Marvel’s Spider-Man and the Allure of the Carceral State

Superhero comics, as it is, are usually a far more complex medium than their adaptations let on. But as with Spider-Man, comics are typically at their best when their focus narrows and becomes more intimate — when writers focus on characters and their relationships, and on the idea that these are real people behind their costumes and masks. At its best, that's exactly what Spider-Man does; it feels like a comic book not just in its action, movement, and sound design, but in the way it approaches its heroes and villains. It's just a shame that, in the end, it also insisted on being so unfailingly, unflinchingly, a Video Game.