Adolescent literature is what boys and girls grow up reading and it shows them that even in a made-up world or one like their own, there is someone, somewhere going through the same life conflicts as them. Some books are more extreme than others like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series which stars a boy in a world of wizards and myths made real. Other adolescent literature is more realistic like The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake and   S.E. Hinton The Outsiders. I’d like to focus on a more fictional and well-known adolescent who has been around since 1962: Spider-man, the alter ego of young adolescent Peter Parker. I know it says Spider-“Man” and not Spider-“boy” or Spider-“adolescent” but when Marvel comics created the ultimate universe in order to design a reboot, Spider-man started off and appeared much younger than in regular comics, where he is seen as an adult among his peers. The Ultimate Spider-man: Volume 1 Power and Responsibly story by Bill James and written by Brian Michael Bendis is a graphic novel but a novel none the less. Its success brought about 22 volumes followed by 3 more after another reboot. The series still runs today with a multiracial Spider-man named Miles Morales. Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-man after the death of Peter Paker.  Spider-man is a classic iconic character and has had various adaptations of him done through comics, television, movies and more media coming out within the next decade. So maybe it’s time we take Spider-man to the classroom where he can do more good.
The first volume in Brian Michael Bends Ultimate Spider-man is a 7 issues origin story of Peter Parker's life as a growing adolescent in high school whose life changes the day a spider bites his arm and changes his DNA. The book shows the birth of an adolescent teen who fights crime because of he has this great power and he sees it as his responsibility to stop it. He made a wrong choice and that choice took his uncle Ben away from him forever.  The series has the longest continual run record of Spider-man comics and has shown Marvel the most success with their new adaptions of the character and his world. Spider-man doesn’t show up in his classic costume till the last issue fully dressed with webs fighting a mysterious fire monster whose murders his friend’s mother and then attacks the high school and sets it on fire. That’s only the last issues and in the graphic novel, it’s the end of the book. Before any of the cool spider action, we see the struggling life of a teenage boy whose life is no cake walk. He has the same problem of common adolescents, He goes school, he has a crush, he gets picked on and let’s not forget he acts out against authority. Why wouldn’t Peter Parker be seen as a role model and a positive one for readers in the classroom starting at a high school age of 12 and up? The graphic novels say it’s for all ages. But to give it a range, let's base it on the book itself 12-18.
 Peter Parker is a bright young, 15-year-old boy who lives in the Queens New York with his uncle Ben and Aunt May. When he was much younger his parents left him with his relatives then they died in a plane crash shortly after. He’s a really good student and loves science like his late father, Peter isn’t the most popular one in school and tends to get picked on by the jocks. He has a crush on Mary Jane Watson a red-headed girl from school he’s known growing up. Peter see's himself as an outsider among his own peers. When Peter goes on a field trip he gets bitten by a spider from his best friend’s father company Norman Osborne. When Peter first noticed the change in his body and his powers developing. He’s plays around and truly acts out against his old nature, first Peter stands up to his bully when he sees him bugging his crush Mary Jane. After finally letting loose and taking on his bully his uncle was worried and spoke to him, to which Peter lashed out again and told off his uncle.  Peter is still a sweet kid at the time and the next day after running off in night to test his powers, Peter apologizes to his uncle.  Uncle Ben is probably one of the most important characters in the book because he taught Peter to be a good man and even left him off knowing one more piece about life.  “Don’t try to be something else don’t try to be less. Great things are going to happen to you and your life. Peter. Great things and with that will come great responsibility. Do you understand”- Ben Parker. Soon after that Peter starts to feel more accepted in school when he joins the basketball team and wins a couple games for his school. Peter then sneaks out with a full body costume mockup of his soon to be class red and blue. He enters a wrestling contest to win money for his struggling family. Peter is so brought down to the negativity that his classmates do to him that he didn’t even realize that his crush Mary Jane actually liked him.  Peter then after providing for his family decided to stop wrestling in this new costume later to be the good old red and blue. The manager tries to hire him full time instead of the whole mystery man get up. A Grocery store gets robbed and Peter doesn’t stop it, just lets the guy go by instead of easily subduing him. It was his responsibility and he just looked the other way. Peter goes through typical things that may happen to adolescents, he goes to an underage drinking party with students from his high school. But Uncle Ben didn’t raise no fool, he catches Peter to which he acts selfishly when uncle Ben gives him a lecture and Peter runs off, when he returns after being out late to find that uncle Ben was murdered. When Peter hears the news he runs out and finds the guy while dawning the red and blue costume and finds out that the guy who he let get away killed his uncle. Peter Parker now deals with the death of his uncle something that is difficult for people of that age group. Peter fights crime while thinking about his selfish actions, before breaking down and crying to Mary Jane. After spoofing off the costume and making his own web shooters. The ultimate Spider-man made his debut, when the strange monster who attacked his best friend, Harry Osborn’s mother was attacking his school and Peter Parker now Spider-man jumps in and fights the mysterious green monster. After a battle leaving Spider-man with more questions. Peter returns to his life as an innocent adolescent returning to his now widowed aunt May.
