Yesterday, news broke that Miles Morales will replace Peter Parker as Marvel Comics’ official Spider-Man following the end of their current Secret Wars event in the adjective-less Spider-Man written by Miles co-creators Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli. This comes four years after Morales’ debut alongside vocal communities calling for Miles to become the de facto Spider-Man across the board. However, this doesn’t mean Peter will disappear entirely. While he’ll be hanging up the webs for the foreseeable future, he’ll still be a supporting character in the books, serving a mentor role to young Miles.
The importance of Miles, a bi-racial character with an African-American father and Puerto Rican mother, being elevated as THE Spider-Man in the Marvel Comics comes after a purported leak over the weekend that detailed film depictions of Peter Parker must maintain the status quo of him being a heterosexual caucasian male. However, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics have shared elements in their respective media, the Marvel Comics world has grown more and more diverse, as I detailed last summer following Sam Wilson being named Captain America. Bendis himself has praised the importance of having a person of color take the mantle of Marvel’s most famous and popular character, telling the New York Daily News:
Our message has to be it’s not Spider-Man with an asterisk […] It’s the real Spider-Man for kids of color, for adults of color and everybody else.
Before long, the long-standing image of superheroes as white, strong-jawed males will be replaced by people of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and Marvel’s move to cement Miles as THE Spider-Man is just the next step towards accomplishing this goal. The decision also increases the chances of Miles Morales appearing in future Spider-Man films (assumedly not until after the next wave of Spider-Man films run their course).