Spider-man and Invisible Man

By Erwan P.

    The outside source/event I chose was the movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which came out in June 2023. This movie follows Miles Morales reunited with Gwen Stacey and other prominent Spider-Man characters from the first movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as they adventure across different dimensions and explore the multiverse. Miles Morales is confronted with a new powerful foe, the Spot, and the movie follows Miles through his journey to find the answer to what it means to be a hero and how to defeat this new villain. Throughout the movie, there are parallels to "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, especially in the themes of identity and invisibility. In "Invisible Man," the protagonist grapples with the idea of his own identity and struggles throughout the book about how others perceive him, particularly in the context of race. This can also be connected to Miles, as he experiences this as he comes of age. The question of what it means to be a hero causes Miles to struggle with his identity and how his race may play into effect. In "Invisible Man," the protagonist grapples with the struggles of wanting to be seen for his achievements but struggles against a society that has prejudice and only perceives him through race, and in Spider-Man, Miles struggles with the possibility of not living up to the ability of Peter Parker and struggles with his identity of being a hero at such a young age. Furthermore, the protagonist in "Invisible Man" feels invisible due to his race and experiences that society misunderstands him due to their priority of whiteness, while in Spider-Man, Miles' experience as the first black Spider-Man causes him to navigate his own identity and experience his own challenges in day to day life due to potential societal prejudice and others not taking him seriously due to his young age. In addition, both works can be seen as coming stories as the protagonist in Invisible Man has a journey of self-discovery and the idea that society seeks to suppress him, while in Spider-Man, Miles is confronted with his new responsibility and identity, causing him to go on a journey of self-discovery as a hero. Both of these works illustrate the idea of identity and follow the protagonist through their journey of discovering who they are and how they navigate through societal prejudice and their own issues. Comparing these two works draws a conclusion for me that, despite the time difference, social context difference, and the difference between a book and an animated movie, finding oneself, struggling with identity, and feeling invisible is something that nearly everyone experiences and can relate to. Comparing an animated movie about a fictional character that has spider-like abilities to a book that was published in 1952 shows that, despite the time gap, both works address social issues and reflect the human experience of struggling to grasp one's identity and coming of age, suggesting that these themes are timeless, relatability, and able to resonate across any piece of work. This idea then of different contexts and similar themes highlights the versatility of storytelling and how similar themes can be told in various ways. This then raises the question for me: do movie producers or book writers intentionally include a protagonist dealing with identity issues to create a piece of work that is more relatable? It is easy to understand that we enjoy watching or reading things that we relate to, so do movie producers and book writers intentionally create these protagonists with identity issues to attract a greater audience, or is it so relatable and common to have identity issues that it would be weird not to include it in a piece of work?