Posted on 06/05/2002 12:32:25 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The celibate superhero
For Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility
By Chris Suellentrop
SLATE.COM
Spoiler alert: This article gives away plot points of "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones."
June 4 This story, like any story worth telling, is about a girl, Peter Parker intones in the opening line of the summers blockbuster hit Spider-Man. Except its not about a girl. At the films end, Spider-Man wins the girl, as weve come to expect of our movie heroes, but instead of embracing her, he spurns her love.
SPIDER-MAN turns out to be a coming-of-age story about a boy who decides that his moral responsibility to the world at large is too great to allow himself the selfish, singular attachment of romance.
Which sounds a lot like what Roman Catholic priests do. Or are supposed to do, anyway. Many critics have pointed out that Spider-Man unfortunately reminds viewers of the World Trade Center disaster. But the movie also speaks, quite eloquently, to the debate over celibacy in the Catholic Church. By the end of the movie, viewers learn that Spider-Man is celibate, and his superherodom is a calling, a voluntary priesthood.
MORAL OBLIGATIONS
The vow of celibacy in Spider-Man isnt overt. The movie implies that Parker/Spider-Mans decision to rebuff M.J. is made out of a concern for her safety, because Spider-Mans enemies will seek to harm those whom Spider-Man loves. But Parker never considers the alternative: He could abandon being Spider-Man and live a life of normalcy with M.J. No one would be the wiser, and as an added bonus, Parkers roommate, Harry Osborn, wouldnt have to deliver on his vow to avenge his fathers death because Spider-Man would have mysteriously disappeared. (This decision would of course ruin the potential for sequels.)
Instead, Parker/Spider-Man tells M.J. that friendship is all I have to give. Because with great power comes great responsibility, Spider-Man must be wedded to the world. He cant walk away from the moral obligations his powers impose on him.
PRIESTS VS. SUPERHEROES
And its not just Spider-Man. Hardly any movie superheroes get laid, for similar reasons. In the summers other big movie so far, Attack of the Clones, we learn that Jedi (the superheroes for young boys born in the past 30 years or so) are bound by formal vows of celibacy. Anakin Skywalkers decision to break his vow and get busy with Padmé Amidala is one of the acts that leads to the downfall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire and Darth Vader. And in Superman II, Clark Kent/Superman initially makes the same decision that Spidey rejected: He explicitly renounces his superhero powers in order to settle down to an ordinary life with Lois Lane. But by the end of the movie hes realized that the obligations of Superman are too important. He reclaims his powers, defeats General Zod and company, and returns to his lonely, solitary superhero existence.
Whoda thunk it? Hollywood takes celibacy more seriously than most members of the elite Eastern media, whose by-and-large reaction to the churchs pedophilia scandal has been to opportunistically attack a celibacy doctrine they see as outdated and nonsensical. Its startling to see putatively liberal moviemakers portray celibacy as a noble, selfless, even rational endeavor. Of course, its possible that the Hollywood message is more subversive and underhanded than that: Only superheroes are fit for lives of celibacy, and as weve learned, not all priests are superheroes.
Chris Suellentrop is a Slate assistant editor.
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