Spiderman 3 wasn't that great. But still, it did remind me of those symbols of ultimate altruism, the ones who fight for justice without redeeming honour, the ones who put their lives at stake and not expect glory, the ones who give so much of themselves and fly away before the applause - So as the mainstreamed quote goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Just like spidey has his burden from the radioactive spider, so many other superheroes take their burdens from a gift.

Spidey's justification for the mask was that he didn't want his enemies to know who he was, lest they came to hurt his loved ones. I think the Ultimate Spiderman comics give a clearer picture of this injustice to him as he struggles with deleting the voice messages so his Aunt would not hear his teacher questioning why he had skipped school while he was trying to survive a mob at chinatown, and his loner tendencies at school even breaking up with his girlfriend, Mary Jane to protect her from his heroship, vengefully ignoring her plea that "you can't go on living life without any friends..." (Eh.. that was for that issue #80+ I think. I know I'm quite backdated considering that the series has reached about 200+ already? -_- Well, blame Singapore for a lack avenues to purchase them) Its unfair, one would feel, that spidey has to save people without anyone knowing anything about the one behind the mask. Actions would define the person, but when its demonstrated behind a mask, the actions wouldn't really matter...

Although no superhero would see things in such a psychological perspective - but perhaps, on a deeper level, superheroes wear masks because its hard to have dual relationships. Like a consellor who have to establish artificial relationships with his clients, a hero establishes a similar 'moment of empthy' with the people he saves. To be a hero and a friend, to be a disciplinarian and a buddy, a teacher and a relative.. For both to be existant at the same time is difficult.

I sigh at a scene when spidey chats with his Aunt, unable to tell her things because his unable to reveal his identity. As much as he has a close and argubly, deep relationship with her, he still is unable to express certain things because of his mask. Yet, perhaps sometimes thats the way everyone is like. We might not have a tangible mask that gives clear indicators of what we hide, but because of circumstances of a particular nature, there are things we are just incapable of telling someone, not because we don't want to, but just because we're not supposed to - we can't. We need to wear that mask.

And I guess when spidey flys around the city in the night, swinging up to perch onto a building so he may suvey the cityscape, recalling how his fighting this battle with pain and blood, perservering through the struggles while knowing that no body will ever appreciate Peter Parker but only Spider-Man, remembering that he is doing it all alone... It would be because sometimes, he needs the moonshine.

Labels: muse

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