Since his debut in 1962, Spider-Man has offered readers something previously unseen in superhero comics: the coming of age story. Like other superheroes of the day, Spider-Man had a secret identity and a clear divide between his public life as a superhero and his private life as a civilian. But in Spidey's case, his secret identity was Peter Parker, a meek high school student, instead of a fully formed adult-like Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent, and his youth plays a pivotal role in his life as a superhero.
This was a groundbreaking characterization for a hero at the time since it told a coming of age story, as well as a superhero origin story. Over time, the coming of age story has become a staple in Marvel Comics. As such, this makes Spider-Man Marvel's oldest superhero, because his story is firmly rooted in a centuries-old literary genre.
Beyond just telling a narrative about a young person, the core components of a coming of age story rest on the conflict between the protagonist's personal life and the expectations that their society places on them. Aside from learning how to be an adult, the protagonist in a classic coming of age story must also learn how to be a functioning, grown member of their community by internalizing their beliefs. Often times, coming of age protagonists struggle with negotiating between their own viewpoints and the values of their society or culture, and for Peter Parker, this particular problem knows no end.
In Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and later John Romita Sr.'s Amazing Spider-Man run, Peter Parker's youth is consistently emphasized in order to highlight his relatability to readers of all ages. While the series was targeted towards younger people, there is a universality in coming of age stories due to the common experience of growing up. Lee's narration is full of constant reminders of Peter's youthful status, firmly establishing that his story was as much a coming of age story as it was a superhero tale.
For Peter, his journey works on two levels, due to his double life as a high school student and as a superhero. Much of Peter's angst in The Amazing Spider-Man is twofold: he fails to meet social expectations of what a young man should be in his private life as nerdy Peter Parker, and his actions as Spider-Man are often met with ridicule by of the public, especially Daily Bugle editor, J. Jonah Jameson. The two different sets of demands that his private and public lives exact from him make things excessively difficult for Peter to manage at times. Therefore, because Peter lives a double life as a superhero, he faces double the amount of stress from the public world that a protagonist would typically experience because of his two separate identities.
The Amazing Spider-Man marked the first time that a superhero story was folded into the broader genre structure of the coming of age story. It should also be known that the Fantastic Four, a series that Marvel had found much success in at the same time, featured heroes whose real names were known by the general public. As such, Spider-Man emerged as a distinctly new type of hero for Marvel at the time of his debut, facing problems that the other heroes on their roster were well beyond. He worried about relationships, his grades, his relationship with his teachers, and his future in a way that had never been seen before in superhero comics.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
This tension can be seen in the death of Uncle Ben in Amazing Fantasy #15, by Lee and Ditko. Fresh from having filmed a lucrative television special as Spider-Man, Peter lets a thief slip past him despite a police officer calling for help, citing that he is "done with being pushed around," and that he only looks out for himself now. But after discovering that the same thief was also the one that murdered Uncle Ben, Peter comes to the crushing realization that the actions of his public life as Spider-Man have a direct impact on his private life as Peter Parker. The issue ends with Spider-Man's personal mantra: "with great power, there must also come great responsibility."
To Peter, the great power that his abilities provide him requires him to be extra able to both his loved ones and to the people of New York City, operating along the lines of the coming of age story's emphasis on the private and public spheres. This is cause for a considerable amount of consternation that is perhaps a telltale sign of a Spider-Man story. He worries that he is not present enough in the lives of his friends and family, but he also worries that if he fails to be vigilant, something horrible may happen to innocent people somewhere in the city.
Peter Parker: The Troubled Youth
As the protagonist in his own coming of age story, Peter Parker is immensely sensitive to meeting the expectations of both his loved ones as well as the City of New York. In The Amazing Spider-Man #50, after saving a group of people from some robbers, Peter swings through the city wondering why he is such a controversial figure: "Well... who cares what people think, anyway? That's just the trouble–I care!" He grumbles more about how the public loves the Fantastic Four, Aunt May has fallen ill. When he arrives at May's side, he resents his lateness: "If I had been at home... like any other normal guy... they could have reached me fast! But no... I was out flexing my muscles... trying to help the very people who fear me!" Peter's anger reflects the central tension underlying Spider-Man's character: the time he devotes to being either Peter Parker or Spider-Man results in the detriment of the other.
The uneasy relationship that Spider-Man has with the general public takes this staple of coming of age stories to new heights because it explores the roles of superheroes in a new context. Later in The Amazing Spider-Man #50, Peter turns on the news to see J. Jonah Jameson calling for the identity of Spider-Man to be revealed. To Jameson, Spider-Man is an "egomaniac" and "neurotic troublemaker, flaunting his power before the ordinary citizens whom he despises" because he works "outside the law." This sends Peter into an existential crisis where he comes to the conclusion that he truly is a menace, and he throws his Spider-Man suit into the trash. As he walks away from his suit, he thinks, "...every boy sooner or later... must put away his toys... and become a man!"
What is crucial in Peter's reaction to Jameson's words is the legal component to his actions as a superhero. Part of the coming of age story involves the protagonist's internalization (or rejection) of their society's norms, and for Peter, that would certainly entail the legal code. His work as Spider-Man does place him outside the law, and this moment plays out as a specific merging of both the superhero genre and the coming of age genre. In this particular case, the coming of age element to Peter's story actually hinders his life as a superhero as Peter appears to accept the law of his city. Here, Peter's coming of age story usurps his superhero story and effectively antagonizes him as its protagonist.
Peter's words imply that he cannot continue to be Spider-Man in his adulthood, which raises the question of how much Spider-Man's story hinges upon its origins in the coming of age genre. While Spider-Man comics have expanded contrasts with so many characters he works with. Perhaps then it is this push and pulls between the superhero elements and the coming of age genre elements that makes Spider-Man the character that fans have loved for more than half a century.
Without a doubt, Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most beloved characters, because of his relatability to readers of all ages due to the universal experience of trying to find one's place in the world. His narrative hybridity of being both a coming of age story as well as a superhero story has expanded the possibilities for the types of problems that superhero comics can address. For many, Spider-Man is a hero that they can see themselves in, because he makes mistakes just like any other young adult would, thanks to a centuries-old literary genre.
