Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man | Tagged: miles morales, rob liefeld

Rob Liefeld & Arune Singh Remember Marvel Introducing Miles Morales

Rob Liefeld & Arune Singh have their own memories when Marvel Comics introduced Miles Morales as Spider-Man... and the reaction.

Heidi MacDonald of The Comics Beat commented on the recent viral clip of retailer Glenn O'Leary's complaints about the problems with modern comics. She wrote to TwitterX, "The tell in that retailer vid is when he mentions that people grew up reading Miles Morales. Miles debuted in 2011 and was criticized right away for "not being Peter Parker". I don't need to show you all the racist takes on Miles. You were there. But now he's a beloved classic. That's how it works. You introduce something new, and people like it. So much of this discourse shows an absolute dismissal of introducing anything new. That's called death, the true death of ideas."

Rob Liefeld quote tweeted her, saying, "Honest to God, I don't remember any racist reactions to Miles. No doubt, his popularity has grown overtime. Also worth a note, Spider Man is Marvel's TOP BRAND."

I mean… I remembered. I broke the story that Marvel was going to create a new black Spider-Man for the Ultimate Marvel Universe to replace the Ultimate version of Peter Parker, and the reaction seemed over the top, very focused on the very idea that a Spider-Man would be black. This was long before the Spider-Verse. Then it went official and it was revealed in the USA Today. These were some of the comments that were approved by moderators to run. I repeat, these were the ones that were approved.

Arune Singh, currently Vice President of Brand, Editorial at Skybound, recalled his time working at Marvel in marketing. "There's a story I like to tell about my time at Marvel when @JimViscardi and I placed the world premiere reveal of MILES MORALES at USA Today with @briantruitt. It's a story about bad faith actors and racism, which seems especially relevant in comics. The news broke and everyone at Marvel was thrilled. The press coverage of the Miles Morales news was incomparable and unending – news networks came through the office all day. And then I started getting phone calls…so many calls that my voicemail was filling up each hour. Nearly every call was some version of:"

• "Why do you hate white people?"
• "Why are you forcing diversity?"
• "Don't you know you'll lose your fans?"
• "Arune? What kind of name is that – no wonder you hate white people"

"All because…Miles Morales was going to be Spider-Man. All those same arguments you hear lately were brought up then. And I then received threats on my life. Because that's the logical end point of these arguments – caring about inclusivity and purposefully including it in work is bad. Oh, you'll hear "no, you just have to do it the RIGHT way" but lemme tell you that there's no "right way" to do it. This story played out again when Northstar got married. And when One Million Moms learned about Wiccan and Hulkling. Don't listen to the bad-faith actors.

"There's also a very, very important truth: Diverse voices in comics have already won the book market. That's what the true mass audience has adopted in large quantities and it's what they signal they want with their dollars. The moral of the story: Not even the introduction of Miles Morales was okay for the people telling you that diversity is hurting comics. And it's the same arguments I've seen for over 20 years."

Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Those who do learn from history are condemned by those who haven't yet.

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