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Press was a part of being a hero. A really really shitty part, but a part none the less. The worst kind of press is bad press. Sometimes it didn’t matter what you did, if the gossip outlets could spin it to make you look like a villain they would do it in a heartbeat. You could be helping an old woman cross the street and the media would say it was a vicious attack.
Peter tried to keep a general rule of thumb to ignore all press he got. In one way or another it affected him when he read it. If people were praising Spider-Man he felt pressured. If people slandered Spider-Man he would get depressed. It was hard being a hero but being a hero while you were an anxious teen was harder.
So, so much harder.
One day, despite Peter's rule to not look up ‘Spider-Man’, he was too curious to stop himself. Peter had been Spider-Man for over two years now and he felt more in control of how the media affected his emotions than he had before. Peter currently sat at his desk in his room playing with a pen as he debated going through with the quick google search.
“Who cares what they have to say?” He finally mumbles to himself as he opens his laptop and types in his hero name.
What first popped up was people posting about him on social media talking about how he had saved their lives or how they thought the spandex…hugged his body well. Peter scrolled past the creeper stuff as fast as he could. Better not to fill his brain with that.
For a moment Peter assumed that would be the worst of it and that he had been worried for no reason. But of course, he was proven wrong. It didn’t take long before Peter came across a news outlet called “The Daily Bugle” that kept popping up. He frowned and clicked their link.
As he read article after article dragging his name though the mud, Peter became more and more devastated. It never occurred to him that there would be an entire media organization dedicated to tearing Spider-Man apart.
Peter assumed that most people liked Spider-man. Sure he knew there would be a few hateful posts or even news stations that called him a menace once in a while but this was on a whole different level.
The Daily Bugle was well funded, and highly acclaimed yet it seemed that everything written about Spider-Man on their website was extremely negative. The way they wrote about him was the same way they wrote about criminals.
As Peter continued reading his eyes began to prick with tears. He hadn’t been ready for this. He hadn’t been prepared for it. This wasn’t just haters online who posted a quick tweet about him. This was many well written articles entailing Spider-man’s flaws.
Peters flaws.
Peter shut his laptop as soon as his vision began to blur, hoping that would stop the hot tears from coming. It didn’t. Deep down he knew this shouldn’t affect him, that he should just brush it off, but he couldn’t.
He wanted to call Ned, or get up and walk out of his room to find Aunt May but he couldn’t. Currently it was midnight and he didn’t want to wake either of them up for this silly problem. So with much hesitation, Peter called the one person he knew for sure was awake. His mentor who had become a parental figure in the recent year.
The phone rang twice before it connected. Before Tony had a chance to say anything, Peter spoke. “Mr. Stark” The teens voice sounded raspy and uneven. Tony knew that voice all too well from the countless nights Peter had called him injured after patrol.
“Kid what's wrong, are you hurt?”
“No, No, I’m fine!” Peter blurted, waving his hand that wasn’t holding the phone to his ear, forgetting Tony couldn’t see the gesture.
“Bullshit, why would you call me at midnight crying if you weren’t hurt” Tony sounded mad, but not at Peter.
Peter sighs softly and taps his fingers on his desk, a little embarrassed. “I…I just wanted some advice”
The line went silent for a moment while Tony took in the kids' words. “What kinda advice?”
Peter swallowed but pushed on. “I made the mistake of looking myself up online. I know it was a bad idea but I did it anyway. And, um, while most of the stuff wasn’t bad, there was a whole news website that was filled with articles saying I was evil. I guess I let it get to me a little” The teen chuckled awkwardly while rubbing the tears from his eyes. “I guess I just needed to talk to someone especially someone like you, Mr. Stark, who goes through the same thing”
Tony was quiet and waited for Peter to finish his rambling. Once he knew the boy was done he spoke. “Kid, we all go through shit like that. While I can’t say it gets easier, because it doesn’t really, I can say that you learn to ignore it. You realized it doesn’t define you as a hero or a person. There will always been media outlets who just want to get clicks and you’re a great target”
“I know Mr. Stark” Peter mumbled, blushing a little at his own childishness. “I shouldn’t let it get to me”
“This is all new to you, Pete, of course it’s gonna get to you but you have me and you have Aunt May who you can talk to when it does.” Tony’s voice was serious yet incredibly gentle and Peter felt his heart swell.
