Will the World Embrace a Half-Black, Half-Hispanic Spider-Man? Marvel Introduces ‘Miles Morales’

By Kathleen Cross
Aug 02, 2011
10:21 am

In an alternate Marvel Comics universe, Peter Parker is dead and the new Spider-Man is a half-black, half-Hispanic teen named Miles Morales. Revealed in Marvel Comics’ Ultimate Fallout Issue 4, Miles Morales takes over the gig held by Peter Parker, who was killed in Ultimate Spider-Man Issue 160 in June.

“The theme is the same: With great power comes great responsibility,” says writer Brian Michael Bendis. “He’s going to learn that. Then he has to figure out what that means.”

USA Today reports, “In the regular Marvel Universe, Peter Parker will still be the same web-swinging Spidey as he has been since his first appearance in 1962. But in the Ultimate line, launched in 2000 to tell contemporary stories, he received a new origin and a reimagined supporting cast that paralleled the Spidey in regular Marvel continuity.”

“What you have is a Spider-Man for the 21st century who’s reflective of our culture and diversity, says Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Axel Alonso. “We think that readers will fall in love with Miles Morales the same way they fell in love with Peter Parker.”