Editorial: Stop Sending Spider-Man Back To High School

[wonderfly]

The News Team's "The Overlord" has a new editorial up on the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:

"Editorial: Stop Sending Spider-Man Back To High School"​

I have a confession to make: Of all the major superhero animated projects that were set to be released in 2024, the ”Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” series was the one I was looking forward to the least. Why, one may ask? For two reasons: the first reason is that Spider-Man was overexposed in TV animation for the past couple of years. There was a greater gap between X-Men 97, My Adventures with Superman and Batman: Caped Crusaders than the previous animated TV incarnations of those characters, than with Spider-Man. We had a near-constant animated series featuring Spider-Man from 2008 to 2020. It didn’t help that the last two Spider-Man animated series, Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2017, were of pretty low quality in my opinion.

But the second reason may be the one that deserves a longer discussion: it is set in high school. The last 3 Spider-Man animated series have been set in high school. It’s becoming a rather tiresome trope to solely focus on Spider-Man as a high schooler and ignore the decades of stories that were not about Spider-Man being in high school. In the 616 universe, Spider-Man was in high school for a few short years before moving on to college. Sure, there have been incarnations of the character, like in the original Ultimate Spider-Man comic series where Spider-Man never seemed to get out of high school. But in the 616 comics, there are decades of stories where Spider-Man was not a high schooler, he was everything from a grad student to a high school teacher to a corporate CEO. In the new Ultimate Comics series, Peter Parker is married with kids, and people seem to prefer that to whatever 616 Spider-Man is doing nowadays.

The high school setting seems stale after 3 animated series in a row having that setting. How many times can Spider-Man almost fail a 10th-grade math test because he was fighting crime the previous night? How many times can he worry about his Aunt May’s health while she makes him wheat cakes? How many times can Spider-Man work at the Daily Bugle in addition to being a crime fighter and a high schooler in order to sell pictures of himself to help make ends meet? How often can Spider-Man be involved with some sort of teen romance love triangle with Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, Liz Allen or any other love interest they want to have Peter Parker date in high school? I feel like these old, tired high school tropes can just become boring after a while. Of the 3 recent Spider-Man animated series, I think Spectacular Spider-Man did a high school-aged Spider-Man the best, and I am not sure it can be topped in that regard."

Read the full editorial here.

 

[Frontier]

I do feel like they're running out of stuff they can do with him in high school in animation.

But I also grew up with him as a college student in the 90's show so I'm biased .

 

[Mejo]

I think the reason why SO many pieces of Spider Man media still have him in High School, despite the fact that only around 30 issues had him there is well..his origin story took place while he in high school.

Sure, you can tell stories where he's an adult, but if you want to show his origin as well (which most of these pieces of media do), he really has to be a high schooler. I do agree that more MC media should have him progress after that though. Some never showed him as an adult.

 

[Freddy]

Spider-Man started out as a character who aged alongside with the readers (until One More Day/Brad New Day regressed all of his development, but that's a different story), so I can understand why an adaptation would want to beging in a high school. The problem is that no adaptation seems to go on long enough to get out of there.

 

[wonderfly]

Spider-Man started out as a character who aged alongside with the readers (until One More Day/Brad New Day regressed all of his development, but that's a different story), so I can understand why an adaptation would want to beging in a high school. The problem is that no adaptation seems to go on long enough to get out of there.

There were attempts to "de-age" Spider-Man (or rather, to keep him young) before "Brand New Day", just not reverting him back to high school. Peter Parker was kept in college off and on for years (from the 60's throughout the 70's, he graduated from college finally in 1979).

And there were attempts to end the marriage before "One More Day" (the Clone Saga stuff, the "Mary Jane died in a plane crash" stuff around 1999 or 2000).

But yeah, "One more Day" is the major "line in the sand" for Peter Parker staying "young".

 

[TheGuy]

I guess they feel like Peter not as relatable when he’s an adult. Hopefilly with Miles growing in popularity they become less scared to let Peter age

 

[Rick Jones]

Spider-Man started out as a character who aged alongside with the readers (until One More Day/Brad New Day regressed all of his development, but that's a different story), so I can understand why an adaptation would want to beging in a high school. The problem is that no adaptation seems to go on long enough to get out of there.

