You know what my favourite thing about Into the Spider Verse is?
Marvel have spent over a decade insisting that Peter Parker’s character has to be “Kept Young” to have any appeal, and have gone out of their way to enforce the idea of “Spider-man is about youth” in both comics and adapted media.
They had his marriage to Mary Jane undone via deal with Mephisto, because supposedly having him married made him unrelatable to the target audience but having him be a divorcee would age him too much, so this was somehow their best option despite… you know, the whole thing spitting in the face of everything Peter’s character is supposed to be about.
Pretty much the majority of Spider-man media since the Raimi movies ended has featured Peter as a High-schooler and a teenager. Every cartoon that’s been made since Spectacular has kept him in High-school, in Avengers EMH he was only about 18 at most, in the Amazing Spider-man movies he only graduated High School in the second movie and then that series got abruptly cut short, and the MCU has basically cemented him as “The teenaged Avengers fanboy” character, with an entire trilogy planned to focus on Peter in high school.
It’s really only in video games that we’ve gotten a version of Peter that isn’t a teenager in the last decade outside of the comics, with the comics themselves making a point to mentally regress Peter to the chagrin of many long-time fans.
Marvel have been insistent that “Young, teenaged Peter Parker” Should be the default and that it’s where the character is at his most iconic and appealing…
And then Spider-Verse gave us Peter B Parker, a version of Peter who’s in his late 30′s and going through a mid-life crisis, has stubble and a beer belly, is a mentor figure to a new teenaged superhero, and has a character arc that concludes with him deciding to reconcile with his ex-wife after deciding he wants to be a father even knowing the risks involved…
I love Spider-man no matter what, either as a teenager or as an adult, as Peter Parker or as Miles Morales. I adore the 2 films Rami made and Tom Holland’s Spidey. But I can say for sure that Peter B Parker was a breathe of fresh air.
I’m aware of the rumours. I’m also aware that they’re not true.
Someone made them up a very long time ago because they disliked him, and they’ve circulated ever since.
Because this website is full of teenagers. And teenagers throw around accusations that ruin people’s reputations over petty reasons. Then the reasons get forgotten and the accusations stick around, being perpetuated by people who heard it from someone who heard it from someone.
The particular reason at play here was shipping drama, if you can believe that. People forget how heated that stuff got.
I’ve looked into this myself before. PGP okayed me sharing screenshots of the conversation. Nothing I found in any callouts conflicts his account, so I’m more inclined to believe the person I’ve known for years and has done nothing problematic in living memory, than the account of random asker #whatever.
Apparently there’s a callout post circulating right now that also implicates me just for… daring to question what other people tell me to do, I guess. Anyway, people following me know I’m not a pedophile and wouldn’t associate with one. So whatever.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
