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The Odyssey of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, A Problem of Culture?

With a new Venom comic debuting today, and Spider-Man featured in the new FF: Future Foundation comic, I'm taking a moment to reflect on Spider-Man's live action effort on Broadway. The recent critical thrashing of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is more than the story of a troubled Broadway show. As any number of Broadway professionals can tell you, many shows have been marked by soaring budgets, deep-pocketed backers, and mercurial creative minds coming to a sad end. Indeed, other rock musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair prime examples, faced similar problems. Yet, few have received the rancorous focus associated with this comic book-inspired show. Even before the critical onslaught, the cultural fixation on Spider-Man: TOD was severe. Spider-Man: TOD is a natural target for unfavorable scrutiny in part because it is about Spider-Man.

This to me is the core issue. Spider-Man: TOD has generated so much press because unlike other dubious productions, Spider-Man: TOD embodies the contemporary tension between an insurgent populist attitude and highbrow cultural merit. Consider this strange point of pop culture truth: while critical appraisal has been negative from the beginning, Glenn Beck and Oprah Winfrey urged their respective audiences to embrace the production. As icons from radically different segments of the populist media landscape, their endorsements promised an eager audience. Indeed, even now Spider-Man: TOD is outselling critical darlings such as Wicked.

The problems facing Spider-Man: TOD should be understood within the context of superhero comics that gave it birth. Comic books have always been dogged by a marginal status. Defined as cheap distraction for the masses in the 1940s, they were blamed for juvenile delinquency in 1950s. Spider-Man’s debut in the 1960s did not redeem the genre. Marvel Comics’ popularity coincided with a youth counterculture that splintered society into a subversive underground versus a traditional mainstream. The fact that Spider-Man, the quintessential angst-ridden teenage superhero, is the subject of the most expensive Broadway production in history is the latest triumph of a medium known more for the power of adolescent fantasy than artistry.

The reaction against the show naturally grows from the tinge of pulp crassness linked to comics. While the “graphic novel” offers the opportunity for artistic endeavor, superhero comics are still immature. The schism is a cultural quirk, but an important truth. Even as the comic medium has grown to encompass every literary genre, the superhero remains its dominant iconic face. Idyllic and fantastic, the superhero endures and expands, fueling multibillion-dollar corporate media giants. At some level, the superhero on film is an acceptable addition to mass medium common appeal. In contrast, theatre remains a bastion of elite culture. The accepted Broadway turn to add substance to actor’s resume highlights the “Great White Way” continued gravitas. It is not surprising that a Broadway Spider Man show has drawn critical scrutiny and popular anticipation. Spiderman's quest to live up to the responsibility obligated by his power is evocative of the myriad populist reactions (everything from MoveOn.org to the Tea Party) aimed at “saving” the country. Spider-Man: TOD is not a comical farce poking fun at the excesses of the superhero archetype, but a celebration of the power represented by it. Like the comics that spawned it, cultural arbiters question the colorful display and cultural merit, but for all its excesses, the show, like the superhero, embodies values and beliefs that define the U.S. experience.

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