Nerd Mentality

My Spider-Man is Black....and Hispanic

Posted August 5th 2011 by Frankie Aguilar.

Did you even know Spider-Man died? Would you have even known if he didn't get replaced by a non-white kid? Don't get me wrong, I totally dig it when the national media picks up a comic book story. Do you remember when Captain America died? That was all over the news! People were shocked, saddened, and most of those people hadn't picked up a comic book in years. But to the rest of us, it was inevitable. Not just from the story line that preceded his death, but from a general rule of thumb in comics: everybody dies at least once. The second part of that saying is: no one stays dead. Cap came back, and don't even get me started on that Jean Grey character, I'm starting to think she keeps getting herself killed to get away from Cyclops. But when Captain America "came back" initially, he wasn't the same guy. Bucky Barnes took up the shield and kept the image alive. People weren't pissed then. So why now that we have a new Spider-Man is it suddenly a huge deal. Is it honestly because he's not white? I certainly hope not, but it's hard to believe otherwise.

(A quick for your information, when I say "people" for the rest of this rant, I'm referring mostly to the non comic book reading audience.)

I keep hearing a few terms bandied about, things that shouldn't be taken lightly but terms that some pundits uses like ammunition. I hear things like PC or Obama Age or liberalization and I can't help but be sick to my stomach. Comics are mine (and a few other peoples). Don't take them away, don't just make this story another self righteous sound bite, please. Why does it have to matter. The people that have a problem with the fact that the new Spider-Man is multiracial have no logical reason outside of race. Do I think that Glenn Beck, who is the master of absolutely caring about things he claims to not care about, reads and follows the Ultimate Spider-Man story allowing for him to make any kind of educated response about it? Does anything in that previous sentence lead you to believe I do.

Maybe I'm coming at this from a biased perspective. I'm multi racial and I'm what most people would consider pretty liberal. But I think my biggest bias would be that I'm a Spider-Man fan. I've loved the character ever since I saw him faded out yellow on my Dad's coffee mug when I was little. I watched the cartoons and heaven help me when I found out that comic books existed. This guy was the hero for little short skinny kids like myself. He's was unsure, self conscious and goofy as hell and yet at the end of the day he kicked ass and some how got girls! How could I not like this guy. Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man, gave me hope. Not that I could be bitten by a radioactive spider and, not only somehow live, but gain badass super powers (even though I still hold out hope). No, he gave me hope that a little guy like me could go on to do great things by being true to myself, having strong convictions and protecting the people I love.

Why does that have to ever be tainted? Why do we have to take something so pure and true like the idea of Spider-Man and label it negatively to try and get some kind of backhand point across? The new Spider-Man's name is Miles Morales and up to this point, he hasn't done a freaking thing in the tights! The only thing we know about him is his race. And it wasn't like Marvel said, "BAM LOOKS AT THIS NON WHITE SPIDER-MAN, LOOK HOW FORWARD THINKING WE ARE". They put out marketing shots of the new Spider-Man and guess what, he happened to be a black kid. It wasn't until the media scrutiny came on that his racial indentity was put into play, but again...why does it matter.

It's not like when Obama was elected. Back then (and I apologize for the amount of generalization that's about to go on, but grand gestures tend to get a point across better) lefties could yell at righties and say "You only hate Obama because he's black which makes you a big ole racist!". Well, righties could always counter with "Bullshit! I don't like his policies or the fact that he's a barely tenured politician" and whether or not that was true or a gigantic racist cover up remains to be seen. Here however, I can call bullshit because the only thing we have to go on right now is his race. So again I ask why does it matter? What does the racial identity of a Super Hero have to do with his ability to fight for truth and justice? Not a damn thing. There are plenty of races represented in the Marvel Universes, and not only that, but character of (gasp) different genders and sexual orientations! But if they can shoot lasers or punch real hard, everything is cool, right?

Jokes are fine. I've heard a few people saw he looks like Tiger Woods which I thought was immensely hilarious because that'd explain why he hasn't been playing that much golf lately. My first thought upon hearing his name was a Spidey pajama wearing Kid Cudi swinging over the streets of New York saving party girls from being accosted in alleys. And we've got to give Donald Glover a bit of praise here too. If he hadn't stood up and legitimately said he wanted to play Spider-Man in the new movie, maybe none of this would have even crossed the minds of the big wigs at Marvel. Maybe he was the final catalyst for this change.

Maybe folks are just afraid of moving away from the status quo. Maybe the don't want their Spider-Man gone. But whatever, they can read about Peter Parker in the normal Marvel universe because in case you were afraid, multiracial Spider-Man lives in a different Universe from the made up one where white Spider-Man lives anyways. We've had at least two different Spider-Men this long, why not mix it up a little. Oh shoot I said mix, hope people don't get mad. Did I mention he might also be Gay, holy crap right? The only thing that matters, at all, is that he's the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. And for anyone to think otherwise is just a waste of their time, and mine. And the fact that in a month, it won't even mean a things to the people making a huge deal over it upsets me even more. I may sound like a fanboy trapped in his world of comics somewhere in a basement, but leave my comics alone. If the new Spider-Man is black, Hispanic, gay, a violin, or even a half eaten bag of marshmallows, he's still my Spider-Man. Well... as long as Brian Michael Bendis keeps writing him!

Tags: Spider-Man

Posted in: News, Features, Entertainment

Comments (0) | Permalink | Digg | Reddit