I decided to resist the urge to buy it, as I figured that comic book history is littered with aborted 'death of' stories and I wasn't prepared to succumb to the gimmick. Even the one major hero death that stood from my era of comic book collecting, the death of Robin aka. Jason Todd, has now been rescinded to make for a new story arc.
I had no idea at the time that the storyline was actually a vehicle to change the identity of the man behind the mask, I'd bought the first 30 or so issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, interested in the re-boot and keen to see Mark Bagley taking pencils duties again, but hadn't been following for awhile. Avid readers may have predicted all this from storyline build up.
Now, why do I object to this turn of events, you might ask, especially considering I'm no longer actively reading the storylines?
Well I've a number of points...
1) If they really wanted to do a mixed-race character justice they would create a character from scratch, make him really cool and put all their marketing power into launching him as a major marvel universe event, they wouldn't just slot him into another heroes costume. I'm pretty sure the new black Batman will struggle to gain traction too (launched last month apparently), not because he's black but because he's Batman.
2) You first have to suspend your disbelief that a man bitten by a radioactive spider can develop superhuman abilities and a disproportionate sense of civic responsibility, but you're expecting to do that because your reading a Spiderman comic - next you have to believe that when this superhuman dies another, completely unrelated, superhuman turns up with the same powers and carries on where the old guy left off. How did he get those self same powers? I suppose though this point is a plot contention for a plot I've not read in full, so I could let it slide.
3) It's a gimmick and it's been done before! Remember when Superman died and got replaced by a black guy? No? Well for those of you who've never heard of Steel you can have a quick look through his wikipedia entry: Steel (John Henry Irons). Lets see the timeline of this particular Man of Steel:-
1993 - John Henry Iron's first appearance, a black guy in a steel armour suit with a big hammer. He fills the void left behind after Superman is killed by Doomsday. There are four other 'Supermen' in the story arc, but Iron's, or 'Steel' as he becomes known for ease of differentiation is the one who Lois Lane thinks may have had the soul of the real Superman 'walk-in' to him.
1994 - Within a year Kal-El is resurrected and Steel gets his own solo comic book series, he's no longer considered the actual Superman, but still a hero in his own right.
1997 - A feature film comes out starring Shaquille O'Neal as Steel. It is a commerical and critical flop, not even recouping 2 of the $16 million budget.
1998 - Steel's comic book series is cancelled - the gimmick has worn off. He still appears from time to time as a supporting character/plot device.
Within four years black Superman/Steel was dead in the water.
(4) It's not even the mainstream universe. Ultimate Spider-Man takes place in a different timeline to the rest of the Marvel Universe, so in normal continuity, in the films and the cartoon series on TV Spider-Man is still a white guy, so nothing has really changed. Total cop-out.
I sincerely believe if comic book creators want to give black characters a chance they need to be original. It's not going to work by just giving an old character a different secret identity, or creating a spin-off or sidekick. You can see why they do it, they think the fame of the original character will provide their new version with the boost they need to gain attention. Unfortunately this borrowed sort of fame never seems to last, the children of stars are certain to get exposure because of their famous parents, but unless they're, (a) as talented, (b) more talented or (c)talented in a totally different way from their elders; that borrowed fame will quickly turn to crushing criticism.
Look up any major player superhero and you'll notice (a) they're white and (b) there's been a black version attempted at some point. Another embarassing feature is if you look through this wiki list of black superheroes List of Black Superheroes just look how many of them are called 'black' something. Marvel is actually one of the better companies for characters who aren't caucasian, having introduced some strong characters early on, 'Black Panther' and 'Black Goliath' both turned up in 1966. Goliath doesn't need the 'black' in front of his name any more thankfully.
Still I think the list of latino or asian superheroes will most likely be a lot shorter than the black list, and I'm sure mixed race characters are extremely rare, so it's good Marvel wants to do something about it. For a long time they've probably been the leaders in having a diverse cast of characters in their universe, but this seems like a hackneyed plotline done to death.
Marvel is definitely capable of launching sucessful heroes who aren't average white guys, and it should look at it's own success stories when plotting it's next move... characters like Storm (X-Men), Bishop (X-Men), Skin (Generation-X) and Blade are all original characters whose powers and origin stories aren't built around them being a black replacement/substitute/sidekick for another hero - although it's worth noting Blade is the only one of these whose been succesful enough to tick all the boxes of a major character - own title, television show, cartoon, movie, computer game and action figure.
If they want Miles Morales to last they'll give him his own powers and his own costume to wear and then work on the rest. Make him archetypal, make him appeal to teens as they try and discover themselves. Don't make him just another spin-off.
