My Spider-Man, would have actually been African-American

Miles Morales, is not.

I don’t buy Brian Michael Bendis’ African-American Spider-Man, Miles Morales. It seems Marvel copped out on making the character 100% African-American. Attention, Marvel. African-Americans do not view Black Hispanics as African-American(or do we? I’ve never asked, but I don’t). I digress.

Bendis has said that after watching Donald Glover wear a Spider-Man pajama top on an episode of Community, he was inspired to write the comic. I wonder what his original vision was like, surely it couldn't have been this suburban archetype of an ethnic kid, that could really be any kid from the suburbs; white, asian, hispanic or black. Miles Morales is not an African-American character. It’s just as bad as presenting a white character in the role and putting him in black face. Its’ an affront to Black people, and the Black experience in comics and America.

Spider-Man was my favorite comic growing up. My older brother would force feed me Kung Fu, and would only bring home a Spider-Man comic when he liked the artist. He rarely liked the artist, so when one did come home, it was usually much better than the average comic (why does the story seem better with the really good artists?), so I would read it one thousand times and then a thousand times again, imagining him as African-American.

I never thought about looking for African-American characters in comics, it never came to mind. It was what it was, and the characters were who they were. However, when I came across a character that I liked, I would always imagine him as African-American (except for Kung-Fu, everybody loved Bruce Lee). I did this with Iron Fist, Iron Man, The Hulk and of course, Spider-Man; amongst others.

I loved Power Man (Luke Cage), but only because he reminded me of my older brother, skin color aside.

When I heard that Marvel was coming out (albeit in the Ultimate Universe) with an African-American Spider-Man, I was pretty excited. I had just recently read some of the Marvel Noir books, and imagined Marvel using the Luke Cage Noir story concept and completely retelling the Spider-Man story from a similar perspective. It was easy for me to see Peter become Spider-Man with Harlem as the back drop, with themes and storylines related specifically to a kid growing up in Harlem (or where I grew up in Queens☺), with this awesome ability and ultimately, responsibility on his hands.

Unfortunately for me, Bendis and Marvel decided to go with an antiseptic version of an African-American Spider-Man, and used the African-American angle as a device to create a new character, with the old characters built in cache. For me, it doesn’t work, and I’m not the only that feels this way.

Jesse Schedeen of IGN wrote that “Miles still feels like a bit of an outsider in his own book. Bendis never quite paints a complete picture of Miles — his thoughts, motivations, personality quirks, and so forth. Miles is largely a reactionary figure throughout the book as he confronts struggles like registering for a charter school or dealing with family squabbles.” Schedeen also opined that “Miles occupies a more urban, racially diverse, and tense landscape. All the story doesn’t pander or lean too heavily on elements like racial and economic tension to move forward. Miles is simply a character who speaks to a slightly different teen experience, and one not nearly as well represented in superhero comics as Peter’s”.[1]

The Miles Morales of Ultimate Spider Man, simply doesn't speak to me as an African-American character. He’s just another guy in the suit as Schedeen states above. It’s kind of like telling a chocolate ice cream lover, that, you can add brown food coloring to vanilla ice cream, and now its chocolate. You can’t, the flavor is completely different (obviously).

Anyway, I didn't need them to kill the original Ultimate Spider Man to tell this story (I didn't really care that they did, either). There are so many Spider-Man titles out there, it would have been just as easy, and would have probably made more sense, to have a run completely independent from any Spider-Man storyline (maybe Bendis was bored with Ultimate Peter Parker), which would have allowed Bendis (a great storyteller), tell a really good, rich, thought provoking story, with a character that has true depth and something new to say (in the Marvel Universe, anyway). The Miles Morales Spider-Man, is essentially the same Spider-Man, in a slightly different environment. No bueno.

[1] Schedeen, Jesse (September 14, 2011). “Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1 Review”. IGN.