Anyone can be Spider-Man. At least that was the idea when Miles Morales first appeared on the scene in 2011 as the successor to Peter Parker from the Ultimate universe. An Afro-Latino teen who took on the mantle of Marvel’s most beloved and well-known hero, even if it was in an alternate universe, was a game-changer. The possibilities for the character, the topics to tackle, and the creators who could leave their mark on the character seemed endless. We’ve seen some of those possibilities reflected in the Oscar-winning animated filmSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseand a great PlayStation game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales† Anyone can be Spider-Man. But the recent backlash from the comic book issue What if… Miles Morales became Thor? raises another question: Can someone write Spider-Man?
If you’re black, the answer to that is a rather telling ‘no’. In the 11 years that Miles Morales has been swinging, he has never had a black or Afro-Latino writer on his solo title. That’s a problem, and it’s a problem that has caused problems with the character from the start. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created Miles with the best of intentions, which I have no doubt about. Bendis, who wrote the central Miles Morales title from 2011 to 2018, shaped the character’s mythology, his supporting cast, and continued to make him a central figure after Miles was taken from the Ultimate universe to mainline 616, the universe in which most Marvel stories are set. By all accounts, Bendis is someone who cares deeply about representation in comics and is an essential voice in the modern comic era. But as a white male, there are inherent limitations in his approach to Miles Morales, who hasn’t been able to shake the character completely.
The first limitation comes down to naming. Miles bears his mother’s last name Morales, which emphasizes his Puerto Rican heritage and frees him from the burden of his father’s criminal past, Jefferson Davis. I don’t know if Bendis purposely named Miles’ father after the President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, to reclaim the name so that the Southerner isn’t the first person that comes to mind. But I think, as black fans of the character have commented over the years, a black creator would have chosen another because it binds the character to the shackles of America’s racist history, rather than liberating him from it. The second limitation is to make Jefferson a police officer, which even before the Black Lives Matter Movement and Defund the Police talks that have sparked so much debate about race in this new decade, probably wouldn’t have happened to a black maker, someone who of course you are already aware of the tumultuous relationship between police and blacks and latinos.
Shaped by his father’s backstory, Miles’ identity has linked the young hero to America’s history of slavery and police. As a result, Miles has often fallen into the stoic black man’s style—good, serious, and poised. While the idea of a Black Spider-Man is rebellious in nature, his characterization is not, and his actions as Spider-Man do little to disrupt the status quo. His romantic relationships were also limited until recently, especially compared to the early days of Peter Parker. The character started his career as Spider-Man before Parker, in both universes, but there’s still something about his personality that focused on making him seem non-threatening, a fearful reluctance to make him anything other than a youngster. epitome, especially after the murder of Trayvon Martin, was just months after the debut of Miles Morales. While Bendis’ successor, Saladin Ahmed, who left his mark on Ms. Marvel, has given Miles a greater personality, romantic relationships and interest in style and current events like ICE’s abuse of power, there’s still something that feels overly cautious and calculated. , aware of limitations that were not present in Kamala Khan’s writing in The beautiful Mrs. Marvel†
Both Into the Spider-Verse and the video game Spider-Man: Miles Morales were populated by black creative teams. Peter Ramsey co-directed Into the Spider-Verseand Spider-Man: Miles Morales featured the work of writer Evan Narcisse and lead animator, James Ham. Not to mention the hundreds of other Black, Latino, and Afro-Latino crew members on both projects who gave Miles and his world a sense of authenticity that can just be felt, whether it’s the hairstyle or the way the characters are portrayed. navigating Brooklyn . And in both projects, Miles feels like a fully fleshed out human being, authentic rather than a rep who just feels shy about being called “an asset to your race.” In the PlayStation game in particular, Miles not only tries to fill in for Peter Parker, he also takes on gentrification and the misuse of white power at the corporate level and is masked by claims of grandeur that feel deliberately Trumpian.
