succeed in kicking any bad guy's ass, I seriously feel sorry for the bad guys who will encounter him every single time, wherever they hide, wherever they are. Perhaps saying that every villain will encounter him is a stretch. But for those who are picked (cursed) to encounter him... lol 

And the other thing is Spider-Man's stealthiness. I read #188, and you should've seen his eyes:
 THOSE EYES! THOSE HORRIBLE SILVER EYES!
 THOSE EYES! THOSE HORRIBLE SILVER EYES!
Yeah.
 
So, after reading through these panels, and with the word, "night," placed throughout them like some sort of propaganda brainwash influence, you know what popped into my head. Caped Crusader. Dark Knight. Bats. Whatever you call him. Damn, I can't wait till I read the Spider-Man/Batman crossover someday.
 
But anyway, I think that's what makes Spider-Man Noir so effective as a superhero. Hell, even 616 Spider-Man. He's like Batman with superpowers. He could become the 'Creature of the Night' of New York, terrorizing the villains with his horrible eyes and his camouflage into the shadows. I'm not saying he's able to by today's standards of villains, but it's a good angle to work with, and that's probably what makes me like Noir Spidey that much. Even if Noir Spidey's bitter personality doesn't reflect that well with what Spider-Man stands for, he really reflects what Spider-Man, with his powers, can be capable of.
 
And I still can't get over how super-pwnage Spider-Man has in this issue.
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OminousFlare

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Edited By OminousFlare

But to go back to the point of Spider-Man haunting the criminals like a demon. I'm reading ASM #193 right now, and Peter is having a very, VERY bad day. So, he takes out his rage on a couple of crooks to find the location of The Fly so that he could vent out his anger, some more... Okay, not just a couple of crooks.
 
"And so it is, an enraged Spider-Man who stalks the darkened city streets. No hood is safe, not the penny-ante pickpocket, nor the major-league mobster. He hunts them all down and pins them to the wall, his demon eyes flaming unabated anger."
 
Obviously, this isn't the first time Peter Parker has been butthurt. The other time, IIRC, was probably during the Master Planner arc, when Aunt May was sick (a very early period when she was sick for the first time or so), he went around punching up thugs to find out the location of the Master Planner, too. Sure, both incidents only involve Spidey punching out information out of thugs, but you could clearly see a dark side of Spider-Man here, or rather, a dangerous and hostile side, that's brought out greatly in the Black Suit saga that begins (unfortunately for me) only 5 years later (5 years of reading... ugh). And this aspect of Spider-Man I once again relate to Batman, whose working methods are quite similar when tracking villains - by scaring the information out of crooks.
 
But anyway, that makes me feel that Spider-Man has an alignment of both good and evil, like the grey area in the justice system. He has let people died before, contrary to popular beliefs, even if he hadn't killed them himself. But I feel that's what makes the character great, a balance of power and responsibility that could go either way. Spider-Man is only human, and the average human would've murdered half of the people that had pissed Spidey off were he in the web-slinger's shoes (or long-underwear socks).
 
Either way, I once again give my condolences to the thugs, crooks, and muggers of New York, especially when Spider-Man's having a very, very bad morning.

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OminousFlare

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Edited By OminousFlare
@ngroove:
I don't know why people are taking my comparison of Spider-Man to Batman so seriously. I obviously wasn't talking about their personalities more than I was talking about their prone to stealth.
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ngroove

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Edited By ngroove

Ehhh, if I wanted to read Batman, I'll read Batman. If I wanna read Spider-Man, I'll read Spider-Man.  Even I admit, Bats', many times, can get overly, overly, dark.  Spidey, to me, is mostly about optimism, never giving up what he believes in, keeping his head up, and simply "saving the day".   Kinda like Superman, morals-wise, with the exception of a handful of peroids ( To when Aunt May was "dying" due to his radioactive closeness, ASM 31-33, to when Doctor Octopus completely bloodied up Black Cat, to Much of when whom he thought was his "parents" turned out to be fake, not to mention sicced by Green Goblin, to "learning" he was the "clone", to when Aunt May got kidnapped ( again), to the Other, to when Aunt May got shot.)  
 
But yeah, when it comes down to crime, from the Burglar who shot his Uncle Ben, bank-jewelery robbers ( like often in the early days of Ditko Amazing Spider-Man), to Jigsaw, who is just simply a killer peroid, he does, if nessesary, hide in the darkness, use his stealth, maybe some eeriness, to his advantage, after all, his costume, from the very start, was partly creepy, partly to strike fear nevertheless.
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mewmdude77

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Edited By mewmdude77

Wow I never thought of Spider-Man as a Batman with super powers!