“Thank you Mr. Stark. Oh and after this call you should really go to bed, Ms. Potts hates when you work late in the lab” Peter teased and he could almost hear the eye roll on the other end of the phone.
“After all I do for you, you side with Pepper”
“Pepper usually knows what's best for your health…and what's best in general”
Tony couldn’t fight that. “You get some sleep too and no more internet for the rest of the night, you’re banned”
Peter chuckled with a smile on his face. “Thank you…again” He said, voice a little softer.
“No problem kid, sleep tight”
Peter ended the call feeling much better and slept well that night.
–
The next morning Peter went to school as normal and totally forgot about the negative media he had seen surrounding Spider-Man. His call with Tony had him feeling much better and he assumed the matter was settled.
The first half of Peter's day was completely normal. However, during lunch, when he saw Ned nearly trip on his own feet running over to him, he knew something was wrong.
“Dude what's the matter with you?” Peter asked as Ned rushed to sit across from him at the table.
“Have you been online at all today?” Ned blurted and Peter raised an eyebrow, indicating he hadn’t. “Dude Tony Stark help a press conference this morning, It’s all anyone is talking about”
Peter still didn’t really understand. “Mr. Stark holds conferences all the time, what's different this time?”
“You!” Ned exclaims before shoving his phone in Peter's face. A video was already playing.
Peter was instantly met with the sight of Tony Stark walking up to a podium as cameras flashed all around him.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice, although I guess you wouldn’t be reporters if you didn’t” The billionaire said casually into the mic as he pushed up his tinted glasses. “I’ll keep this short since it’s early and I wanna get outa here”
Peter watched the phone with wrapped attention and his heart leapt into his throat at Tony’s next words.
“You all know the webslinging hero Spider-Man, correct?” Tony asked the audience. He paused to clear his throat. More cameras flashed before Tony continued. “Well I’ve seen some pretty vulgar stuff written about him recently and I have to say I’m less than pleased”
Peter’s jaw was slack but he didn’t make a sound as he watched.
“You see, Spidey is a good kid. A kid who means a lot to me. He’ll probably be embarrassed out of his mind when he sees this conference but sorry kid I’ve gotta go momma bear on this” More cameras flashed but all of the reporters stayed deathly silent, they were too afraid they would miss something.
“I’ve held this meeting today to say one thing. Keep my kids name out of your headlines. If I see so much as one more gossip blog badmouthing him, I’ll sue anyone I can find in association with it. You can say whatever the hell you want about me but leave my kid alone…Thank you” With that Tony gave a half wave and walked off the stage, ignoring the wave of reporters voices that rang out the instant he stopped speaking.
Tony Stark had basically announced his adoption of ‘Spider-Man’ in front of a massive audience of media journalists.
Peter was happy he couldn’t see his own face because he was sure it was a bright red.
“Ned, is this real?” He asked breathlessly, earning a frantic nod from Ned.
“Dude everyone is posting about ‘IronDad’ and ‘SpiderSon’ you’re viral!”
With a groan, Peter buried his head in his hands. He was going to have to call Mr. Stark to chew the billionaire out as soon as he got out of school. How could Tony do this without letting him know!
“IronDad…” Peter mumbled, a fresh flush crossing his cheeks at the thought of Tony being his ‘IronDad’ or really his dad in any sense. It was absurd but he was almost happy that Tony would do something like this for him. As he remembered the call from last night and the soothing words of confidence Mr. Stark had given him, he found his happiness growing.
Peter was still going to chew Tony out when school ended no matter how warm his heart felt now.