Why Spiderman is the World’s Most Popular Superhero

The following chapter is from Tough Love: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills

Spiderman was one of the cartoons that made a large impact on my childhood.

He was one of my favorite superheroes.

There was one year, I went to Bangladesh.

And this was the year the Spiderman movie was coming out.

The one with Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst.

I saw a bunch of commercials for it.

How it was going to be released in a few months.

And now I was in Bangladesh counting down the time.

Well, there was a day when my cousin said that he had to study for his college exams.

He was in charge of keeping my brother and me entertained for the day.

Since he was going to be busy, he asked what kind of things we liked watching.

I listed out a bunch of tv shows and movies. Then my cousin pauses and asks me:

‘You don’t like Spiderman?’

I was surprised he asked me that question.

Fuck yea, I like Spiderman, I responded.

‘Do you want to watch the new movie that came out?’

The one with Tobey Maguire?’

After he asked that question, there was silence.

I thought he was messing around.

That movie wasn’t going to be out for another couple of months!

However, he was not joking around.

Bangladesh has a lot of bootleggers & the movie was already out in the streets.

When he broke the news to me, I said:

‘Spiderman! Get me that. You can study all you want.’

And that’s what he did.

He got me the Spiderman movie and got my brother the WWF pay-per-view event where The Rock & Hulk Hogan fought.

And these 2 pieces of entertainment were watched throughout the entire day.

On repeat…

Needless to say, my brother and I were highly entertained.

The day just flew on by.

Spiderman was unique for me because of the Steph Curry effect.

‘The Steph Curry effect?’

Yep.

Steph Curry is an amazing basketball player.

Changed up the NBA as we know it.

But he doesn’t look like a superstar.

Skinny guy, not too big & a baby face.

Steph Curry gives off underdog vibes.

Likewise, Spiderman gave me the same vibe.

Not an intimidating present or too flashy.

Nothing about the Peter Parker character spells superhero.

Yet, he was a superhero.

The creator of Spiderman, Stan Lee, was a creative fellow.

A well-known comic book writer.

During a period of his career, he felt like he was wasting his life.

Not because there was a lack of joy for what he did.

But mainly because he felt like he wasn’t contributing to society.

Stan thought:

‘Here are all these people doing construction, building things, taking things apart, you know, REAL jobs. And I’m over here creating cartoon characters.’

This was the founder of Spiderman talking like this.

A sudden lapse in confidence!

But then, he checked himself.

He said that he makes it a priority to entertain.

And due to his creations, a lot of value was added to society.

Because in this world, entertainment serves a lot of value.

This sort of value allows people to escape from one life to enter a new life, to come back to the same life with new lessons.

Read that 4 times.

To think that the creator of Spiderman thought he wasn’t adding value surprised me.

It bought up that Bangladesh memory again.

Where my brother and I were constantly swapping back and forth from Spiderman to WWF. For hours.

We got value.

The value was not something outside of us.

It was something within us.

It was the state of feeling that was felt when the 2 forms of entertainment were being consumed.

Stan made a realization that all creative people must learn the hard way.

You don’t always need to be moving a whole bunch to provide value to society.

Moving a lot is clutch too.

Like construction.

These people add a ton of input to society.

However, as a creative person like Stan Lee showed…

When imagination is the predominant factor in your career, it’s easy to go into doubt.

When doubt is faced, it’s important to gain perspective back.

Entertainment which can give laughs and/or knowledge is irreplaceable in society.

It can set the seeds for more fruits in the future.

Stan died in 2018.

He lived a long life.

He was seen being extra happy in the latter part of his career.

Even though Stan has passed, his creations will live on.

Spiderman, along with the many other characters he created will occupy a special place in the Marvel Universe.

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– ArmaniTalks