The announcement hasn’t been met with 100 percent good vibes, that’s for sure.
That’s because as Marvel’s comic-book pages start splashing more color on the skin of their heroes, the creative minds behind the process continue to be not as diverse.
Bendis is white; he is not a black woman. There are those out there, myself included to a degree, who feel that if you’re going to bring in a new, young, black character and put a famous superhero mantle on her shoulders, the least you could do is give her an authentic black, female voice.
On the other hand, Bendis is one of the most powerful voices in the entire comic-book industry. And he has used the power behind his voice and written words to diversify a comic-book universe that might not be as inclusive as it feels now without his efforts.
Instead of a moral victory, Riri Williams feels like a productive draw. A point for each side, but nobody wins.
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But just as I reluctantly admit that Morales, in his historic run as Spider-Man, hasn’t done anything outlandishly Puerto Rican (no dominoes, no wondering why that last Menudo group never came out with a full album, no eating abuela’s arroz y habichuelas, no mention of the debt crisis) or black (no debating being a superhero of color — one who has his skin color covered up, granted — in the Black Lives Matter era), I have to assume that same feeling of a lack of authentic voice will come over me when I read Riri.
Bendis’s heart is in the right place. And for those who don’t know, he is proudly the father of black children, and he’d have an invested interest in making sure the company he works for reflects his diverse family.
Marvel at some point is going to have to realize that these announcements of diversity can only be halfway celebrated if the diversity isn’t behind the pages and not just in the panels. Somewhere there is a half African American/half Puerto Rican kid that would love to write Morales. (Heck, there’s a half African American/half Puerto Rican guy writing this story. They’re not hard to find, especially in New York)