Fear of a black Spider-Man: racebending and the colour-line in superhero (re)casting

Abstract

This paper tackles the way in which fans legitimise 'whiteness' in the pantheon of American fictional heroes. Using the 2010 internet meme calling for an AfricanAmerican actor be cast as the next Spider-Man, and the replacement of Peter Parker with a character of Hispanic and African-American descent, I examine online arguments made by fans that Peter Parker and Spider-Man have been and therefore should remain white. Specifically, I am interested in the way in which fans legitimise the 'casting' choices of characters through the use of canon -the officially recognised history of a fictional universe -and dominant characterisations of Spider-Man as a hero.

The Americanization of the Hong Kong Kung Fu Hero: Orientalism and Social Class in Marvel Comics’ Iron Fist

“…Iron Fist's status as a white man gives him social powers as well as superpowers, as was the overwhelming norm for mainstream comic book characters of the period. As Albert Fu asserts, “comic books, as part of popular culture, compliment, support and reproduce hegemonic beliefs and behaviours regarding race”; specifically, that white skin is “a hegemonic signifier of normativity in American culture” and the default ethnicity of mainstream superheroes (10). That Iron Fist was directly inspired by non‐American culture, however, complicates this quality, and Danny Rand's whiteness is more than simply a familiarizing gesture.…”