“What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber.”
-Guillermo del Toro, 2001
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Released in 1992, Soul of the
Hunter sees JM DeMatteis and Mike Zeck reunite for one more story. As DeMatteis
recalls, “Tom [DeFalco] had gotten a bunch of letters from people
saying, 'Oh, you’re glorifying suicide!' Normally I would dismiss that as the
usual rantings, except it really disturbed me that people would think that the
purpose of that story was to glorify suicide. That is something I would never
do. That is not my view of life or the universe.” So naturally, he wrote a
story about Peter punching the ghost of Kraven the Hunter right in his stupid
face.
In many regards, it’s a restatement of thematic intent on
DeMatteis’ part: compassion and empathy trump brute strength and the death
drive, the ambiguity of the supernatural, superheroics as means of coping with
trauma. He even gives Mary Jane more to do in this part than in the rest of
Kraven’s Last Hunt. It’s not that he gives her the role she had in the rest of
the DeMatteis era, but rather MJ acts as a spiritual guide to Peter, an atheist
who, because of her background in acting, understands the symbolic nature of
what Peter’s going through, and works to help him through it by giving him
advice as to how to cope with it. (One of the things that has fascinated me
about the character of Peter Parker, and indeed why I have such an affinity for
him, is that for all the talk of him being a whiner, he doesn’t really whine
that much. Indeed he typically copes with traumatic experiences through keeping
it bottled up. The only reason we see him as a whiner is because we’re the only
ones who can hear his intimate thoughts. There’s a song that I think gets at
the heart of this: I know what it’s
like/when your family cries/I know how it feels.)
But more to the point, I want to talk about the ghost aspect.
This aspect has been the thing that pushed my interpretation of Kraven’s Last
Hunt towards the more Hannibal-esque margins between supernatural and mundane.
And yet, despite having the living embodiment of Death themselves (yes I know
Death is a lady within the context of the Marvel Universe and the story shies
away from claiming the figure is Death, but the figure is literally a shadow
shaped like a person in a hood with beady, hollow red eyes that they’re
flagrantly meant to be Death), the ghost of Kraven the Hunter, and a sodding
host of unalive people who are not allowed to pass on into the afterlife due to
committing suicide, the narrative still keeps an ambiguity to it.
In one panel of Peter’s fight with Kraven the Zombie, we
don’t see him fighting anyone at all, just punching the air. One could argue
that this is definitive proof that all of this is in Peter’s head. Indeed, Mary
Jane tries to make this argument in the coda of this coda. But I think Peter’s
response is all the more telling:
Peter: Well, some things touch us in a place that words can’t ever really reach. And what I felt there--at the end--to talk about it too much, over analyze it--
MJ: You don’t want to cheapen it with words?
The
point isn’t whether or not Peter actually fought a ghost or if it was just his
mind using the tropes of superheroes to cope with a traumatic moment in his
life that he’s just been reminded of or even whether or not Peter died at the
hands of the Hunter. The point is what it felt like in the moment as he was saving
Kraven’s soul. Not what it was in terms of matter and substance, but the
internal stuff-- the effects it had on Peter as a person.
But then, what are those effects? Well, consider the moment
Peter defeats the ghost (I’ve been using this term a bit liberally in the
essay, in truth it’s less of a ghost and more of an amalgamation of all of
Kraven’s [and indeed Peter’s] contemplations of suicide and death. It’s simpler
to describe it as a ghost, though in terms of aesthetics, it’s more akin to a
zombie. Also, since it’s going to come up, the other Kraven is his spirit/soul,
not his ghost). On the surface, it appears to be a simple punching match but
with more existential dread and PTSD, but in the moment before Peter can lay
the finishing blow, the ghost vanishes. Why?
Consider what Peter was thinking of in the moment of victory:
not of his love for Mary Jane or happy memories with Uncle Ben (indeed Ben has
a more expansive role within this part of the story than all the rest, a pity
as I found that to be one of Kraven’s Last Hunt’s more interesting aspects,
though I can understand the decision as it’s been a few years since the death
of Ned Leeds, and to have that be the aspect that drives this stand alone
graphic novel would be silly), but rather of how Kraven felt in the last
moments of his life. He doesn’t know what drove Kraven to the point where
suicide was the right call, but he understands that life can bring pain and
suffering that could push someone to that point. In short, what defeats the
ghost is Peter’s ability to empathize with him.
Now, I’ve talked a lot about empathy in the preceding parts
of this analysis, and at times I’ve felt like I’ve bungled it a bit. As I’ve
stated previously, I am on the autism spectrum and as such have difficulties
with expressing empathy towards others. I should stress that empathy is not the
same thing as compassion. Nor is it an aesthetic. Unlike being a magician, you
can’t just declare yourself to be empathetic and wear the aesthetics of
empathy. Rather, empathy is something you do. And like any action, it can be
hard or even impossible for some to do.
