Ciem's biggest trauma is more similar to that of Captain America than to Spider-Man

With Across the Spiderverse out in theaters and making a huge impact on the world of animation, it seems only fitting to discuss the issue of trauma in superhero origins, what it is, how it's handled, etc.

It's been said elsewhere that the genre has a tendency to "fetishize" trauma "as a path to power." And while Candi Flippo's powers did manifest when she had to fight off Don the Psycho in the middle school locker room, it wasn't his sexually assaulting her that was the real trauma that gave her the powers. Nor was it the trauma that became the path to her learning how to use her power properly.

By the time the "present day" timeline catches up in late 2015 in Ciem: Inferno, Candi has already unofficially been Ciem for about two years, just without the actual title for her mantle. It's her godfather Imaki's father-like love, patience, and instruction that allows Candi to truly grow in her understanding of what she can do.

If not for Don, there is the possibility that any other trauma response could have manifested her power as well. Any sufficient stress could have done it, since she was the fraternal triplet that had exactly the right unlock condition from her mother to activate Stan's dormant Centhuen Prototype sequence to full potential.

Yet, to truly become Ciem was not about trauma begetting power, but about committment begetting a desire to improve in self-discipline. To make the right call, in spite the price.

Candi is often (perhaps unfairly) compared to Spider-Man, due to both having bug logos and their bodies being fully covered under their suits. And while they have similar danger sense and reflexes, they have key differences too. Ciem uses Zeran wardrobes (and later, a Zeranite Marlquaan bond) to teleport short-range distances, akin to what Nightcrawler can do. Her fighting style is more like a mix of Batman, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler. She uses stingers and darts, rather than webs. She constricts enemies. While Spider-Man is more than plenty strong enough to imitate her constriction ability, she uses this and other combat techniques in a Batman-esque way to account for NOT having web-themed arsenal. Also, save for using special equipment, she can't stick to walls or ceilings like a spider.

Regardless of these distinctions, children with small reference pools do still get the characters confused. Enough that the Centipede in the Spiderverse parodies on DeviantArt have a field day with it.

Yet, the heart of what trauma does shape her the most in her life, actually has nothing to do with a "losing Uncle Ben" moment, as one might expect. Rather, it has to do with her gradual loss of faith in authority structures, due to repeatedly being betrayed by authority figures throughout her life. The version of Captain America seen in The Winter Soldier would much better be able to relate to that sense of frustration, even though different iterations of Spider-Man have had plenty of their own clashes with authority.

Does this mean that Candi has no "Dead Uncle Ben" moments? Nonsense! She first loses both parents in a road rage assassination when she's seven, putting her in a similar camp to Batman and Doctor Sivana from DC. She was then raised by an often-neglectful older sister, when her rich brother Reily outright refused to take her in. Her godfather had joint custody, but of her only, not her two sisters.

Next, Candi lost her daughter, Angie, to a miscarriage while she was in juvie. This left her completely devastated; but it was hardly the moment that shook her the most.

While she was incarcerated for refusing to betray Imaki, she witnessed several guard and prisoners that she'd grown to care about get ruthlessly slaughtered by the Screwworms, Anitos and Korsicht. She was tempted to become very bitter at that moment, but held on to doing the right thing, and defying Darius' bid against her soul.

Then, she lost her boyfriend, Danny, when he fell off a mountain and died. With him gone, she lost all hope of joining his family and starting a new one, to become the mother to her future children that she herself was robbed of.

Next, she lost another boyfriend, Tyrone Menster, to Affadidah's goons. Her brother Reily and his whole family were then killed. Then, she lost her new foster family to the same. Then, she lost her oldest sister to Gunner and Skellig Soorfelt. Then, she lost her godfather in Denison. Her new husband Donte was almost killed, and her new friend Dolly was almost killed. Her sisters were scattered to the wind, and she considered them dead as well.

Yet, none of these "losing Uncle Ben"-type moments were the tragedy that shook her most, even if it did weigh on her to lose so many loved ones.

The repeated attempts on her life she faced didn't shake her either. So what did?

Don the Psycho, Warren Bozil, and Wayne Norfine all either took advantage of her sexually or attempted to at some point. Though, Warren was the least malicious about it, and she was able to forgive his indiscretion, while reminding him that she was married and couldn't let anything continue. Not even rape trauma was enough to push her almost to her breaking point.

In the end, it was something much more banal than that: authority figures doing the opposite of their jobs.

