One of the largest hurdles which comic books have to contend with, which they are still trying to clear, has consistently been diversity. If you look back to the early days of the Fantastic Four, X-Men, or Avengers, you will find most characters to be male, and white. As the years have progressed, they have added characters which have diversified comics—a bit—however there still exists the problem with modernizing canonical characters which have existed forever as—by and large—straight, white males.
So when Marvel killed off Peter Parker and replaced him with a bi-racial, black/Puerto Rican kid named Miles Morales, a lot of people lined up to buy those issues.
Now, before we heap too much praise onto Marvel for doing the right thing in course-correcting years of racism, it should be noted that this all happened in a separate, alternate reality in Marvel comics known as the Ultimate Universe. Eventually that universe crashed into the canonical universe, leaving only Ultimate fan favourites alive to tell the tale. Meaning Miles Morales remains Spider-Man in modern comics, right alongside Peter.
Old timers like us will always think of Pete as the first Spidey, but here’s the wonderful thing about representation in media: There are a number of kids who will grow up having been introduced to Spider-Man by way of Miles. Their Spider-Man is a relatable kid who’s going through a lot of the same issues that they have in their own lives. And if upon hearing that line you think, “Well, that’s how a lot of kids have felt about Peter,” then you do understand representation and why it matters.
When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was originally announced, all of us who’d read the comic book event helmed by Dan Slott were quite excited. The event was spectacularly well written, and even the majority of the cross-over titles written by other writers were a ton of fun. Having seen many comic book to movie adaptations, we understood that the story would not be exactly as described on the page, which allowed many of us to hope for something completely different: a Miles Morales movie. In the printed series, while he played an important role, he was not the lead character (but for the arcs in his own series).
Still, one could hope.
And in a rare turn of events, hope paid off, and we got a faithful representation of a beloved character, presented in an engaging story, in an art style that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Basically, this was the creative team, everyone from producer Phil Lord, to co-director Rodney Rothman (both of whom penned the script), saying, “We heard you. Here you go. Enjoy.”
And enjoy, we did.
For our return episode, Vince and I are joined by our former For The Lore co-hosts, Joe and Marty.
Referenced: Movie script
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