Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled Spider-Carnival but I wanted to take a moment and say a word or two or a couple hundred about the colossal fustercluck unfolding on Twitter tonight. Much of which is being fueled by Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott.
This isn’t commentary about whether or not Peter Parker should be/could be/needs to be/doesn’t need to be played by a black actor. No, it’s about the insane, blood-thirsty reaction to anyone who doesn’t instantly agree with the idea.
If you prefer Peter Parker be played by a white guy because that’s how he’s been portrayed since the character’s inception then hey – that’s your call and your right as a Spidey fan. No one can tell you that you’re wrong. They’ll try, but don’t let them. And that goes vice versa as well. At the end of the day it’s anyone’s opinion.
But to anyone foaming at the mouth out there, yelling anyone and everyone down over all this in the name of political correctness or ‘teh lulz’ or whatever, I’m gonna say the following once and use fancy italics to drive it home:
Spider-Fans who disagree with the idea that Peter Parker needs to be played by a non-white guy are not racist. It’s an opinion based on decades and decades of stories and thousands of comic books. They’re not the Devil, they’re not Nazis, they’re not racists and they’re not monsters who need to be run out of town with torches. They are fans with an opinion, just like you.
Let’s all take a deep freaking breath and remember that. Marvel already dealt Spider-Fandom a body blow with One More Day. Don’t let them keep dividing us even further with this. That guy or gal you’ve been calling racist until you’re blue in the face on social media because they’d prefer a white guy playing Spidey? Hey, they probably love Shang Chi or T’Challa as well. Or does that make him or her a racist, too? Ridiculous! Stop the madness, Spider-Fans.
Everyone stay frosty out there and for the love of all things Holy please stop tearing into one another over this crap. All it’s doing is feeding trolls and trust me, tonight they are pigging the Hell out.
Take care of yourselves, and each other. Heh!
–George Berryman!
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– Watch More Funny Videos Joe Rogan Rips Apart John Mcintosh
as long as we are changing everything…..
@#103-Spider-Verse was supposed to be a big fun adventure? Huh. Wouldn’t have known that from the actual event aside from maybe the tie-ins.
Personally I grew very sick of Slott constantly tweeting about it (which he was still doing last night). He was tweeting so much he filled up my feed. Unfollowed, won’t ever follow him again.
I could understand someone who could PASS for white. Really, it doesn’t make a difference for me what his race is. As long as the actor can make me believe that he’s Peter, that’s good enough for me.
Oh, for…..get a white guy with a good, good tan!!
If Marvel do have Miles be the replacement for Peter after Renew Your Vows it won’t last
@#102-I am not accusing anyone here of either, though I will agree that there is most certainly fault on both sides, as my experiences elsewhere have demonstrated to me. Too many people are eager to point the finger and accuse someone of being prejudice in some way shape or form but at the same time many people point the finger and accuse others of being overly politically correct. Political correctness is in and of itself fine, it’s when it’s taken too far (hence the term ‘political correctness gone mad’) that is the problem. When both sides so frequently and loudly throw out accusations unjustifiably it waters down the impact of both their arguments. It makes it harder to discern who is truly being overly politically correct from those who are not, and equally people who are genuinely prejudiced from those who are not.
@#103-Slott had Peter Parker as the focus of Spider-Verse?
Also I wanted to reply to #94 but every time I try it fails
@103 – Oh right, thanks. I still don’t understand why he keeps bringing Peter’s name up when talking about this issue. I still think he’s missing the point that Spider-Man has not exclusively been Peter Parker for years, he’s now also Miles Morales and Miguel O’Hara. I’m not sure what Slott is trying to achieve (other than controversy) by making this race issue solely about Peter.
You know, I kind of would like to see a movie with Spider-Man where we don’t know who it is. Just for a few years (say, Captain America, Spider-Man 3 or whatever, Sinister Six) they could tell a story from a Marvels or Civil War Frontline kind of view. For a few years at least, Spider-Man could be just what we want him* to be. Then, of course, they come out with who was behind the mask all this time so that we can go back to yelling at each other.
*or “her” 🙂
@#101 Ben — Actually, Slott first made his comments about Peter Parker’s race and ethnicity in an interview with The Verge. The most relevant passages from that interview are these:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/19/8069257/spider-man-dan-slott-marvel-cinematic-universe-comics
Some of you guys are upset about what Slott said. What exactly is so outrageous about his opinion?
And where is the spider-racism crap so prevalent that George wrote this editorial to declare that there’s enough of it?
This seems to reflect a problem in American political discourse. In the United States, cartoonish displays of racism are not tolerated (A Senator saying he refuses to support an individual to the cabinet because the person is black will be forced out of office.) This is a good thing. However, the accusation of racism carries great moral weight and cartoonish accusations of racism are tolerated to a much greater degree. That’s not a good thing. I’ve now started to realize that while the left sometimes has cartoonish accusations of racism, the right (my people) sometimes has cartoonish accusations of political correctness.
Is any of Slott’s insane ranting related to this?
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/02/24/could-miles-morales-be-marvels-spider-man