To fulfill expectations!
To change!
He rises!
To change!
He rises!
Spider-Man: Fake Red is a manga based on Marvel's most iconic hero, the "one and only" Spider-Man, serialized between July 2019 and March 2020.
Only this time he's nowhere to be found.
Yu Onomae is a Japanese-American high school student who's too much of a wallflower to interact with anyone at his school, much less the girl he likes. He spends his spare time at the rock climbing gym, where he feels the most like his idol, Spider-Man. One day however, he finds a well-made Spider-Man outfit thrown into the trash, and decides to take it home with him to mess around with.
Then he finds out it has working web-shooters. It's the real deal. And when he wears it outside and is recognized by New York's citizenry as Spider-Man, he caves under pressure and finds himself going on a rescue mission in a burning building. And after making it out by the skin of his teeth, Yu finds himself wrapped up in an escalating series of challenges wherein he must play the role of Spider-Man with only his suit, web-shooters, and rock-climbing expertise to guide him.
But if Spider-Man doesn't have his costume, then where is he?
Spider-Man: Fake Red contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: While Yu's father is shown, there's no sign of there being a Mrs. Onomae in the picture, not even a mention.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Yu admires Spider-Man and tries to emulate him even a little by taking up bouldering. But after donning the real Spider-Man's costume on a whim after mistaking it for discarded cosplay, he soon finds himself in over his head as he's wholly unprepared for what Spidey deals with on a regular basis.
- Big Bad: Mysterio, who instigates the plot by kidnapping Peter Parker and forcibly bonding him to the Venom symbiote.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: What happened to Peter Parker: he was kidnapped by Mysterio and infected with the Venom Symbiote, which proceeds to take over him over the course of several days/weeks.
- But Not Too Foreign: Yu is a Japanese-American high school student, making him an ideal viewpoint character to explore New York for a Japanese reader.
- The Cameo: During one scene, Matt Murdock can be seen crossing the street. Additionally, Aaron Davis appears as a taxi driver, going unnamed but identifiable by both his appearance and his allusion to his Spider-Man fanboy nephew.
- Central Theme: Much like the Spider-Verse movies, the idea of anyone having the potential to live up to Spider-Man's moral example and the ability to inspire through action is the driving force of the story. Unlike those movies, Fake Red goes a bit further, hammering the message home by clarifying that, when it says anyone, it means anyone. Even people with no powers. Not only does Peter's example give strength to Yu, but Yu's own heroics gradually instill his friend Emma with more emotional strength.
- Furthermore, the idea of masks, anonymity, and secrecy being both constraining and liberating. Both Yu and Emma exemplify this. Yu only finds the will to act when he feels the weight of the public's expectations on him due to dressing like Spider-Man, and this nearly gets him killed in scuffles that anyone would forgive him for avoiding. But this also gives him the courage to do more good in the world, which he succeeds in, and he ultimately saves Peter Parker when it truly does become too much for him to handle. The same is true in reverse for Emma. Being in the closet allows her to display an upbeat affect in her normal life, but it's also caused her to feel internally insecure. She's acutely aware of this and it's clearly eating away at her. Yu's example gives her the courage to come out to him and decide to start living more true to herself.
- Deconstruction: Yu's adventures as Spider-Man demonstrates in spades just how hard it is for a normal person to try being Spider-Man. Without the Required Secondary Powers of super-durability that come naturally to heroes like Spidey, swinging and sliding around with webs hurts when you're slamming into or dragging along hard surfaces. The first time Yu uses the webs as Spider-Man, he's dragged along the road. Come the next morning, his entire body is still in awful pain.
- Forceful Kiss: Screwball pulls this on Yu (while he's dressed as Spider-Man, of course) as an attention grabbing stunt for her livestream.
- Foreshadowing: The first chapter has a street sign reading "Asm 13 St.", referencing Issue #13 of The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko). This issue marks the debut of Mysterio, hinting the revelation of him as the Big Bad of the series.
- He's Back!: During the battle with Venom, Yu is able to give his mask to the stunned Venom, reminding him of who he is. When Mysterio proceeds to attack the two of them, Yu and Venom disappear in the smoke. As the smoke fades…a black-suit clad Spider-Man stands proud, ready to tackle the villain.
- Incompatible Orientation: Yu has a crush on his confidant Emma, only to learn that she is a closested lesbian with a crush on one of her classmates. While feeling slightly heartbroken by the news, Yu lends his support to Emma and is satisfied with having her as a best friend.
- Liar Revealed: Yu thinks this'll be a problem if Emma finds out he isn't really Spider-Man, worrying that it'll make her want nothing to do with him. At the end, she appears to ultimately decide that he's worth forgiving for the deception, even helping him out.
- Loved by All: In contrast to his usual Hero with Bad Publicity reputation, Spidey is a beloved hometown hero in this story. The very first pages of the comic are dedicated to him quickly stopping a robbery and saving an old woman who thanks him, followed by a news report calling him New York's hero. Yu got into bouldering specifically out of a desire to emulate him in any way. That said, J. Jonah Jameson is still slandering him, so he presumably has some manner of anti-Spidey audience.
- Luminescent Blush: Silk blushes heavily after she lets it slip that she thinks Peter is handsome.
- Mistaken Identity: Emma notices that Yu has bandages on his arm in the exact same spots that "Spider-Man" got hurt while rescuing her from carjackers the day before. From this, she correctly deduces that Yu is the Spider-Man who rescued her, and incorrectly deduces that Spider-Man has always been Yu.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Yu has no superpowers and no business trying to emulate Spider-Man, but does so after being mistaken for the real thing because it's what Spidey would do.
- What Would X Do?: Despite the risks to himself, Yu is driven to continually masquerading as the real Spider-Man because he feels it's what Spidey would do in his shoes.
