Alliterative Aliases Are Abundant

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If comic books love anything, it's alliterative names. Matt Murdock. Clark Kent. Lois Lane. Lex Luthor. Wally West. Reed Richards. Bruce Banner. Peter Parker.

They of the alliterative names now have a new playmate on the playground: Miles Morales.

Miles Morales will be taking up the mantle of Spider-man in Marvel's Ultimate Comics imprint.  Miles Morales is half-black, half-hispanic.  The media, totally diligent and certainly not in anyway sensationalist,  caught wind of a couple key phrases and is turning this story into something of a circus. Those phrases are: 'Spider-man is dead' and 'Spider-man is black.'

Lets clarify The Amazing Spider-man, that is the Spider-man whose adventures are printed in the mainstream Marvel universe and have been published there since the 1960s is fine. He is still Peter Parker, and he is still alive.  The deceased web-slinger in question is Peter Parker of the Ultimate line, which began publishing in 2000 and became Ultimate Comics in 2009. There, Peter Parker was killed and is being replaced by the equally alliterative Miles Morales.

Frankly, this is a decision that I hate. I don't hate Miles Morales. I know nothing about Miles yet. I'm sure he's a wonderful lad. But he's not Peter Parker. And Peter Parker is Spider-man.  When Joe Quesada ended the Peter/Mary Jane marriage with the controversial One More Day event, he told us that we could instead read Ultimate books where Peter and MJ were still together. Well now I see a Marvel Universe were the marriage was disolved and an Ultimate Universe where Peter is dead. What now Joe? What do I do now. But that's more bitterness about One More Day than it is disapproval for a new Spider-man.

Maybe I just don't see the need to replace Peter. Maybe I just haven't gotten over the untimely death of a character I've actually read since his beginnings in 2000.  Either way, I'll give Miles a fair shake and I hope he's successful. Meanwhile I'll continue to hope that someone sets the Peter/MJ fiasco in the mainstream universe right eventually. I hope he feels right as a replacement, since to my knowledge he has no connection to the previous web-head.

From where I sit, Ben Reilly (not a clone in the Ultimate universe, but a research assistant to Curt Connors who had access to Peter's DNA and could've used it to give himself powers) would've made more sense. He is also black in this universe and was a prime suspect for the new Spider-man when the rumors started that the new web-slinger was black.

Speaking of the race, while it's great that Marvel is going with a minority (even if he has no previous connection to Peter at all), can we all promise to stop saying: "Miles is the first minority Spider-man to be published." Somebody should tell Miguel O'Hara that. Because I bet he's pissed that people are forgetting about him.

In all seriousness though, for all the people saying that Marvel is pandering to minorities and the politically correct crowd, settle down. That may very well be the case, but they also know that without good stories behind him, Miles Morales won't amount to anything. They won't try to sell books based on his race alone. If a character being a minority meant that people bought the books, Miguel O'Hara would be a household name. Likewise, if they had made Spider-man white again but told poor stories, the results would be just as poorly received.

At the end of the day, whether with Miles Morales or whatever new Spider-man they might introduce in the future, it won't matter if they're black, white, latino, asian or otherwise. Gay or straight, man or woman, etc, all that will matter is this: Do they capture the hearts and minds of a generation and beyond like Peter Parker did? It's that connection that matters and if Miles Morales can inspire people with stories of great power and great responsibility, then come on Miles. Let's see what you've got.