With all the buzz surrounding the blockbuster hit "Spider-man 3," many people could easily be misled into viewing it as another nerdy fantasy about some weakling wearing overly-tight pants. In fact, if you look at any of the big trilogies — "X-Men," "Star Wars" and "Spider-man" — you will find that deep down they are all about good ol' USA.
Don't believe me? Yeah, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar with no symbolism intended. And sometimes a web-wielding nerd is just a web-wielding nerd. But just look at one scene where New York puts on a symbolic red-and-blue parade in Spidey's honor. It looks an awful lot like a political campaign. Spidey becomes cocky with his new fame, and ends up using his power to harm others — he even tries to kill someone.
This is what many people are saying about America today. They complain that since we're the world's only superhuman — er, I mean, superpower — we have begun to take our power for granted, and are using that power to arbitrarily control other countries.
Think I'm reading too much into it? Take a good look at any trilogy made within the last decade.
Even look at "X-Men 3." In that film, the government is taking measure after measure to take away the liberty of mutants for the sake of society's own safety. One good character, Jean Grey, becomes the lustful Phoenix and uses her power to sow destruction wherever she goes.
Even better, look at the new "Star Wars" movies. Like Parker, Anakin Skywalker is coming to grips with being powerful. Unlike "Spider-man," however, the commentary in "Star Wars" is extremely blatant. Anakin Skywalker's master, Senator Palpatine, does away with the senate and Princess Amidala even dismally proclaims that "democracy is dying."
At one point, when Anakin's power is challenged, he says "you're either for me or against me." Many commentators have compared this to George W. Bush's famous saying, "You're either with us or the terrorists."
The powers invested in the dictator are compared to the losses of personal freedom that came with the Patriot Act.
As Anakin becomes more and more powerful, he becomes more jaded. Even though in the first installment he starts out as an innocent youth, by the third installment he has morphed into Darth Vader.
I suppose it's just a coincidence that in the third installment of "Spider-man," Peter Parker also ends up wearing all black and succumbs to his own superpowers. Except this time, it's actually in New York.
And here we run into even more commentary. Anakin Skywalker and Spider-man both look for vengeance because a close family member was killed. They use their power to make sure that such crimes never happen again. In "Spider-man 3" the killer of Peter Parker's Uncle Ben is the notorious villain the Sandman.
The Sandman is often depicted as sand whirling through Manhattan like an ominous plume of smoke. When I tell people it's a nod to the World Trade Center, they say that's far-fetched. When I remind them of the giant American flag that is shown waving in the wind right before the Sandman is defeated though, they begin to wonder if there is a patriotic theme.
If you play a thematic game of connect the dots, anyone can see that this is a common story of a good person with awesome powers turning into a bad guy. Peter Parker, Darth Vader and the Phoenix all use their power at first for justice, but then it becomes mere vengeance against those who have wronged them. We have Islamic Fascists who terrorized New York and flew planes into two of our tallest buildings.
Some said that event made us go crazy, if not stupid, and Iraq has been luring our country toward hubris, towards "the dark-side" or toward the way of Venom (Spider-man's arch-nemesis).
But then why is "Spider-man 3" such an optimistic movie? Unlike the other trilogies, Spider-man eventually comes to terms with his power, accepts the fact that Uncle Ben is dead and continues to be the superhero that everyone expects him to be.
The fact that we as a nation have matured so much within these last couple of years shows we, no doubt, also will return as the superhero the rest of the world has grown to support and love.
Isaac DeVille is an MSU English junior and State News columnist. Reach him at devillei@msu.edu.
