Marvel Comics has revealed the identity of the new Ultimate Spider-Man: a half-black, half-Hispanic teen named Miles Morales.
For those of you who believe racism is dead, or that the geek community is somehow accepting and welcoming and open to all…
Larry Doherty of Larry’s Comics responded with the following:
You can see more of Larry’s Tweets and comments at http://graphicpolicy.com/2011/08/01/the-c
Bleeding Cool News rounded up some of the comments on the USA Today article about the new Spider-Man. Please keep in mind that these are comments that weren’t removed for being too offensive. Here are a few:
That’s just dangerous. With spider powers, just think how much stuff he could steal, if he was not so lazy.
What will he say when he runs into a criminal? “Sup Foo? Dis is MY ‘hood!”
Shame on Marvel Comics! This is not diversity; this is a disgrace! Spiderman was Peter Parker, and Peter Parker was white. Create a new character if you want to prove that Marvel Comics is “diverse”. Minorities are typically less than 18% of the population, but they seem to get nearly 100% of the history. Why should white children not have a comic book hero that they can identify with?
That’s right, Marvel comics! Where are all the white heroes? Shame on you for discriminating against us poor, underrepresented white people.
Though I admit I found, “I want to see his birth certificate” amusing.
Click here to read more, if you can stomach it.
Unfortunately, these are not isolated comments. There’s much more out there along similar lines.
Don’t tell me racism is dead. Don’t tell me people are overreacting, or that this shit is just “good-natured joking.” Don’t tell me how the geek community is so much more accepting.
And circling back to Larry’s Comics, does anyone have any recommendations for comics retailers that don’t encourage racism and general douchebaggery?
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
My Books
(August 2013)
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Comments
Though it is good to see Marvel considering 'why do all of our iconic heroes have to be white guys?' I mean, Spiderman is pretty much 'supposed' to be a geeky guy who suddenly gets cool powers and decides to do something with them. His backstory and powers don't strike me as being race/ethnicity specific. Hell, not even gender specific besides the name.
(Also, given how many reboots Marvel does, I don't think you can argue they have sacred cows that cannot be altered. What backstory is Wolverine on now?)
"Also, given how many reboots Marvel does, I don't think you can argue they have sacred cows that cannot be altered."
::Grin::
And then they turn around and wonder, every once in a while, why they aren't more women or minorities into gaming, comic books, etc.
::Headdesk::
I mean, I can actually respond to that third comment:
1. Yeah, "Spiderman is Peter Parker". Like Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, except when he's Kyle Rayner or Jon Stewart. Like Batman is Bruce Wayne except when he's that kid in the TV show. Superheroes have a pretty well-established history of changing who's behind the mask.
2. Indeed, pity the white kids who are only left with...Superman, Supergirl, Batman, Robin, Wolverine, Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Jean Gray, Rogue, the Wasp, Captain America, seventy-five percent of the human Green Lanterns, Wonder Woman, Professor X...yeah. (I will also note that only four of those are women and only one has any sort of disability, unless you count Wolverine's unfortunate sideburns, but that's another can of worms*.)
*Except: why do the only human women on the good side of the Lantern spectrum get stuck with the love rings? Ew?
And how many Robins have we had now? Tim, Stephanie, Dick, Jason...
I'm not even sure what to say to this: "Minorities are typically less than 18% of the population, but they seem to get nearly 100% of the history." Uhhh?
Or this: "Why should white children not have a comic book hero that they can identify with?"
Because most other comic book characters aren't white? And because white children can't be expected to see brown people as people?
*facepalm*
Expecting white men to identify with women or non-white character? That's just madness!
Are you making a very elaborate (and clever) joke, or is there really a French Batman?
This isn't rocket science.
Marvel has already has Isaiah Bradley, so it's not like this move is out of character for them. It makes a lot of sense for the character and after breaking up The Marriage they needed to do a real revamp, lest the character be stuck as a perpetual man-boy.
(Side note: I'm still pissed at Glee for the whole "Mercedes is lazy" thing. Sometimes modern racism, even in fandom, just isn't subtle.)
http://theferrett.livejournal.com/16461
I'm going to link him here in the comments as well, and I'll probably have some words about this today myself.
