When it was revealed that Marvel and Sony were teaming up to find a new Spider-Man, there was a lot of speculation about Miles Morales possibly taking over the mantle or a non-white actor being chosen as the new Peter Parker. We've since learned that neither of those things are happening, and talking to Newsarama recently, Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee revealed why that's a decision he agrees with. "I wouldn’t mind, if Peter Parker had originally been black, a Latino, an Indian or anything else, that he stay that way," Lee said about a possible race change. "But we originally made him white. I don’t see any reason to change that." That's a sentiment which has been echoed by fans of all races, but there's still a pretty vocal minority who argue otherwise.
As for some recent "controversy" about Marvel once telling Sony that Spider-Man should not be portrayed as being homosexual unless that happens in the comics, the comic book creator added: "I think the world has a place for gay superheroes, certainly. But again, I don’t see any reason to change the sexual proclivities of a character once they’ve already been established. I have no problem with creating new, homosexual superheroes." The conversation then returned to the possibility of changing Peter Parker's race, and Lee once again echoed the thoughts of many fans when he stated the following. "It has nothing to do with being anti-gay, or anti-black, or anti-Latino, or anything like that. Latino characters should stay Latino. The Black Panther should certainly not be Swiss. I just see no reason to change that which has already been established when it’s so easy to add new characters. I say create new characters the way you want to."
"What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing." Thoughts?
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