Editorial: Stop Sending Spider-Man Back To High School

[Chris Wood]

Amazing Friends stuck to the fun side of college life while the solo series would show him stressing over school and work deadlines. Neither show was slice of life so this was thankfully never the most important part of an episode. It's just the little details that remind us Peter is a regular guy that still has his own issues to deal with when the mask is off.

I think the 1981 solo series remains the most accurate animated adaptation of the first few decades of the comic. As you said, you get some nice moments with JJJ and Aunt may in addition to the superheroing. It doesn't have MJ, Flash, or Harry, and there is a bit too much Doctor Doom, but otherwise it feels like one is watching the comic.

 

[wonderfly]

"Amazing Friends stuck to the fun side of college life".

Never thought if like that, but you're right. I'm sure it was largely influenced by the era (as I mentioned earlier in this thread, Peter Parker in the comics didn't graduate college until 1979). Also, there was a lot of late 70's movies that portrayed college as "wacky adventures"....

I wanted my college years to be like "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" (1981). Instead, I had to work 30 hours a week and be in class another 20 hours a week.

 

[Chris Wood]

"Amazing Friends stuck to the fun side of college life".

Never thought if like that, but you're right. I'm sure it was largely influence by the era (as I mentioned earlier in this thread, Peter Parker in the comics didn't graduate college until 1979). Also, there was a lot of late 70's movies that portrayed college as "wacky adventures"....

I wanted my college years to be like "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" (1981). Instead, I had to work 30 hours a week and be in class another 20 hours a week.

Yeah, I didn't have a roommate who looked like Angelica either. Oh well.

 

[Rick Jones]

The 81 solo show really felt like it was taking inspiration from the 1967 series in some ways, especially with Betty Brant being the recurring love interest. Even when a redhead shows up in Peter's life, it's Medusa and not MJ. This show was my first real introduction to Doctor Doom, so he didn't feel out of place to me as a kid. It remained a natural rivalry in my head to the point that the first Spidey comic i bought with my own money as a kid was an issue of Spider-Man Classics, reprinting their first run-in. That comic was also where I learned he was the FF's main villain.

I don't know where things will be after Friendly Neighborhood Season 1 but I'm wondering if Marvel will push college aged Peter after the next movie. I'm personally considering Friendly Neighborhood a What If...? spin-off like Marvel Zombies is. So it only makes sense in my head that a more popular X-Men 97 would lead way to an adult 90s Spider-Man coming back as well, in some form.

 

[wonderfly]

I don't know where things will be after Friendly Neighborhood Season 1 but I'm wondering if Marvel will push college aged Peter after the next movie. I'm personally considering Friendly Neighborhood a What If...? spin-off like Marvel Zombies is. So it only makes sense in my head that a more popular X-Men 97 would lead way to an adult 90s Spider-Man coming back as well, in some form.

In order for Marvel (or rather, Disney) to stop putting Peter in High School, it's going to require the next Spider-Man movie (with Tom Holland) to be a big success, showing the natural progression of the character.

Also, if Disney will "take the hint" (going by X-Men '97's success) and do a "Spider-Man '98", that would be another way to get Spider-Man back in college.

 

[Pattern_Maker]

Also, if Disney will "take the hint" (going by X-Men '97's success) and do a "Spider-Man '98", that would be another way to get Spider-Man back in college.

Wasn't Peter out of college in the final season? He and the clone Mary Jane got married and all.

 

[Rick Jones]

I don't think we ever saw him officially leave college

 

[The Overlord]

I strongly agree with this editorial. Let Spider-man be more adult I say.

Making Pete a high school student by itself does not bother me too much. What gets me is:

1) Making him look like a very young high schooler. In the image above, he looks like a goofy freshman, a little too childlike and slender to be going up against murderous supervillains. If he has to be in high school, make him a more adult-looking mature senior.

2) Focusing the series on the school experience. I want a series about Spider-man battling the sinister Green Goblin, not a series about Pete and his buddies battling the big, scary math test. In Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981-83), Pete is a college student, but his academic life rarely comes up as a plot point. There's a episode with a student Halloween dance on campus, but I think that's about it. Otherwise he is primarily off-campus roaming about the city, with little mention of campus life. I'd prefer that approach.

To be fair, Spider-Man being a normal guy with normal problems is part of the appeal of the character, he is supposed to have trouble balancing being a superhero with his professional and personal life.


It's just that life's challenges become different in high school than college or trying to start your career, if they keep on sending Peter Parker back to highschool, he just faces the same challenges over and over again.

 

[Red Arrow]

I thought having Spider-Man as a teenager was the norm? Is it different in the comics?

 

[JMTV]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of making Spider Man into a teenager. What would be the point of a Spider MAN if you're just gonna make Peter Parker into a Disney Channel teeny-bopper just to appeal to the kiddies.

Just make Peter Parker into a adult, and call it a day.

 

[Webbed-Wonder]

I thought having Spider-Man as a teenager was the norm? Is it different in the comics?

He was in high school for the first 28 issues of Amazing Spider-Man only and then he's been in and out of college ever since, being out of his teens for pretty much 50 years worth of stories hovering in his mid to late 20s.

 

[Frontier]

I don't think we ever saw him officially leave college

Yeah, there was never a graduation episode. I think the last time his college life was relevant was the episode where Deb Whitman and Flash hook up (I think it was one of the Morbius/Blade episodes?).

 

[Chris Wood]

To be fair, Spider-Man being a normal guy with normal problems is part of the appeal of the character, he is supposed to have trouble balancing being a superhero with his professional and personal life.


It's just that life's challenges become different in high school than college or trying to start your career, if they keep on sending Peter Parker back to highschool, he just faces the same challenges over and over again.

I like the normal problems angle, but as you suggest I'd rather see Pete deal with adult problems than with teen problems. Spider-man 2 with Maguire handled his day to day struggles perfectly.