31 Days of Spider-Man #26: J Jonah Jameson
I wanted to do another character examination for this writing project, but I was having a little bit of trouble picking out who I thought would have enough material to write about, but not someone too typical. I asked myself; "Who is a character that might have a depth that might not always be obvious to the casual reader?" "Who's someone that's fun to talk about?" "Who's a character that is a key to the Spider-Man mythos, but sometimes forgotten?"
It was the last question that finally connected the dots for me.
While I thought the most recent Spider-Man film, The Amazing Spider-Man, was pretty solid overall, I couldn't help but feel the absence of anything related to the Daily Bugle, and of course, its lovingly belligerent publisher, "Jolly" J Jonah Jameson.
Like many background comic book characters, it's easy to write Jameson one dimensionally, a curmudgeon that ensures Peter Parker has a paycheck. That's not say there isn't value in the moments where JJJ provides some quick comic relief (JK Simmons did an impeccable job at that in the Raimi films) or gives Peter some extra grief in his life (what's Spider-Man story without Peter feeling bad about something in his life?) but there's always potential for so much more.
What makes Jonah an interesting case is the fact that his depth is easier to bring out than one might expect, partially due to a mixed array of avenues to explore.
There's the surprisingly keen Jonah, whose experience in journalism gives him an edge when something doesn't seem right. There's [possibly foolishly] tough as nails Jameson who when face to face with supervillain doesn't flee in terror, but rather looks them right in the eye and asks "Do you know who I am?"
There's the Jonah who has a surprisingly strong set of morals. A great example of this would be Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world during Marvel's Civil War storyline. Jameson isn't so much angry that Peter is Spider-Man, the menace he wants to be rid of, but rather he feels betrayed by the one of the few people he thought was still a genuinely honest human being.
Even when talking about Spider-Man, he doesn't view the wall crawler as someone seeking to do unspeakable evil, rather just a bothersome pest. To quote his reaction when it's suggested that Spider-Man might be responsible for the Sin Eater murders in the Death of Jean DeWolf story
"Hitler deserved to die... And so do assassins and cop killers. Scum like that. Whatever else he is, Spider-Man is not one of those."
Jonah isn't a supervillain, nor does he ever truly mean any ill will. He looks at Peter Parker and sees a kid who needs a fire under him to do something more with his life, even if he has to be the one to ignite it. Though he may never go on record saying it, he doesn't truly view Spider-Man as someone evil, just an irresponsible lunatic and thrill-seeker.
Even as he looks at the city that he calls home when disaster hits it, he'll be on the front lines reminding people that they're better than anything the world throws at them.
Perhaps that is what makes J Jonah Jameson a tough pill to swallow. It's not hearing his repeated cries that people can be better, it's realizing that even through the cigar smoke and stubbornness, he has a point.
Now quit wasting both our time and go get me pictures of Spider-Man!