Entertainment

June 25, 2007

Damsels in distress good for superheroes

DAVID GERMAIN Associated Press Movie Writer

LOS ANGELES — Lois Lane is in constant need of rescue by Superman. Batman’s various girlfriends always require saving.

In “Spider-Man 3,” girl-next-door Mary Jane once again is used by villains as bait for the web-slinging superhero, who also has to rescue another damsel in distress with whom he has a flirtation.

Forget Kryptonite. Are women the real Achilles’ heel for superheroes? Would these caped and masked crusaders be better off as loveless loners?

“Absolutely,” said Sam Raimi, director of the three “Spider-Man” movies, whose latest installment has Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane used both physically and psychologically by the bad guys to ensnare Tobey Maguire’s Spidey.

“In fact, that’s the path that Tobey’s character, Peter Parker, chose at the end of the first picture,” when Peter decided that with his Spider-Man alter ego, he had to avoid personal intimacy to protect those he loved and to do his job well, Raimi said. “Unfortunately, it’s hard to live up to that ideal, and in the second picture, he weakened and wanted a life with her.”

Laura Ziskin, one of the producers of the “Spider-Man” movies, said Peter tried giving up Mary Jane but ultimately found he could not live without her.

Raimi also found something he could not live without in a “Spider-Man” movie, Ziskin said. In the first movie, Raimi had Mary Jane dangling from a bridge for Spidey to come and save her. In the second film, she’s tied to a pole and being sucked horizontally into a red-hot miniature sun. In the third one, two of the movie’s villains suspend her from a giant web to lure Spider-Man into their trap.

The third movie also features Spider-Man rescuing a new character, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), who sways from a skyscraper after a crane smashes through the side of the building.

“Sam loves putting a sexy girl in a tight-fitting outfit, hanging from something,” Ziskin said.

They may be eye candy for the audience, but these women in peril certainly make for a harder day at the office for superheroes.

Their jobs would be easier without such emotional ties, Howard said.

If Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and their superhero brethren were just invincible loners, who would care about them?

“In the comics, the easiest way to bring real life into the life of the hero is to give him a spouse,” said Avi Arad, another producer on the “Spider-Man” franchise.

“Otherwise, there is never a personal story to bring all of us into the room.”

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