Peter Parker (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

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Friday, June 2, 2023

Now, its sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” features two Latino Spider-Men in starring roles.

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Now, its sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” features two Latino Spider-Men in starring roles.
Irish-Latino Spider-Man Miguel O’Hara of “Spider-Man 2099,” voiced by Oscar Isaac, is jumping into the fray.

His powers came from a magical amulet that bestowed him with speed and martial arts expertise.
Later iterations of White Tiger included his niece Angela del Toro and his sister, Ava Ayala.
The first Marvel Latina superhero, also co-created by Mantlo, was Firebird – real name, Bonita Juárez – who first appeared in 1981.

In Latin America, Spider-Man has been a popular character since the hero first appeared in his own series, “Amazing Spider-Man,” in 1963.
In Mexico, Spider-Man quickly became more popular than any other Marvel character, save for his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.
Or maybe Latin Americans love his luchador-esque costume – Peter Parker did, after all, debut his Spider-Man title and threads as a professional wrestler.

So it was a big deal when Miguel O'Hara took on the mantle of Spider-Man in his own series, which ran for four years.
Miguel O'Hara is the future Spider-Man of Earth-616 in the year 2099, a post-apocalyptic future run by greedy corporations.
When O’Hara first appeared in 1992 as the main star of the “2099” series, fans embraced him, with little controversy.
And perhaps O'Hara’s light skin made it easy for readers to forget that he was Latino in the first place.

When Morales came on the scene, he wasn’t merely a carbon copy of Peter Parker, though.
He was raised by his African American father – an ex-con who had turned his life around – and Puerto Rican mother in Brooklyn.
How Morales’ race and ethnicity would play into the stories has been a point of contention.
In December 2022, Cody Ziglar, a Black comic writer, took over as the head writer of Morales’ story.
As Frank, the comics scholar, notes, these differences can lead to feelings of alienation.

'Across the Spider-Verse' and the Latino legacy of Spider-Man