1. After she was raped by Don the Psycho, both her school and the local police elected to cover up the incident, and demanded she keep quiet about it! They decided to bother her, rather than go after Mendoza!
2. In spite knowing Stan and Shalia's intentions for Candi, Darius intentionally tried to turn Candi into a heartless assassin. When Imaki helped her retain some of her humanity, and become more of a traditional superhero instead, to come closer to honoring her parents' wishes, Darius started treating her like a rebel for not listening to his defiance instead!
3. Under all the circumstances happening in Gerosha, a little common sense would've told Officer Naggle and the others that pretending they didn't hear what Candi said, and letting her go when it was revealed she didn't have a bomb, or even driving her to her house and releasing her, would have been a LOT wiser than arresting her right then and there, all while ignoring the actual terrorists acting brazenly all around them! Alas, they were so obsessed with her, they elected to do the stupid thing.
4. When the obvious course of action for the courts would have been to realize what nonsense the charges on Candi were, and to have her released or put in witness protection or something, they decided they'd rather invent any excuse their imaginations could muster to get her sent to prison instead, just so that they could save face over how stupid the arrest was, by not having to acknowledge how dumb it all was. Meaning, the justice system chose politics over justice.
5. Candi's legal counsel proved to be such an absolute joke, she knew it was a show trial. But was denied any alternative.
6. It took Candi going to some lengths to prove that Lonny Factor was Drop-In, and that he was, in fact, molesting Amirah, before Bruce Almin started taking Amirah's accusations seriously. In spite of how highly Candi respected the warden in most other instances, this negligence on his part lowered Candi's confidence in his ability to perform his job.
7. When Candi suggested a practical solution to a problem that went outside the box, but wasn't technically illegal, her reward was the time out room!
8. When sent to Cincinnati, Candi was not guaranteed nor supplied any competent team to assist her. She had Jordan Grentzwell, and otherwise, was expected to save Almin from Korsicht all by herself! In a war zone!
9. In spite knowing that Madison would become a target, higher-up authorities didn't give the Madison campus anything more than the most basic weapons to fight back in the event of an incursion. Had they used more common sense at the top, the staff at Madison would've been better-equipped to protect the various inmates, patients, and juvie students on the campus from Screwworms and Anitos. Thus, Goatgruff wouldn't have had to give his life to save anyone, and Candi would've been able to save a lot more of her fellow inmates' lives. Higher-ups in authority pretending that Madison wasn't a terrorist target, and their refusal to take threats made to the facility seriously, was a serious dereliction of duty that cost dozens of staff and inmates their lives. Yet...NO ONE WAS PUNISHED FOR IT!
10. In spite having established communications with the Exodus Agenda of both Idaho and Indiana, SCALLOP found itself beholden to a corrupt congress in Texas that insisted that "open war not be risked," in spite of CLEAR signs that Arfaas had already invaded, and there was ALREADY open war! As such, while the Navyrope Society still took action, they were too little too late to save the majority of the Exodus Agenda from being slaughtered near Denison. Candi herself almost died during the onslaught, and the tragedy cost Zize "Plum Bixie" Choi her husband - and eventually, her sanity!
11. Houston police and Darius repeatedly harassing Candi and her friends, rather than focusing on actual public safety threats, finally reached a point where she nearly abadoned the idea of the Sodality of Gerosha, and joined the Navyropes.
12. In spite being a significant improvement over his father, Lex was unable to protect Candi from ALL harassment, political persecution, etc. It was only her urge to protect her son, Frank, that caused Candi to continue to tolerate any abuse from the system at all. Many times, she entertained thoughts of joining the Navyropes, and running away from everything. If not for Lex's benevolence, Candi would have probably joined the Navyropes, and become a very different sort of character. Some of her better personality traits would have disappeared behind all her bitterness.
13. In an alternate timeline, Candi joins the Percolation Warriors. However, fanfics suggest she gets involved with the Spiderverse at some point as well. This doesn't bode well for her in the end, as one of her last interactions with the Spiderverse results in her pheromones having a corrupting influence on Gwen and Miles, leading to her finding them hiding from everyone in Japan - and Gwen being revealed to be pregnant. This causes Candi to consider leaving the Percolation Warriors entirely, as she fears becoming just as bad as the irresponsible cops that made her own past so miserable. Feeling similarly is Tabitha Pang, whose effort to stop Feathertop from destroying the worlds of the Mirror's Edge video games almost backfired disastrously, when one version of Kruger murders one version of Feathertop, steals his powers, and becomes a merged Kruger-Feathertop menace! All inspired by Tabitha's time travel shenanigans to resurrect Faith Connors, no less! It gets even worse when Candi learns that Osborn Spider #47 used her and Miles to jump to a different Mirror's Edge world, and then bit the Faith Connors of that world, creating a Spider-Faith variant!

While Spider-Man has had his share of issues with authority, even within just the 2018 Insomniac game with regards to Sable going rogue, this act of betrayal by authority is miniscule to Candi's feeling of betrayal by authority structures. Peter's overall view of authority isn't shaken to the core in that game, as he already didn't trust Sable nor Osborn much to begin with.

