The first time I "met" with Spider-Man, I was three years old. I was watching TV on a Saturday morning when I saw an episode of a Spider-Man cartoon. I couldn't remember what the episode was about, but I do remember being so enthralled at the dude in the red and blue spandex shooting webs and swinging through New York City. This was the start of my love affair with Marvel.
When we visited the US last year, a trip to NYC was necessary. And while we were there, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was in the middle of filming. My head was spinning and turning, looking for any sign of the cast and crew. Sadly, I didn't get to see any of them, but I was half-expecting a red-and-blue blur to swing past me. Because come on, that was Spider-Man. The Spider-Man. I even wanted to see the Green Goblin because that was Harry Osborn! Harry. Osborn. Can't go wrong with the perfectly flawed friendship of Peter Parker and Harry Osborn.
Spider-Man is, quite frankly, the hero of geeky and awkward teenagers around the world. I was an awkward kid. I was loud, but I was an awkward kid. I have a bad case of word vomit and literally do not filter what I say sometimes. There were times when my classmates and teachers would glare at me for spouting out things I'm not supposed to say. I worked on it and it's not as bad as before (I mean it's still there but not as much or whatever). While I am inspired by a lot of things, Spider-Man will always be my word-vomit/sassy-comeback inspiration.
But let's not forget the iconic Spider-Man line: With great power comes great responsibility. My parents always taught me to be responsible for a lot of things. And when I'm made in-charge of something, I have to be responsible. I met a lot of people who always slacked off when they got to higher ground. And I deal with this kind of people all the time. Literally, all the time. Since I was in elementary, I've met loads of freeloaders and credit-grabbers. Surprise, surprise, these people still exist (when did they ever cease to exist anyway?) and they're getting better at it every single time. There was a time when I became a class officer and the class president offloaded her work to me and made me do everything. I took it, I did the job, and being a sneaky little "pest", told the adviser about it. The president was so mad at me, she confronted me about it in class. I just shrugged it off and told her, "Spider-Man would be so disappointed in you for not taking your responsibilities seriously." She was annoyed even more because I just compared her to a fictional character--that a fictional character was so much better than she was.
But the thing I love the most about Spider-Man is that even with all the things thrown at him--Gwen's death, Harry becoming the Green Goblin, his powers that he has no idea what to do with initially, the city pretty much painting him as a vigilante/criminal--he still manages to be fun. The sarcasm just drips off him and he just finds more ways to annoy people and have fun with it. Like Deadpool (which is also another character who is so awesome but we really must not delve into now because this blog could only take so much sarcasm and I'm already giving it too much). He doesn't run out of comebacks ever. Like even in the midst of chaos and insanity, he still screws you over by playing around like the kid he is. Because that's what he is: a kid.
18 years later, I've seen the five Spider-Man movies (the three Sam Raimis and two Marc Webbs), seen the cartoons, read Spider-Man comics in my spare time (which is scarce, by the way, because I read a lot of books, watch a lot of series and movies, hang out with my friends and family, and Tumblr), and read fanfiction here and there. Spider-Man is one of the things I stick to when I need to get away from reality. Like right now. I always said that I'm so emotionally-invested in a lot of things, but I'm only emotionally-invested in these things when I know I get something out of it.
Frankly speaking, I always wanted to try swinging from the New York City skyscrapers.
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