Of all of Spider-Man’s relationships, perhaps the most contentious is the one with Peter Parker’s sometime employer, J. Jonah Jameson. JJJ makes his vitriolic hate widely known, primarily through his paper, The Daily Bugle.
However, why does this self-made newspaperman hate the wall-crawler so much? Why does a man with otherwise higher-than-average journalistic integrity have such a penchant for printing libel and subsequent retractions? Like any well-developed character, the answer is complicated.
Why does J. Jonah Jameson hate Spider-Man?
Vigilante status
Arguably the biggest motivator for Jonah’s scorn is that Spider-Man is a vigilante. Jameson has a great deal of respect for those in uniform. Earth-616 Jameson was raised by his aunt and uncle with the latter being a decorated veteran in the United States Army which, despite being abused by him, instilled an admiration for those public heroes.
As such, when it comes to heroes like Spider-Man, who, despite their noble intentions, act outside of the law, Jameson sees them as no better than the criminals themselves. A prime example of this is during Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 where in a Just the Facts episode, Jameson comments that if vigilantes wanted to fully enforce the law, they would join the police department. He then goes on a short tirade about following the rules and why he must be a “sentinel of statutes.”
This was also seen during the Civil War comics run where Jameson supported the Superhero Registration Act. Essentially, if a person is operating outside of the established system of rules, Jameson is going to take issue with them. While it could be argued that Spider-Man is Jameson’s favorite target, the journalist has also gone after other New York City superheroes like Daredevil.
It’s all about the money
Perhaps the most “practical” reason for Jameson to hate Spider-Man is because it prints money. One of the easiest ways to whip up the masses and get them interested in what you’re saying is by publishing incendiary articles. We have more than enough real-life equivalents of this and Jameson is, among many other things, a businessman.
Every article and photo he publishes about Spider-Man engages the bulk of New York City’s people. Whether they agree with Jameson and think he’s a threat or they think Spidey is all that’s keeping them from anarchy, the people will buy copies of the Bugle. It’s the entire reason why clickbait exists.
While Jameson might loathe Spider-Man, I’m sure he enjoys the money that comes in as a result of the stories about the webhead. Lord knows he needs it to pay for the numerous lawsuits as a result of his various smear campaigns and libel. That and paying for operations to create supervillains like Scorpion.
Green with envy
If we were to dig into the man that is John Jonah Jameson, we would see that Jameson is envious of what Spider-Man is and has. The journalist has largely operated within the confines of society and its rules. While he has been quite successful, he feels that people like Spider-Man overshadow true heroes like his son, the astronaut J. Jonah Jameson III.
Jameson wants to be the hero. He wants the attention and admiration of others. He wants his perceived order to be restored where masked vigilantes are seen as menaces and upstanding individuals who went through the proper channels are rewarded. He’s a man who sees things in a very black-and-white sense and can’t understand those who see things differently.
To him, Spider-Man is someone who came from nowhere and stole glory from public servants like the police, firefighters, and EMTs. Spider-Man is heralded as a hero when in actuality, villains come out of the woodwork to kill him, and their ensuing battles cost innocents their lives and leave catastrophic devastation in their wake.
There could be other reasons, too
There are a multitude of reasons as to why JJJ hates Spider-Man. One can spend hours poring over the various iterations of the characters across their many incarnations from their debut in the 1960s. Ultimately, it breaks down to Spider-Man needing a foil. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Jameson does the job pretty well for both Peter Parker and his alter-ego.
