On Capitalism and Superheroes: And Why Spider-Man Could Be the Best of All
A Look Into Spider-Man’s Cultural Identity in Media
I was four when I watched Raimi’s Spider-Man for the first time.
I was in my living room, hiding behind the couch, fearing my mom would discover me at any moment. My brother was sitting on the recliner, his eyes glued to the TV, looking like a king on his throne.
After all, he did not have to hide to watch that film. He had what our mom liked to call the “older sibling privilege, " allowing him to experience more mature stuff as long as they were still reasonably age-appropriate.
Instead, I could only watch senseless and repetitive cartoons about a bear and the moon being best friends because my mom had decided I was too young to watch something like Spider-Man. Indeed, everybody knows that that type of film can be quite scary to young children while cartoons with talking bears are normal.
But what can I say? I was four and full of hatred towards rules and constrictions, so I waited for my mom to be distracted to sneak into the living room. And what I experienced that day was not simply a movie.
It was the beginning of my love for Spider-Man and the superhero genre. A passion that would follow me to this day, now that analyzing and understanding narrative tropes is fundamental for my job as a filmmaker.
But what is the exact purpose of this article?
You see, while comics or cine-comics often are the source of what many accuse of being “mindless entertainment”, they can also show a lot of depth and curious interpretations if you give them a deeper look.
And even if I am twenty-seven, I am still the same child full of hatred towards rules and constrictions and what’s a bigger system of oppression than Capitalism?
Hence, I want to examine the relationship between superheroes and capitalism, how seemingly harmful ideas can become hidden propaganda, and how Spider-Man might differ in his message and cultural identity from the rest.
To do so, I will analyze the portrayal of Spider-Man and other heroes in various media, including films, comic books, and television.
The Myth of Superheroes
What immediately sparked my interest in reading comic books was the appealing message of solidarity and self-sacrifice these stories could offer. I liked the idea of superheroes being symbols of core principles such as loyalty, integrity, and kindness while being forces of good for the well-being of everyone.
As I grew older, I soon realized that these aspects could also be seen as manifestations of capitalist ideology. To better understand how this phenomenon might be possible, we first have to analyze the form used to spread these political ideals.
The problem lies in the narrative structure of superhero stories (whether for the page or the big screen), which although sometimes presents characters’ developments and complex backstories, can also show the same predictable plots.
Umberto Eco in his seminar The Myth of Superman (which is probably one of the greatest articles ever written about comic books) argues that the problematic aspect of the superhero genre is its “anti-narrative”, which at the same time is the most prominent factor of its long-lasting appeal.
Superman (like many other heroes) is a mythic figure and a timeless, extendable consumer product all at once. According to Eco, the presence of such an individual would naturally change our society, challenging our collective beliefs and especially our power institutions. And yet, in the logic of the comics, neither Superman nor Metropolis (the city he inhabits) is ever allowed to be altered in any way.
The world of superheroes is just like ours except for the extraterrestrial threats. Nothing changes, not even the laws. Even the most powerful individuals can’t change or destroy the idea of capitalism.
The worst aspect of their nature is that their immense power is only used to maintain the status quo rather than protecting the equality and well-being of all the other citizens.
Hassler-Forest in his Capitalist Superheroes: Caped Crusaders in the Neoliberal Age (as quoted in Gerry Canavan’s On Capitalist Superheroes: Caped Crusaders in the Neoliberal Age: No Dads: Cuckolds, Dead Fathers, and Capitalist Superheroes, p. 3) argues that the logic of the power of superheroes lies in its justification of both capitalist and imperialist violence; quoting Hardt and Negri on Empire, Hassler-Forrest finds the superhero operating “not on the basis of force itself but on the basis of the capacity to present force as being in the service of right and peace.”
Heroes present themselves as simultaneously the archetype of good and the physical embodiment of a specific national spirit, which often coincides with American nationalism. All these super individuals are, indeed, always American and fight to maintain the superiority of America in the world and even in space. They are just tools of imperialism and often present a conservative ideology as well.
Hassler-Forest uses several recent superhero films to support the thesis that even contemporary superhero stories still exhibit the traits of twenty-first-century capitalism.
