A Post-Soul Spider-Man

Abstract

I n a 2016 interview in Vulture, African American crime and science fiction novelist Walter Mosley insisted, “The first Black superhero is Spider-Man.” According to Moseley, Spider-Man’s class position, nontraditional family, and the media’s unfavorable portrayal of his heroics resonate more closely with urban Black experiences than the experiences of a white boy from Queens. In many ways, Moseley argues that a Black Spider-Man could easily slip not only into Spidey’s suit but also the classic, tragic story. In 2011, Spider-Man did become Black. Miles Morales, a Black Puerto Rican teenager in Brooklyn, however, was not merely a re-skin of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man and his origin story. Building upon Adilifu Nama’s work in Super Black, I argue that Miles Morales as SpiderMan is “a racially remixed superhero” who offers readers and video game players “cultural points of interests, compelling themes, and multiple meanings that were not previously present” in the original source material. Racially remixed superheroes “are more chic, politically provocative, and ideologically dynamic than the established white superheroes they were modeled after,” hence, they tend to tackle political subject matter more overtly. In Marvel’s SpiderMan: Miles Morales, remixing Spider-Man means reinterpreting the iconic phrase “With great power comes great responsibility” to move from the individualist usage that Peter Parker models to a communal one. That is, Miles Morales must grapple with the structures of racism and classism that create his need to be a vigilante in Harlem. Miles riffs on what responsibility for power entails: self-questioning and doubt, yes, but also belonging and investment in a community. Miles Morales’ video game asks, “to whom is Spider-Man responsible and what does responsibility look like?” Spider-Man models the need to respond to the neighborhood that claims him. Since his creation, Miles Morales has elicited strong reaction from fans, detractors, and scholars alike. The establishment of a Spider-Man of Black Puerto Rican heritage camewith the death of Peter Parker in theUltimate universe, an imprint (ended in 2015) separate from the main Marvel universe. The Ultimate universe was not “canon,” so writers could experiment without adhering to the long, convoluted timelines and backstories ofMarvel’s major characters. Rather than keep AmazingSpider-Man’s origin story,Miles hasa story of his own. Across all media, Miles has two parents, though their class position varies. In the Ultimate comics and Jason Reynolds’ young adult novel, Miles’ US Black father, Jefferson (Jeff) Davis, is a former criminal and his light-skinned Puerto Rican mother, Rio Morales, a schoolteacher. They struggle to pay the bills and worry about Miles losing his charter boarding school scholarship. In the movie and video games, his family is middle-class and his father flips from ex-con to cop. In the movie, Rio is a nurse and, in the game, she remains a teacher. His uncle, in all media, is a high-tech supervillain called The Prowler. As of 2016, Morales is