• Taken from the Marvel Website page on Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face.  An excellent read.

I hope you remember the dark mood we left on last time because today I want to jump right back in there.  Spider-Man Noir is a structure carved out of black and grey stone.  The origin issue takes place in the 1930s in an alternate universe.  The United States is in the midst of the great depression, and New York drudges through the middle of an equally dismal winter.

Times are rough and the city is caught fast in a vice grip between a local government that is corrupt all the way through to the Mayor, and a crime boss who calls himself “The Goblin” (Familiar, no?).  Hope is scarce in the eyes of the people, and to those who have knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes, hope is a dirty word that can get a person killed.

I don’t want to give away the story to those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, but let us say this much:  in this series of four graphic novels, we see a very different spiderman from the classic portrayed by Toby Maguire in 2002.  1930’s Peter Parker is filled with cold fury toward the gangsters oppressing his city, and he does not pull his punches.

His approach is so far and away different than the “new” Spider-Man that you could argue they are not the same character anymore.  This older origin Spiderman won’t hesitate to act swiftly on someone he has decided is a threat to society, and the gun we see him carrying on the cover art is not for decoration.

To be honest, I would not have fallen in love with this Spider-Man as a child.  The Spidey I knew was good, honest, and had a rigid moral fiber.  This one believes himself to be good, and he is honest, but his rage is what drives him to act.

I know what you are going to say: every Spidey kills the man who killed Uncle Ben!  You are right, reader, as always.  Spider-Man learns a valuable lesson from his first major take-down in every universe, and you will just have to read the second installment of Noir to find out if Parker learned anything from this one.

One last thing I will say in reflection:  While I identified with Spider-Man from a position of personal loss, as I too lost my father at a young age, and I found it cathartic to follow him through the journey of grief… This Spider-Man scares me.  In him, I see a version of myself that is never too far away from the present.  If you’ll bear with me while I switch universes for a moment, “You see, madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!” (The Joker- aka Heath Ledger- in the final scenes).

What do I mean by that?

I mean that in everyone who has experienced a traumatic loss, such as violent the death of a father figure, there sleeps a beast.  I don’t mean the kind of beast that can pump you full of adrenaline to lift a car off of a baby or save your life.  I’m talking about a cold, reptilian beast.  You could call it an icy fury, or an unfocused rage, as I mentioned in a piece earlier this week.

This kind of anger isn’t like a normal flash of bad judgment, where our inhibitions are temporarily drowned out by an emotion we can no longer stomach and we consider or do something unwise.  An icy fury numbs us to the implications of our decisions.  We are totally aware of our actions and we have decided not to care.  We have a madness in us that waits to flip our values over onto their heads, and with the right pushes it will happen.

I think that scares me about Noir’s Peter Parker.  I saw him pushed, I understood his feelings, and knew I would act exactly the same way in his position.  As a child, that would scare me because I knew not to feed the beast.  As an adult, it horrifies me to know an emotional part of me will act separately from my logical mind given the proper catalyst.

Noir served as a case study for me despite its fantastical setting and events.  The human realism spoke a truth that makes a person uncomfortable.  Despite that, I couldn’t put it down until I finished it and wanted more after it was done.

I highly recommend you take a look at Spider-Man Noir’s origin issue and see for yourself.  9 Bananas out of 10 from me.

What do you think about it?

Regards,

M