Ready for a Black Peter Parker/Spiderman?

[spamn]

Well, since I missed this thread when it happened, I'm going to comment anyway. I know the bus has left the station and it's all been said, but that's never stopped me from opening my mouth.

I was horribly offended at the idea of taking a skinny white nerd and casting him with a hyper black guy who currently plays an ex-jock. Peter Parker is iconically white, and so is Aunt May, and changing that is messing with something classic, and I wasn't interested at all. The idea seemed to me as preposterous as casting Tarzan as black, or the Black Panther as white.

However, Donald Glover is hilarious. I've heard him interviewed, he stands out like a bright light in the youtube comic shorts that got him noticed by hollywood, and he's a huge comic book fan with a lot of nerd cred in his regular life. The more I thought about it, the more I warmed to the idea. I have no doubt he could pull off a great Peter Parker.

The Ultimate Spider-Man book, whose job is/was to update and reboot the mythos, had Ben and May as an ex-hippie couple. That kind of opened the door for me thinking about what other changes would have to be made to make it work. The Parkers could be an entirely black family, or they could be an interracial family with May marrying in, or Peter's Parents could be black and Ben and May could be godparents that became guardians - there are a lot of ways to go about it to minimize changes of other characters in the mythos.

At the end of the day, Peter would still be a nerd who dooms his father figure in a moment of selfishness, gets bitten by a mutant spider, and dons a red and blue costume. Is his skin color THAT big a change in the scheme of the story?

Everyone felt that the franchise kind of ran out of gas with #3 (I actually hated #2 as well, but I know I'm in the minority). I eventually came to the conclusion that this kind of change and Glover's incredible talent might actually breathe the needed new life into things. It would certainly get people's attention.

I was actually disappointed that they didn't pick him by the time they announced White Guy I've Never Heard Of Or Seen Act for the part instead.

[sprytel]

Not to resurrect this thread from the dead, but "Community" premiered last night, and they kinda had some fun with Donald Glover's campaign to be Spider-Man.

When we first see him in the episode, he is getting out of bed... in his Spider-Man pajamas.

Then later, in an exchange with Chevy Chase's character, Pierce... Pierce describes their friendship as like "Batman and Shaft". When Troy points out that Batman already had a sidekick: "Troy, Batman's friend didn't have to be Robin. It could've been Shaft, Dolemite, Leroy Brown."

I thought it was pretty clever and darn funny.

[Joe90]

You are being selective.
Sure...many look like that...but many look like this as well...Feleknas Uca (a German politician of Kurdish decent)

Of course I was...

But I did so to make a point that the Middle East doesn't just have brown hair, brown eyes, and olive complexions. It's a real mix of ethnic looks.

Don't forget that I included a photo of the Beirut Soccer Team who share many similar ethnic characteristics of Ms Uca's...



Funny thing... Feleknas Uca looks like one of my female students whose parents are from el Salvador. And there is a Kurdish family in my neighbourhood, and for the longest time I thought they were from Latin America until I heard them speak. Funny how looks can be deceiving.

[Random Axe]

I'm just surprised I'm the only moron here who thinks it's funny that the abbreviated thread topic on the main board says "ready for a black peter."

[megoscott]

Honestly, I'm just amazed it took 16 whole pages for this thread to finally get around to Madame Butterfly and West Side Story. I would have bet on 6.

[Brue]

I hope they give him a cape!

no cape!

[kingdom warrior]

Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" has always irritated me - because the story is suppose to be about an interracial relationship. It's like Robert Redford playing Sidney Poitier's roll in "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner". GAHH!

Yeah but that's old Hollywood....Funny Rita Moreno who is Puerto Rican could have easily been cast as Maria but that wasn't going to happen in that time.....

[samurainoir]

Is that "Madama Butterfly" or "M Butterfly"? "M Butterfly" is a play from the 1980s, and the chick in "M Butterfly" is suppose to be a dude who's a transvestite. If so a black woman playing an asian male transvestite is pretty awesome.

I stand corrected as well, it's Puccini's Madame Butterfly I was short-handing, mind-blanking on the play/Cronenberg film.

[ctc]

>Changing Wonder Woman into a short Asian guy isn't Wonder Woman anymore.

Changing Wonder Woman into a dude at all runs the risk of a lawsuit from Marvel.... but other than that, most characters are pretty malleable.

>Perhaps Furry Pride would be in a much more advanced place than today's plushy-phobic society.

....eeeeewwwwww....

Don C.

[Brazoo]

Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" has always irritated me - because the story is suppose to be about an interracial relationship. It's like Robert Redford playing Sidney Poitier's roll in "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner". GAHH!

[Brazoo]

"Yellowface" is also accepted in any given performance of M Butterfly, although the latest one at the COC actually had a black woman performing as the asian Butterfly.

http://ytkstudio.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Butterfly_murielsierra_2.289142543_std.jpg

Although it might be easier to reconcile the various representations of Asia in classical opera as being more of a mythical representation that has more in common with imaginary lands like Narnia or Middle Earth than any actual historical Asia.

Is that "Madama Butterfly" or "M Butterfly"? "M Butterfly" is a play from the 1980s, and the chick in "M Butterfly" is suppose to be a dude who's a transvestite. If so a black woman playing an asian male transvestite is pretty awesome.

[Brazoo]

I don't want to see Superman without the classic costume, I didn't even like the muted red cape in the last movie....so it would be very very odd to see a black Superman. Is there anyone whiter than Superman? Spider-Man is one thing, the hero wears a full mask and shows no skin color.

I agree. Since this thread started I've been thinking about it, and to me Superman is the only superhero I can't really picture as non-white.

Maybe it's the fact that his image is so iconic - maybe it's just the fact that he doesn't wear a mask. Maybe it's the idea that he's suppose to have grown up in Smallville, which I imagine to be predominantly white.

I think part of it (maybe on a more subconscious level) is the idea that Superman kept his alien background hidden at first. Is there something in Superman's story that speaks to the issue of "ethnic" Europeans assimilating in America, secretly hiding their ethnicity? It was a much bigger issue in the 30s, and it would have been an issue Siegel & Shuster were familiar with first hand, at least to some degree. Is that a lingering part of Superman's story in my mind, even though everyone in Superman's universe knows he's from Krypton now?

Maybe all that is b.s. and I'm just prejudice about Superman being non-white for no reason at all.

[Werewolf]

Giuseppe Verdi's Opera version is in Italian and is always billed as "Otello".

I was not aware. I stand corrected. I've never been one to shy away from admitting when I am in error.

[samurainoir]

BTW: It's Othello.

Giuseppe Verdi's Opera version is in Italian and is always billed as "Otello".

As for the Blackface, you're singing to the choir dude. It's the old rich white folks paying $350 a pop that fill these venues around the world that you have to convince, otherwise "tradition" trumps by sheer economics.

[Werewolf]

It's not just the COC, apparently a Blackface Otello is still an acceptable staple in all the major Opera venues around the world, including New York's Metropolitan Opera,

Just because they do it, doesn't make it a good thing. Personally, I would not have sat through a blackface performance and would have gotten up and left. BTW: It's Othello.