I enjoy me some superheroes. I’m drawn to Spider-man as he has more normal problems than other heroes. He struggles to balance his day-to-day living with his superhero duties and that’s just more interesting to me. I guess it’s because he’s working class. He’s a young man trying to make something of himself living in crummy apartments and living off a part-time day job. That’s more my life experience.

Batman and Superman’s unmasked days are too easy. For Bruce Wayne he’s a billionaire. Where as Clark Kent is a middle-class journalist who can type so many words per minute  he can knock out a newspaper’s worth of articles in his lunch break. They don’t have to worry about paying the bills. Spider-man does, I guess that’s why I relate to him the most.

Superman is still boy though, that’s always been the way since, well, let’s say a long time.

 

 

 

I’d not paid much attention to the new spider-man movies but a recently released clip from the new film caught my attention. The reason: it showed off a super power I’ve not noticed in other heroes, nonviolent communication.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzTjnCY-iU0

I read Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication last month and I thought it was amazing, I read it twice in a two-week period. Well, I say read, I mean listened to the audiobook. Which I highly recommend. Rosenberg’s voice in mesmerising and you can hear the compassion in his voice.

Rosenberg lays out a way to communicate which involved really listening to what the person is asking for. Find the need that is under what they are saying and show your compassion by validating that need before sharing your own need. Then you calmly workout a solution that meets both of your needs.

What I love about this clip is it show’s Spider-man exercising this skill. I’m sure the film’s promoters picked it as it sets up an action sequence. Personally, I’m sold by the idea that audiences will see a hero talk out an issue before resorting to fisticuffs. He really is “your friendly neighbourhood Spider-man.”