*Contains Spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man*
“That’s very nice of you. Most men wouldn’t do that.” I’ll never forget when the nurse at my mom’s chemotherapy treatment said that to me when I was picking my mother up from her weekly appointment for the first time. It was intended as a compliment but instead it felt like a condemnation of modern American masculinity. I was in shock. Most men wouldn’t be willing to take their mom to and from a cancer treatment? It put into perspective just how stunted society believes men are in regards to providing care for others; that kindness is a rarity and not an expected trait. Since, I have carefully examined how men’s empathy is expressed in media. Superheroes are a particularly tricky example of this. Even the most friendly, optimistic, and caring heroes are still portrayed as only contributing through feats of strength or centered around a small group of close loved ones. Insomniac Games bucked this trend early on in Marvel’s Spider-Man with the introduction and portrayal of Manhattan’s FEAST Center.
FEAST (Food, Emergency, Aid, Shelter and Training) is a center for the homeless designed to not merely provide a warm place to sleep and a hot meal but also to provide services and training to help those impacted get back on their feet and maintain their regained stability. Established by Martin Li, Mister Negative’s philanthropist alter-ego, it represents a pillar of the NYC community and dodges many of the issues typically associated with depictions of homelessness in video games. They aren’t huddled on a street corner mumbling to themselves about demons, they’re studying and working with one another to build each other back up. Aunt May, Peter Parker’s longtime caretaker, heads up the staff at the shelter. Peter’s time out of the suit is not spent sitting in a mansion away from everyday people or on a classified military base. He is working on developing prosthetics for the disabled and volunteering at the FEAST Center.
The player first experiences the shelter as Peter, on a routine visit to meet up with his aunt. When I had control, I wandered around, as I often do in games, to take in the various sights before proceeding. There were occasional interaction points scattered throughout the city and up until that point, they had mostly been references to other entries in the Spider-Man canon. I was pleasantly surprised when Peter began commenting on how homelessness disproportionately impacts children and veterans. I did not expect a blockbuster title based on a license steeped in fantasy to reflect upon the realities of poverty in a major US city. As Peter wandered around the center it was made clear that he was familiar with the people there, he had obviously spent a lot of time communicating with them. They update him on their progress in finding work, the strained relationships with their families, and how they’re helping to aid the others at FEAST. It was abundantly clear that this was a community and Peter was a contributing part of it. The people of the center aren’t static either. Over the course of the game you get updates on how their lives are coming along. At one point you see a post on the in-game Twitter analog “Ya girl back on her feet!” from a member of FEAST who gets a job at a coffee shop. It’s a small detail but one that feels triumphant; a tangible improvement on the world besides just cleaning up supervillains.
“Not every virtuous act in New York City comes from Spider-Man; many come from the people he surrounds himself with.”
Of course, Peter isn’t the most important member of the FEAST crew, he has Spider-Man responsibilities to attend to after all. Aunt May, despite being older than the majority of those in need, runs the show while Martin Li is away. Miles Morales, a key figure in the comics’ continuity, also begins to work at the center after the death of his father. He’s lost and dodges Peter’s repeated attempts to comfort him. Eventually, Miles agrees to work at FEAST so that he can feel useful and take his mind off of his loss. The work he does at the shelter begins as an alternative for therapy, but he gets caught up in community and the people and quickly becomes an enthusiastic member of the team. Miles and Aunt May become the guiding team at the head of FEAST and display a rare type of heroism seldom seen in superhero media. They aren’t fighting crime, stopping city-wide threats, and don’t have any powers but they have a tangible impact on the community and its people. Not every virtuous act in New York City comes from Spider-Man; many come from the people he surrounds himself with. The work they do is personally fulfilling, therapeutic, and important and were a highlight of the game’s characterization.
FEAST is a perfect example of how to mix real-world messaging into a major entertainment product. It’s existence is central to the plot and its characters and takes time to educate and dispel myths about modern homelessness. Peter and Miles’ work at FEAST represents an important shift in how men in superhero media are presented. They have empathy for others, they are proud of the work, and that work gets results. Service to the community is a respected act in Spider-Man’s NYC and it’s not portrayed as only a woman’s job as it is all too often in entertainment. Insomniac’s writing team allows for their leading men to show their empathy through small acts of kindness and caring, not solely through feats of strength and violence. The stoic protector cliche that is all-too common in superhero media is thrown out and replaced with a sense of community responsibility and pride. Marvel’s Spider-Man doesn’t just show how someone bitten by a radioactive spider can save the day, it provides a blueprint for how each and every one of us can be an everyday hero.