Candi was torn in her early life between Imaki's correct interpretation of Romans 13, which prohibits tyrants from ever being legitimate authority; and the 21st century American pop culture corrupt reinterpretation and twisting of its words, often pushed by the very Christian institutions that should know better, and utilized by tyrants to invoke divine right to their intentional abuses and crimes!

Foolishly, Stan and Shalia allowed Erin to go to a Baptist college that taught the incorrect view. She became indoctrinated, and then informed Candi that she had to listen to Darius more often than not. Meanwhile, Imaki saw corrupt actions in Darius that convinced him that Darius had forfeited all legitimacy over Candi's or anyone else's life a very long time ago.

Candi tried to live her life as much as possible to appease both her legal guardians, but this got harder and harder to do. And when her spiritual and emotional needs started getting neglected by both, she turned to finding a boyfriend as a way to make up for it. Unfortunately, she was offered only low-hanging fruit to choose from. So she picked the two men that were the least low-hanging: Danny Loffin, and Tyrone Menster. Due to their not being quite right themselves, and coming from terrible family backgrounds, they had sexual expectations, that she readily surrendered, in exchange for the emotional support she wasn't getting elsewhere. This led Candi to years of compulsive and unhealthy sexual addiction, which put her in the very situation that got her arrested in 2015, when she had to run home after Danny's house caught fire, and then police mistook her for a terrorist!

Alas, Imaki was just about married to the idea of a Great Sodality, and that Candi's future should revolve around it. As she learned, in spite Imaki's best intentions, his view of her future was very narrow one, lacking in greater perspective regarding what was all possible. The idea that she could always just join the Navyropes if the Sodality method didn't work, was unthinkable to him.

Candi's history with almost everyone she ever knew, and her idea of "faith in a system," was subjected to betrayals that go deeper than even some of the most visceral betrayals that Peter Parker has faced. Rather, the threats posed to her entire worldview are more on the level with a different Marvel hero's disillusionment: Captain America!

It may be useless here to reiterate the entire plot to The Winter Soldier, but the comparison is plain as day. Candi was told most of her life to trust SCALLOP, and believe in the idea of this Big Government structure. And then, SCALLOP betrayed its own founding ideals, and betrayed her, time and time and time again. Her whole view on authority figures in general was permanently damaged due to these constant acts of betrayal. Similarly, Steve was initially brought into what became SHIELD on the pretense that it was out to stop threats like Hydra, and do good in the world - only for him to repeatedly catch SHIELD acting more like Hydra than its antidote! And then, to find out that half of SHIELD had already BECOME Hydra!

Ben Franklin's admonision to America: "A republic, if you can keep it," is a moral warning for the entire world to heed, even today! For even in the real world, we see that Lord Acton's axiom is not easy to cheat regarding power "corrupting absolutely."

In A Centipede Once Again Save the Spiderverse, Candi's aggressive preemptive action to protect Miles and Gwen from Miguel is not motivated by any concern whatsoever with the canonicity of the death of Uncle Ben figures. Which is why when Miguel declares her a "hypocrite" over the fact that every version of Imaki Izuki must somehow die as well, Candi is not even phased. She doesn't care about what Miguel believes is "inevitable." Because to her, Miguel's abuse of power, and cruel mistreatment of Miles, is a far greater sin than any selfishness on Miles' part.

As far as Candi is concerned, Miguel starting to sound like Darius Philippine is far less forgivable than ANY shenanigans that she, Miles, or Gwen could be guilty of by tampering with canon.

Another reason for Candi's lack of concern is the fact that Imaki's death is NEVER HER FAULT in any canon! In Gerosha Prime, Despair Gerosha, Classic Gerosha, and Comprehensive Gerosha; Imaki has a heart attack - not caused by any reason that has anything to do with Candi. In Cataclysmic, Gaming, and Crossover Geroshas, it was Arfaas' ambush at Denison, and SCALLOP and the Texan government with their lack of concern over border security on this matter, that was responsible for Imaki being shot dead. Amidst the chaos, there was nothing Candi could've done to save Imaki.

In spite an accident occurring that traps Kamohoalii, Anarteq, and Nemara in a world based on Disney's Moana, one which is quickly undone, Candi makes the right move by temporarily hiding Miles and Gwen from Miguel in the Hawaii of an Earth-G7.2.9.

In that universe, Earth-G7.2.1's Dr. Jordan Offe, one of the scientists working on various Phexo experiments, gets abducted by the Percolation Wave due to the wave being made unstable by Miguel's hunt for Gwen and Miles. Offe, not remembering what day it was, enters in a shift to work after his G7.2.9 counterpart had left for the day. This prevents Tanya Woven's grandfather from escaping the lab with her father prematurely, when he got uncomfortable with the Phaelite Society of Earth. As such, a similar experiment to the one performed on Stan Flippo was successfully completed on Tanya's father.

