Why Spider-Man 2 Is a Better Election Barometer than F911

Frank Rich has a fascinating analysis of why Spider-Man 2 says a lot more about how Americans are viewing the world than Michael Moore's successful polemic. While F911 is being gobbled up by a narrow slice of society - those that both care about politics and are willing to pay money to see a documentary - Spider-Man 2 has taken America by storm! Why? Rich suggests it is because Spidey reflects exactly what we in America see as being uniquely American, even in a post-9/11 world.

"With great power comes great responsibility" is the central tenet of his faith, passed down not from God but from his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). He takes it seriously. Spider-Man wants to vanquish evil, but he doesn't want to be reckless about it. Like the reluctant sheriff of an old western, he fights back only when a bad guy strikes first, leaving him with no alternative. He wouldn't mind throwing off his Spider-Man identity entirely to go back to being just Peter Parker, lonely Columbia undergrad. But of course he can't. This is 2004, and there is always evil bearing down on his New York...Whatever inner equivocation he suffers over his role as a superhero, he stops playing Hamlet when he has a decision to make.

I really think Mr. Rich may have something here. It may explain why Spider-Man has in many ways overtaken Superman as the most popular comic book character of all time. Superman is our ideal world - a wise, all-powerful force to police the world who is never wrong. But Spider-Man is closer to how we really see ourselves - struggling to maintain our ideals in a hostile world, using our power responsibly but occasionally messing it up or having the wrong priority at the wrong moment. A flawed hero who nonetheless gets up every morning with the desire to save the world.