I keep thinking how much more powerful the Spiderman origin story would be if Peter Parker was an African American kid, whose Uncle Ben was shot by police while being arrested for a minor parking infraction. There is no formal investigation, and Peter decides to put himself on the line to prevent it happening again. He tackles the white crimes that go unpunished, punishes POC criminals fairly. He is the leveler, always fighting to be without bias, to be just. To protect people like his uncle.
This not only mirrors so much of what’s happening in America, but feeds right into the complex relationship between Spiderman, the authorities and the media.
Peter Parker is a brilliant student, awkward, a nerd, but is branded a thug, a gang member, a criminal, because of his appearance. The media latch on to that and misrepresent him totally.
The police, humilitated by the fact that he refuses to work with them and often punishes cops themselves for brutalizing innocent people, or guilty people who still deserve better treatment than they get, attempt to hunt him down.
I have never wanted POC Spiderman/Peter Parker as much as I want it now
That sounds like a story I’d love to read, but…that isn’t Spider-Man. I mean, how does it tie in the whole “great power/great responsibility” schtick?
Police are given power and use it irresponsibly. Black Spiderman fixes that with using his own power responsibly.
Still needs something…I mean, main-comics Parker is motivated by his failure. He could have saved Ben by acting earlier, but didn’t.
Uncle Ben still gets murdered. His motivation is to balance out the justice system by capturing crooks of all types. Including ones that have badges.
Yeah, but that’s not a personal failure on Peter’s part.
Maybe he starts out as a hero and is a media darling - good press, supported by the cops - and THEN, after he’s basked in the fame and adulation, Ben gets murdered.
And Peter starts to pay attention. He goes after the cop who did it. He assembles evidence. And it all gets ignored. He goes after the cop directly, and all that praise from before turns ugly. That’s when the cops start hating him.
So seeing injustice in the world and his father figure dying in his arms because of the injustice isn’t grounds for him to take up being a vigilante because the cops won’t do shit about crime and actually do crimes?