I was thinking of this. I don't mind Pete in high school that much but I want to see him grow and mature. We can't keep him stuck in this one stage of life. He's not like a Silver Age DC hero constantly tricking his love interest to stay stuck in his status quo. I never really realized it's kind of similar to post-One More Day Spidey where he lost his marriage and 20+ years of progress, and has to stay a late 20s manchild.

I think the erasure of Pete's civilian supporting cast has been more of a gripe for me than the high school setting but I would love to see an adult Pete again sometime.

 

[Frontier]

I sometimes wonder how different things would have been had Spectacular not been canceled and they'd actually gotten to explore Peter growing and graduating from high school as was Greg Weisman's plan .

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

It is like modern writers only read the first appearance and just assumed Peter was always a sad sack high school nerd. The reality is Puny Parker doesn’t last long. As early as issue 8, you have Peter boxing Flash, and he wins! After that he doesn’t even use the glasses anymore. While Flash remains a bully for a bit, Liz often defends Peter and seems like she would dump Flash for Peter. The main obstacle in her way is Betty Brant, Jameson’s secretary who Peter is dating in high school.

By the time we get to college Peter, his fortune with the ladies is arguably improved even further. New love interests Gwen and MJ are competing for his affection… Betty waits a decade in real time before finally marrying Ned after he proposes. She runs away from her honeymoon in Paris to get back with Peter the instant his relationship with MJ goes south… Then when he tells Betty she was a rebound from MJ rejecting his marriage proposal, he finds ANOTHER married secretary girlfriend in Deb Whitman! After that, the Black Cat comes along, so Spidey can have his own girlfriend. Peter does have tragedies in his life, but he is also a guy who is fortunate enough to marry a supermodel! The idea of him as some isolated geek isn’t really a thing after his first appearances. Even when Harry and Flash shunned him for a couple years after the whole Betty affair publicly fell apart, he got plenty of new friends at grad school. There are many eras, with lots of different supporting casts and villains. It would be nice if Marvel could embrace his whole history instead of trying to freeze him in high school.

 

[Pattern_Maker]

I'm going to be the odd one and say that I don't mind when the writers go with Peter being in high school. What I will say is that I wish more writers would follow Spectacular's example and flesh out Midtown High (or whatever school they go with). Make it feel important; make the school feel alive. Not just where the episode or conflict begins.

On the topic of college, I also agree that Marvel should do another series with Peter in college. I keep seeing that their excuse is "If he's an adult he's not relatable". Well, make Peter fresh out of high school, a few years of Spidey experience but no major foes, and we see him grow from college freshman to college senior and then his graduation. An eighteen-year-old is legally an adult, but they are still growing and learning about themselves and the world at that age, which is a major part of a Spider-Man story.

 

[Frontier]

I'm going to be the odd one and say that I don't mind when the writers go with Peter being in high school. What I will say is that I wish more writers would follow Spectacular's example and flesh out Midtown High (or whatever school they go with). Make it feel important; make the school feel alive. Not just where the episode or conflict begins.

On the topic of college, I also agree that Marvel should do another series with Peter in college. I keep seeing that their excuse is "If he's an adult he's not relatable". Well, make Peter fresh out of high school, a few years of Spidey experience but no major foes, and we see him grow from college freshman to college senior and then his graduation. An eighteen-year-old is legally an adult, but they are still growing and learning about themselves and the world at that age, which is a major part of a Spider-Man story.

Having him be in college and an adult would even help them with how much they like pushing other Spider characters because then Peter would actually be in a position to be a mentor while still maintaining his main character status...if they wanted to go in that direction.

 

[Christopher Glennon]

The weird/unfortunate thing is that they seemed content with college-age Peter Parker for a while. Like, Spider-Man/Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spider-Man the Animated Series, and Spider-Man the New Animated Series all had him in college (I can still recall that collegiate musical theme they always used for ESU on Amazing Friends). And between that was Spider-Man Unlimited, which is probably the oldest Spider-Man has been in animation.

Then Spectacular Spider-Man hit, and it's been nothing but high school Spider-Man since (and however old he is in Spidey and His Amazing Friends, the youngest Spider-Man has been in animation).