But that doesn’t mean that it should be looked down upon or even
demonized like those who view masculinity as merely the ability to claim
cruelty is the highest form of rationality do. Rather, we should guide our
empathy with compassion for others. If we see someone who struggles with
empathy, we should try to help as best we can. Listen to their perspectives and
worldviews and act accordingly. Empathy can help us find the root problem of
things, but it’s not the “be all/end all” solution.
In many ways, empathy is like literary criticism. We look at
a text we call a person and based on what we see within the text we judge and
critique the text accordingly. We can even redemptively read a text to see its
best self, the best of which require a thorough examination of its flaws. But
at the same time, our biases and worldviews can make us miss aspects of the
text. Indeed, the entire narrative of Kraven’s Last Hunt is based around this
concept. Consider Kraven for a moment. Give the whole of the story, it’s
apparent that he is capable of empathizing with Peter. In his final moments, he
realizes what kind of man Peter was: a good one. One who compassionate with
others, willing to push those around him to be better. Sure, he has the world
on the back of his shoulders, he blames himself for far too much, but he is
self aware of it (or, at the very least surrounds himself with people who will
point out when he needs to stop brooding) and tries to push himself past it. (I
should note that Soul of the Hunter is one of many, many, many Spider-Man
stories that explicitly state he is Jewish.)
But prior to that, Kraven was reading Peter as being this
monstrosity that lurks within the annals of history, corrupting and destroying
civilization after civilization. Not a man so much as a man possessed by a
demon. In the end though, he realizes that it wasn’t so much a being he was
fighting, but rather a symbol. As he puts it, “Every man… every woman… every
nation… every Age has its spider: You have been mine.”
Everyone has something they react against. Something that
makes them want to get up in the morning and live. And when that thing is gone,
no matter how monsterous or cruel or wrong headed it was, it can make them… us
feel like there’s no point to doing anything else anymore. That we’ve reached
the highest point in our lives and we should just end it all before the fall
becomes too much. For some of us it’s a television show we watch, for others
it’s a project they’ve spent years working on in one form or another. It could
even be a relationship. But when it’s done, some of us want to end as well.
…I have this idea for a Star Trek story. I’m not sure if I’m
ever going to write it, but I might as well express it here. It’s called The
End of a Generation, and perhaps obviously it focuses on the TNG era. It stars
Geordi La Forge, last surviving member of the USS Enterprise-D. There isn’t
some vast conspiracy at work here. No Romulan invaders or Dominion hold outs
plotting some dastardly scheme that requires the Enterprise crew to be dead or
some other nonsense. Life just happened. They died of old age or by accident or
on the fields of battle. Someone has to be the last one out, and I’ve always
had a fondness for Geordi.
Sure, most people view him as this tech person who wants to
have sex with the Enterprise and/or his robot pal, but I never saw him that
way. Even before reading Vaka Rangi, there was always this air of friendliness
to Geordi, as if he just wanted what was best for everyone. Indeed, the first episode of TNG I ever saw was "Elementary, Dear Data," and he came off as a personable kind of guy. Later viewings showed he was mostly there to ask questions for Data to answer for the sake of the audience, but that first viewing where I focused on him standing up to Dr. Pulaski because she's being unempathetic and cruel towards Data or being nostalgic with Picard for a time he never lived in, that viewing is forever etched in my brain. In many ways, Geordi was the
heart and soul of the series and it feels fitting to close the story of that generation
with him as the lead.
The story itself concerned him being called off for one last
adventure: the Enterprise-D has been spotted cursing in the Gamma quadrant when
it’s also in a Federation Museum. Geordi is brought on as a consultant and gets
on quite well with the next generation, even if there’s a bit of push back and
growing pains. The adventure gets Geordi nostalgic for the days when he was a
member of the Enterprise, and yet there’s a sadness to this nostalgia. Not that
he doesn’t have a good life right now, but rather he misses those who are now
gone. I don’t think he’s suicidal, just keenly aware that his time is coming
close to an end.
But ultimately, Geordi ends up making some form of peace with
the past. He’s always acknowledged that the past isn’t always perfect (indeed,
contrary to popular belief, early TNG does not view its present as perfect).
Indeed, I think somewhere at the middle I have a character ask him about it (probably
Sela, perhaps as the captain of the ship), about how he coped with living with
being the last. I don’t know the exact words I’d use, but I think it would
involve the nature of change. We all change. We grow old, we fall in and out of
love, we make and lose friends, and yes, we die. But when everything seems like
it’s coming to an end, we can still grow as people and better ourselves. After
all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
The End.
07/13/2017-03/19/2018
[Photo: Meanwhile Directed by Peter Avanzino Script by Ken Keeler]
Long ago in an American autumn.
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