I had the pleasure to answer a question related to the Spider-Man franchise in relation to the alter ego of Spider-Man which is Peter Parker.
The question that came from Quora.com was “is Peter Parker evil for allowing his Uncle Ben to be rubbed out by a person who managed to run away from a sports arena in New York City when Peter who failed to stop a man who stole money from a cashier inside the sports arena after Peter who worked a pro wrestling match against a pro wrestler whom Peter who was wearing a mask to conceal his identity since Peter had recently discovered his super powers that he gained after he was a bit by a radioactive spider during a class at Empire State University (ESU) or high school depending on which story the writer of the story believes what happened.
For those Spider-Man fans who believe that Spider-Man was evil for his failure to stop a robber who fled the sports arena when a security guard chewed out Spider-Man for his failure to assist him by stepping into the way of the robber who fled the arena with the loot. Okay he is evil in that incident.
Now for the fans of the Spider-Man story making out Peter to be the good guy, the argument would be that at the time that Spider-Man was suddenly thrust into the public eye, Spider-Man who at the time was a teenager did not have a mentor to teach him what to expect as his responsibility being a super hero that includes being on duty for a period of seven days a week and 24 hours a day making a difference to make New York City a safer city to live in.
From my viewpoint, Spider-Man made an error in judgement by thinking about his own needs first instead of doing what the security guard asked him to do and do his part to take down the crook who escaped the arena with the loot and then he went into the home of Ben and May Parker to steal items from them when Ben Parker surprised the would be thief would shot and rubbed out Ben.
Peter Parker should be considered an evil teenager just because he failed to take down a criminal who stole from a sports arena and then rubbed out his uncle. Just say that Spider-Man’s lack of knowledge of how people are so evil that taking the life of anyone who gets in his way taught Spider-Man to do what is right even if he does feel like doing it.
Now with my tongue firmly in cheek since I am a satire writer, maybe Spider-Man would have contacted Superman to use his power of turning back the clock to the time of the robbery where Spider-Man would have what is right and take down the criminal at the sports arena.
Thank goodness for fan fiction.
I have seen some shows like the A Team. If the studios showed a real killing then the studio would get complaints of showing extreme violence. The cartoon I was thinking of was South Park who made fun of celebrities and religious leaders.
Morally speaking, I don’t see how inaction can be constituted as evil. Certainly not in this case, where Peter had no idea his lack of action would result in harm. Finally, it was revealed in a later film that the fellow he allowed to escape didn’t kill Uncle Ben, it was that criminal’s partner who carjacked and murdered Peter’s uncle
Evil springs from intent, not apathy or complacency…
You have a very good point there since the actual shooting was never shown in the cartoon series on television.
that’s because they couldn’t show it in the cartoons- too violent
I figured that since I have seen some cartoons that are aimed at adults show gore scenes that make me vomit like on Adult Swim and other stations like South Park.
Cartoons for adults don’t have the same restrictions, but back in the 80s even in live action TV they wouldn’t show people getting killed, let alone hurt. Ever watch the A Team?
Failing to do something at a certain time does not make a person evil. It is just an error in judgment or they thought they knew better. The things that happen afterward are just consequences of this misjudgment but in no way does that label Parker evil. He does not continually do evil things.
There are just some people who believe that Peter Parker killed his uncle. I seriously doubt it since if Peter could turn back the time with the knowledge that has now, he would stopped the thief at the sports arena.