Marvel Introduces Half-Black, Half-Hispanic Spider-Man: Miles Morales

We didn't get Donald Glover but we are getting Miles Morales. This past June, the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, died in Marvel's alternative "Ultimates" universe, making national headlines. On Wednesday, Ultimate Fallout #4 will reveal Parker's webslinging replacement to be Miles Morales, a half-black, half-hispanic teenager. Cue even bigger headlines.

Plus, according to writer Brian Michael Bendis, Morales's look as the new Spider-Man was indirectly influenced by Donald Glover's campaign for the lead role in The Amazing Spider-Man when the reboot was being cast. Read Bendis' quote, information about the character and more after the break.

USA Today originally broke the news of Marvel's new Spider-Man, who will first appear in the comic tomorrow and then be the star of his own run of comics when The Ultimate Spider-Man relaunches in September. Here's what Marvel editor in chief Axel Alonso said to USA Today:

What you have is a Spider-Man for the 21st century who's reflective of our culture and diversity. We think that readers will fall in love with Miles Morales the same way they fell in love with Peter Parker.

We'll have to wait until then to find out exactly how Morales got spider powers, but the article does say that "Miles has a connection to his predecessor in how he received his powers. But he will have different abilities, too." They also confirm that characters from Parker's world will help him out at the start.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis, who'll be writing Ultimate Spider-Man, was already working on the Miles Morales character when he saw an episode of Community with Donald Glover in Spider-Man pajamas, an inside joke to the online community who was supporting Glover in his bid to be cast as the new Peter Parker. In another USA Today article, Bendis gives Glover "mucho credit" for the look:

He looked fantastic. I saw him in the costume and thought, 'I would like to read that book.' So I was glad I was writing that book.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as open minded to the idea of a half-black, half-hispanic Spider-Man. Bleeding Cool has compiled a list of horrid comments people have been making on the USA Today page. The ones that have not been deleted for blatant racism.

Even if you don't like the idea of anyone besides Peter Parker being Spider-Man, once he was dead (and in comics, is anyone ever really dead?) it makes sense for someone else to step into the web. And, being as it's the Ultimates universe which was created to tell more modern stories without jeopardizing the fan base of the original, core comic books, it seems like the perfect place to premiere Miles Morales as Spider-Man. What do you think?