Following up on my post from earlier this week about Bible study guides that reference the Spider-Man films, Ian Stewart dropped me a note about this post from the Holy Heroes! blog, which looks at Venom’s “ecclesiastical roots.” The post compares the Spider-Man 3 bell tower scene with the one from the source material and talks about all the religious imagery that appeared in the original black costume saga:

This scene is lifted more-or-less directly from the pages of Web of Spider-Man #1 (1985) and Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988). Web #1 (written by Louise Simonson with art by Greg LaRocque and Jim Mooney, and a truly incredible cover by Charles Vess) was the original conclusion to the saga of the alien costume, and it’s interesting to see that the story concludes with the same sort of redemption motifs we see in Spider-Man 3. In this story, Spidey enters the bell tower of a yet-nameless church during a battle with some C-list villains (The Vulturions, if you must know), and the sound of the bells separates the costume from him. But separation from the symbiote, combined with the overwhelming sound of the bells, nearly kills Parker himself. The costume, in its final moments, redeems itself by pulling Parker to safety before finally disappearing in a puff of smoke. As the costume took control of Parker, it absorbed some of his humanity and compassion, and in its final moments it atones for its sins.

…OR DOES IT?

Interestingly enough, the writer of that post, Gabriel McKee, is also the writer of Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: The Science-Fictional Religion of Philip K. Dick.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 11:59 am and is filed under Books, Marvel, Movies, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.