#spider-mans

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): Ned's grandmother says that his family has a history of using magic. Later, establishing shots of his grandmother's house focus on a display of ancient Filipino bladed weapons & symbols. Ned demonstrates an innate ability to use Dr. Strange's Sling Ring, suggesting that he actually inherited some sort of magical aptitude.

Invincible Iron Man #2 (2008): The issue introduces the "Triumph Division" ("Pangkat ng Tagumpay"), the official super team of the Philippines. 🇵🇭

Invincible Iron Man #4 (2008): The issue establishes that the super-powered members of the Philippines' Triumph Division inherit their powers from their forefathers along familial bloodlines.

Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1 (2009): Introduces the Diwatas, the magical nature deities who protect the Philippines. One Diwata (Anitun) bestows her powers upon a member of the Triumph Division. Another Diwata (Apo Laki) wields a traditional Filipino knife very similar to the knives displayed at Ned's grandmother's house.

People say that comic books are an escape, and I think that’s mostly true: we see a hero punching a bad guy in the face, and we’re like YEAH, I wanna punch bad guys in the face!!!

But I think comic books do something on a... different level than that.

Sure, we think it’s fucking awesome when Spider-Mans punches the Lizard in its face (snout? wtf is a lizard nose). but the reason we think it’s awesome is because WE HAVE ALSO BEEN DISAPPOINTED BY OUR IDOLS in the same way that Peter Parker is disappointed by Curt Connors (you fuckin nerds I am too lazy to google the spelling).

Like sure Spider-Mans swinging through the air is fuckin sweet, but you know why we identify with him? BNECAUSE THE THOUGHT BUBBLES ARE HIM WORRIED ABOUT HAVING A CRUSH ON A GIRL THAT GOES TO HIS SCHOOL

And it’s not, like, a THICK metaphor, but a metaphor nonetheless: here’s this kid DEALING WITH RESPONSIBILITY and pressure and expectations and SHIT WE ALL DEALT WITH IN HIGH SCHOOOL, and it’s all magnified or amplified or whatever, but it RINGS TRUE in a way that FEELS FAMILIAR, 

And we like comic books for lots of reasons, but THIS IS ONE OF THOSE REASONS. The struggles of the people we’re reading about ARE THE STRUGGLES WE GO THROUGH on a dialy basis, like on a fucking boring banal pathetic daly basis (the redhead in my class doesn’t like me), but fuckin MADE TO SEEM OKAY AND EVEN COOL and like THERE ARE OTHERS LIKE YOU and fuckin, isn’t that fucking awesome

Before it gets away from me: ENTER MODERN COMICS

HULK

Enter Jennifer Walters, a woman who just had some shit happen to her. There is death and violence and her life is like a fucked up slightly shittier version than what it’s supposed to be. You know what I mean? Like do you ever feel like your life is ALMOST correct, if it weren’t for these FEW HUGE SIGNIFICANT BUT POTENTIALLY AVOIDABLE THINGS, but now it’s just shitty and fuckin, less colorful and less meaningful than it’s supposed to be? Like maybe let’s just stay in bed and watch netflix all day and not think too much about it?

THAT IS EXACTLY HOW JENNIFER WALTERS FEELS

And like, sorry I’m lazy and don’t feel like hooking up my scanner so this is a blurry cell phone picture, but THIS IS MY FAVORITE SCENE OF ANY HULK COMIC I’VE READ IN MY ENTIRE LIFE:

THIS IS JENNIFER WALTERS IN HER OWN APARTMENT FINDING A MIRROR THAT UNTIL RIGHT NOW SHE HAS BEEN TALL ENOUGH TO SEE INTO BECAUSE SHE HAS BEEN SHE-HULK GIANT GREEN STRONG POWERFUL SUPER POWERED AND TODAY SHE IS NOT THAT SO SHE IS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO STAND ON SO SHE CAN WORK TOWARDS FUNCTIONING LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING

like holy fuck you have felt that way haven’t you

And this comic keeps on going with this, uhhh METAPHORICAL EVERYDAY STRIFE

like this comic is called HULK and has a green superhero on the cover, but it spends the first half of the book on LEAVING YOUR OWN APARTMENT on a day that you don’t feel like it, and fuckin, THE STRUGGLE IS REAL in a non-obnoxious way, like the whole point is that YOU read this and you IDENTIFY with this, not because like sweet punching bad guys is aweseom, but because you SEE YOURSELF in this IN THE SAME WAY THAT I SAW MYSELF IN SPIDER-MANS WHEN I WAS THIRTEEN

AND ISN’T THAT FUCKING AWESOME AND BEATUFIUL AND ALL THE GOOD THINGS

back to the book, fuckin, of course it doesn’t stop there, because does your day stop at leaving the fucking house? IT SURE DON’T

OH GREAT SOME ASSHOLES HAVE SOME OPINIONS ON YOUR PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND YOU HAVE TO BE POLITE ABOUT IT

this post is already longer than I wanted it to be and I’m not even to the first like thing I wanted to say: this book (which is HULK #1 by MARIKO TAMAKI and NICO LEON and just released liek two weeks ago, go to your local comic shop and pick up a copy right now) does this whole SUPERHERO PROBLEMS AS METAPHORS FOR OUR PROBLEMS in such a new and fucking different word for refreshing way.

