Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse

by Matt Peters

Content advisory: Bullying and gun violence in the book’s final section

On top of their usual heroics, many of Marvel’s characters have had short-term roles promoting a variety of social causes and educational campaigns. Sometimes these secondary roles have been worked into their regular serial publications, usually at the volition of writers who want to address issues that are important to them personally. For example, in The Incredible Hulk #420, released in 1994, writer Peter David promoted AIDS awareness in a story that saw Hulk lose a close friend to the disease. Other times Marvel has made custom comics for industry, government, or nonprofit clients to get information into the hands of young readers. Such was the case in the late 1980s when Captain America was put to work as a patient educator for a pharmaceutical company in two giveaway comics that covered asthma triggers and treatments: Captain America Meets the Asthma Monster and Captain America: Return of the Asthma Monster.

Marvel’s reigning champion of public-service side jobs is most likely Spider-Man. His ambassador gigs have ranged from Planned Parenthood (in the free comic The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Prodigy!, released in 1976) to the National Association of School Nurses (in another free comic, Spider-Man Battles the Myth Monster, released in 1991). In fact, Spider-Man was one of the first Marvel characters ever put to work for such purposes. In 1970, Marvel writer and editor Stan Lee received a letter from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the U.S. agency that later became Health and Human Services. The letter floated the idea that Marvel’s comics would be an excellent venue for educating young readers about the risks of drug abuse. Lee ran with the idea, and the result was a three-issue story in The Amazing Spider-Man (#96-98, released in 1971) in which a friend of Peter Parker (Spider-Man’s regular-guy identity) turns to illicit drugs during a period of emotional distress.

The latter story would be the first of many times the wall-crawling and web-shooting superhero was used as the central character in a cautionary tale about substance abuse. There were enough such stories by the early 2010s that Marvel released a collected edition titled Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse. To clarify the title, Spider-Man himself has never had to kick any illicit drug habits, but on numerous occasions he’s steered other people away from them. To further clarify the title, the copyright text inside the book confirms that the title is Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse, in spite of a front-cover title logo that implies it’s The Amazing Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse.

Read from cover to cover, Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse makes it clear that experience doesn’t always translate to excellence. Despite the numerous times Marvel’s writers and editors have put Spider-Man up to the task of substance abuse prevention messaging, they never quite perfected the craft. Instead of improving on past examples, new creative teams often rehashed the same themes and repeated the same mistakes.

What follows is a brief review of each attempt that was included in Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse. Since the book doesn’t have chapters per se—just back-to-back reprints of comics—this review will refer to each story as a single section (and will identify sections by number), regardless of whether the story was originally printed in a single or multiple comic book issues.

Section One reprints The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 by Stan Lee (writer), Gil Kane (penciler), John Romita, Sr. (inker), and Frank Giacoia (inker), originally published February 9, March 9, and April 13, 1971.

The story that started it all, inspired by a letter Stan Lee received from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, explores the friendship and tensions between Peter Parker and his college classmate Harry Osborn. Osborn, stressed about his studies and emotionally bruised by his unrequited romantic interest in Mary Jane Watson (a mutual friend of his and Parker’s), starts taking pills from a street dealer to help him sleep and regulate his moods.

Parker expresses concern when he notices Osborn’s dependence on the pills. However, Osborn has no interest in hearing Parker’s concerns. Their friendship is strained because Osborn thinks Parker is competing with him for Watson’s attention. (At various times in the series, Parker was indeed romantically involved with Watson, but in this story nothing of the sort is happening.) Filled with a mix of envy and suspicion, Osborn starts to push Parker out of his life.

Unable to help Osborn directly, Parker decides to intervene by making Osborn’s father aware of the situation. Complicating the situation is the fact that Osborn’s father, Norman Osborn, is a chemical industry magnate whose research led to a freak accident that gave him something akin to dissociative identity disorder (DID, aka, multi-personality disorder). He occasionally blacks out and turns into the Green Goblin, a supervillain who flies around on a bat-shaped glider and terrorizes New York City with various projectiles and explosives. As Spider-Man, Parker has encountered the Green Goblin on numerous occasions, and Parker has already learned that the supervillain is an alter ego of the elder Osborn.

Parker ultimately decides to make a daring series of moves to solve two problems at the same time: Suited up as Spider-Man, he uses his next encounter with the Green Goblin to bring the supervillain face to face with Harry Osborn, hoping that the elder Osborn will snap out of his villainous trance when he’s brought back to reality—and see enough of that reality to realize his son is struggling with a drug problem. The story reaches an action-packed crescendo as Spider-Man attempts to orchestrate the complex stunt.

Lee’s cautionary tale about street drugs has the appeal of classic Spider-Man storytelling, featuring an iconic villain and a tricky predicament that requires both quick thinking and quick action on the part of Spider-Man. However, the story’s drug prevention messaging suffers considerably from the ambiguous drug that was used in the plot. Lacking clear specifics about what the drug is and why it should be avoided gives the story an aura of knee-jerk condemnation of assumed risks rather than evidence-based advice about actual risks. Furthermore, the ambiguity might leave readers to wonder if the real problem was Harry Osborn’s emotional turmoil, rather than the street drugs he used to self-medicate. The three-issue story ultimately needed a more thoughtful, serious, and well-researched approach to the topic it broached.

