Marvel’s new Ultimate Spider-Man is black and hispanic

Not movie news per se, but it might be one day, when Spider-Man is rebooted for the third or fourth time.

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, characters tend to actually stay dead when killed, and a while back Peter Parker met his final end at the hands of the Green Goblin. Marvel has now fashioned a replacement for Parker in the form of Miles Morales, a half back, half-hispanic teenager inspired by Parker’s death to assume the mantle of Spider-Man.

“He’s younger than Peter Parker, he’s coming from a completely different background, a completely different world view,” (writer) Bendis said. “It’s Peter Parker’s death that inspires this kid to step up.”

Furthermore, this change was said to be inspired by Community actor Donald Glover’s viral efforts to be cast as the new Spider-Man in the upcoming film. Later, when Glover showed up on the show wearing Spider-Man pajamas, he knew he was headed in the right direction.

This isn’t just a publicity stunt. The claim is that the move has been made to better reflect America, where all major superheroes do not need to necessarily be white guys, despite what Superman, Batman, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Green Lantern and all the rest would have you believe. Luke Cage and Static Shock just aren’t cutting it.

What do you make of a new Spider-Man?