There's little variety, and I'm sure it's to follow movies more than comics (I guess we can praise the Raimi movies for getting Peter out of high school quickly). What I would love to see is an animated series based on Spider-Man: Life Story. Have each season cover a different decade. Granted, they would need to know ahead of time how many seasons they could get (and Spider-Man cartoons are notorious for ending before they can wrap up their plots), but it would give a wide scope of Spider-Man's entire history.

 

[Frontier]

The weird/unfortunate thing is that they seemed content with college-age Peter Parker for a while. Like, Spider-Man/Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spider-Man the Animated Series, and Spider-Man the New Animated Series all had him in college (I can still recall that collegiate musical theme they always used for ESU on Amazing Friends). And between that was Spider-Man Unlimited, which is probably the oldest Spider-Man has been in animation.

Then Spectacular Spider-Man hit, and it's been nothing but high school Spider-Man since (and however old he is in Spidey and His Amazing Friends, the youngest Spider-Man has been in animation).

There's little variety, and I'm sure it's to follow movies more than comics (I guess we can praise the Raimi movies for getting Peter out of high school quickly). What I would love to see is an animated series based on Spider-Man: Life Story. Have each season cover a different decade. Granted, they would need to know ahead of time how many seasons they could get (and Spider-Man cartoons are notorious for ending before they can wrap up their plots), but it would give a wide scope of Spider-Man's entire history.

I think a combination of Spectacular, the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, and wanting to "stay true to the vision of Lee/Ditko" made focusing on Peter in high school more appealing. Also to emphasize him as the teen Superhero.

 

[Christopher Glennon]

I think a combination of Spectacular, the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, and wanting to "stay true to the vision of Lee/Ditko" made focusing on Peter in high school more appealing. Also to emphasize him as the teen Superhero.

I guess the question is why then and not 10-15 years prior? Spider-Man the Animated Series perhaps wanted to keep closer to the comics at the time, so why didn't they do a "return to basics high school Spider-Man" for the next series? Instead, they opted to give Spider-Man a nano-tech suit and send him to a planet full of talking animals (and this was the same time they de-aged the X-Men and put them in high school for their next cartoon).

Spider-Man Unlimited did predate the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, but when they brought Brian Michael Bendis on as a producer for a Spider-Man cartoon, that featured Peter in college (thanks to the Raimi movies and being on MTV, I suppose).

It's kind of weird that Spectacular Spider-Man did the high school thing because that was practically out of nowhere (and then they did the same for Iron Man?). Was there something about the late 00's where Marvel wanted to reclaim the "teen superhero" idea?

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

I'm pretty sure what brought about giving so much focus to the High School era was because of the success of the Raimi movies. Which yeah started out in High School (you can argue about how "high school" the characters even in the first movie looked but that was the point) because Raimi wanted to take the character back to his origin point and those became so popular that became the template from that point onward. i mean remember Spectacular Spider-Man had notes by the executives to try and make reference to the Raimi movies in them (despite not taking place in that continuity obviously) so obviously there was a lot of effort on cashing in on that era because of how well it did.

And quite honestly I feel that problem only got amplified by Disney buying Marvel and now Spider-Man being a more technical Disney property. Like maybe Spectacular Spider man wanted to be a throwback to the older Spider Man start out stories but it's pretty clear Loeb and that exec brand working on Ultimate Spider Man were in the camp of "hey let's appease to kids as much as possible by really focusing on more school shennigans" and doubling down on youngifying so much of the cast for that show. Since yeah Disney especially really jumps on the idea of having a lot of it's main brand be about teenagers to very young adults so having one of the super heroes really gel to that must be really appealing to them. Thus why not only the MCU movies really focused on that aspect but yeah all the following animated series. Especially since they also want to cater to the other teen heroes so making Spidey one of them more officailly really helps with that. And yeah with Neighborhood Spider Man I don't expect that to really change anytime soon.

 

[Frontier]

It's kind of weird that Spectacular Spider-Man did the high school thing because that was practically out of nowhere (and then they did the same for Iron Man?). Was there something about the late 00's where Marvel wanted to reclaim the "teen superhero" idea?

I think at least some of it was Greg Weisman himself wanting to tell like the story of Peter Parker from the start to well into his adult years. Like the comics.