The Power of True Identities in Spider-Man: Fake Red

Spider-Man: Fake Red follows Yu Onomae, a young teen in New York struggling to pull his life together. He’s invisible to his peers, dangerously close to flunking out of high school, and seems to only enjoy rock climbing. Besides that, his life is a somewhat empty journey towards meaning, with the issue being that he isn’t moving towards anything. However, when he finds a fellow classmate caught up in a mugging, he’s immediately pushed to help him but stalls when the muggers resort to physical violence. In that same alley, Yu stumbles upon Spider-Man’s abandoned costume. With a drive to help others and Spider-Man’s location unknown, Yu finds himself propelled into the shoes of his favorite hero but without any powers. All he has are his wits, serviceable athleticism, and a heart just big enough for all the responsibility.

This 328-page graphic novel, sized akin to most standard manga sizes, is character-driven at every moment. As such, Yu, as the main character, has to carry the book entirely on his shoulders, which is a challenging task for “blank slate” characters. He’s written to be projected onto but still has enough agency and personality to be more than a milquetoast protagonist.

He struggles at the level of a true everyman. He isn’t dejected or incredibly smart. Parental pressure and existential dread are his main internal antagonists, two subjects that nearly everyone has faced at some point. These simple, universal ideas are thematically applied to his growth, decisions, and reasons for donning Spidey’s classic costume. Much like the original web-slinger, Yu has been designed to be relatable to everyone, but he’s not a flat character as a consequence. His somewhat empty nature is a theme within the story, fulfilled by the book’s beautiful use of Spider-Man’s suit and one’s “true” identity.

Outside of the thematic, this story is just an incredibly entertaining read. The art is to die for. It is filled with life, the black and white sections of the book just as great as the slim but sweet colored sections. The action sequences and character moments in this book go above and beyond what anyone could reasonably expect. The story has a certain level of stakes that Spider-Man stories just can’t accomplish in the modern day.

Yu doesn’t have powers. The weight of every swing, every punch taken, and every person saved is ten times more powerful than it could possibly be in the modern pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. For Marvel and Spider-Man fans, there are a ton of surprises in this book that went unmentioned, as they are best experienced unspoiled.

The core of this manga is more than one artist fulfilling his fantasy of getting to be Spider-Man. This book features multiple characters caught up in their darkest insecurities, thematically backdropped by a surprise villain. Yu is suffering through his aimlessness, while the book’s co-lead, Emma Pearson, has the opposite issue. She’s out and about, with a strong and colorful life on the outside, but she harbors her true self deep inside out of fear that she would no longer be accepted because of her sexuality. Peter is trapped within the confines of the Venom symbiote, struggling to fight off constant reminders of his failure to fulfill promises to his girlfriend MJ. All three are at some point saved by the symbolism of Spider-Man.

However, it isn’t Spider-Man himself that brings about change in our characters. The book doesn’t use the idea of false identities to quantify growth and confidence. Yu did not need Spider-Man to be his true self, which is seen in the book’s climax where Yu spends almost the entire thing without his mask on. Sometimes belief in something bigger, in something we can see ourselves reflected in, only pushes out the parts of us we hold hidden deep within. Anyone can wear the mask, even someone not bitten by a totemic/radioactive spider.

It’s a notion that extends into our own lives. The idea of a mask allows us to be free without consequences, and that is something that sways between good and bad. For some, it allows them to flourish as honest people, safe to identify as who they truly are on the inside. The book’s big villain and the pre-growth states of Yu, Peter, and Emma are all people who find themselves acting under the visage of false identity. It clearly establishes the difference between well-meaning freedom and the harmfulness of toxic invisibility. The struggle to balance ‘Spider-Man’ and the true ‘Identity’ has been at the core of the character since the very beginning, and is blown up into a weighty and somewhat philosophical theme here.

While he was mentioned previously, yes Peter has a role to play in this story even if he isn’t the main character. He gets some great moments to shine both as Spider-Man, as well as Peter Parker. Pete hasn’t been this well written in print since Chip Zdarsky’s Spider-Man: Life Story, which in of itself was an exception to quality, not the rule.

Spider-Man: Fake Red is written to be a complete story and has to speed run its character development. There are moments of emotional beauty in this book that will take you by surprise. You will want to get up and cheer, sit and laugh, and sit shocked by just how well the wider Marvel Universe is integrated into the book. There are moments in this story that are beautifully human, but not in the big ideas. Instead, it’s in the little moments. Like the best moments in classic Spider-Man, it’s the the growth of our characters and their friendships intertwined with the superhero antics that carry this book. Yu and Emma’s relationship is especially relatable, human, and treated with respect.