Therefore, in Earth-G7.2.9, Tanya Woven developed her own proper centipede powers, and had to befriend Anarteq and Kamohoalii to avoid being locked up by SCALLOP during the Beliah Amendments Enforcement Drive. Unlike her Earth-G7.0 counterpart, G7.2.9 Tanya never properly retired from being Ciem, given she had powers just like Candi's.

G7.2.9 Tanya acknowledged how the destabilization Miguel was responsible for was the only reason she got to be a proper Chilopod Crusader, as she was never meant in the original timeline to be anything more than an elaborate imposter. The fact that this Tanya became Ciem, though she was never meant to properly be Ciem originally, gave Miles a confidence boost that he didn't have to worry about Miguel's opinion about who Spider-Man was supposed to be. After all: Miguel, by creating this new Tanya, had become every bit as big a hypocrite as he accused Candi of being!

Regardless, this core difference is what explains Candi's actions in the fanfic, as opposed to those of the spiders. They're all primarily motivated by the personal tragedy of what seems like the needless loss of someone close and personal to them. Candi, however, is more like Steve Rogers; in that she's primarily motivated by avenging the general moral principles of authority that current office holders have betrayed, that the office may have its honor restored, for the sake of preserving liberty and justice for all in the greater picture. In her view, if this cannot be the case, then no amount of personal sacrifice to rescue a personal loved one will have any long-term meaning. If a tree branch doesn't fall on your uncle; but you do nothing to hold tyrants accountable unto the governed and unto God, then your loved ones will eventually be crushed by the tyanny that you failed to hold accountable. Their fate will be worse than if the tree had killed them!

It's easy to see how the Ben Parker mantra, which seems to invoke Luke 12:48, has been twisted as "just take Peter's powers away, and he'll go back to having no responsibility." Yet, since knowledge is also power, Candi is often there to remind that lack of superpowers is no excuse to act as one having been given no responsibilities in life. That some callings will always be present, and your exact power level will be irrelevant. Tanya feeling obligated to become Ciem even in a world where she had no centipede powers demonstrates this even better than Candi's lecture in A Centipede's Way Home did. So did Tabitha's heroine journey in Sodality: Vindication and Swappernetters, when she acted nobly even before receiving a Marlquaan bond, in spite the fact that only Maurice himself being assigned as her supernatural bodyguard even before she was aware of it prevented her from being killed MULTIPLE TIMES!

While Candi does find it concerning that Miles is so selfish and rebellious as a teen; she considers Miguel's abusive personality and abuses of power to be far worse than Miles' selfishly wanting to rewrite canon to save his father. This puts her in a difficult moral conundrum, where she can understand the points of view of both; and yet still sides with Miles, in spite demonstrating no desire to rewrite canon to save any of her own lost loved ones.

If there's any character that demonstrates this arc's moral conclusions better than Candi, Peter, Miles, or Steve ever did, it was the one man that was far enough ahead of the curve to skip to the end: Charles Hammerstein. Unlike Rogers, Hammerstein grew up already mistrusting authoritarians. His morals were almost in line with those of Spider-Punk, in spite being put in almost a Captain America situation as "Centipede Charlie." He ultimately joined the military when coerced to, to save his girlfriend of Japanese descent from unlawful internment by FDR; but it was only his acting selflessly for her sake that convinced him that tolerating any of the coercion he was being subjected to would ever be worth it. Even then, he viewed the FDR regime as shysters, being wholly unworthy of being trusted or respected.

Hammerstein breaks the scale, as he would also have sided with Miles, in spite being just as bitter as Miguel. He all but entirely foresaw the betrayal he'd face on the frontlines, when his own government decided to abandon him to be murdered by the Japanese. Yet, he knew that he had to fight on and escape somehow, if he were ever to see Lacey again. He vowed that if he did survive, he'd find a way back home as soon as possible, and do to those in high office that betrayed him on the frontlines exactly what they intended to do to him! He didn't care if he were vilified for it: he'd kill the Zionist-controlled reporters speaking ill of him next! And any other pathetic soul siding with these tyrants that got in his way!

Amidst his rage, his being tragically mowed down by the Japanese was what prevented Hammerstein from going down a dark path, which would have been the beginning of an outright antihero if not villain arc for him, as he became more and more reckless while exacting his vengeance. And it's the very lines he would then have crossed, that the Navyropes took pains to avoid crossing, that kept them from becoming the same very thing that Hammerstein would have, had he lived.

Especially in our world, where we don't have huge cadres of superheroes to fight these battles for us, statements like "vigilance is the eternal price of liberty" cannot be overstated!