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Stephen King once credited Stan Lee as being probably the one man most responsible for keeping the comic book from going the way of the dime novel. King's statement may be hyperbole, but there's no doubt Lee's troubled high schooler (who eventually graduated to troubled university student, troubled grad student, and is now a troubled teacher) greatly influenced the superhero genre.

For example, note the influence of the irascible editor of The Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson. Before Jameson appeared, superheroes enjoyed a free ride in the press. Masks or no masks, they were the Good Guys, pure and simple.  Not to this cigar-chomping amalgam of greed and paranoia. Jameson's stinging editorials, and the suspicion they caused, drove Peter Parker to despair.

Things got so bad that Peter quit his double life

On one memorable occasion, it got so bad that Peter quit his double life. What fan can forget that full-page illustration, in Amazing Spider-Man No. 50 (July, 1967) of Parker trudging out a dark alley in the rain? Behind him lies his costume in a garbage can. (The scene was portrayed to good effect in Spider-Man 2.)

The fears of JJJ bore bitter fruit. No longer does the comic book public trust its self-appointed protectors. Echoes of an enemy editor can be heard in the pages of deconstructionist superhero series like Watchmen and Powers, as well as in the animated film The Incredibles. Marvel's recent mini-series, Civil War, introduces a government-sponsored Superhuman Registration Act requiring the heroes to register with the federal government, revealing their true identities in the process. Spider-Man himself publicly unmasks in CW No. 2.

Through the decades, Peter Parker's life has changed relatively little. He lost the love of his life, Gwen Stacy (set to reappear in Spider-Man 3 ), but found solace in the arms of Mary Jane Watson. He and "MJ" married in 1987.

Though most fans cheered the nuptials, they refused to accept other changes.

A black costume of alien origin (a version of it appears in the new movie) came and went quickly. The ill-starred "Clone Saga," which revealed that Peter Parker wasn't the genuine article, met with a massive outcry. Fans dislike major alterations to series characters with whom they've bonded.

So Spider-Man, like Superman before him, has pretty much become a symbol of the status quo. He's there to love and appreciate for what he is—with brings us back to the trait we most love about him: He doesn't always win. Peter Parker may get his life together for a while, but it doesn't stay that way.

Spider-Man 2 perfectly captured that quality. Peter can't keep a job. He's always short of cash. He's a hero to some, a villain to others. He doesn't get the girl—until the end of the movie … and even then, the final shot reveals MJ's anxiety over their relationship.

Clark Kent is merely the disguise of a god who walks among us. Yet, costumed or not, with or without powers, Peter Parker remains Peter Parker—a regular joe like the rest of us.

Was Spidey's cruciform rescue messianic?

This is why—in my view—the messianic imagery didn't work in Spider-Man 2. Spidey saves a runaway train in cruciform pose, receiving a wound in his side, and symbolically dying and rising again. Though the metaphor seems to fit Superman—a being from beyond come to save us—on Peter Parker it fits like Saul's armor on young David. It distracts us from his flawed humanity. He's on a mission, true, born of the death of one who loved and guided him.But he's not here to save the world. He's in New York City, where he was born and raised, to do what he can with what he has.

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Spidey Gets Spiritual	Printer view
As Spider-Man 3 releases to theaters, director Sam Raimi and cast talk about the biblical themes and spiritual imagery in the movies—especially in the latest chapter.