The Blemish – a clickbait celebrity news (i.e. gossip) site – is mad that the Spider-Man films are not taking the proper turn for social justice, damnit! And Lindsay Mulhollen wants you to know about it!
I’d never heard of this site before today. We routinely consult the Googles to find Spider-News for you folks, and every now and then we find something well and truly off the rails. Yesterday the site posted the following regarding the Asa Butterfield Spidey rumors:
Another rendition of Spider-Man, another skinny, nerdy, white dude playing Spider-Man; such is the way of the world.
It’s nearly set in stone, 18-year-old Asa Butterfield is allegedly our next Spider-Man. This name may not be the hugest surprise for up-to-date followers of potential candidates, but it comes as a huge blow to followers of the nearly five-year-long #donald4spiderman campaign. “I just want Spider-Man to be dope. That’s all I want,” lamented Glover over the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man.
I think all Spider-Man fans want Spidey “to be dope,” as it were. Either way, now you know why we shy away from the clickbaity stuff here, Crawlspacers!
Since Marvel redoes Spider-Man with the frequency of Kardashian marriages, this rendition is set to focus on a new, lesser-seen, aspect: the post-bite, high school Peter Parker, which will not be a stretch for baby face Butterfield. Heads up to Butterfield though, the time between remakes is getting near exponentially less: Tobey Maguire to Andrew Garfield was a 5 year stretch but, Garfield to Butterfield will only leave 3 years or less between. Keep your plastic surgeon on speed dial, Asa.
Where to start? You’d think someone writing for an “entertainment” website would understand the difference between Sony and Marvel when discussing the Spider-Man movies. But you’d be wrong!
The new Spider-Man is set for a summer 2017 release, but we may see Butterfield enter the Marvel universe even sooner in the next Captain America installment. Why will Captain America be hanging around early high school students? Only time will tell.
Here’s to next time, Donald. At the rate it’s going, we’re probably only a month away from another new Spider-Man; it’s going to be you next time for sure.
Except that any deal the future Spider-actor makes will cover several pictures. But hey, whatever floats your boat, Blemish! And with their article, ‘The Blemish’ joins such illustrious company as Time Magazine and Forbes (who can’t be bothered with the hyphen!) in their disappointment over a white Spidey.
–George Berryman!
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Oh Lord, more anti-white racist clickbait.
Of course, Spider-Man is a white guy. I’d naturally be for creating more superheroes of different races and backgrounds, but I don’t think that’s what the social justice warriors want. For them, it’s about revenge — namely mocking, shaming, and phasing out whites in that order. So replacing Spider-Man with someone who is non-white is vitally important, just to plunge the figurative knife into the stomachs of whites while sneering, “This hero won’t look like you anymore, ” White people are boring,” and “You don’t represent the future.” And then, just to twist the knife, anyone who disagrees with that nonsense gets branded a “racist” who needs to “check themselves.” It’s worst form of brownshirting, but they’ve been quite successful at it.
That said, I’m glad to see a white character being potentially played by a talented young white actor.
@24 – don’t forget extra-terrestrial, just to be on the safe side.
I think that Spider-Man should be a black, hispanic, asian, gay, transexual, little person, with a stutter.
And anyone who disagrees with me is obviously a racist, sexist, homophobic, bigot!! Dammit!!
Ergh… @George Berryman, Why entertain this non sense by posting it? I don’t know any actual hardcore fans of Spider-man of any race that need Peter Parker to be black. I want to see them actually do it right for once, where the actor looks & acts like peter parker & Spider-man from the comics. Why even have these race wars when there actually is another black/latino Spider-man. If people want that movie they should push for that. I personally only find miles morales powers interesting tho if it’s not peter parker as Spider-man or a kid of his I don’t want to see it. That’s my opinion. Peter Parker is just too iconic & you can’t just change the look of someone so iconic without it feeling like you’re not getting the real deal.
Also, ok so my opinion. I can see why some characters not so iconic can be changed just skin color but not personality or size and frame, if all cast just happens to be white but not one who is too iconic meaning they are recognized too well for their look & everything. That’s the case with peter parker & don’t touch it! (my opinion) Examples: Nick Fury worked (not too worldly recognized before the movie), Jimmy Olsen (not so iconic & recognized for his look) so would of been fine with me if he were “Urkel” lol but they changed his size & over all look not just changing his skin dark so doesn’t work at all. They just made a new character & called him jimmy olsen & it’s going to ruin the dynamic of him with Supergirl & Superman.