Like, we know how Bruce Banner gets angry and turns into the Hulk and is powerful and fights and is a superhero and stuff, right. And Jennifer Walters has basically those same powers. But because some shit went down (you don’t have to know about that shit before picking up this first issue), she no longer feels that way, she uhhhhh spoiler alert has PTSD (because fucking in a super powererd world, LOTSA PEOPLE WOULD JUST LIKE LOTSA PEOPLE DO IN REAL LIFE)

So now instead of getting angry and turning into the Hulk, TURNING INTO THE HULK FEELS LIKE A PANIC ATTACK

And I’m not trying to be an asshole. I don’t have an anxiety disorder, but I’ve heard it described. And this book describes it in exactly the same way. So I can’t help but think that people who are going through anxiety stuff would read this book and feel similar feelings to what I felt when I watched Spider-Mans in 8th grade.

And like, if you’ve read this far, then maybe you’ve felt that way. And I drunkenly urge you to zoom into these blurry pictures and read these words. And if they seem familiar, then maybe go out to your local comic shop and pick this issue up, or check it out on comixology or whatever internet thing the kids are using these days

ENTER HAWKEYE

I didn’t intend for this post to be all about Hulk. Because a bunch of books are doing similar things. Hawkeye is one of them.

Hawkeye is Kate Bishop who is out in the world trying to make it and SPOILER ALERT PEOPLE ARE CREEPS

Again, I hope you read those words, but basically this is Kate Bishop (who is a superhero sorta) apprehending a boy who has been stalking a girl and she asks why, and his answer is that he loves her. AND YOU HAVE PROBABLY HEARD OR HAD SIMILIAR CONVERSATIONS HAVEN’T YOU

And then, the conversation continues and it turns out that the boy says he feels like it wasn’t even him, and again, fuckin, you’ve had similar conversations

And in true comic book fashion it goes up to twelve and shit turns ridiculous, but at its core these conflicts and conversations and worries and whatevers ARE THINGS FROM YOUR REAL FUCKING LIFE

AND THEN SHE GETS OUT SOME ARROWS AND IT FEELS AWESOME

BUT THE REASON IT FEELS AWEOMSE IS BECAUSE WE HAVE SO MUCH INVESTED IN THE FUCKIN METAPHOR OF IT ALL RIGHT

(not to mention that the action in this book captures the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye in such a perfect way but that’s neither here nor there)

btw this is Hawkeye by Kelly Thompson (@1979semifinalist) and Leonardo Romero (@leonardoromero11) and Jordi Bellaire and it’s currently on issue 2, pick it (and its first issue) up while you’re getting the Hulk issue

None of this is new. This goes back to the first comic book, probably before that. Superman is an alien in a new world trying to make the best of a bad situation, written by a bunch of jews right before WW2. Read into that however you want, but the point is that comic books have been doing this for a long time.

But in the last few years, that, uh, idea has spread beyond the typical “I’m a white dude who’s awkward around girls and high school is hard” metaphor. And I’m saying that as a white dude who is awkward around girls, and yes high school was hard, and yes comic book characters “helped me through” that shit. But like, Captain Marvel is a woman taking (pick a better word) a man’s job and wondering about WHAT THAT MEANS FOR HER IDENTITY and what other people think. Kamala Khan’s original most powerful superpower was to BECOME WHITE AND HIDE HER BROWN-NESS FROM HER FRIENDS, and I dunno man, I’m not great at metaphorical thinking or whatever, but it doesn’t take a ton of abstract thought to go from that to a real life Pakistani Jersey girl feeling like she doesn’t fit in, identifying with that when she reads it.

IN THE EXACT SAME WAY THAT I FELT ABOUT SPIDER-MANS WHEN I WAS DISENFRANCHISED

and maybe this is why the manbabies with their belly buttons popping out of their sci-fi logo tshirts take such offense to this. This is THEIR METAPHOR, you know what I mean? They (we?? oh god...) grew up identifying with these characters, this universe, and not to get too weird about it, a lot of the weirdness we felt was because girls thought we weren’t cool... which sounds (and is) pathetic, but I dunno, do you want to point a magnifying glass at your teenage insecurities and how you dealt with them?

Anyway, fast forward fifteen years and now this universe is filling up with metaphors that we don’t immediately identify with, in fact these metaphors are geared more towards the girls who didn’t pay attention to us in high school (who our metaphors were about?!), and I dunno, I don’t agree with it and don’t identify with it, but I UNDERDAND IT A LITTLE BETTER if that makes any sense?

The point is, comic books act as a metaphor for shit we deal with on a daily basis, and even (especially?) if you don’t think comic books are for you, CHANCES ARE THEY PROBABLY ARE so go check em out.