Marvel Comic recently made a very important announcement. Beginning this fall, Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, will cease to be the character who stars in their flagship Amazing Spider-Man comic. He will be replaced by Miles Morales, who has held the title of Spider-Man over in Marvel’s Ultimate universe for a few years now. In this new status quo, Parker appears to be a mentor to Morales and his retirement (?) marks a major shift in the established order of things.
A little background information first. Peter Parker has been Spider-Man since he debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15 in November, 1962. In the 50+ years since, his storyline, along with the rest of Marvel’s comic universe, has been consistent. Time has been condensed, but the Peter, who was a young teen in the early ’60s, is the same as the one who is in his twenties today(along with all the experience and emotional baggage that has accumulated over the years). Unlike their rivals at DC Comics who tend to reboot their characters every few years (most recently with The New 52), Marvel has kept their continuity. While this sometimes can be daunting to outsiders who may be looking to start reading the books, it is a great comfort to longtime fans like me. I love that I can open up a new issue of any Marvel book and know that there is a history to it. Some of that history I’m well acquainted with, some of it I’m not. The fun comes in being able to recognize the familiar, all the while learning about the strange and alien.
That is changing with this summer’s miniseries, Secret Wars. There have been a few iterations of this title in Marvel’s past, mostly as a crossover event which allows a hero to fight hero in a way that services fanboys and drives up sales.
This time, it’s a bit different. In the first issue, the mainstream Marvel universe (designated “earth-616”) and the Ultimate universe (“earth-1610”) were destroyed. Completely eliminated. They ceased to be and joined the choir invisible. Doctors Doom and Strange were able to cobble together a single world with what was left, dubbed “Battleworld,” and populated it with folks who never knew anything had ever existed before. Luckily, a few heroes from 616 and some villains from 1610 survived the apocalypse and arrived at Battleworld. The lone hero from 1610 was Morales, who has hooked up with his comrades from 616. If any of that didn’t make sense, I’m sorry. Please remember that comics are really, really strange.
So, that’s where we are now. The world as we know it is gone (for the time being), and Morales is chilling with the classic Marvel guys and gals. Now, let’s talk about why this is such a big deal. I’ve already brought up that by doing this, Marvel will be changing the lead character in one of its most famous titles for the first time ever,* but besides that there is also the concept of Morales himself. He is a half black, half Latino character, who will be taking over for the very white Parker.
Now, altering the race and even the gender of characters is nothing new to Marvel, especially recently. Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, has taken over the mantle of Captain America. Thor is currently a woman and the new Ms Marvel is a Pakistani-American Muslim. The fact that there hasn’t been a real backlash against any of this makes me hugely impressed with the comics community, and gives me hope that we are all becoming more accepting of diversity. I welcome Miles to the 616 universe and this new tradition of doing away with the white-male monopoly in the super powers industry. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read of him and I think that some added youth to Marvel’s roster is a very good thing.
My issue is with the replacement of Peter Parker. As I said, he’s been there since the early ’60s. My dad read his books and he introduced them to me when I was a kid. The two of us, and every other Spidey fan in the world, have been following Peter’s adventures forever, and it’s going to be sad to see them come to an end. I do look forward to having Spider-Man continuing to exist, slinging webs through Manhattan, I just wish it was my old friend that was doing it. So long Pete. And Miles, you’ve got some mighty big boots to fill. Don’t let us down.
*There was the time that Ben Riley was technically Spider-Man following the Clone Saga of the 1990s…and the time that last year that Dr. Octopus took over Parker’s body, but lets not talk about that, ok?