The advancement of Miles’ other media portrayals are the ones I hoped to see implemented in Miles Morale’s comic book appearances, a versatility in his personality, in his ability to tackle things Parker wasn’t even aware of, and a versatility in his powers. , who in the comics have relied for too long on the Venom-Blast power as a one and accomplished move that has mostly made his battles dull. But so far, Marvel Comics has not learned from those lessons. all the time The Amazing Spider-Man has remained Marvel’s superstar book with some of the industry’s best writers and artists delivering Peter Parker’s story bimonthly and tapping into all of the best Spider-Man villains. All too often it feels like Miles is being treated to Peter Parker’s scraps since he entered the 616 universe, the title Spider-Man shares only gets half the attention. That changed a few weeks ago, of course, but not in the way anyone wanted it to.
What if… Miles Morales became Thor?, written by Yehudi Mercado with art by Paco Medina and Luigi Zagaria, is part of an alternate scenario miniseries for Morales’ legendary heroism. The issue has rightly come under fire for the stereotypical language in this release, which has its roots in racism, prejudice and the idea of Blackness as monolithic. The narration is written in rhyme, intended to evoke rap lyrics. “Of all five realms, Asgard is his hood. For Miles, you can tell he’s just that good.” And Miles himself jokes dated rap lyrics and album titles, “hammer time,” “all eyes on me,” and corny lines like “time to spin these hits,” “now that was a blast” and “straight to your face and diss you,” which I’m pretty sure no black person ever said, even when elements of the lingo were popular.
The art doesn’t paint a better picture and features shoes dangling from phone lines, a graffiti tag Mjolnir and Odin wearing Timbs. As several accounts on Twitter have pointed out, the issue seems all too close to the late Dwayne McDuffie’s satirical tone on non-black comic writers’ approach to black characters, Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers. The end result of Miles Morales depiction in the issue is Blackness as a pastiche of elements viewed through a white lens and a reminder that even as superheroes we are identified not as individuals, but as a collection of appropriated concepts placed in a contextless vacuum.
Mercado, who identifies as Mexican and Jewish, apologized for the racial stereotypes with a promise to do better and pledged the donation of his payment for the issue to the Brooklyn Book Bodega. Mercado rightly took responsibility for his writing, and while he didn’t know what was being published, it’s worth being aware of that he’s certainly had his own struggles as a minority in a white-dominated industry. The bigger problem posed by the What if…? Miles Morales’ story and portrayal does not just fall on Mercado, just as it does not fall on the more positively received work of Ahmed or Bendis. The problem with the What if…? The story is that it should never have made it past the editors in the first place. The problem with the comic is the culture of Marvel Comics, whose recruiting practices in terms of artists and writers don’t match the commitment to inclusivity in the pages of their books.
In particular, the company has hired celebrity writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Ridley, Roxane Gay, Geoffrey Thorne, and Reginald Hudlin, who got their start outside the comics. Ridley is the only one who currently has a book in progress, Black Panther, currently. But most of the black talent Marvel hires are for them Marvel voices issues, linked to Black History Month and similar timed events. Writers David F. Walker and Rodney Barnes have largely focused their efforts on creator-owned projects, although the latter is currently the first season of The Mandalorian to comic book form. But in terms of black creatives who don’t come from a different background, like film and television, or journalism, and who are consistently visible at Marvel, there are very few. Vita Ayala who identifies as Afro-Latino and non-binary and is currently writing The new mutants is one of the most notable contemporary names and also writes for DC, Image, Valiant and IDW, among others.
Just as it makes a difference in the film and television landscape who gets to tell whose story, it is just as important in comics. This is not to say that only black or Afro-Latino creators should tackle characters who share their racial identities, but given the number of them trying to make their way into the industry, on their own talent, and how many characters Being there now while the Marvel Universe is populated, it feels like the behind-the-scenes comic book landscape needs drastic changes.
After all, how can these modern myths reflect our contemporary world if the people who tell these stories are limited by a clubhouse mentality that has made little headway in recent decades? Rather than just putting the blame on Mercado, the recent controversy feels like a signal for Marvel to further expand its talent pool, and creators who fully understand why these characters are so important to their own representation that they are leading the way. Marvel Comics not only has the power to do this, but also the responsibility.