Anonymous asked: "But let me ask you this: if Spider-Man is about responsibility, then how can he continue to be Spider-Man if he has a child? Surely his greatest responsibility is to that child." TB / Dang, Tom, I guess cops and soldiers should not have families then, right? Even for you this is an amazingly facile argument to make.
A couple of people have thrown up this argument. But it doesn’t wash, because we’re talking about Peter Parker here.
Cops and soldiers are beyond a doubt heroic, but they are not driven to do what they do exclusively out of a sense of responsibility (or, really, guilt) as Peter Parker is. For them, being a cop, being a soldier is a vocation. Not so for Peter Parker. As Spider-Man, Peter operates outside the law to do what he thinks is right. It’s a calling–and one that is often at the expense of his vocation (whatever it happens to be at any given time.)
And should Peter get killed or crippled while running around outside the confines of the law and enforcing his own personal brand of justice, what happens to that child? Peter lost his Uncle Ben–can he allow the possibility of his own child having to cope with the same kind of loss solely because of his own sense of guilt?
I don’t think so. That’s not the Peter Parker I know.
If Peter wanted to be a cop, or a soldier, then he could easily become one, especially with his powers and his scientific background. But he doesn’t. He continues to operate on his own, because becoming Spider-Man was ultimately a childish decision, a selfish decision, about personal atonement.
Once you become a parent, your child becomes the center of your world. (For those who are arguing this, I’m guessing that you don’t have children–or hoping, at any rate.) At that point, Peter cannot in good conscience put his own wants and desires ahead of the welfare of his child. he cannot be Spider-man if there is any possibility that doing so will cause pain to his offspring.
As some have said, there are plenty of other super heroes. And no matter how much Spider-Man does, people still die, tragedies still happen. We want to see Peter fight on because that is the story that we enjoy–but given this set of circumstances, it doesn’t make any sense for him to do so. Once Spider-Man brings another life into the world, his greatest responsibility is to that life.
I couldn’t agree more. Peter Parker with a child does not work if he chooses to continue on as Spider-Man. I feel the same way about him in marriage too. When you choose to bring someone into your life permanently or bring a life into this world, and your whole sense of morality and everything you do is based off responsibility, how do you keep being a vigilante? It’s not fair to the people in your life who you have made vows to. Comparing a vigilante, even one doing the right thing, to a police officer or a soldier is a poor comparison. It’s not even close to the same thing on any level. Being a vigilante when you have a wife or husband and a kid at home is selfish and not responsible at all in my opinion.
And let’s not forget, for police officers, if they’re killed in the line of duty, there’re pensions and life insurance and things like that to help the officers family. Spider-Man doesn’t get that. If Spider-Man is killed, there’s no life insurance, nothing of that kind, just a child that doesn’t have a father anymore