Cath
The background: "Revealed in Marvel Comics’ Ultimate Fallout Issue 4, out Wednesday, the new Spider-Man in the Ultimate universe is a half-black, half-Hispanic teen named Miles Morales. He takes over the gig held by Peter Parker, who was killed in Ultimate Spider-Man Issue 160 in June."
So yes, in OUR dimension, Spidey is still Peter Parker, still very much alive.
The rest... well, I got nothing but that my little faith in humanity has been further reduced.
You might check into Mile High Comics:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/
And yes, they will ship.
2. I don't understand the KFC comment. Or why it's racist. I like KFC and, last time I looked, I was still a middle-aged, English, white female. Sokeone please explain it to me? Is it an American thing?
I couldn't stomach further tweets. The ones you've put up here are enough to make me simmer. Yeesh.
As a corollary, just imagine if they'd recast Peter Parker as black, Hispanic...and female. That's the only way I could imagine the comments being even more toxic. Grrr.
But I'm not surprised. I've had middle school kids whose families are half Latino being racist about Latinos. Ticks me off big time.
and b) if white, male, straight readers cannot "relate to" EVERY SINGLE character, because one headlining character doesn't fall into one of those characters, SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG. Apparently white children require EVERY character to be exactly like them and POC children should be content with the one token who almost never gets to be the leader, or something. Note that the people making these claims are not usually children themselves, or at least not literally children...
That this could still be people's reaction depressed me then and it depresses me now.
The main thing about Spiderman is that he's a geek, not that he's white. I'd be more pissed if Spiderman was suddenly a jock.
Edited at 2011-08-03 02:46 pm (UTC)
I'd also argue that Spidey is a man driven by the need to atone for his own failures. That is something anybody can relate to, no matter what race or gender Spidey is.
I wish I was making this up...
From what I've seen, Chuck from Mile High Comics seems to be an upstanding fellow.
I had several times where I just flat-out said, "You know, I'm a liberal from New York. I don't actually agree with you." Then there would be some mumbling and a bit of "Well, I don't mean anything by it, I just thought you would be able to get the joke."
And I would say, "Yeah, you might want to consider that making assumptions about people because they're white isn't really a good idea." Subtext: you're a reverse-racist, too. Suck on that, buddy. I hope it got some people thinking about what it means to divide people up as "us" and "them."
(not commenting on the post more directly because what I would say has been said by Jim and/or the other commenters)
You know how you're trying to hit home about how a rapist isn't some construct that people subscribe to, Jim? It's the same thing here: people have this image of a racist being a guy shouting epithets at the African-American schoolkids integrating a school in Arkansas in the 1950s, but most racists aren't like that. They have families, and love their kids, and do things like coach and volunteer. In short, they are complicated people, and often people you know. That's what makes it so insidious.
What I would like to see more of, would be some new superheros that are written as blacks or hispanics or any of the other poorly represented segments of society. Yes, Peter Parker was originally a nerdy white guy: I'm really not a huge comic fan so I don't know if you can just change his color without changing the original persona. And that seems to lack artistic integrity. Oh look he's still a nerd, he's just a nerd with brown skin.
Why not write a comic character who actually is an authentic person of color, not just a historically white person that they tweaked to have color. We certainly need more diversity but it seems to me that the way to celebrate diversity in superheros is for it to be okay to write one who isn't white in the first place.
Stupidity and prejudice are equal opportunity maladies, no group is exempt, sadly.
I'm trying to wrap my head around why people are getting upset. I guess I'd be annoyed if you took Luke Cage and suddenly made him white. But it's not exactly the same thing as what they are doing with Spider-man. They aren't changing Peter Parker. They are changing the person behind the mask of Spider-man, and that kind of thing happens all the time in comics. And it's in the Ultimates line, which isn't the main core Marvel Universe. If there's anyplace where this kind of tweaking and changing *should* be acceptable, it's in this alternate history version of the Marvel Universe.
At the end of the day, if they do it with a good story, that should be what matters to the readership. I wish I had some suggestions as to where you can buy comics, but the only places I know are local to NJ.