Hey kid, you did it. Watch yourself write about Spider-Man in the Washington Post. Kevin Feige couldn’t have crafted a better plot.

For Hollywood, “Spider-Man” was the first film to have a $100 million opening weekend, the best superhero film since 1989’s “Batman” and the founding of what would become the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But for me, “Spider-Man” marked a monumental shift in my approach to life. That’s when I realized my love of comics would never leave me.

I would see the film four more times at the cinema. But my first time It was May 2, 2002, the Thursday before I became the first Betancourt in my family to graduate from college. And not for lack of trying. My grandfather Eligio helped integrate Mount Vernon, Va., when he arrived from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, when he was 8 years old. Mainly white suburb of DC in the 1940s and 1950s? Not exactly a place I’m dying to take a quantum leap. But my grandfather became one of the best football players Virginia State has ever seen and got a scholarship to North Carolina State. It turns out that Northern Virginia was as far south as the Betancourts could tolerate at the time. And he might have skipped a Saturday class or two. He gave up and traveled to New York to find a Puerto Rican bride – and met Anna Maria Robles, the best grandma ever. Then he returned to the suburbs of DC to start a new Betancourt universe.

In 1982, I was already 2 years old when my father, Eligio David, reached his first year at the University of Maryland (where I now teach a course on superhero culture). It was one high school football star too. A quarterback. But he didn’t inherit my grandfather’s massive 200+ pound frame. And he blew his knee. So no college football for him. When my first of three younger sisters was born in 1986, my father’s upper-class years faded into real-life parenting. He never graduated despite being close.

Growing up we bonded about our love of superheroes. Top of our favorites list? Spider Man. The first superhero I ever drew on a sheet of paper? Spider Man. The first comic book I remember reading on the rack at 7-Eleven around the corner from my grandparents’ house? You guessed it. Spider Man. Cartoons. Cereal. He is very important in our family. This was before Marvel created one who was half Puerto Rican half African American, just like me – and, transparently, I even got to write a Miles Morales/Spider-Man comic in 2021.

Which brings us to that fateful Thursday night in 2002. After four years at Radford University, I was done. Prepared to graduate this Saturday May 4th, my dad’s 38th birthday (and no, he doesn’t care if he was born on Star Wars day, he’s a Star Trek guy – I tried). I Was Rolling In Mahogany Hallmark Congratulations Cards Filled With Money, From My Mom Howard-University-alum aunts. But later this afternoon I got an AOL instant message on my computer from Wade Todd, who was my roommate at Radford during my freshman year in 1998.

Wade had a friend who worked at the local theater in Radford, where I had seen “X-Men” two years prior. Part of this friend’s job was to test film reels before they were used for screenings and he was to test “Spider-Man”. This friend had invited Wade and told him he could bring someone else. Wade, easily one of the most influential Americans in my life at the time, remembered that the only thing I talked about more than sports was comics.

Look, I’m not saying this was the best phone call I’ve ever had, but I’ve had phone conversations with Rihanna lookalikes that weren’t nearly as exciting. As a comic book culture reporter, seeing a superhero movie early is only part of the job. By the time you read this, I will have already seen “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (coincidentally, also directed by Raimi). But as a high school student, I thought I had just played the lottery.

So later that night me, Wade and a few other people were sorted into a theater in Radford. I was immediately taken into the music – I felt like every note was grafted onto my DNA. And that’s when the credits for “Music by Danny Elfman” appeared on the screen. They got the guy who did the music for “Batman,” I thought to myself. I sat down, smiled and got ready to perfection.

And that’s exactly what I got. Raimi’s genuine appreciation for the Spider-Man comics of his youth shone through on screen. It introduced Maguire’s Peter Parker as a kid who felt like he could never get a break, even with superpowers. Elfman’s score had the audacity to be as good as his “Batman” music. I saw 20-something Tobey Maguire join Michael Keaton and Christopher Reeve in the pantheon of Hollywood’s most important superheroes. Willem Dafoe’s villainous Green Goblin was so masterful that it didn’t matter that they gave him the wrong costume (they should have gone for the classic comic book look they originally envisioned) and it’s no surprise that he was the MVP of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” two decades later.

But to date, no comic book character has ever come to life on screen as beautifully as J. Jonah Jameson of JK Simmons, editor of The Daily Bugle. If I could turn it into shouting “PARKER” as a ringtone, I would. It’s symphonic.

After the Spider-Man swinging through New York movie ended, my braces couldn’t contain the power of my smile.

It wasn’t just a superhero movie. It was change. Even as a college student who had buried too many ledes, with no weight of professional journalism to my name, I knew Hollywood could no longer ignore comic books. That we would see more comic book movies that weren’t afraid of their source material. And not just the Spider-Man sequels. It was a movement. All those comics I’ve read all my life? They mattered now.

Oh, but what about graduation? Yes, two days later I received my degree in media studies from Radford University. Like I crossed the stage, I saw my father and my grandfather waiting for me. I had become the first Betancourt to cross the finish line — and when I came down the steps they gave me a three generation bear hug.

“It was time”, my father then said. ” How do you feel ? »

My answer was the first thing that came to mind.

“I saw the Spider-Man movie,” I said. “It was amazing.”