SPIDER-MAN (2002)

'''SPIDER-MAN (2002) (also SPIDERMAN and SPIDER MAN). Sam Raimi, dir.''' Steve Ditko, comic book, with Stan Lee, comic book and co-exec. prod. David Koepp, script. Tobey Maquire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco, featured players. USA: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment (prod.) / Columbia Pictures (US dist.), 2002. {Source: IMDb}.

The politics of this film in defining the real American Hero will be what should get academic articles churned out and debate going among the public, but relevant for Clockworks 2 for antitheses among possibilities for augmentation of the human: cybernetic exoskeleton vs. augmented human using high-tech weapons systems vs. more purely organic means. The poor-schmuck military officer in the exoskeleton gets about one cinematic shot before being blown away by the Green Goblin (the Mr. Hyde part of Willem Dafoe's characters literally split personality). The Green Goblin is produced technologically, with most of the tech electronic and an enclosing gas chamber (although biochemistry is involved). Spiderman is produced by the bite of a mutant spider on an American nerd. Goblin uses boy armor, military weapons, and a flying (polluting) skate/surfboard; Spiderman uses his merely-costumed body, including glands for secreting web. Spiderman wins to go on to sequels (see SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004)), but the battle was close and victory comes with high personal cost.