Spider-Man Needs to Be White and Straight

[Night Hunter]

Spider-Man Needs to Be White and Straight, Say Leaked Sony Emails

 

 

Peter Parker and his alter ego Spider-Man must be heterosexual and Parker must be Caucasian, according to a legal licensing agreement between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment.

 

The information was disclosed in a massive document release by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which released this week 276,394 private files, emails and financial data onto its servers.

 

Sony Pictures and Marvel reps declined to comment on the licensing agreement, first reported by the Gawker website.

 

The contract went into effect in September 2011. It lists “mandatory” character traits for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man — and the agreement includes the caveat that Spider-Man is “not a homosexual (unless Marvel has portrayed that alter ego as a homosexual).”

 

The Peter Parker/Spider-Man character was created in 1962 by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in “Amazing Fantasy #15″ as an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Parker was portrayed as a teenager dealing with adolescence and being a costumed crime-fighter, complete with super strength and agility, the ability to cling to most surfaces, and to react quickly to danger with his “spider-sense.”

 

The agreement spells out that mandatory Spider-Man traits must always strictly conform to the following list: male; does not torture; does not kill in defense of self or others; does not use foul language beyond PG-13; dose not smoke tobacco; does not sell/distribute illegal drugs; does not abuse alcohol; does not have sex before the age of 16; does not have sex with anyone below the age of 16; and is not a homosexual (unless Marvel has portrayed that alter ego as a homosexual).

 

The Peter Parker character traits include: his full name is Peter Benjamin Parker; he is Caucasian and heterosexual; his parents become absent from his life during his childhood; from the time his parents become absent he is raised by Aunt May and Uncle Ben in New York City; he gains his powers while attending either middle school or college; he gains his powers from being bitten by a spider; he designs his first red and blue costume; the black costume is a symbiote and not designed by him; he is raised in a middle class household in Queens, New York; he attends or attended high school in Queens, New York; and he attends or attended college in New York City.

 

Source http://variety.com/

[milchh]

I think this is an interesting look at the effect of licensing and creative liberties. Of course in order to allow production of this character things have to be agreed to. Yet I think it's a little ridiculous that he has to be white and straight. It would be a nice turn on the character if he came from a different background, socio-economically and of different race. That kind of shit is interesting. For example, having Batman always being portrayed as this rich playboy is old. It makes sense, however, because he has ridiculous (unreal) technology in order to fight the baddies. And coming back to Spiderman, I think having him portrayed as something different that the white kid nice-guy fedora-territory little kid is getting old. At least for me. Weak honkey gets powers and a foxy redhead. Does that not get old?

 

Then again I'm not raking in the millions from the box-office.

Edited June 23, 2015 by milchh

[JohnTV]

I don't find it ridiculous at all; Spiderman has a story and an image, as well as Batman or any other classic comic hero. It's only Hollywood looking to steal more ideas to make into their 'own', even if it ruins history, because Hollywood is out of ideas. They don't want to be out of money, too. Sorry, Spidey can never be black or gay, because quite simply he was never black nor gay. How could Batman ever not be billionaire Bruce Wayne?

 

Side note: Michael Bay is the ruiner of childhoods.

 

[milchh]

All of these superhero movies just sound like projects to make money and nothing else (and I've seen my fair share of them... even the plot lines are the exact same in terms of how it progresses in each movie... just new characters). Nearly everything in that category are remakes, or movies based upon books as well. In general, there are no original ideas that are making millions and hitting the boxoffice (the only one that did make it to that status tanking financially, Tomorrowland). What I'm attempting to pose is that changing up things such as race, socio-economic status, hell even the country (however, that'd be tough, since making them something other than a good ol' 'Merican would be nearly impossible to sell, unless he was "national-less") would provide at least somewhat of an original and new idea. Recycling the same story, and essentially the same exact character is easy and, quite frankly, sad. It shows a lack of creativity. Not for the sake of creativity, but for the sake of novelty, progression and seeing how this character would play out as a different person. I'm not huge into the comic book scene, but as far as I could tell, I enjoyed seeing the Green Lantern being played by different folks from different worlds, or from different parts of Earth. Why can't Superman, Batman, Spiderman, (etc) be something else than a white heterosexual male?

 

I understand where you're coming from when you say they have an image, and a story, but to be honest all I think that says is that people know it so well and that's what they're gonna buy. It's the same in the music industry. Certain things sell, regardless of their artistic merit (or lackthereof) and deep storyline. What I'm saying basically is take a hit to the bank account and create something new. 

 

Or don't, because hey, those solidified codes of identity are money makers.

[JohnTV]

What I'm saying basically is take a hit to the bank account and create something new. 

Ahh, I wholly agree. The creation of something "new" isn't putting a different spin on a pre-existing character, though. That's just cheating.

 

Also, about the Green Lantern: the interstellar law enforcement agency Hal Jordan worked for was called the 'Green Lantern Corps'. It wasn't necessarily the name of a singular superhero, as there was many 'Green Lanterns', so there is a little play to be had in the characters and story-lines.