“Luke Cage’s race is built into who he is and why he does what he does. There is nothing inherently ‘white’ about Peter Parker.”
— Slott (@DanSlott) Feb. 21
What Slott means by this is that many comic characters need race to tell their stories. In fact, most characters of color need race to tell their stories. Black Panther, Storm, Vixen, Luke Cage and many others can’t exist without being Black or coming from Africa. Black Panther is a king of an African nation. Being African is the point to his story. Storm was worshipped as an African goddess. Her parents met in Africa. Her mother was African. Being Black is her story. Changing their race would literally mean their characters no longer exist.
“It’s not about ‘for the sake of it.’ It’s because ‘Why not?’ Why CAN’T an African American, Asian American, or ANYBODY be Spider-Man?”
— Slott (@DanSlott) Feb. 21
Since the tweet was tweeted, Marvel Comics has created a variety of Spider-Man-related characters. There is Miles Morales who everyone is familiar with at this point. Cindy Moon is an Asian female Spider-Man-like character called Silk. There is Gwen Stacy who is called Spider-Gwen. This just has not translated to film because the new Spider-Man is still Peter Parker. That is the problem.