Why Spider-Man Needs to Be Peter Parker in the MCU

If Spider-Man is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then we need Peter Parker not Miles Morales.

Before everyone starts cursing my name, let me explain why Spider-Man needs to be Peter Parker rather than Miles Morales. When I say this, I’m not talking about race, I’m talking about the character and his origin. If they present us with a “non-white” Peter Parker then we’re still capturing the duality of the character and his origin, but if they give us Miles Morales then they’re swapping over 50 years of character development for a character that is barely 7 years old.

Peter Parker is Spider-Man like Bruce Wayne is Batman

Spider-Man is the face of Marvel comics much like Superman and Batman are the face of DC comics.

We’ve seen these characters have other identities and we’ve seen every one of them die but it’s always temporary. At the end of the day these iconic superheroes have just as much significance associated with their secret identities as their hero names. Their appearance may change but identifying the person behind the mask (or vice versa) by anything other than their timeless alter ego would essentially be re-identifying the character as a whole. This is also a factor that could disappoint and disassociate long time fans of these characters.

With Marvel on the upswing with their cinematic characters, why change the iconic identity of Spider-Man when they just got him in their universe? This is the first time that they have the chance to influence Spider-Man’s character as they would have created him.

Miles Morales was created following a trend

Miles Morales was created following the election of President Barack Obama but the concept was created just prior to the election. Having the first African American President, Brian Michael Bendis created Miles hoping to capitalize on that momentum by creating the first African American Spider-Man. It did work by creating controversy (and we all know any Press is good Press) and creating an awareness of the character but unfortunately comic book sales fizzled out after people stopped talking. The character came off more as a publicity stunt and once the dust settled, there wasn’t much of a story. Attempts were made to compromise with public opinion like creating a five part mini series titled “Spider-Men” where an alternate universe’s Spider-Man (Peter Parker) encounters Miles Morales and passes the proverbial torch by giving his approval at the end of the series.

“Spider-Men” created a bit of a surge for Miles’ character but after this series, the entire Marvel Ultimate Universe (Miles’ universe) went on hiatus. Sales were down and the series got split into many other mini-series. Because of Miles’ low profile many suspected that he would be killed off but ultimately he ended up where most tertiary characters go to die…a team based book they ended up titling “All-New Ultimates.”

Miles is too young to fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Peter Parker was already young being a high school senior but when Miles Morales was introduced, he hadn’t even been to high school at only 13 years old. When you have a team of adults on the Avengers having adult problems, the integration of a teenage adult is going to be difficult enough rather than attempting to integrate a child.

If Miles were integrated into the MCU, I’m sure they would raise his age but we’ve never seen Miles grow to an adult in the comics so the character they would be integrating would already be closer to Peter Parker than Miles.

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