The Politics Of Spiderman

I'm not kidding. Frank Rich manages to find anti-Bush messages in Spiderman 2, as well as warnings for John Kerry.

As a man locked in a war against terror, Peter Parker could not be further removed from the hubristic bravura of Mr. Bush and his own cinematic model, the Tom Cruise of "Top Gun." There's nothing triumphalist about Spider-Man; he would never declare "Mission Accomplished" after a passing victory, and his very creed is antithetical to the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war. But neither is he a stand-in for John Kerry. Whatever inner equivocation he suffers over his role as a superhero, he stops playing Hamlet when he has a decision to make. Nor does he follow Mr. Kerry's vainglorious example of turning his own past battles into slick promotional hagiography.

In the end, Frank Rich seems to endorse Peter Parker for president. And why not, liberals have embrace Hollywood fantasy over reality for some time (See Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Day After Tomorrow).