In analyzing the film Superman Returns, for instance, he extends Eco’s idea of the anti-narrative timelessness of superheroes by claiming that all these franchises also share in common the perpetual fixation with their own origin stories.
If we think about it, Superman Returns is almost a sequel to the 1980s Superman films, Christopher Nolan’s Batman series seems to be set in the same universe as the 1990s Batman, while The Amazing Spider-Man reboots the recent Sam Raimi franchise.
With the advent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this process of rebooting and this fixation with the origins is accelerating exponentially. But why?
For Hassler-Forest, this obsession with the origins reflects a flawed nostalgia for an imagined past where America was great, in contrast with the present where all that superiority is lost. Hence, superheroes exist to make America great again. Or at least to make it look good on the screen.
Indeed, superheroes often collaborate with cops or defend military installations, giving a false impression of safety and security.
As Eco notes, heroes have to fight (meaning protecting banks and fighting criminals who advocate for more social justice) to preserve the status quo and sustain the continuation of their narrative.
In recent times, though, we could argue that this perpetual stasis of the plotlines is also given by the presence of the big corporations that produce and adapt these stories for the screen.
It is clear how they aim to show the same old capitalist messages.
Think about the production houses behind the recent adaptations of the new Spider-Man or Iron Man movies with their commoditization of art.
According to Schuetz (as quoted in Dulude p.10):
“ Such art, devoid of its rebellious character, becomes absorbed into the status quo. It is being used by the established system, deprived of its autonomy, and turned into a commodity. This is precisely how culture turns into a culture industry. The industry, not the independent artist, becomes the source of cultural products.”
When art becomes a product of an industry rather than an expression of the self, the desire of the artist turns from trying to impress the audience to simply seeking profit.
Commoditized art not only loses its essence as a tool for social critique, but it also becomes propaganda. It is no longer a form of free expression at all, but rather a form of soulless entertainment.
Hence, superheroes become tools of the power these big corporations hold, and rather than symbols of core principles, they turn into stars of amusement parks or the faces of brand-new toys sold all across the world.
Superpower or Super Privilege?
A great way to analyze stories is to take into consideration the context in which they take place. As Biskind once said in his book Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties: “To understand the ideology of films, it is essential to ask who lives happily ever after and who dies, who falls ill and who recovers, who strikes it rich and who loses everything, who benefits and who pays –and why” (p.3).
Indeed, a crucial criterion in examining superhero stories and their relationship with capitalism is to look in depth at the class status they aim to portray.
Superheroes don’t simply support and defend capitalism but actively participate in it as effective upper-class members.
For instance, it is essential to remember that Iron Man and Batman fight crime literally because they can. And even if they don’t have innate super abilities like Superman, they find ways to gain them simply because they have the financial means. They don’t have to maintain jobs for a living. Indeed, they belong to very privileged families, and even in case of traumas or incidents, they can easily keep living decent existences because they can afford it.
They are not simply rich, but billionaires, and yet instead of using their financial power to alter society and stop crime by investing their endless patrimonies in sponsoring better education and accommodations for the lower class people, they buy or build expensive suits or accessories to go and physically assault criminals. They don’t care about altering society for the better but only about improving themselves and resolving their issues with violence.
Enemies and Heroes
Another curious aspect of cine-comics or comic books is the portrayal of all the main villains. They are shown as middle or lower-class and their evil plans often consist in gaining something that could help them progress in the social scale, becoming thus more privileged and richer.
Villains are sometimes so iconic and much more appreciated by the audience because they look far more relatable than the heroes themselves. Mostly, they also have valid reasons to fight for.
Think about the character of Killmonger in the Black Panther film.
He wants to use the technological advancement of Wakanda (his home country which is also kept secret from the rest of the world) to rid the world of disease, hunger, and poverty. Specifically, he wants to improve the plight of Black people worldwide, who are still suffering today under various forms of oppression and systemic racism in predominantly European countries.
In the end, the hero defeats him and King T’Challa (played by the hugely missed Chadwick Boseman) seems to recognize the validity of his enemy's point by letting Wakanda open up to the rest of the world.
It is legitimate to ask then why if T’Challa somehow agreed with his enemy he still decided to stop his opponent.
