• “Spider-Man Noir” cover art taken from Marvel Website

I put what my wife would label an “unreasonable” amount of time into swinging and flinging myself around in a rat-race to rescue New York City lately.  I am dutifully squeezing every ounce of my money’s worth from the new Spider-Man video game title that I can.  Admitting to being a Spider-Man fanboy brokers no guilt in today’s happily Marvel-obsessed world.  A lot of geeks likely take offense at main populace encroaching on their sacred and hallowed ground.   It’s an easy thing to turn up your nose at or ignore, but let us take a moment to appreciate the now somewhat antiquated position of the comic book geek.

Imagine a difficult home-life where you feel that your parents and family don’t understand your needs.  Perhaps your needs are in fact going unmet.  You are thinking, “Yes, you’ve just described almost every teenager who has ever lived.” And you are right, but keep your pants on because I’m not done.

Now imagine that you are unable to connect with 98% of the people around you.  You don’t excel in socially valued subjects, are not talented physically or just not interested in sport or competition.  Perhaps you have a physical disability or a learning disorder that effectually alienates from everyone around you, including your peers, and you may have one friend that shares a few interests with you.  Perhaps that friend is just as reticent and guarded as you are.  Whatever the cause, you are trapped in a glass box you can’t see or feel and watching a boring life take place around you, intermittently lit by lanterns of interest that you pass but cannot linger on, as the world and everyone in it is shuffling you along.

Take that version of yourself to a comic book store and imagine the wonder when you pick up a graphic novel.  Here is a world where someone with the power you want lives, the power to act and change things.  You pick up a graphic novel and see painted on it some echo of your best self.  You are looking at a personification of some ideal.  Whether they be moral or not depends on the graphic novel and character; but the point is: they are strong, justified, and dynamic.

Suddenly you have the power to choose a world to immerse yourself in, where the social pressures that haunt every single moment of your life out of bed can’t reach you.  You watch someone you identify with learn, fail, struggle, and eventually succeed in a version of the struggle that you are facing.  Whether it inspires you to act in your own life or just offers a moment of peace and relief from your stress, that world becomes your sanctuary, and it is something you hold dear to yourself.

Johnny Rocket is the captain of the football team, and that is his thing.  Sam is a rock climber, Sarah is a tennis star, Jimmy is good at math, and all of them get to feel special because of it.  You have your world.  You go there often, you invest your emotions there and connect with characters that teach you life lessons through their stories.  On a certain level, you still feel the pang of jealousy towards the easy way everyone else floats through life.

How you must feel when Jimmy, Sarah, Sam, and Old Johnny Rocket come tromping into your world.  Suddenly they claim to love your world, too, but not you with it.  They are as distant as they have ever been and invading your world to boot.  Graphic novels are a passing scene to them.  Something to be enjoyed and perhaps deeply appreciated, but never more than a hobby.  Like you were shuffled past all the fleeting interests you held before arriving, they will all depart in the same way and leave you feeling all the emptier for it.  Your novels, your world, won’t be enough for them and knowing that hurts you.

Sad, isn’t it?  But deep down in the subconscious, that is what a lot of nerds (or at least one nerd) are feeling when they lash out passive-aggressively at those who tread in their territory, so bear that in mind before you scoff or roll your eyes.

I want to get into Spider-Man Noir, though.  It’s a short series painted in a shade at least as dark as the picture I’ve crafted for you above, albeit with a different brush.  Keep reading on to my next piece and I’ll try to land this plane with my impressions from Spiderman lately.

Mad Respect,

M