Erin Whitney, THE HUFFINGTON POST
(The Huffington Post) — Comic book geeks’ spider senses are tingling.
After battling evil-doers in an alternate comic book line, a popular biracial version of Spider-Man is getting a promotion to the official Marvel Comics universe.
The first issue of the relaunched “Spider-Man” hits comic stores, tablets and smartphones this fall with more fanfare than a typical new series, because the hero under the mask is Miles Morales, the teen son of an African-American father and Puerto Rican mother.
“Many kids of color who when they were playing superheroes with their friends, their friends wouldn’t let them be Batman or Superman because they don’t look like those heroes but they could be Spider-Man because anyone could be under that mask,” says writer and co-creator Brian Bendis. “But now it’s true. It’s meant a great deal to a great many people.”
The character has been around since 2011, replacing the murdered Peter Parker in Marvel’s offshoot “Ultimate” line and gained a sizeable following, but the “real” Spider-Man has kept patrolling the company’s main titles.
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