This is another example of the not-so-well-hidden political agenda of superhero stories and how heroes and foes are put into precise dichotomies.
As author Robert B. Ray noted ( as quoted in Rodríguez de Austria Giménez de Aragón), the world of superheroes can be divided into two macro-sections: the outlaw hero (frequently portrayed as the enemy) and the official hero. Although the two somehow share in common the same principles, they differ in the execution of their moral principles:
If the outlaw hero’s motto was “I don’t know what the law says, but I do know what’s right and wrong”, the official hero’s says “We are a nation of laws, not of men”, or “No man can place himself above the law” To the outlaw private standards of right and wrong, the official hero offered the admonition, “You cannot take the law into your hands”.
The result of this division shows how in mainstream corporate media and entertainment there is a contrast between not only left and right discourses but between radical left and liberalism as well.
Hence, here is why Killmonger is seen as a radical individual and therefore too radical for the plot and labeled as the villain while in contrast King T’Challa is presented as the moderate, wise one and, therefore, the only hero of the story.
The political discourses shown in many mainstream movies even today seem to show this dichotomy. Big corporations simply prefer to spread more moderate discourses, while vehemently rejecting socialist implications.
Because you know, in a capitalist world even the rules that oppress people are seen as necessary and just. It is the superheroes’ job to maintain them at all costs.
Therefore, following this logic, heroes are just and believe in equality, just not in the equality of everyone, while enemies can be either shown as conservative individuals who do not follow the rules or radical people who think they are above the law.
What about Spider-Man?
A recent study conducted by researcher Rodríguez de Austria Giménez de Aragón aimed to identify all the possible political ideologies displayed by the three most renowned and recognizable heroes of the 21st century: Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man. To do so, Rodríguez analyzed all films related to these three specific figures that came out recently.
The result of this research showed how Spider-Man is without any doubt the more leftist of the three.
To me, Spider-Man is probably the most radical among many, many superheroes out there. He is the kindest, the most focused, and committed. But that of course would be my personal biased opinion. After all, Spider-Man is my favorite hero.
But let’s see why I am so fond of him by trying to scrutinize the key aspects of his identity.
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, Spider-Man’s story begins with a nerdy teenager, named Peter Parker, who gets accidentally bitten by a radioactive spider, acquiring incredible powers such as super strength, fast regeneration, heightened senses, and wall-crawling abilities.
In Lee’s biography A Marvelous Life, author Fingeroth recalls that the first number of Spider-Man was initially intended and released as a one-issue only, however, the story became quickly the most-sold and read Marvel comic of that year, prompting the editor to come up with a brand new series, named The Amazing Spider-Man.
This incredible public response was simply due to the nature of the narrative. For the first time, young teenagers could connect to the protagonist they were reading about. Before the advent of Spidey, indeed, all teenagers featured in comic books were mostly sidekicks (think of the role played by Robin in Batman) and the main attention was on the more mature characters only. This was caused by the fact that although teenagers were the primary consumers of superhero stories, at that time editors thought that telling the story of young heroes would be boring and useless.
Everything changed with Spider-Man, as Alex Romagnoli and Gian Pagnucci describe in their book Enter the Superheroes: American Values, Culture, and the Canon of Superhero Literature (as quoted in Gonzales in “Into the Spider-Verse: Cultural Identity in Spider-Man Media”, p. 4–5):
While teens could not possibly relate to fighting Doctor Octopus, they could relate to Peter Parker needing to get home in time so he wouldn’t upset his Aunt May. Teenage boys could also relate to Peter Parker struggling with talking to girls on a daily basis at school. More so than other superheroes before him, Spider-Man/Peter Parker lived an actual life that reflected a “real” reality.
One of the reasons why people can relate to Spider-Man is through his real identity as Peter Parker. A common joke in the fanbase is that everyone can be Spider-Man: you just have to be broke, weird, and sad.
Peter is always seen as a high school teenager who has no friends (he often gets bullied) and has no money, coming from a low-class family. He wants to try and fit in with the other kids but struggles to do so.
Although class conflict issues were always prevalent in the Spider-Man comics, they became even more evident with the release of the films, in which a lot of attention was given to the concept of corporate power and economic justice and the division between corporations and working-class people.
