Why is Spider-Man White? — Page 5

I just can't believe that people can suspend disbelief to the point where they buy that he was bitten buy a radioactive spider and got superpowers, but can't accept him if he's black. I don't even know why you'd have to suspend disbelief on the black part, unless it's Yawper's point from earlier about how black people don't go to college.

Like I saw on Twitter earlier, if Jake Gyllenhaal can play a Persian, a black man can play Spider Man.

At least with the Turkish one, you can sort of pretend he's white (and not a Muslim!).


India's Superman is totally offensive to white people

It is strange to me that some of you seem to look down on the work Marvel has been producing successfully for decades considering how many people look down on musicals and theater as fluff or "too highbrow."

Yeah, now you're just inventing things. I don't think anyone is looking down on Marvel or comic books.

I respect wanting to do something "fresh" with the material, but this is not it.

So what would you respect? If something as simple as having him played by a black actor is enough to make you lose it, what WOULD you consider an acceptable fresh take on the material?

"Why am I white? That's what I want to know. Why, God, why?"

LMFAO!!

Turkish/Indian Superman? What about Red Son that basically regurgitated a lot of alternative history of the Cold War a la Watchmen? Come on, I cannot be the only one who read this:

I'm not "losing" it, I just so happen to think this shouldn't even be a question unless there is more to it than "there aren't enough black characters so let's make Spiderman not-white." What's the story? Why is Peter Parker black now? Just because?

To me it is like someone changing Romeo and Juliet to victorian era England. Perhaps Shakespeare had something to say by setting it in Kronborg? Maybe we should respect that these characters are Danish and not British? Maybe there is a specificity to time and place that the author intended? Now, Rockabye Hamlet is different because it completely re-conceived the whole thing and had some different stuff to offer, stylistically, from the tragedy.

And, yeah, canons are contradictory in Marvel for sure, but I don't put up with that nonsense either. I actually want good comic book to film adaptations, and I think there are few that are good. I'm not a fan of the X-Men, Spiderman, or Iron Man franchises. (Can't really recall any comic book adaptations I like outside of Ghost World and American Splendour). Burton and Nolan's Batman are suitable and Nolan's re-imagines the setting and characters as more natural and grounded thereby justifying the little tweaks in mythology. It is a completely different animal like the Hellboy movies are from the comic book source material.

I think the Alan Moore movie adaptations are terrible.

That's where I am coming from. I actually want good storytelling not politically motivated alterations for no discernible reason.

I actually get excited thinking about Donald writing his idea out for why Peter Parker is now black. I think he could make a clever satirical, and humorous, work. I think the Raimi Spiderman movies suffer incredibly from a lack of humor. I like quippy Spidey best.

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Are you a non-American, twinbelters? I'm getting that vibe. And the reason I ask is because all I want to do is give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you don't realize that what you wrote...

"Seriously, Donald, write the script yourself and prove, nay earn, why Peter Parker should be recast as an African American teenager living in Queens."

...is dangerously close to 'know your place, boy.'

I'm hoping against hope here.

Imagine the outcry if they made Juliet Puerto Rican!

As long as Romeo and Juliet stay Danish.

At least we made it five pages without anyone quoting Avenue Q!

Heh.

The irony of not knowing where Romeo and Juliet takes place aside, it's a weird example because directors routinely reset the time and place for Shakespeare's works.

I once saw a terrible production of Othello that they reset in Afghanistan. And they actually changed Venice to Afghanistan in the text, so the meter was all out of whack. Also, it was outside in a park, and when it got dark they had no light to compensate, so the last hour was completely in the dark.

I just got back to this thread and my brain shut off when I read that alternate universe explanation of why Peter is black.