"It's certainly long overdue," Bendis says. "Even though there's some amazing African-American and minority characters bouncing around in all the superhero universes, it's still crazy lopsided."
Long overdue? What do you mean, Bendis? What happens to the "equality" of fictional comic book characters when you create a non-white Spider-Man? What's that? About as much that happened to it when Luke Cage, James Rhodes, John Stewart, etc. were created? Yeah, that's what I thought, too.
Lopsided how? You mean too many mutants in Marvel? Too many aliens in DC? OH! Wait. You mean not enough specifically "black" characters. Gotcha. Sorry, I thought you were talking about the fictional world of comic books for a second. That would be pointless, of course, since heroes of those worlds are made up by green-skinned, blue-skinned, black-skinned, white-skinned (etc.) aliens and superheroes. Race has no bearing on imagination.
But now, minorities play a bigger role in society.
Yeah. They're called "White People".
I wish these reporters/writers/media monkeys would do some research for one.
"Wouldn't it be nice for them to have a character or a hero that speaks to them as much as Peter Parker has spoken to so many children?" Bendis says. "There's nothing wrong with that, and I think we need more of it."
Why can't a man of any color "speak to them" from under that mask? Did Donald Glover fall in love with the idea of Spider-Man because he was white....or because he was Spider-Man? Can I not hear Dr. MLK's words and have them mean something to me because I am white? What about Mozart? Can non-whites not hear the beauty of his music? How does one separate blacks and whites by who "speaks" to them?
I love the idea of a different Spider-Man. I love the idea of someone new under the mask. However, whether he's black, white, asian, whatever...it doesn't fucking matter. And focusing on his skin color to prove it's something "revolutionary", "fresh", and "new" is a very tired and dated talking piece for media interviews. Bendis is right. If Stan Lee and Ditko had tried to make Peter black in 1963, it would have meant something. Doing it now, in 2011, it shouldn't "mean" a thing other than someone new is under the mask. The fact that he's (hushed tones from whitey)...
black...is no more relevant than if he were white, French, Eskimo, or fucking albino.
But, my rant is pointless, in the end. It's obvious for all to see that Marvel wants to trumpet the race card so that it can be seen as a progressive move, and thus (in their minds) increase sales. They are no more interested in exploring the race issue by making Spider-Man black than they are exploring what it means to be white through Bruce Banner. It's all just the same old tired marketing machine...
