Dr. Who and Spider-Man’s Love Lives

SPidery--Dr-Who-Romance

Though I am a newly minted fan of Dr. Who, I’ve been a fan of Spider-Man since I was little. After marathoning the totality of Dr. Who since 2005 I’ve come to notice many similarities between the Doctor and the webslinger’s love lives.

 

Both heroes start off as solitary loners, with a degree of pain in their respective lives. The Doctor is the last of his kind and Peter Parker is recently orphaned. Both heroes first loves are stunning blonds in the form of Rose Tyler and Gwen Stacy. Besides the fact that Gwen and Rose have thing for geeky guys, both represent an innocent introduced into the hero’s dangerous world. They are the kind, compassionate “good girls”. Frequently the hero thinks of this woman as his motivation for fighting. Each love affair is quite idealized. The similarities between Rose and Gwen may fit the cliches of the sweet girl love interest archetype, however there are deeper parallels. Both women have fathers portrayed in a grounded yet heroic light. Captain George Stacy is no superhero, but he is a good police officer. Pete Tyler is a small time business man, nothing compaired to a time lord but is a loving a dedicated father. Both heroes cause their love interest to watch their fathers die while saving others. While Spider-Man is fighting Doc Ock Stacy pushes a child away from falling rubble. Pete throws himself infront of a moving car ensuring his death and ending a time paradox. The death of the fathers strains the heroes and the love interests relationship, but ultimately brings them closer. Finally the beautiful idealized romance is brought to an end because of the heroes worst enemy. The Green Goblin kills Gwen, and the daleks cause Rose to be trapped in a parallel universe. This causes the heroes no end of pain and angst, until they meet someone fiery to bring them back to life.

 

“Hello Sweetie”

“Face it Tiger, you hit the Jackpot”

If Gwen and Rose are the good girls then Mary Jane Watson and  River Song are arguably the bad girls. They’re not  bad in the fact that their evil. Far from it on both accounts. They’re bad in that they are trouble makers and adventurous. Amy Pond once describe River as the only one who could tell the Doctor “heel boy!”. Both woman are fun, flirtatious, and make the heroes squirm in a good way. Both are more fitting mate to a hero than their sweet predecessors. River is a fellow time traveling adventurer. Though MJ isn’t a superhero I’ve always felt she could be if she had powers. She once beat the Chameleon with a baseball bat, and in a recent story line she gained spider powers and helped defend innocent people. Both have great one liners regarding meeting their boyfriends: “Hello sweetie!” and “Face it tiger, you hit the jackpot!” Each knows the heroes deepest secret from their first encounter. River knows the Doctor’s true name. MJ knew Spider-Man’s identity from the night Uncle Ben died. Though the relationship is rocky  each woman becomes the hero’s wife. Forces of great and unparalleled evil fight to keep the couples appart. The Silence for River and the Doctor and Joe Quesada… Uh I mean Mephisto for Peter and MJ. (Sorry couldn’t  help myself).

 

I don’t know if the writers for Dr. Who had this in mind when writing the story, or if both stories tap into primal archetypes for adventure and romance. Ever since Spider-Man comics had Pete sell his marriage to the devil, I’ve been looking for something to fill the void in my escapist fantasy. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like Doctor Who so much.

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