Because Spider-Man understood that Uncle Ben was right, dozens of people on an L train would survive Doctor Octopus's dismantling of the break system and threatened plummeting onto Fifth Avenue. Peter Parker aka Stan Lee had a gift. He couldn't just quit his dream of being a rich and famous comic book writer. He had to sit in Aunt May's basement and work on it. Forget dating. Forget Mary Jane. Hopefully the time would come when he would achieve his dreams. THEN he could ask her out. THEN they could be together. In the meantime, he'd rather not deal with her at all. Why? Spider-Man has enemies, and they just might snatch Mary Jane away once they see that her boyfriend is this guy who sits in the basement all day smoking and writing manuscripts. It won't take any more then gentle convincing. Don't you want to do more, they'll say. Experience more then just a smoky basement?

Aunt May doesn't dig on Peter's smoking, but she knows it's what's helping his younger self achieve his dreams. And so not only does she allow it, she pretends she doesn't even know it's going on. After all, this kid is not sitting down there screwing around, and he's not being the least bit disrespectful. He shirks his chores though. And he starts fights at school. Oh he'll say he finishes them, but god dammit, these are the years he's changing into the man he's going to be the rest of his life. Great power equals great responsibility. Of course you could lay Mary Jane and the girls who are walking past you on the street and even that snooty lady who wasn't going to pay for your pizzas. But you knew that time is a motherfudger. It will catch up to you. You'll be married or involved and have babies and bills and parents who are getting old who you have to take care of, you have to do your writing now while you're young. You have to give it all while you still have the time. And decide that Mary Jane isn't mature enough to realize you're awesome.

In the end, she just might come after you.

Michael Chabon makes the screenplay great because the task is precisely accomplished the way both the studio AND the fans would want. And what I mean is, the Spiderman movies were sold essentially because studio executives realized how much people like Superman I, II and III. And so they send the Jurassic Park guy David Koepp to intentionally make Spiderman 1 like Superman 1. And thus this is what had to happen for 2. He had to lose his powers, just like in 3, he has to become a jerk like Superman did in III. And what pressure. So many people loved Superman II more then Superman 1. How to make Spiderman 2 something the audience can love?

Well first we start with an original trademark of the Spider-Man movies thus far, and that's been the motif of the advice given from Uncle Ben or Aunt May -- around page 30ish, you have it introduced, page 45ish you have some advice from the villian when he's being Norman Osborn or Doctor Octavius, normal and supportive of Peter and offering VERY GOOD ADVICE that the villian has made his creedo.....around minute 110ish, you have Spider-Man go and pervert the villian's own advice by tying it into the stuff Uncle Ben taught him...but Michael Chabon actually goes and takes the KEY CLIMACTIC ACTION SEQUENCE around minute 100, and makes the advice something that is physical proven with an example.

If Spider-Man doesn't focus focus focus, strong focus on what he wants, he'll lose those webs and the train will go right over the unfinished tracks. In the early going he was partially neglecting the advice, and he couldn't get one web off without falling. Even when he thinks he's got the advice down, he lands on a bunch of cars. This time, he AHHHHHHHHHH listens to Uncle Ben, as well as Doctor Octavius who tells him this is his job and he's got to use his talents and share them with other people, such as the subway passengers.

So in a way, Doctor Octopus saves the very passengers he almost murders.

Thanks to Spider-Man perverting his advice.

The train scene also is blessed with even more of Michael Chabon's autobiography as a struggling author (when he was like a teenager, he's been famous for most of his life). When Spider-Man, left to fix this problem of a speeding train on tracks that are not finished, it's like being 28 and having tons and tons and tons of manuscripts and screenplays that nobody's recognized you for yet. You're speeding towards a time when it's going to be all about being with Mary Jane and family and kids....it's coming and it's coming fast. As you struggle to keep the train from crashing, slowing it down and such....your first attempts are futile. You're like goodness, this is serious. It speeds by one opportunity after another after another, until finally you start submitting these things. Usually you're 28 before you start submitting stuff you've been working on for years, because your mind is still that of a 20-year old idiot.

So now here's Spider-Man, throwing those submissions that he was once tripping over himself trying to write. The first several times he did anything close to submit these works for criticism was those endless nights, alone, when he would read them over.

They SUCKED!!!!

My BACK!!!! My BACK!!!!!

And so now here he is...pissed off...with a purpose....ready to rectify a life he's ruining and wasting before it speeds over those unfinished tracks. His first submissions, sucked.

Finally some old man, or maybe even his own brain, whispered in Spider-Man's ear:

"ANYMORE BRIGHT IDEAS? LOSER?!"

To which Spider-Man, Michael Chabon, you the aspiring writer, turns to him...and you're so long past the point when fear would deter you that you look him up and down and say "Yeah, I have a FEW ideas, pops. Just relax."

And so you're ready now to submit the other ones.

The real ones.

The works you thought you could hold back and save for later on.

Nobody fell for the crappier works.

So now, Michael Chabon is about to throw Cavalier N' Klay, Spider-Man's about to throw a zillions short stories and manuscripts and ideas and pitches and the kitchen sink and Aunt May's boxes and everything under the sun that is at his power....at this dream of stopping the train, getting noticed with enough time to start a family as a paid, professional storyteller....and just keep slinging those webs, slinging them, focused, I'm focused, I'm ready, I'm doing it,

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH we got one...something seems to be sticking.....alright, now you're just over twenty or thirty newbies.

So Spider-Man hangs on Tight and KEEP FOCUSING KEEP GOING--AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--and he's growing out of his clothes because he never goes shopping and is getting fat from all those iced coffees and inactivity and writing.....but he's going....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH---

BOOOOOOOM!!!! He turns thirty.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-----AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH----

Pause...now open your eyes. He did it.

We're still miles about the pavement.

he did it.

And now, thoroughly exhausted, Spider-Man quits his job and drops down on his back...

Only this time...many many people are there to catch him...

Here's more on the subject...

http://hubpages.com/hub/GREAT-NBA-STORIES-When-Kobe-Won-The-Fued-With-Shaq

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Quintessential-Review-Of-Spider-Man-2