Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
In 1962, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko slipped a new character into the last issue of a comic that was about to be cancelled. Little was expected of him. He was Peter Parker, a thin, bookish teenager from Queens, and when a spider bite left him with great strength, his first idea was a pragmatic one: earn some money.
I think that small, slightly shabby choice explains why he has outlasted so many grander heroes. Superman came from another planet. Batman had a fortune. Peter had the rent to worry about. His powers solved almost nothing in his own life. If anything, they opened a running tab: a missed class, a lost job, a friend let down, a bruise hidden from his aunt at breakfast. No rescue ever cleared it, and each fight only added to it.
A sceptic will say the character lasts because he sells. That is partly true. Since 2002, three actors have played Peter in live-action films, and the mask stares out from lunch boxes and school bags. But merchandise was once just as ubiquitous for heroes nobody remembers today. Sales can keep a name alive. They cannot make a teenager in Nagpur feel that the boy in the suit has the same mundane troubles she has.
The mask matters here more than the muscles. Because it hides the whole face, almost anyone could be under it. In a 2018 animated film, the suit passed to Miles Morales, a Brooklyn teenager with school and family worries of his own, and the film became one of the best-loved in the character’s history. Perhaps audiences had never come for Peter himself, only for his kind of trouble.
The writer’s reply to the sceptic in the third paragraph assumes that
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → being seen everywhere cannot keep a hero alive unless people feel a personal link with him
The sceptic says Spider-Man lasts because he sells. The writer’s answer only works if being seen everywhere is not enough.
- The writer says merchandise was once “just as ubiquitous” for heroes nobody remembers. Ubiquitous means found everywhere.
- “Sales can keep a name alive.” But they cannot make a teenager feel that the hero has her troubles.
- Behind this reply lies one idea. A hero lasts when people feel close to him. His face on every bag is not enough.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: heroes whose faces appear on lunch boxes and school bags are usually forgotten within a few years — Incorrect. Overstated: The writer says only that some heroes with merchandise are forgotten. Nothing is said about most of them or about “a few years”.
Option 3: young readers in India now prefer the old comics to the newer live-action films — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The teenager in Nagpur is an example of a reader who feels close to Peter. The passage does not compare comics and films.
Option 4: the three actors made Peter far more popular than the comics had ever made him — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The actors are named as part of the sceptic’s case. The writer never weighs their effect against the comics.