Late at night, when happy but weary grandmas and grandpas have completed their Christmas shopping and the little ones visiting are nestled, all snug in their beds, the toys still on the display shelves in the toy sections of stores everywhere come to life.
It’s the battle of cultural icons.
And Spider-Man has gone rogue.
All superheroes and supervillains have found places under the tree.
But for one.
The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Sensational Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Superior Spider-Man, is now The Super-Irritated Spider-Man.
Green Goblin is gone. Chameleon too. Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Sandman, and Lizard will all be the objects of some kid’s Christmas Morning unwrapping frenzy.
But not Spider-Man.
So much for his superpower ability to adhere to walls and ceilings, to shoot webs, to swing at high speeds throughout the city.
Spider-Man can’t even find a place in grandpa’s shopping cart.
Frosty? What’s he got? A hat. So, he can dance around. Big deal.
But whose origin is the greatest origin story of all time?
Who has become one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the world?
Whose image has been used to sell toys, games, cereal, candy, and soap?
Not Frosty.
Spider-Man.
And Spider-Man was frosted.
It was shakedown time.
But, like visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, perhaps some toy-section fantasies really do come true.
For there, flat on his back, looking up at the silly grin of Frosty who was no more than a rotund, compacted bunch of snowflakes, Spider-Man reflected upon the truth – and Frosty would not let him up until he admitted it – that he too, Spider-Man, with superpowers extraordinaire, was so gifted because, like Frosty, he was similarly created.
As are all of us.
With value and worth simply because we are.
Merry Christmas.
