For The Record
Stan Lee doesn't believe that there shouldn't be a black Spider-Man. Read carefully:
The Fantastic Four and Original X-Men notwithstanding, it wouldn't be that difficult to make any of Lee's early Marvel characters something other than white. But the fact is Tobey McGuire was introduced to the movie world as Spider-Man, and he's white. To reboot Spidey as another race could be confusing in a "Why are they doing this? To get minorities to watch more movies?" kinda way. And considering how their rival DC has been essentially whitewashing their own headliners, the last thing Marvel wants to be accused of is playing any kind of race card.
And one more thing: I'm sure this discussion is dealing with the movie world; after all, even the Punisher was turned into a black guy in the comics.
In other words: characters like Kingpin and Fury aren't as well known as Peter Parker, and as far as the general public is concerned, Parker's always been white. And what Lee didn't mention it that Kingpin has been portrayed as black in other media (like the MTV version of Spider-Man) and Fury was first portrayed as a black man in the Marvel Ultimate (aka, let's reboot iconic character without the 30+ year backstory) Universe."Here's the point: We've already had the Kingpin in 'Daredevil' portrayed by a black man, where he was white in the comics, [and] we've had Nick Fury portrayed by a black man where he was white in the comics," said Lee. "But not that many people had seen these characters — not that many moviegoers are familiar with them."
"Everybody seems to be familiar with Spider-Man, so I say that it isn't that it's a racial issue — it's just that it might be confusing to people," he explained. "But that's a matter for the people at Marvel to take into consideration. I certainly don't want to weigh in on it in any way, except to say I think [Glover] is a fine actor."
The Fantastic Four and Original X-Men notwithstanding, it wouldn't be that difficult to make any of Lee's early Marvel characters something other than white. But the fact is Tobey McGuire was introduced to the movie world as Spider-Man, and he's white. To reboot Spidey as another race could be confusing in a "Why are they doing this? To get minorities to watch more movies?" kinda way. And considering how their rival DC has been essentially whitewashing their own headliners, the last thing Marvel wants to be accused of is playing any kind of race card.
And one more thing: I'm sure this discussion is dealing with the movie world; after all, even the Punisher was turned into a black guy in the comics.
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