Spider-Man? Directed by John Hughes? What?
Ok. Lets back up for a minute.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but asides from loving comics I love movies. And, like so many annoying kids like me, when I was growing up I used to love the John Hughes movies about growing up and finding yourself and being in strange relationships that didn’t fully make sense, as well as every other similar style film by Cameron Crowe and Patrick Reed Johnson. It’s not really a generational thing as these movies still feel eternal to a certain degree, especially when appealing to a specific niche audience, but them’s the breaks.
When I first saw The Breakfast Club, it was in a basement at a party with a lot of other kids my age. We were all spending the night there, boys and girls alike, and the basement was packed from wall to wall with all these insufferable teenagers who were still very much finding out the people who they wanted to be. I remember laying there on the floor, sandwiched between a bunch of people who I’ve not kept up with or spoken to in years, watching this movie I’d never seen before about a group of kids in detention who learned to get along despite their differences — and I can remember thinking, being the overdramatic young man that I was who was having a difficult evening trying to pretend he wasn’t still into that girl who decided she didn’t like him so much anymore that I was, that this film was something that really spoke to me.
Since then, I’ve found something to enjoy about all of John Hughes’ work. They’re all very indicative of a time yet are timeless; they evoke specific emotions and every emotion all at once. There’s never really a bad time for any of these movies, either. I can put on Uncle Buck at about just any hour of any day just as easily as I can put on Sixteen Candles, and I never get tired of either. And it really dismays me that there are no movies like this anymore.
(Maybe there are. I don’t watch a lot of high school-based movies, honestly.)
So in thinking about what I wanted to do for DJMC this month, it fell to me that it was such a task trying to find something new and creative to do with the basic column idea. Brian, myself and our guests have all done our own things so far, each valid and entertaining in their own ways, but I didn’t want to just do another character mix — I wanted to do something bigger. In browsing my shelf at home for inspiration, I found it.
“Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane” is by far, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the finest Spider-Man stories ever told. No, seriously. I’m being 100% honest here. It’s an all-ages comic written by Sean McKeever and illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa and David Hahn that debuted in 2004 and ended in 2007, focusing on the high school iterations of all the famous Spider-Man mythology characters with Mary Jane at the center. And if you like Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles and all those movies and you like Spider-Man like I do, this book is perfect for you.
It doesn’t do anything particularly different with the Spider-Man story, mind you. It starts up after Peter is already Spider-Man, but rather than tell you about his world and his life and how he views the world, everything is done from the perspective of a young Mary Jane. We follow her friendship with Liz Allen, their crushes on boys like Flash Thompson and Harry Osborn, the tension and the terror leading up to going to Homecoming, the infatuation with this strange and exciting superhero character and eventually the arrival of new students and new situations for which hormones can wreak havoc throughout. Given the focus the book places on her, the entire thing basically shifts from this stereotypical coming of age story that Spider-Man can be into this wonderful, different and rather unique take on it all.
Continued belowThe truth of the matter is: it kind of plays out like a John Hughes movie, especially in the first storyline. I mean, if I were to come up to you in the street and tell you about a movie starring a young high school girl with red hair who is trying to get up the nerve to ask a certain guy to The Big Dance even though she doesn’t have money for a dress only to end up going out with a guy she only really sorta likes but then her best friend misconstrues an innocent action by her and they start fighting because of this misunderstanding and it all comes out at Homecoming only for the girls to put aside the petty behavior and realize they are best friends — … well, that all just sounds like I could be describing a John Hughes movie, right?
Thing is, I love Spider-Man. He’s my favorite hero, beyond all the other ones. There are things I like about other superheroes more than Spider-Man I suppose, but at the end of the day there’s no other comic book superhero character I’d rather be reading about than him. I could honestly drop every other Marvel or DC title I’m currently reading and just buy Spider-Man and I’d be fine with that (the whole Otto stuff included). I find him to be inspirational in his own Never Give Up way, and in growing up and reading Spider-Man comics there was a lot I drew from when choosing from certain moral and ethical behaviors that come more from Spider-Man than the teachings of my parents. I wasn’t a saint or anything, and truth be told I was still a bit of a prick as a youngster, but I really did idolize the ideas that Spider-Man inherently represents.
That’s why I love, as an adult, “Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane:” because it boils down all of the best parts of Spider-Man and gives you this wonderful outsiders perspective to it all, something that’s infinitely more relatable. Ok, sure, we don’t know any super people in our own lives and that’s an obvious disconnect, but the basic fundamentals are all there. And what good is a property character like Spider-Man if he can’t continuously be mined for good stories so far after his initial inception? He can still be a hero, he can still be inspiring.
So, with John Hughes having a special place in my heart during my formative and more vulnerable years of growing up coupled with my absolute love of Spider-Man … the “Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, directed by John Hughes” Playlist was born.
The idea is pretty simple. Like Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles or even non-Hughes movies that evoke similar emotions like Say Anything, the “Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, directed by John Hughes” Playlist is basically just a soundtrack to the fictional “Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane” film. All of the songs are picked out of a certain time bubble, with some a little before and a little after, and the whole thing builds throughout the first story arc of the series (originally presented as “Mary Jane” and “Mary Jane: Homecoming”). The plot is simple enough, as described earlier in which Mary Jane has troubles on the road to the big dance, and everything on the soundtrack has tiny little nods to ideas and emotions and places and people.
The music is as follows:
The Psychedelic Furs – “Heaven”, our opening credits where we have crane shots around the school and shots of full hallways full of people as we journey to meet our lead heroine, Mary Jane.
The Smiths – “Pretty Girls Make Graves”, the semi-cynical response to Mary Jane and Liz Allen’s lead roles as seen from the boys side, because if the boys aren’t making pessimistic thoughts about high school girls then they aren’t being high school boys.
Continued belowBlondie – “Sunday Girl”, our theme song for Mary Jane.
Echo and the Bunnymen – “Lost on You”, in which Mary Jane fantasizes about being saved from her dull life by Spider-Man.
The Cars – “My Best Friend’s Girl”, just as everything that was going right starts to go wrong, jealousy is born in Liz and Flash and Harry and Mary Jane is at the center of it all. Also, I really didn’t want to add “Jessie’s Girl” and this seemed like a great alternative.
New Order – “Bizarre Love Triangle”, for pretty much the same reason as “My Best Friend’s Girl.”
Joy Division – “She’s Lost Control”, because I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to insert my favorite Joy Division song as Mary Jane’s high school world is coming down around her.
Love Spit Love – “Am I Wrong”, for those moments of introspection and diary writing and late nights staring out the windows or crying into pillows.
The Cranberries – “Dream”, mostly because I saw a movie recently that featured this song in it and I couldn’t get it out of my head and it felt appropriate. You’d think that “Dream” could get stuck somewhere in here, perhaps as everyone’s getting ready for Homecoming.
Elton John – “Your Song”, because what is a high school dance without “Your Song” being played to make everything just a bit more awkward?
The Zombies – “This Will Be Our Year”, because there are moments when you are able to push past that lock that high school has on your brain in thinking all of those events truly matter and be given some shining sense of optimism, perhaps from a place you didn’t think you would find it or a friend you didn’t know you had.
Continued below
The Smiths – “I Want the One I Can’t Have”, as Peter Parker finally joins the story and talks to Mary Jane in the diner about great power and responsibility.
David Bowie – “Heroes”, playing over the end credits. I would want this to be as big and memorable as “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds was in Breakfast Club. It’s that kind of song.
That’s it for this edition of DJMC. If you like what you hear or don’t, chime in in the comment section to let us know what you think of the mix and/or the column. You can also stream the whole thing right here:
