And don't even get me started on Ant-Man

The following post will probably fall into the category of “Things I shouldn’t admit that I can discuss in as much detail as I typically do.” Meaning: this is what happens when you say, “I have no shame” and you are not kidding.

These are interesting times in comic book land as we have had the unmasking of Spider-Man and the new Superman movie unveiling at the same time. Both of these are pretty monumental events that might bring new meaning to the characters and since I am short on topics tonight I’ll go into both.

I’ll start with Spidey and I’ll admit that I haven’t read the comic book, though I did hear a lot about this earlier in the week. I fall into the camp that Spider-Man publicly revealing that he is Peter Parker is a bad idea no matter what the plot line. Mainly because this goes against the reason why he never revealed who he is in the first place: by making himself known he puts everyone he loves at risk. They become targets and he does not want that to happen so he’ll accept being viewed as a menace if it protects those that he loves. Now, even though Peter Parker is older and wiser in the comic books I just can never seeing the character admit “This is who I am.”

I’m also on the side that states that Spider-Man has always been a better character than Superman. And it’s why I’m just not that interested in the Superman movie, which is that Superman isn’t a superhero; he is a god. Think about his powers: the guy is basically invincible and can do everything short of read minds. Writers have had to come up with ways to make him vulnerable like krypton (which is apparently the most abundant mineral on earth) or magic (a comic book geek convention). You don’t even have real villains for him. He’s just a big boy scout who beats people up in the name of good.

(Yes, there is still the fact that in reality he just wants to go back to Smallville and lead a normal life. I’ll ignore that.)

But Spider-Man and to an even greater extent Batman, are true characters. You can identify them because even when you get past all of their skills and gadgets you know that at the end of the day they are just a human being. They have the same foibles and faults as the rest of us, it’s just that they put on a mask to try to hide them. And that’s why people continue to follow these characters and get extremely upset when they are changed. Because in many ways they represent who we want to be and we don’t want to see that archetype changed. So I hope that Spidey puts his mask back on and that Lex Luthor is actually a decent villain in this film. And that we never admit that the film Superman IV was ever even made.