As Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" series is kaput, having officially been taken behind the shed and shot in the face by Sony upon disagreements with involved producers, the world is without a franchise featuring a lovable photojournalist who moonlights as a arachnid-based superhero. And since the first trio of Spider-Man films made a billion fucking dollars in America alone, and 2.4 worldwide, Sony wants their cash-cow up and running again.
Considering the studio had preliminary plans for Spider-Man 4 set up, releasing the first week of May 2011, Sony was seriously planning on getting back to those glorious golden teats (a promotional poster can be found here.) And considering the state of Hollywood today, where an Incredible Hulk film that made $158 million dollars was considered a failure which led to a sort-of remake with a cooler Hulk a mere 5 years later which grossed $7 million LESS than its predecessor but was considered a SUCCESS (What?), it's quite believable that a Spider-Man remake would be in the makings. Of course it would be, because it is. July 3, 2012 in 3D. Yeah, next year.
Peter Parker's universally seen as a white kid who wandered off-course on a field trip, was bitten by a MAGICAL spider, and inexplicably got super-powers instead of cancer, or a horrifying mutation, or something. He's also a complete loser shithead who can barely hold on to his hot-as-fuck girlfriend Mary Jane (Two things here: First, without the whole "superpower" thing, Pete could have starred in She's Out Of My League; second of all, I may write an alternate script for Spider-Man where Pete's actually blazed out of his mind, Mary Jane is literally Mary Jane, and he imagines everything from a basement covered in Bob Marley posters).
Yep, we see him as white, because Tobey MacGuire's mediocre acting has us thinking of no one else but an awkward white kid. But, as Pete Sciretta from Slashfilm.com wrote in this blogpost, Why Does Pete Parker Have To Be White? We have a black President. Why do we only have two major black superheroes, neither of whom get anything more than supporting roles in major films (Nick Fury in the Marvel universe, Storm in the X-Men series)? Why can't black kids have a good role model too?
Pete suggests Donald Glover, from NBC's Community and the sketch comedy team Derrick, as a black Pete Parker. He wasn't my first choice... but why not? He's a perfectly capable comedic actor, showing skills off in some more serious Community episodes and he carries the Derrick film Mystery Team all by himself. So why didn't I think of the DongLover as a possible choice? Because his skin color just happens to be different from the last actor in the role? I guess that's the only logical reason. Why not?
As much as racial relations have advanced in the recent past, a lot of people still balk at black people in positive roles. Why? No Good Reason. I say, why not a black Spider-Man? The series is tired after S3, which featured too many painful, poor choices to be remembered as anything else but a mis-step of epic proportions. Why not wipe the slate clean and fight Tyler Perry-ization of cinema with a fully capable African-American actor in a fully fleshed-out, complicated, positive role a mediocre actor recently held? Last time I checked, we just did the same thing with the oldest lead role in the world... a little thing called the Leader of the Free World. (Should Prez Obama bring about the Apocalypse by the end of his first term, this post can be retracted.)
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