Everything old is good again: Myth and nostalgia in Spider-Man

Abstract

This paper is interested in why the application of the nostalgic mode to Spider-Man resulted in a movie which was staggeringly profitable and critically acclaimed at the 2002 box office. Accordingly, it relates the semiotics and plot of Spider-Man back to Joseph Campbell's monomyth of the male hero's journey, and cognitive psychologist Ulric Neisser's theory of repisodic memory. Nostalgia, repisodic memories, and the monomyth are seen to complement each other when intertwined, especially when the text positively contrasts them against the dreariness of contemporary everyday life. The paper thus provides a suggestive representative analysis of the culturally central and powerful contemporary Hollywood comic-based blockbuster cinema form.

Notes

1. Conversely, the Spider-Man comic books have subplots which deal with everyday problems and tragedies. The official Marvel Encyclopaedia (http://www.marvel.com/universe/Spider-Man_(Peter_Parker)) notes that Peter Parker and Mary Jane have a rocky marriage, even separating temporarily as a result of personality differences. This is despite a previous fairy-tale wedding ceremony, and an earlier fantastic courtship marked by routinely rescuing her from supervillains. Other notable events include the miscarriage of the Parker's unborn daughter, and family friend Harry Osborn's battle with drug addiction. While Peter Parker is still able to successfully fight crime in these stories, his great powers do nothing to alleviate these very personal misfortunes. All he can do is attempt to cope with their fallout as best as possible.

2. While there are indeed movies centred on superheroines, their subjects tend to be constructed as transgressive figures who defy traditional constructs of women as passive plot devices by dint of their martial heroism. As Dai Jinhua observes, ‘the moment when the woman has finished her martial arts training and becomes a master is the moment when she has given up her gender identity and earthly life’ (2005, 88). She becomes ‘an all-powerful and otherworldly saving force, alien to ordinary social existence, serving as an Other for the imaginary world of the audience’ (88–9). This heroine, thus, is usually exiled at the end of such narratives, rather than returning to community and family life when her mission is successfully completed. The heroines of Catwoman (Comar 2004) and Electra (Bowman 2005), for example, are marginalized at the end of their movies; the former becomes a cat burglar, while the latter remains an assassin-for-hire. The gendered dimension of heroism, however, is a topic that falls beyond the scope of this research.