Spider-Blogging: On the Right Hand
Spider-Blogging: On the Right Hand - Conservative and libertarian reaction to the movie pours in: Andrew Olmsted, Alex Knapp and Daniel Drezner, plus Chris Matthew Sciabarra. Chris’ article reminds me of a puzzle:
1) Steve Ditko is a big Objectivist type.
2) You can’t get much farther from the Objectivist ethos than “With great power there must come . . . great responsibility.” Scare-quote altruism is close to the First Deadly Objectivist Sin.
3) Many people boom Steve Ditko as the “real creator/real author” of Spider-Man, with Stan Lee a side player who hogged all the credit.
4) The altruism focus does mesh well with what we know of Stan Lee’s politics and philosophy, essentially a typical mid-century New York Jewish liberalism.
5) So, what up, huh? If Spider-Man is “really” Steve Ditko’s character, where is Steve Ditko in Spider-Man?
6) If 60s Marvel is stereotypically famous for “heroes with feet of clay,” AND 60s Marvel was “really” the creation of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, just how many heroes with feet of clay did either of them create in their post-Marvel work?
I’m not saying there’s no answer to my questions: they’re genuine. If anyone has answers, I’d love to hear them.