The Ultimate Spider-man Series could be taught in schools to show adolescents, that their teachers are willing to adapt to new forms of teaching. Peter Park goes through so much on a daily basis and he also put his life on the line those very same days. Most importantly that even superheroes deal with real-life problems and are not the gods there made out to be, and with great power comes great responsibility. I would start in high school but that doesn’t refrain from any grade beyond. Colleges should start using comic books as an academic tool instead of dismissing the vast qualities of storytelling and art formations. Comic books hold multiple values and concepts that others don’t pay them any mind because of the fact that it’s a comic and exposes readers to illustrations and not leave it to their own mind instead. Getting the graphic novels would be cheaper in schools to buy the paperbacks. Peters humor as Spider-man would keep the audience alive and benefit more for students who are visual learners. For all students regardless of age can feel a sense of intimidation when confronting a page full of text, with comics and graphic novels readers get more action and feel and see the emotions more clearly. Consider the graphic novel a bridge into reading larger texts for those struggling.
In a blog about bringing comics to the classroom they talked about Josh Elders Three E’s of Comics Engagement, Efficiency and Effectiveness. The ultimate spider-man volume one gives out the visual layout and then the reader must make meaning from the text and images. Some pages require no text at all but a series of panels that make meaning or action to the story. When Peter join the basketball team in order to make Flash Thompson eat his words and gain some popularity, Peter is seen on a pages going too basketball, winning the game, and the team throwing him in the air. You finally see Peter be excepted by his peers. Which builds these friendships and gives Peter a little more of realistic point of view on his powers. The comics can use panels like this to transition time in a day or even later in the future. Efficiency, how the comics is formatted to withstand large amount of information in short time of each issue. This works in helping the instructor in teaching content in the subject.  Spider-man's origin takes 7 issues to complete and it builds up a whole a lot of background information about the characters in the first volume. Peter goes from zero to hero in 7 long issue in a total of 200 pages. If a student can read a 200-page book with pictures and still obtain the same values, they would get from reading Harry Potter or Catcher in the Rye. I’d say move over Holden and Harry to make room for the new go-to book in adolescent literature that teaches values of responsibilities to all who read. Some may argue that having the pictures in front of you rob you of the narrative at hand. But depending on the artist and his form, then that's how the readers absorb it. This is where I can defend the Ultimate Spider-man series popularities in the world kept a steady pace on the artist and didn’t differ as much throughout their run. The style Peter Parker and Spider-man are portrayed are well done and wonderful, according to Entertainment Weekly “One of the most emotionally resonant depictions of the Teendom in comics since Spiderman’s first debut”. Effectiveness is the whole process of how the transfer of knowledge you get from the book and its images. In Neurological experiments it shows how the brain process text and images in a whole different part of the brain in a theory called Cognition which is dual-coding. The experiments showed the increased memory retention of both images and text. Sometimes comics remind me of great televisions shows, it takes a really good series for me to go back to one and start over. The Ultimate Spider-man is an amazing series and teach valuable of lesion throughout. Very highly recommended by many, my suggestion is to use Spider-man and graphic novels in the classroom would be to test it out with Volume one for a class, have them read it, do an assignment, and at the end the assignment ask if the class would like to continue with volume two or have the class take a new series on. The students will have questions because not all in comics are explained or leave you satisfied because you want to know more, the students getting to analyze the structure and deep meaning shown and read in the text. This is a more chipper way to convey content to them. Making a high-level thinking and reading comprehensions to something that is usually seen as lower level.
To conclude, Peter Parker can be a role model in young adolescent literature. The Ultimate Spider-man comic series can be brought inside the classroom and used as an in-depth reading to get the students to interact with literature and grasp more on the pages. Using text and images actually can help improve the classroom morale and the student’s intelligence, while encouraging them to take on more classic, longer reads. I recommend any one of those 26 volumes of Peter Parker’s Spider-man because it can help classrooms. The book delivers in story, art, character development, teaching positive values,  and could bring the students to liking reading more to motivate them to do more outside the classroom. Peter Parker or Miles Morales can be used to effectively increase adolescent literature reading, making Spider-man a more multidimensional character.  Spider-man already being a popular character would make the selling of the graphic novel into the classroom a whole lot easier. Spider-man can be used in other media as well to effectively help and guide the students into understanding. The students are the ones who are most important on this decision because not everyone loves or even likes comics. But even if just one person buys an issue of whatever comic the teacher or professor got them into, that would be a win for literature and most importantly adolescent literature.


Work Cited