When comic book superheroes get racial makeovers…
“When Superman, Batman, the Green Lantern, The Phantom, The Shadow, The Spirit, and others were created, America was 90 percent white,” says Kersey.
“In a country that is increasingly nonwhite,” he continues, “this ‘whiteness’ is now a nuisance.” He points out that in 2000, a DC Comics Justice League storyline made the Green Lantern African-American “because they didn’t want a bunch of white guys saving the world again.”
Then in 2002, Marvel announced they were doing a series depicting Captain America as black—something to do with the Tuskegee experiment, apparently.
So it comes as no surprise that Marvel Comics has killed off the white Peter Parker/Spider-Man and replaced him with a half-black/half-Hispanic character.
