91st Academy Awards

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

Retrieved on:

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.

Breaking the mold

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.

Spider-Man’s web extends into Latin America

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.

An Irish-Latino swings into the Spider-Verse

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.

Recasting Spider-Man as an Afro-Latino

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.

National Geographic Documentary Films Announces THE SPACE RACE From Academy Award®-Nominated Director Lisa Cortés and Award-winning Director Diego Hurtado de Mendoza

Retrieved on:

Friday, March 31, 2023

National Geographic Documentary Films announced that Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy-winning producer and director Lisa Cortés and award-winning producer and director Diego Hurtado de Mendoza will direct and produce THE SPACE RACE, a feature film that will uncover the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists to become astronauts.

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National Geographic Documentary Films announced that Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy-winning producer and director Lisa Cortés and award-winning producer and director Diego Hurtado de Mendoza will direct and produce THE SPACE RACE, a feature film that will uncover the little-known stories of the first Black pilots, engineers and scientists to become astronauts.
Frank Marshall and Tony Rosenthal of The Kennedy/Marshall Company are set to executive produce, along with Carolyn Bernstein of National Geographic Documentary Films and Leland Melvin.
“It has been a pleasure to work with co-directors Lisa Cortés and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, along with our friends at Kennedy/Marshall, to tell the inspiring, courageous stories of pioneering Black astronauts,” said Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president of Documentary Films for National Geographic.
“The exploration of space has always been a place of hope and inspiration,” said directors Cortés and Hurtado de Mendoza.