In Raimi’s Spider-Man, Peter himself is shown living in a suburban area in Queens, in a little house with his aunt May and uncle Ben, who both struggle to make ends meet. In particular, Ben has been laid off as a senior electrician at the local power plant after 35 years of service, being forced now to find another job to help his family, despite his old age.
It is clear how Ben represents the struggle of the working class, which is the constant victim of the big corporations, always invested in gaining more profit, instead.
One of the reasons why Peter becomes Spider-Man initially involves his desire to rise above his class and be different from his uncle. Once he gains his powers, he tries to use them for profit by participating in a wrestling match, hoping to earn enough money to buy a car and impress his friend and secret crush, Mary Jane Watson. But in turn, he is scammed and taken advantage of by the wrestling promoter, who pays him less than what was expected.
It is this event that leads Peter to refuse to help the promoter catch the robber. And it is this selfish decision that will eventually cause Ben’s death.
This is Peter's origin story, but it is not a feeling of nostalgia for a past that is long gone but rather a raw depiction of the present where everything is unfair. And it is this realization that creates Spider-Man: it is the longing for a future that can be equal and just for everyone.
It is only by recognizing his mistake that Peter accepts becoming a masked vigilante. Unlike many other heroes, he does not do it because he is forced to. But because he chooses to. He is not motivated by a sense of revenge or superiority but by guilt and hope. And despite the advantages that he could gain in being Spider-Man, he keeps choosing to do the right thing.
His power of will and desire to sacrifice what is most dear for what is right are probably the most notable aspects of his personality, which has remained almost unaltered till today. It is this spirit of altruism that also defines him as a hero for the working class, the underdog who makes it in the end.
This thesis is also shared by author DiPaolo (as quoted in Gonzales, p.10), who further argues that both the films and comics intend to specifically depict Peter as a proletariat:
“One of the central themes of Spider-Man stories produced during the Bush era is that corporations have so stacked the deck against financial upward mobility, and so decimated the American middle class, that Peter will never rise to a position of wealth and power unless he sacrifices all his ideals in the process, and becomes a de facto member of the Bush Administration”.
Unlike any other superhero, Spider-Man is not stuck in a continuous stasis because he has to maintain the status quo, but rather because he chooses to help others despite it. He will always be the “friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man, proving his dedication to protecting everyone despite their social class because he equally cares about his community.
It’s interesting to notice how also villains are portrayed in Spider-Man’s universe since they are in contrast with his ideals of community.
Let’s take as an example, Dr. Norman Osborn. He is a representative of the higher class. For the first time, the roles are reversed and the villain is the billionaire, not the hero.
At the beginning of the film, Norman owns a successful company, Oscorp, which provides advanced biotechnology weapons to the United States Military. In this case, Osborn has the delicate task of developing a super soldier serum and delivering it under a quick deadline, otherwise, another company will be selected to complete the mission.
Although Norman is a high-profile person, he still has to work under the regulations of the military, proving how under capitalism there is a never-ending hierarchy of power. Once he tests the serum on himself, becoming the Green Goblin, he reveals his inner political beliefs and his desire to eliminate anyone who either doubts him or tries to stop him. Collectivity is not what motivates him, it is pure individualism, it is the desire to be the only one on top of the social scale.
Similarly, Daily Bugle’s editor, J.J. Jameson uses Peter’s images of Spider-Man to create a distorted and false representation of the superhero. The commodification of the Spider-Man image demonstrates the corruption that large media corporations are capable of and the power that they hold over the collective. The Daily Bugle does not care about informing citizens about the truth, but only about selling more papers. It is again the evident display of class conditioning and control.
Finally, another great political change in the portrayal of Spider-Man came with the coming of Miles Morales.
Before that, all the superheroes were mainly white people. In their book, Romagnoli and Pagnucci reveal the cause of this hegemony in the superhero genre by stating that:
“To a great extent, comic writers, artists, inkers, editors, and other members of the many creative teams are predominantly white males. This traditional homogeneity among the genre’s creators affects both racial diversity and gender equality with the comics’ stories themselves” (as featured in Gonzales, p.14).
