Benjamin Parker: 'Rotten Luck, Preparation & Fatherhood' by Dan
From the Spider-Man 90s Cartoon's Flashback Scene
In superhero comics and cartoons, there are several iconic fathers, but none quite as iconic as Uncle Ben. He may be mostly absent in most Spider-Man stories, except in either flashbacks or origin stories. In the animated series of the 1990s of Spider-Man, he doesn’t appear very often, in very few episodes, but he is an omnipresent character that affects how Peter views the world.
In an earlier essay, I commented on how much his Aunt Anna does in the comics, but in here, Ben Parker fills her role, (as the less said about this version of Anna, the better.) and he weighs deeply on Peter’s conscience, with Peter always reminding him of what his Uncle Ben would do. He was a father, kind and considerate to Peter, and one can’t blame Peter for being a bit more of a Daddy’s boy in this series, as Ben took Peter more in hand, than the rather delicate, bubble-brained, Aunt May, who is the most accurate depiction of May in fiction. Ben was made a bit stronger emotionally in the series, where he was firm, and very supportive.
Peter often showed similar interests to his Uncle Ben in the comics, such as his love for westerns, but here, we see there’s another interest that shows up in the background, that unfortunately Peter doesn’t explore anymore: Fishing.
There was a flashback in the series that Peter needs to remind himself, because he often forgot that lecture throughout the series, blaming his lot on “the Parker luck”, recriminating himself based on bad luck. One can argue that sometimes, people get nothing but a string of bad events in his or her life, just like other heroes, like Billy Batson, Jason Todd and Magneto, and they get frustrated with their lots in life.
Billy developed anger issues, especially towards his uncle and cousin for stealing his family wealth and his deceased father for his death, Magneto wanting validation for his suffering and the potential for Mutants and Humans to fall in the same patterns, and Jason Todd for… everything that’s happened in his life. (If I had to name everything that’s happened to him, then it would be half the survey.)
Peter is also known for his melodrama at times, and at other times, he has legitimate reasons to complain as much as he does, such as when he was mutating in a giant Man-Spider. But complaining about being late to class is simply whining.
His sarcastic nature, his dry humour and constant complaints displays that Peter has a very cynical approach to life. He may once have had a more self-absorbed attitude, similar to how he let the criminal go, as at the time, Citizen’s Arrest was a legitimate legal right of the people in the state of New York, which is what Peter refused to do in his origin story, when the security guard called out to him, leading to the criminal who killed Uncle Ben escaping, only getting caught after the murder.
This is something that has haunted Peter for his entire life, even since the event, which is why the line “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility” comes in. Even the gentle man in the comics emphasized that saying. And it isn’t a line that is easy on the shoulders.
There’s a reason why many heroes are inspired by Spider-Man, who carries that burden with everything he has, and it is something that he struggled with, and doubted, and in this series, it would be when Mary-Jane disappeared because of Norman Osborn.
Black Cat had to remind him that he couldn’t let his rage and cynicism blind him to the fact that innocent lives needed to be protected, after he was dismissive over Felicia risking her life to save a cat. It is something he does take to heart as the series progresses, realizing she was right to remind him of what it means to be a hero.
In the series, Peter goes through numerous trials that tests his sanity and moral tests beyond any have gone through before in the animated series. Superman, Batman, Wolverine… they haven’t been brought as far as Peter did in the series. None of them feared turning into the Man-Spider, and losing control.
Kingpin trying to destroy Peter Parker, Norman Osborn sending Mary-Jane into the portal that swallowed him up. (In a storyline that would have had Madame Web bringing Spider-Man to the Victorian Age in order to save MJ, and bring her and Norman back to the modern era) And all these tests would lead to the Secret Wars, when the Beyonder and Madame Web tests Spider-Man, in order to see if he can take down the insane Spider-Carnage.
Spider-Carnage’s background is based in the story of the Clone Saga, when Miles Warren (Known in the comics as Jackal. He is not called that name, because the series was cut off before they can delve further into the clone storyline.) cloned Spider-man, and after the original storyline from the comics, both Ben and Peter of that timeline started fighting each other, and since there was no “Lost Years'', that Ben remained in New York to become the Scarlet Spider, and since Mary-Jane was still missing, she was not a stabilizing factor to calm Peter down, so his rage increased, and he considered Ben an enemy to be crushed, even over the Kingpin.
The sentiments were present in the comics, but Mary-Jane was willing to negotiate with the two, and after the “Trial of Peter Parker”, Peter and Ben started communicating. But in this reality, Peter never did calm down. Thus, the Carnage symbiote, after being sent into Dormammu’s dimension during Spider-Man’s team-up with Iron Man, escaped and bonded to this version of Spider-Man, and became Spider-Carnage.
And thus, the Beyonder had to reset the timeline of the multiverse over and over again, to find the one Spider-Man to save them all. Hoping from one universe to another, Spiderman and several other versions of him, including one with octopus arms, another going through the Man-Spider mutation, an arrogant one who created Power Armour, Scarlet Spider/Ben Reilly and… an actor from a non-powered world.