@ #6 spideymaddox I know! Glover is so not a Spider-man! Even if he never took off the mask! Why are people such followers even if it’s so off? I want it to be noted that there are not a lot or maybe any hardcore Spider-man fans of black or any race that are pushing for this or need him to be another race that I know of. So don’t be fooled by these people. It’s mostly social media fans & an agenda group that know little about Spider-man outside the movies.
Spider-Man should be gay, because I’m sure homosexuals think they’re not represented enough.
@#20 Diannah — I think we’re on the same page. 🙂
@#18 Evan – Ok, ya got me there…
So ‘The Blemish’ wants a black guy to play the Pre-established nerdy, skinny, white character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko? BOO F***ING HOO!
They must be trolling.
@#17 Diannah — But that runs the risk of being offensive to other arachnids besides spiders. What about chiggers? Mites? Scorpions?
Why do people insist that a character who was a nerdy teenage boy has to be played by a black man? But there is already a black Spider-man (Miles Morales).
Why not a white female? Oh yeah, because his name is “Spider-man”. Then they should change his name to “Spider-girl” and have him played by a white female. Wait, that would be offensive to hispanics, since there is already a Mexican/Puerto Rican Spider-girl.
Maybe “Spider-woman”? But there’s already a Spider-woman who’s a white female.
I know! We’ll call her “The Feminine-Gendered Spider”! And it can star a white female…
[end silly sarcastic rant]
but isn’t this article just what TheBelish wants? like Berryman said it’s a site no one has heard of, and most people wouldn’t find this TheBelish article, or even care about it. But by making a article about their article. Your just giving them the free press they wanted.
@13 – Do all heroes need to “look like” whatever walk of life any and all readers happen to represent? I guess that escapes me; maybe that’s a generational thing. I don’t need heroes who look like me. I just see heroes & heroines as who they are and what they’ve always been, and appreciate them and celebrate them for who and what they are. I’ve never looked at any of them and wondered how they “needed” to be changed to fit social whimsey. If I had needed protagonists to look like me I’d have been cut off from so many great characters & stories.
And I don’t see how the Black Widow editorial was “mean-spirited.” Not by any stretch of the imagination. The entire thing was me defending someone – with commentary and analysis to back it up. You may have disagreed with it and think Joss Whedon is suddenly the worst enemy of feminism on the planet or something, but that entire article was me defending someone from some of the foulest things I’ve seen on Twitter and pointing out how Avengers sequel was not sexist – and doing it with fact.
@13 – It would be a pretty poor Spider-Man website if it didn’t post articles about Spider-Man news and then discuss them. And the reason why there is a comment box is so we can all discuss the articles and opinion of the author. If you asked me who came off worse in this article, George or TheBlemish, I would easily say TheBlemish. George stated his opinion, but it was mostly to point out the ridiculousness of TheBlemish’s article. If you point out mistakes in a professional writer’s published articles, that’s not being mean-spirited, it’s making fun of someone that deserves it for their lack of knowledge about what they’re writing about. Just my 2 cents.
And what was wrong with the Black Widow article?
Hi George,
I think I’m done with Crawlspace. I came here to read about Spider-Man, not to read attacks on other sites. Between this post and the Black Widow post, more and more it seems that Crawlspace is just becoming mean-spirited. While I respect that this site has its own stance on things, the front page treatment has become rather tiring, especially in the larger context of very real problems with race and gender outside of our fiction. I’m sure Asa Butterfield will make a fine Peter Parker, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to want to be able to see the mask come off, and underneath, Spider-Man is someone who looks like me.
Hmm. Conflicted. Sorry, but I’ve learned that trying to make things about “social justice warriors” doesn’t end well. I mean, look at all the stuff involving GamerGate. Besides, pushing for diversity is fine, and I’m fine with Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, and the whole “What if this character was white?” thing… doesn’t sit right, because whitewashing and all that.