Now thanks to Miles Morales, children know more than just Peter Parker. They finally can look up to a hero that looks like them. In the book Panthers, Hulks, and Ironhearts. Marvel, Diversity and the 21st Century Superhero, Jeffery A. Brown (as quoted in Gonzales, p. 15) discusses the importance of Miles’ existence, claiming that:
“…critics were almost unanimous in their praise of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, often emphasizing the balance the film strikes between the importance of Miles’ ethnicity in a genre where most heroes are still white men and the message that Miles cannot be reduced to just his ethnicity”.
Miles's introduction to the Spider-Universe is not simply iconic given his Afro-Latino identity, but also given the encounters he does in his journeys. In the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse film Miles meets Sun-Spider, otherwise known as Charlotte Webber, a girl who has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a condition that impacts the joints and its connective tissues. Therefore, Charlotte Webber uses a wheelchair and crutches — which are equipped with web-shooters! I mean, how great is that? If Capitalism is the root of every form of discrimination, seeing an Afro-Latino kid from Brooklyn and a disabled girl fighting in the same “team” is a form of re-appropriation of identity and culture.
Overall, Spider-Man has always been a sort of singularity in the world of superheroes and it is refreshing to see how he has evolved through the years. To me, he has always seemed the only one caring to make a difference and paying the highest price for it.
It is also notable how he has slowly become a totem for multiple cultural identities while normalizing and addressing the concepts of diversity, class equality, and representation. As the Spider-Verse expands, more diversity will be represented, which will allow even more minorities to feel seen.
And I hope to see the day when everyone will finally be able to wear the mask.
Works Cited
Batman Begins, Directed by Christopher Nolan, performances by Christian Bale and Micheal Keaton, Warner Bros., 2005.
Black Panther, Directed by Ryan Coogler, performances by Chadwick Boseman and Micheal B. Jordan, Marvel Studios., 2018.
Biskind, Peter. Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties. London: Bloomsbury, 2001.
Rodríguez de Austria Giménez de Aragón, Alfonso M. “Why Spider-Man Votes Democrats and Batman Doesn’t Even like Democracy: Criterion of Ideological Labelling for Superheroes.” CineCri15, II International Film Studies and Cinematic Arts, Universidad de Sivilla, July 2014.
Canavan, Gerry. “Gerry Canavan on Capitalist Superheroes: Caped Crusaders in the Neoliberal Age: No Dads: Cuckolds, Dead Fathers, and Capitalist Superheroes”. Marquette University, 1 Jan. 2013.
Dulude, Katarina. “The Subtle Classism of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Our Culture Industry.” The Macksey Journal, vol. 2, no. 27, p. 1–12, 2021.
Eco, Umberto, and Natalie Chilton. “The Myth of Superman.” Diacritics, vol. 2, no. 1, 1972, pp. 14–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/464920. Accessed 31 July 2024.
Fingeroth, Danny. A Marvelous Life. Thorndike Press Large Print, 5 Feb. 2020.
Gonzalez, A. (2023). Into the Spider-Verse: Cultural Identity in Spider-Man Media. Into the Spider-Verse: Cultural Identity in Spider-Man Media Retrieved from https://poetcommons.whittier.edu/scholars/33
Lee, Stan, and Steve Ditko. The Amazing Spider-Man : The Amazing Spider Man. New York, Marvel Comics, 1962.
Rodríguez de Austria Giménez de Aragón, Alfonso M. “Why Spider-Man Votes Democrats and Batman Doesn’t Even like Democracy: Criterion of Ideological Labelling for Superheroes.” CineCri15, II International Film Studies and Cinematic Arts, Universidad de Sivilla, July 2014.
Siegel, Jerry, and Joe Schuster, “Superman”, Action Comics, 1938.
Spider-Man. Directed by Sam Raimi, performances by Tobey McGuire and Kristen Dunst, Columbia Pictures, 2001.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, performances by Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, Sony Animations, 2018.
Superman Returns. Directed by Bryan Singer, performances by Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth, Warner Bros, 2006.
The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2. Directed by Marc Webb, performances by Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, Columbia Pictures, 2012–2014.
