Since then Spidey has spun off into comic books, movies, a tv series, a Broadway show, and dozens of "what if?" alternatives, some of whom come together in the gay symbolism-packed Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
In a trippy near-Earth, Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore, top photo) is a outsider (gay) kid, obsessed with comic books, street art, and his hero, Spider-Man.
His (homophobic) straight-laced father, police officer Jefferson Davis (Bryan Tyree Henry) doesn't like (gay people) Spider-Man.
Time out: who decided to name a black guy after the President of the Confederacy?
Miles (realizes that he's gay) is bit by a radioactive spider, joins a gym (gets muscular overnight), and excretes sticky webs (you figure it out).
Aaron is estranged from Dad because he's (gay) a screw-up. He gives Miles lessons on how to talk to girls (guys): hand on shoulder, intense gaze, sultry "Hey."
Spider-Man dies, and Miles must take his place. He negotiates high school, not telling anyone that he is (gay) the new Spider-Man, wishing that he wasn't the only (gay person) Spider-Man in the world.
Miles bonds with Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), a middle-aged Spider-Man who married his girlfriend Mary Jane, but now is divorced because he is (gay) a screw-up.
The other (gay people) Spider-People include Gwen Stacey, a (lesbian) female Spider-Man; Spider-Man Noir, from a film noir world; Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham; and Peni Parker, a girl from a distant future world.
The (gay club) secret Spider-Man group works together to defeat the (heteronormative) Big Bad and (assimilate) get back to their home dimensions.
Miles now accepts his role as a Spider-Man (gay person). Still in disguise, he rushes up and hugs his Dad, who is shocked by his (gay) affection. Dad says "I don't approve of your (lifestyle) methods, but I respect you."
Interesting interpretation. I'd argue the secret identity shtick as a whole works as gay subtext. And of course superheroes feature a lot of the "forbidden love" angle in their romances, which is pretty much what being gay meant in the postwar era.
ReplyDeleteWhat about X-Men? Secrets that show up during puberty and everyone hates them and they even have a cottage industry for "fixing" mutants.
I'd say with DC, it was a matter of era: Both companies went overboard in the 90s, but everything starting in the 70s was notably darker. (Look up the history of Doctor Light some time. I haven't decided which is worse: Turning a guy into a practice dummy for your little child soldiers or, um, the child soldiers. Who all grew up to be severely depressed, as one would expect.)
I've never read the X-Men comics, but the movies are full of seemingly deliberate gay symbolism
DeleteOh, I have a whole other dimension of gay subtext in comics to teach you. The sidekick thing is TBH kind of boring, and basically Wertham interviewed some pedophiles who saw Batman as one of them. But so much.
DeleteOne thing the Dark Age did was eventually being some of it out of the closet. The Comics Code banned "sex perversion" (and actually banned things like werewolves, which was enforced to the point of causing issues over Marv Wolfman's name) so it basically took realizing no one cared about the Comics Code for characters to be openly gay.
This movie was better than I expected and has some great animation- is Spidey a subtext for gay ? Maybe-but a lot of comic books can be read that way specially The X Men
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