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| Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 |
This Wednesday, Marvel's Ultimate Universe finally brought the new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, to readers. Brian Michael Bendis writes the new-reader friendly Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, in which he begins to tell the tale of how young Miles becomes the next Spider-Man. You will be able to find reviews of the issue on every other comic book website, so I will spare you my full thoughts on the book (which was amazing, by the way). What you may also find, within well written reviews on sites like iFanboy.com, is that comic book readers know their nerd fiction. In this case, their "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" fiction.
The Ultimate Number?
In the Douglas Adams's classic, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Adams writes that there exists an answer to the ultimate question, and that answer, the ultimate answer, is 42. The number 42 in nerd lore is always associated with "Hitchhiker's Guide", and this may be exactly why Bendis uses it in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1.
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| The spider that eventually bites Miles Morales is numbered 42. |
What if there is more to the number 42?
What if there is another significant reason Bendis chose to label the spider that gives Miles powers, 42?
When I first read Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, and saw the spider was numbered 42, I actually did not think of Douglas Adams; rather, I thought of Jackie Robinson.
When Peter Parker was killed-off, and Bendis and Marvel had to decide on who to make the new Spider-Man, or rather, how to sculpt the next Spider-Man, they ended up making a rather unique and slightly risky decision: Spider-Man would be black.
Of course there isn't anything wrong with that, and it really shouldn't matter, but to this point there has never been a top superhero that has been black. Spider-Man is probably one of the top 5 recognized superheroes in the world, and along with the others (Batman, Superman, and whoever else you may argue) he was white. The big boys, the top guns, the money makers...they are all white.
That's kinda messed up!
That is why I thought the number 42 was an ode to Jackie Robinson.
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| Jackie Robinson (#42) with the Brooklyn Dodgers |
To me, the number 42 represented a positive change in comics and our society in general. It represents equality. 42 marked a social hero, a cultural hero, a baseball hero and a people's hero. An American hero.
But you know what? Maybe I am reading way too far into this. After all, when Douglas Adams was asked why he chose the number 42, Adams did not give some amazing, magical or logical answer. Adams simply said, "It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one...I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story."
Why do you think the number 42 was chosen to mark the spider that would create a hero, in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1?
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2 comments:
when reading this post i also jumped way to deep into the meaning of it im sure but i had to Wiki it and it actually seems like a very common theme that people use the number 42 to render meaning out of (once again i'm reading way into it). I think your post could either be spot on with its relevancy to including race into one of the elite super heroes today(not race as in kryptonian, b/c thats not real as of yet) or its the writer watching hitchhikers while writing this comic and deciding that "42" is the ultimate answer (b/c it is)
Excellent analysis! If I had to guess, I'd say your first theory is the correct one (but then, I'm an Adams fan) - but Bendis may have had Robinson in mind, too.
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