by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (267) 293-9201
Miles Morales: The New Black-Spider-Man Character
If you are between the ages of 60 and 35 you just might recall the Willie Weber Show and the Gene London Show. Both shows had real life host that played music and talked to kids using cartoons on TV. For an hour or half-hour after school and/or Saturday morning, kids learned how to develop cartoons and comics. Watching cartoons and the TV-DJ was very fun, safe for children and had youth wanting to be your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. At Front Page News, www.fpnnews.us, the Online newspaper that keeps readers up to date about hot community youth topics I know that many youth are interested in the two parallel universes in Marvel Comics.
The normal Marvel Universe we’ve all grown up with had Peter Parker, a decent white youth, who lived a double life as Spiderman. In 2011, the not so normal Marvel universe called the Ultimate Universe, the new Spiderman today’s kids are growing up with Miles Morales, a just as decent half-Black-half-Hispanic teen, who lives a double life as SPIDERMAN!
For years I’ve been introducing to readers the idea that youth having a double life can be a good thing if you help them get access to popular and unknown visual arts that stand for positive things. Imagine more youth, particularly black youth, hooked on the Internet texting about where the next meet up is going to be to talk to strangers about what makes them who they are?
The word is that although Peter Parker has played the Spider-Man character since its creation decades ago – the revamping of the Marvel comic is to attract a new generation of comic book readers. In the Ultimate Universe, my man, Peter Parker actually dies. But our biracial teenager hero Miles Morales becomes the newest incarnation of one of the most beloved superheroes in the urban city. Spidey practices acts that will help steer your children to age-appropriate activity that will go a long way toward ensuring that your children have enriching experiences. And here's a tip about Spiderman to keep young people busy, educated and worked up to support anti-violence movement in the community: Morales, just like Parker, has no parents at home to guide him away from flash violence. There is basically nothing for youth to do after school in his home town just like we have it here in Philly. But Miles is a one of a kind teenager who doesn’t follow the crowd just to hang out. He’s a lone spider-guy who wants a job and wants the bad guy off the streets at the same time.
A black youth, male or female, under the mask not only looks just right it opens up a whole new story line with a whole new feeling of pride to be a lone street guy or gal. Youth, both white or black, can believe that a black male in a mask is a lone guy out for the good of the city.
A majority of young children in Philadelphia, regardless if they attend a school or are drop-outs could use the news about black Spiderman to understand that it wasn’t the black population using masks to strike fear and terrorize others in big cities.
But since sometimes kids can't get this info at home we can help them go online and work with comic strip development education to avoid flash violence. If it's hard to understand how kids both white and black get caught up in flash violence why not start helping me to push comics like Spiderman? Move the youth foward for a Spidey future.
