The race-swapping controversy over Disney Marvel’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man cartoon is drawing out the same tired arguments from mainstream media. Arguments meant to defend sloppy and lazy writing that is a sad attempt at trying to appeal to the “modern audience.” The race-swapping of Norman Osborn, one of Spider-Man’s most iconic villains, is cheap theatrics and detracts from the potential story of this alternate Spider-Man. Frankly, if Disney Marvel wanted to give Peter Parker a black mentor, this was their opportunity to actually uplift one of the few black characters in the Spider-Man universe or create a new one.
When you think back to Spider-Man villains and characters, there aren’t many who identify as African-American or black. Which is not surprising when you consider that Spider-Man first swung into comics around 1962. Still, there is a small assortment of black characters such as The Prowler and Cloak who have made their way into the Spider-Man mythos. But only one character really stands out to me as the best candidate for being a mentor, who is black, to Peter Parker.
Robbie Robertson.
When it comes to Spider-Man characters Robbie Robertson is one of the best. He was the foil to J. Jonah Jameson’s biased and fanatical journalism as Robbie tried to be more fair and unbiased in his assumptions (like all real journalists should be). Everyone liked Robbie because he had great morals, personality, and beliefs. He also had an interesting history since he was born and raised in Harlem and had two kids. Sadly, his firstborn died at six-months while his second son, Randy, was a good friend of Peter Parker.
If you want to know more about Robbie, then you can look it up for yourself. But here is a character that can be tweaked just a little to make him a more prevalent presence in the life of Spider-Man. For example, maybe his firstborn child was killed by a stray bullet from a gang war. This prompts Robbie to become a masked vigilante himself, without any powers, as he seeks to avenge his child. Or it spurs him to investigate these gangs and, as a journalist, find evidence to take them all down.
There are a number of possibilities here that could spur Robbie to confront Parker and offer to be his mentor. After all, in the real universe, Robbie figured out that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Fleshing out Robbie’s backstory could easily make him a suitable mentor for Spider-Man and makes the most sense if the goal was to make black people more prevalent in the Spider-Man mythos.
But no, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man head writer Jeff Tramell decided to colorwash Norman Osborn. A move which understandably makes Spider-Man fans, myself included, angry and annoyed.
It also prompts the question, what purpose does race-swapping Norman Osborn serve?
Is the black Osborn still from New Haven, Connecticut and a rich family? What exactly is being changed about Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin? Is it because the writer decided to use the same plot gimmick from the Marvel movies where Tony Stark became a pseudo-mentor to Spider-Man?
If that’s the case, then why didn’t the cartoon go with Hobie Brown aka The Prowler? He’s smart, uses technology, is from the Bronx, can be made super wealthy, and he is a black character from the Spider-Man comics. Just make him older and more established.
Sadly, it appears that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is just another wasted opportunity to shake things up for the superhero character. It’s also the latest example, in a long line of examples from Hollywood, where a DEI and woke agenda provides a superficial and inferior story that doesn’t advance anything in a positive light. It’s absolutely amazing that, once again, “progressive” means nothing more than race-swapping white characters.
Yes, it is too early to tell whether or not this new cartoon will be good or bad. But considering the track record of such endeavors, the odds of this being good is very slim and is more likely that this race-swap is an indicator of pushing “a message” rather than telling a cool story. It looks and feels like another lost chance to truly shake things up in the Spider-Man universe by not elevating an existing black character or creating a brand new one. Instead, they just had to do another race-swap of a ginger.
How boring and unoriginal.
Suffice to say, I have no interest in watching Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Which is a shame, because I still love Spider-Man.
Author’s Note:
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