Black Spider-Man

That sounds like an awesome, intellectual property infringing blaxploitation movie. But I forget, he's not black; he's half black, half hispanic. Do the pc minded guys who came up with this not even know that latinos seriously dislike the grouping "hispanic"?

I don't particularly care that Spidey is black. The Ultimate universe should be a place for different things to happen. Also, I kinda quit caring about the Ultimate universe when the Ultimates drove off a cliff. I mean, Captain Iraq? I'm not making that character up. They gave us Captain Iraq. Ultimate X-Men was garbage pretty much from the first issue. Ultimate Fantastic Four was great. At least what I read. Ultimate Spidey was marvelous, but for whatever reason I quit following it. I guess they killed Peter, which seems like a moronic thing to do.

It's in that same moronic mindset that they've run off at the mouth congratulating themselves for turning Spidey into a guy of mixed race.

Brian Michael Bendis: "It's certainly long overdue. Even though there's some amazing African-American and minority characters bouncing around in all the superhero universes, it's still crazy lopsided."

So why not create more amazing characters of varying race, creed, and color? Sacrificing Peter Parker to the diversity gods is cheap, lazy, and more worthy of people far less talented than you, Mr. Bendis. The reason why Marvel succeeded is because the heroes themselves were the interesting characters. And a hero is distinctly tied to his true identity. Spidey is who he is. Piggy backing on Spidey's colossal success may make you high five your politically correct buddies, but it's hackery. It seems to me that starting from scratch would prove the point that America is a more diverse place. Which leads me to Marvel EIC Axel Alonso:

"What you have is a Spider-Man for the 21st century who's reflective of our culture and diversity. We think that readers will fall in love with Miles Morales the same way they fell in love with Peter Parker."

How exactly was Peter not reflective of our culture? That's utterly insulting, not to some misguided value derived from my skin pigmentation, but to my intelligence. And we'll fall in love with Miles the same way? So he's basically the same guy but with a new paint job? Shouldn't he be different in a meaningful way? Where's the fun in that? Why bother killing Peter off in the first place?

Hell, just outright making Peter a black man would make more sense and prove more useful.

This is worse than that time they gave us that new ghostbusters team with a vegetarian and an invalid for members.

And yes, Donald Glover would be great as Black Spider-Man.

A few words.

As I head further down adulthood's road, I recognize that no artist touches us in quite the same way as those who affected us when we were young. Takeshi Miyaji died a few days ago, a co-founder and designer for Game Arts, a sort of second tier Japanese game developer. Only second tier because Japan's rigid culture demands second placers and American game fans at the time seemed to follow Japan's lead on who were the greats. The truth is that Game Arts produced some of the finest games made, often innovating over the steadfast giants of the era.

Takeshi was the principal creator of a game called Grandia. A game that, despite its often crude and malignant translation--I have no idea why Working Designs didn't shepherd the game to the states, but they didn't--communicated a profound sense of fun and adventure and heartbreak and loss like few others. It started you off as a youth, clumsy and playing at daring, and let you follow him, watching him truly mature into his role as the savior of his world. A tried enough narrative, but rarely done so in a way that made you feel a part of this other world, this other story. I distinctly remember a stirring sequence when the protagonist finds a note from his mother after he'd snuck on a ship sailing across the ocean, revealing she knew his intent and decided to let him go.

The largest shame outside his passing is that so few people played the game, for whatever reason--I make no claim to playing every important game out there. I'll remember it fondly. I hope he's landed in a good place. His work means a lot to me.