Peter Parker Does the Right Thing (But Not the Heroic Thing) in Spider-Man (2002)

Note: This week’s issue contains a few spoilers, but, like, it’s Spider-Man. You’ve either seen Spider-Man or you already know the general plot of Spider-Man or you don’t care about the plot of Spider-Man being spoiled for you. But in any case, you’ve been briefed.

I’ve been revisiting the original Spider-Man trilogy lately as part of a Sam Raimi binge I’ve been on (which is basically the only reason I watched and wrote about The Gift). And I’m pleased to report that my teenage self wasn’t wrong: Spider-Man is really good! And Spider-Man 2 is even better! (We will not be discussing Spider-Man 3 today.)

But there’s a scene that bothers me. It’s a bit of comic logic that both upholds a rather nuance-free equation of “good” and “evil” and demonstrates harsh consequences for being on the “wrong” side of that equation. I’m talking, of course, about the robbery scene—the one where Peter absolutely does the right thing (albeit not this film’s definition of the “heroic” thing) despite what happens next.

If you’ve seen this film, you know it well. After Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and blessed with all his spider-like abilities, he signs up for an underground wrestling contest that offers $3000 cash for anyone who can last three minutes in the ring with Bonesaw, their gladiator in residence.* Naturally, Peter gets his ass kicked for a minute, but then he does some Spider-Man stuff and winds up knocking Bonesaw out. The crowd goes wild!

And then Peter gets immediately screwed over. When he goes to collect his prize money, the promoter offers him a measly $100 bill, and Peter naturally objects, only to be met with this response: “Well check [the ad] again, web-head. It said three grand for three minutes. And you pinned him in two. For that, I give you a hundred, and you’re lucky to get that.” When Peter tells him that he needs the money, the promoter doesn’t budge: “I missed the part where that’s my problem.”

Folks, there are several things wrong here.

There’s the obvious exploitation of labor, of course. The promoter references what the ad says, but he avoids what the ad doesn’t say, i.e. any sort of fine-print disclosure statement hinting at a breach of contract if the contestant is too good at wrestling. It’s a pure technicality that was surely used to exploit others in the past. Would Spider-Man’s case hold up in court if he were to sue the New York Wrestling League? I don’t know, because I didn’t go to law school.**

Beyond the simple issue of fairness—Peter should at least be entitled to $2000 for his services—there’s the fact that this man is, quite simply, a bad wrestling promoter! Even if he didn’t immediately pick up on Peter’s superpowers, at the very least, he just watched a teenage boy knock out his prizefighter in a cage match…and all he can think about is cutting his losses for the day? This guy has no long-term vision. He should be thanking Peter for whipping the crowd into a frenzy. He should be begging Peter to come back and be his new prizefighter. And frankly, he should’ve had a contract ready to sign right after the match.

Instead, seconds after Peter leaves the promoter’s office in disgust, a dude enters and robs the promoter at gunpoint, taking all the money that he’d just unjustly withheld. Then, as Peter lets the robber run right past him, the promoter says “You could’ve taken that guy apart, now he’s gonna get away with my money!” He even emphasizes the “my” there—right to Peter’s face! So naturally Peter flips it on him with his own words from a moment ago: “I missed the part where that’s my problem.”

But you know what really grinds my gears about this scene? It’s what happens next.

Of course, this robber immediately shoots and kills Peter’s uncle while trying to carjack him. And then Peter is left shouldering a tremendous amount of guilt, knowing that if he’d apprehended the robber, Uncle Ben would still be alive. But that’s unfair. It’s even more unfair than the promoter shorting him $2900, I think. Because it buys into a chaos theory of sorts, implying that we’re all to blame when a tragic event happens because we didn’t act differently during the moments leading up to the event.***

Frankly, Peter was right to not risk his life to help the man that just ripped him off. In fact, one could argue that by letting the robber breeze by him and get on the elevator, Peter eliminated (or at least lessened) the probability that the robber would fire the gun.****

And yet, the guilt. A guilt so palpable, in fact, that it spills over into Spider-Man 2. He finally tells Aunt May what happened: “It all happened so fast. I won the money, and the guy wouldn’t pay me. Then he got robbed. The thief was running towards me. I could’ve stopped him but I wanted…revenge. I let him go. I let him get away…Uncle Ben was killed that night for being the only one who did the right thing.” Then he puts his hand on hers to at once provide solace and seek forgiveness, but she pulls her hand away in disgust and leaves the table. Aunt May eventually does forgive him, but man, that moment is cold.

But did Peter actually do the wrong thing? In Peter’s mind, Uncle Ben did the “right” thing by standing up for himself and not letting himself be pushed around by a criminal.***** Isn’t that what Peter did as well? I’d like to think so.

*Macho Man Randy Savage gives an all-time great “celebrity playing a slight variation of themselves” performance here. Whenever someone asks me if I’m ready for something, my brain always wants me to say “BONESAW IS READY,” because my brain is weird.

**If you did go to law school, please comment below and let me know if Peter would have a case here.

***There’s probably a term for this sort of logical fallacy that’s escaping me right now. Again, I did not go to law school.

****Yes, Spider-Man has his spidey sense and he could’ve likely disarmed the robber. But would he have had time to prevent him from firing a bullet? I’m not so sure. Especially considering he was just figuring out how to harness his powers. (Do I sound like I went to law school yet? Because I did not.)

*****We could even use the same logic in Uncle Ben’s case: Had he stepped aside and let this same robber get away with his car, he would’ve lived to see another day. But I’ve already done enough faux lawyering.

Spider-Man is now streaming on Netflix, Hulu, AMC+, and DirecTV, and it is available for rent elsewhere.