On the other hand, I completely agree with the sentiment that Spider-Man being shown in the movies to be Peter Parker as portrayed by a white guy is not inherently a bad thing, and I do think that the ONLY reason people want Miles is that he’s the “default” non-white Spider-Man, or at least someone who isn’t Peter. Besides, for all the people talking about this, they apparently NEVER noticed that Andrew Garfield was Jewish, or that Nat Wolff and Timothée Chalamet, who were competing against Asa for the role, are also Jewish. Funny how, for all the talk about how Jewish representation is important, the INSTANT a white-passing Jew comes up, they just get dismissed as being white, and their Jewish heritage is reduced to a non-factor. So really, if they’re not going to actually acknowledge Andrew as a member of the kind of culture they want, what business do they have criticizing Asa?
How hard is it for people to understand that Peter Parker is a white guy? I don’t hear anyone clamoring for a white Black Panther.
I presume that the same people who would be upset about a non-white Peter Parker because it wouldn’t be true to the source material are also complaining because his origin isn’t set in the early 60’s.
Nerdy is important to the character. White isn’t. Nor is skinny,for that matter. I wonder if the reason people get so vehement against the idea of a black Peter Parker is because they can’t imagine a black nerd. Yes, Peter Parker is white in the 616 universe, but the movies are a different universe.
Peter Parker has been white for 53 years.
Why do people want Miles Morales so bad?
He’s a lame attempt at diversity that has only been around for 4 years. All of the superheroes on the big screen were around for decades before getting their own movies.
Maybe we should wait a few decades to see if Miles has any real staying power.
And why is it okay for people to get upset about a white character being white on the big screen? It’s racist for me to not cheer at black Jimmy Olsen, and black Johnny Storm, but it’s okay for people to get upset about white Spider-man? Give me a break.
Spider-Man doesn’t have to be a skinny, nerdy, white dude. Thing is Peter Parker is. So if this is Peter Parker, which we are pretty sure it is, then why is this casting upsetting exactly? Asa as Miles….Asa as Miguel….Asa as Mayday….all bad casting. Asa as Peter…not far off base.
He can do comedy. That’s about it. There are probably young black theater actors on both coasts that we’ve never even heard of, who could be just as good or better, but you hear about Donald Glover because he’s a known name. It’s like people who poll for a certain politician on a political survey, just because they’ve heard of the person.
not to be a jerk but can anyone please explain the Donald Glover? even putting aside the issue of race I have never seen anything from him to make me think he would be a good Spider-man. why are so many people so hot to push for him? even if Marvel decided to change Peters race I could name a dozen black actors who would be better than Donald Glover. I just wonder what everone else sees in him that I am missing.
Oops! Failed to note that George is the one who posted the article! Sorry, George! I must be prejudiced against Texans.
Hasn’t George Berryman weighed in yet? 😉
Anyway, people who interpret everything around them racialistically, as an excuse for becoming righteously enraged, should be pitied, refuted, then ignored. Sometimes bias is in play, but there needs to be real evidence of it. Not the hateful assumption that every white person everywhere is lusting to marginalize or mistreat non-Caucasians. Micro-aggressions = imaginary aggressions, in my view.
Give it up. Peter Parker is a Caucasian character. So is Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. T’will ever be so. Maybe one day there will be a Miles Morales Spider-Man movie, which would be cool. In the mean time, if this is made well, it will make a bazillion dollars.
Also, Donald Glover is 31 years old. Anyone who seriously thought that he was going to be hired to play a high-school-aged Spider-Man was delusional. Not after an aging Maguire in SM3 and a 6’+ tall Garfield. Marvel was going to hire someone young.
When I first saw this headline I thought it was a follow-up of the guy who had the podcast clip online a few months ago saying that it was a known fact that the new Spidey would be black (can’t remember if it was here that I saw it but it was over a bunch of sites at the time).
Here it is, TheWrap’s Jeff Sneider on Meet the Movie Press podcast: “Listen, this is not set in stone guys, but I’m telling you right now, Spider-Man’s not going to be white. Spider-Man’s not going to be white. I’m 95% sure. Spider-Man’s going to be most likely black. But there’s a chance he could also be Latino. 95% sure, not white.”
From what I remember he was citing all sort of unofficial sources, blah blah blah. Why is that people who don’t know anything about the character or the studio behind-the-scenes goings-on are the ones that writes articles about this as if they’re experts? I know, I know, clickbait.
Gasp! A skinny, nerdy, white dude to play arguably the most iconic incarnation of a skinny, nerdy, white dude!