Once they got through two goblins, all the Kingpin’s men and even Alister Smythe, they barely thwarted Spider-Carnage’s plan, only for Madame Web to save them in a nick of time. We then transported Spider-Man to the arrogant Parker’s timeline, who is engaged to Gwen Stacy. Everything went perfect in his world, and even she found Spider-Carnage a little wonky.
It was after she was kidnapped as a hostage, where Spider-Carnage was going through with his plan to blow up the multiverse, which is when Spider-Man stopped for a moment, and used his head to think of how to reach his evil alternate twin. Much to everyone, but Madame Web’s surprise, he went to search for the Uncle Ben of that world, who was estranged from the Spider-man of this world. Spider-Man brought him to confront Spider-Carnage, who was shocked by seeing his dear uncle.
The scene Spider-Man, Spider-Carnage and Uncle Ben reflect upon, was one when Peter was younger, and complaining about fishing, and blaming it on his rotten luck. Uncle Ben would reply, in the flashback, “Nonsense, boy. Good or bad luck is nothing but the right or wrong mix of opportunity, preparation and confidence. Now I know you’re prepared because I had a hand in that.” This would strike Spider-Carnage so deeply, that he tries to fight Spider-Carnage out of him, but since it is so painful, as if he is ripping himself apart, he decides to take back the symbiote, grab the device, shut down the portal, create a smaller one, and jump in it, with both the device and the symbiote, destroying the former, and killing the latter.
Much to Peter’s shock of this happening, Uncle Ben reassures Peter that Spider-Carnage did what he thought was right, and this leads Peter into properly apologizing and making peace with what he did to Uncle Ben, and his beloved uncle forgiving him, and telling him he is proud of what he has accomplished in his life, giving him newfound confidence, and with Spider-Man feeling far more hopeful, learning his own lesson of the memory once more. There’s a reason why Storm in the end of the Secret Wars commented on them being heroes to the core, with her hand on Spider-Man’s shoulder, which does imply that Spider-Man in particular was a true hero.
This was all because of Uncle Ben, and the morals he raised Peter with. This scene where Peter was fishing with him comes up a few times, and it is a grounding moment the times it comes up, reminding Peter that he can’t run away from his problems, and stop blaming his problems on things outside of his control. There are times where it is appropriate to set blame upon someone else, such as when Kingpin and Silvermane have their war, or Eddie Brock uses the Venom symbiote to stalk Peter, but there are also times when Peter shouldn’t put blame on other people, such as Mariah Crawford for working too slow in his opinion, or Michael Morbius for him failing to show up on a date with Felicia. (Although Morbius can be blamed for other things, but Peter not showing up, is on Peter)
Peter has lived a hard life, with people not fully supporting him in one way or another. May was often self-absorbed, and harsh with Spider-Man. Jameson was argumentative, and was often dishonest about his feelings, and obsessively aggressive towards Spider-Man, Flash Thomspon picked on Peter to the point where the two would exchange barbs, and yet he hero-worshiped Spider-Man. The X-Men were generally apathetic towards his plight and did nothing, safe Beast and Wolverine, (And the latter one was rather antagonistic at first) but they were not as interested in helping him out. Mariah Crawford was the only one that was truly supportive, but often she was off on research missions in Africa, and hard to get a hold of.
Therefore, life was a struggle for Peter. Opportunities were often dashed by various reasons, such as his hero life, financial struggles, primarily with May falling ill, this version of Anna, Jameson funding supervillains, mutation, and other hardships, therefore it is hard for Peter to take opportunities presented to him, in which he has to choose between doing the right thing, and getting ahead in life, a choice that is never easy. He would have possibly gotten the position as Kurt Connors’ research assistant, but he lost it due to his mutation, and his heroics. As for preparation, Peter always works to prepare for situations presented towards him. Oftentimes, he learns to slow down to try and solve a problem presented to him, even going down to the bare basics, that you would see in the “Hardy Boys”. However, he also has trouble preparing for unpredictable situations, such as Morbius stealing his blood samples, and ending up a vampire. (Unlike the situation with Felicia, with Peter flaking out on her, arriving too late, Morbius here was in the wrong.) As for confidence, it is certainly something Peter is lacking in his life, and he needed to work on that for the longest time.
It is why Peter would often blame things on luck, and other times, he’d be far too hard on himself. He’d go from one extreme to the other, sometimes even when recalling this memory, he’d apply it to the point where it would be a detriment to himself. Uncle Ben, however, was not deaf to the possibility of things outside of one’s control, he was more commenting on how one handles something, and it was a facet of his famous line “With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility.”
It is why it is not just Spider-Man who saves the universe, but also Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben went to remind Spider-Carnage of who Peter Parker was, clone or not. In the comics, it was Mary Jane that managed to talk down Peter, and teach him it didn’t matter, and he reconciled with Ben Reilly, to the point that it annoyed her, because the two took to each other like brothers getting caught in all sorts of mischief. (Such as the time that she had the two sort out the then-deceased Aunt May’s attic, ending up playing Battleship with each other) But here, Uncle Ben was there to bring sanity to the chaos, and show the lessons a father needs to teach his children.
Rather nice write-up as we approach Father's Day. And amazing how often the name Peter is used in literature.
👍🏾