Section Two reprints Spider-Man, Storm and Power Man #1 by John Romita, Sr. (penciler) and Frank Giacoia (inker), originally published in January 1982. (No writing credit is provided.)

Spider-Man, Storm and Power Man #1 was a free comic book that Marvel made for the American Cancer Society in the early 1980s. The comic sees Spider-Man team up with two other superheroes, Storm (a member of the X-Men) and Power Man (a sometimes solo character who has been a member of Heroes for Hire and The Defenders). Suspecting that a local arcade has been linked to a recent increase in teen smoking, Power Man recruits Spider-Man and Storm to help him investigate. Their investigation affirms his suspicions. The three learn that the arcade is a front for an illegal gambling den, located in the basement below, where underage smoking is not only permitted but encouraged.

A subplot has Power Man working as a high school track coach, and in that role, he notices that one of his most promising young athletes, Bret, is starting to regress in performance. Power Man soon learns that Bret was one of the teens who was lured into the gambling den and encouraged to smoke. After shutting the den down (by putting its operators on the run), Power Man and his cohorts meet with Bret to encourage him to quit smoking. In a science class earlier that day, Bret learned about the effects that smoking can have on the respiratory system. As such, Bret’s meeting with the superhero trio is timely, reinforcing what his science teacher told him about constricted blood vessels, decreased oxygen flow to muscles, and other consequences of smoking, all of which can hinder his goals as an athlete.

Unlike the previous example, this story focuses on a specific drug, tobacco, and provides clear information about its risks. To do so, it relies on some forced exposition and heavy-handed storytelling, but those are understandable flaws, considering the purpose the comic was meant to serve. Perhaps its wisest creative choice was narrating the thought processes of two teen characters (Bret and a less central character named Brian) as they’re faced with peer pressure to smoke. Young readers are likely to make better decisions when they can foresee the social circumstances and emotional responses that might affect their judgment.

The story was a vast improvement from the inaugural effort in Section One. Unfortunately, subsequent efforts didn’t follow its example.

Section Three reprints The Amazing Spider-Man: Skating on Thin Ice #1 and The Amazing Spider-Man: Double Trouble #2 by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Herb Trimpe (penciler), Christopher Ivy (inker), and Gregory Wright (colorist), originally published December 1, 1992 (both issues, Canadian market only; later reprinted for the U.S. market).

In the 1990s, Marvel sent Spider-Man to Canada in a series of five comic books that were distributed free of charge by the Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They embedded multiple public service messages in their narratives, all made at the request of a diverse roster of sponsors, including Petro-Canada, the Community Programs Group (a Toronto-based nonprofit), the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and a number of Canadian government programs.

Since the first two comics contained an anti-drug story, they’re reprinted in Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse. Both comics suffer from some odd creative choices. Peter Parker, who works as a news photographer when he isn’t working as a costumed crime-fighter, is sent to New Brunswick to cover a high school science fair. Readers are left to wonder if it was a slow week for news in New York, where Parker usually does his beat.

Before heading to New Brunswick, Parker first goes to Winnipeg to interview one of the star participants in the science fair, a prodigy named Beth Smith. While in Winnipeg, Parker steps away from his journalistic work to suit up as Spider-Man. Thereafter, he uncovers a plot by his old nemeses Electro and Chameleon to smuggle drugs inside hockey pucks. Exactly what the illicit drugs are—or what they do—is never fully explained.

Normally, Spider-Man encounters these villains in the U.S., but as Electro explains in a moment of forced dialogue, “I moved to Canada to avoid superheroes […] and to take advantage of my partner’s already established criminal connections up here” (page 97, panel 1). Spider-Man eventually subdues Electro and hands him over to local authorities, but Chameleon gets away. After that partially successful face-off, Parker heads to New Brunswick to resume his work as a journalist.

As luck would have it, when Parker gets to New Brunswick and takes another break to work as Spider-Man, he encounters Chameleon once again. Conveniently, Chameleon even had the same destination: the science fair. As it turns out, Chameleon was plotting to steal Beth Smith’s notes from her science fair project so that he could sell her scientific discoveries on the black market. Exactly why an up-and-coming drug lord would need a side hustle stealing notes from a high school student is never explained.

Some of the drugs that Electro and Chameleon were smuggling are already on the streets during this whole story, so in a handful of subplots, Spider-Man has to step away from his more action-packed pursuits to counsel adolescents about the dangers of illicit drugs. Like the story in Section One, this one suffers from its focus on an ambiguous, probably fictional drug. All that’s revealed about the drug is that it’s a red pill that adolescents might be tempted to take, especially if those adolescents are facing peer pressure or the stress of competing in a science fair. The end result is a bumbling effort to educate adolescents about illicit drugs.

Section Four reprints “Fast Lane” Parts 1 through 4 by Glenn Herdling (writer), Gregg Shigiel (penciler), Richard Case (inker), and Paul Mounts (colorist), originally published as story inserts in multiple Marvel titles from December 1999 to March 2000.

