As a teenage comic book fan growing up in the 1980s, I loved Peter Parker. The idea that a high-school kid with remarkably ordinary problems could double as a Green Goblin-battling, Vulture-battering superhero made Spider-Man seem closer to reality than any of the other comic book titans of the period. And so it is with some degree of sadness that I wonder if studios Sony and Marvel have made the wrong decision by retaining Parker for the wallcrawler’s next big-screen adventure, just as Miles Morales has been upgraded to the main Spidey role in print.
Marvel creative legend Stan Lee said this week that heroes who were imagined as white, male and straight should remain so, placing the onus on comic book creators to imagine new black, female or gay characters to improve diversity. But he’s ignoring the fact that most of the best-known superheroes debuted at least 50 years ago, prior to the successes of the US civil rights movement, the 1960s and 70s wave of feminism and the decriminalisation of homosexuality in many western nations (let alone the dim and distant concept of legalised gay marriage). It’s no wonder they all hail from the same limited demographic pool.
If Spider-Man were created now, there’s a very good chance that he’d be mixed race (like Morales), or perhaps even gay or female. The geek community that reads comics and cheerleads Hollywood’s box-office-dominating superhero movies is famous for its diversity and liberalism, which is why the current female comic book iteration of Thor is already outselling its male counterpart (despite howls of fury from some quarters).
Picking a greener Spidey in the shape of 19-year-old Tom Holland is a smart move. This is not just a young-looking actor, like predecessors Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield: Holland still has the acne and sparrowy frame to prove he’s not yet out of his teens. The contrast when he meets 50-year-old Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man) and 34-year-old Chris Evans (in the title role) in Captain America: Civil War, will be genuine and palpable. As a crime-fighting teenager meeting established heroes who have saved the world at least twice, that’s just as it should be.
But haven’t the studios missed a trick here? The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was largely seen as a failure, despite a global box office take in excess of $700m. And there have been suggestions that Sony has tried to reboot its property too many times in too short a period to keep audiences on the hook. So what better way to shake up the Spidey mythos than to place an entirely new hero inside the suit, one who has taken the print media by storm?
It was not to be, and Marvel and Sony had better hope they’ve made the right decision, because it sounds as if their partnership on superhero movies goes further than anyone expected. As well as Marvel having obtained the rights to include Spider-Man in its own cinematic universe, studio boss Kevin Feige hinted this week that an agreement is in place for Sony to borrow Avengers heroes for standalone Spidey movies. If this is true, then all the more reason to finally get the webslinger right: Holland and Peter Parker are going to be centre stage for a while to come.
