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When Everyone Is Spider-Man ...

So I mentioned a possible project yesterday, and I've started research on it by plunging into the cartoon. But I'm still undecided on whether I'm going to do it because ... Well, it's going to depend on whether my enthusiasm survives all the cringing.

Okay, the series isn't awful, and there are a couple of episodes that I think are quite good. But there are some creative choices that baffle me. (Unless they reflect executive meddling; executive meddling can explain a lot of bad decision-making.) Take, for instance, the addition of Miles Morales to the cast.

Now, I have nothing against Miles Morales, since I don't even know him from the comics. And I've no objection to adding someone called "Miles Morales" to a "Peter Parker" continuity. But as for putting him in a "Peter Parker" show and giving him spider powers right alongside Peter, which is what they do in Episode 10--

Well, remember Syndrome's line in The Incredibles? "When everyone is special, no one will be." Yeah, that's the line I'm alluding to in this entry's title.

If everyone gets to be Spider-Man, then no one is Spider-Man.

It's not just that making Miles another Spider-Man makes the original 50% less special. The real problem is that it doubles the number of people who are exactly alike. Does Peter have spider powers? So does Miles. Is Peter a science genius? So is Miles. Is Peter a goofy nerd? So is Miles. Is Peter sassy? So is Miles. Are they both scrawny and tend to get bullied? Yes and yes, and every other similarity you can think of would get answered with a "yes" as well.**

When you're writing a story, "more of the same" does not make for a good thing. It makes for a bad thing, because when the supply of anything goes up, the value of it goes down.

There is value in having diversity of character. But skin color is not diversity of character, and skin color is the only difference between Peter and Miles when you put them in a scene together.

I would have the same objection (only with the names reversed) if the series started with Miles as Spider-Man and then added Peter. Why are you adding this second character, this "Peter Parker" guy, who is exactly like Miles, the character you introduced first?

And all this is only an extreme instance of the series's inability to distinguish between its four teenaged justice-friends. Anya Corazon and Gwen Stacy differ from each other only in ethnicity, and they differ from the boys only because of their gender. (Okay, there's one other difference to align with the gender difference: the girls are noticeably bitchy and catty, while the guys are goofy.) But they are all super-smart, uninterested in anything that isn't "teh science" (or what passes for "science" in this show; it can't even figure out how the periodic table works), and have identical competencies across all academic fields. Except for the girls' bitchiness, you could switch almost any of these characters for any of the others by changing names in the script, and no one would ever notice.

And how can you go 10 episodes into a Spider-Man series without J. Jonah Jameson being so much as mentioned in an aside? That's another creative choice that astounds me.

Anyway, that's where I am now: Ten episodes in and wondering if the show isn't going to beat the enthusiasm out of me. But I am currently on track to have the series watched by the start of next week.

**Edited to add: To be clear, the problem isn't just or even mainly that there are two similarly powered individuals at play together. Batman and Robin also have similar ... powers. Or at least techniques. The real problem is that there is nothing else to differentiate Peter and Miles but their possession or lack of spider-powers. Batman and Robin have very different personalities, for instance. If Peter and Miles had complementary personalities, it would be much less of a problems.

But I do think it would still be something of a problem. Part of Spider-Man's appeal (I think) is the uniqueness of Peter's situation -- not only that he has spider-powers but that their acquisition--not possession, their acquisition--made such a huge difference to his life. If he hadn't got them, certain sequel events would not have led to his uncle's death. That, not their subsequent use in crime-fighting, is what makes them important to him and makes them also important to us. But if the same powers are going to be handed around like Halloween candy, then you cut those powers off from the character development that made them important.

An attribute is not important. What a character does with the attribute is what is important to a story, because what he does with it makes it meaningful to him in a particular way. What Peter did (and did not do) when he initially got his powers is what makes those powers important to him. Similarly with Batman: that his parents were murdered doesn't make him unique. It's what he did with that tragedy that makes it important to him.