Commissioned by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, “Fast Lane” takes a different tack than the other stories in Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse. Instead of using adolescents as its at-risk characters, it uses early-career young adults, and instead of focusing on peer pressure or the persuasive tactics of drug pushers, it explores how mass media can influence decisions about illicit drug use.

Once again, Peter Parker is sent on assignment as a news photographer, this time to cover a rising music star named Zane Whelan, a singer known for his rebellious embrace of cannabis use. On that same assignment is Sam Exmore, a college intern who’s a big fan of Whelan’s music. Exmore emulates Whelan by smoking cannabis frequently. Exmore even partakes while working—including when his work involves driving a news van. In a predictable plot development, Exmore’s impaired judgment leads to a disastrous traffic accident on the Brooklyn Bridge, sending the van crashing into the water below. Luckily, Parker is nearby and quickly dons his Spider-Man suit to go on a rescue mission—and is soon joined by several other superheroes, including the Fantastic Four and various members of the Avengers and X-Men.

Although it’s a welcome change that this story focused on a specific drug, cannabis, it offered little in terms of useful information about its risks. While cannabis use is definitely associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents (a two- or threefold increase compared to sober driving), alcohol use poses a far greater risk (a sixfold increase or higher). As such, many readers might find the story more far-fetched than honest. Moreover, the traffic accident in this story wasn’t due to Exmore’s slow reaction time or inattention while driving. It was due to his decision to park improperly on a busy bridge. That decision can certainly be attributed to Exmore’s impaired judgment, but from a legal standpoint, it shifts some of the responsibility to the other motorists who didn’t brake in time.

The art style in “Fast Lane” is another questionable creative choice. It looks more fitting for an intermediate children’s book than a comic book story for a young adult audience. Lastly, many comic book readers were unhappy with how “Fast Lane” was published. Appearing as story inserts in regular comic books, many readers found them intrusive and disruptive to their reading experiences. An unwelcome message is already starting off on the wrong foot, so it’s not surprising that “Fast Lane” was largely ignored or panned by comic book fans.

Section Five reprints The Spectacular Spider-Man #1000 by John Ostrander (writer), Todd Nauck (penciler), Michael Ryan (penciler), Mark Pennington (inker), Victor Olazaba (inker), and Ian Hannin (colorist), originally published April 20, 2011.

Despite what the issue number implies, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1000 was not literally the thousandth issue of the series. Rather, the comic was a one-shot that was given its unconventional issue number as an indicator of its supposedly momentous publication and superlative storytelling. Sadly, the comic fails to live up to its numerical brag.

In a largely forgettable story, Spider-Man teams up with Frank Castle, the gun-toting antihero known as Punisher, to stop a drug ring in Little Odessa (a part of Brooklyn named after the Ukrainian city of Odessa). Once again, an ambiguous drug is the center of the story, but this time it appears to be a powder instead of a pill. Much like the story in Section Three that took Spider-Man to Winnipeg and New Brunswick, this one involves a few secondary narrative threads about adolescents who need to be steered away from the drug. This time themes of high school bullying are worked into those threads, but the addition feels unnecessary, like something that was shoehorned into the story to evoke the gritty, edgy tone of Punisher’s solo comics. Moreover, the bullying theme turns many of the story’s adolescents into predictable stock characters: the stammering nerd who becomes an easy target, the aggressive jock who viciously bullies the nerd, and the jock’s accomplices who occasionally urge restraint if they think the he’s going too far.

Ultimately, the story offers no useful information about the risks of illicit drugs. Instead, it depicts the risks involved when a criminal underworld tries to circumvent drug prohibitions. Secondarily, it makes a loose association between the illicit drug trade and adolescent bullying.

The only thing this final story gets right is that it avoids stigmatizing people who use illicit drugs. While it stews with contempt for drug smugglers and pushers, their clients are never portrayed as being a problem.

Avoiding substance abuse stigma is one of the few things Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse gets right from start to finish. No matter how convinced Spider-Man is that illicit drug use is a bad decision, he doesn’t scold or shame anyone for it, and no one is depicted in dehumanizing ways for making that decision. Stigma can isolate people who are struggling with substance abuse, making them reluctant to seek help. Thus, fear- and shame-based anti-drug messaging can be ineffective or even counterproductive.

What is effective at preventing substance abuse is life skills training—namely, teaching youth how to anticipate and regulate their emotions when they’re faced with peer pressure to use drugs. In tandem with that, youth need honest—not alarmist—information about the risks of substance abuse, so that they can apply those life skills to make decisions based on facts instead of fear-mongering. That life skills training is embedded in the anti-smoking story in Section Two, but the other stories are all but lacking in that department.

Spider-Man Fights Substance Abuse showcases some good-faith efforts to address an important public health issue. In the end, though, it will leave a lot of readers thinking that Spider-Man should stick to fighting supervillains.

Matt Peters is a program manager at Health Sciences Design, an interdisciplinary health innovation program at the University of Arizona Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He is also a longtime comic book reader and collector who can be found from time to time at his local comic book shops. Views expressed are his own.