Black Spider-Man

The following post was inspired by this amazing, hilarious video recently shown to me by a friend.





The visuals may be from An Extremely Goofy Movie but the audio is from a very special episode of "Static Shock." Between episodes like that and "Static in Africa" the show was not to afraid to have its moments of "hey guys remember, Static is totally black and stuff" in between episodes where he hangs out with Batman. Actually, if I recall correctly he was more fond of the John Stewart Green Lantern appropriate enough.

I'll always remember the small, vague yet powerful sense of empowerment I felt while watching the show, based on the Milestone Media series by the great, black comic pioneer the late Dwayne McDuffie. When re-watching it yesterday though, something struck me. Between its urban bent and jokey, nerdy, teenage superhero protagonist who happens to have a sage father figure and dead parent (his mother), Static Shock totally shows how the Spider-Man concept can be a great fit for a black character. It's just a thought I wanted to share on this, the eve of my Spring Break. I'm not saying we need to start calling Donald Glover, DC and the Warner Brothers Studios. Of course I'm not saying that we shouldn't do that either.

Or someone could just make an Ultimate Spider-Man movie and watch conservatives freak out about how it is multicultural propaganda and that Miles Morales looks too much like Obama.

Also, since the hero is black, Static Shock gets away with having probably the greatest black supervillain outside of Black Manta (who wanted to escape the white-controlled land and colonize the ocean for black people). Ebon is literally a living shadow. If that doesn't strike right at the heart of primal, racial fear I don't know what does.

Also also, I can't think of anywhere else this would be appropriate so I'll just say it here. If you didn't know already, The Boondocks is awesome and everyone should read the comic and watch the show. It's way funnier and more authentic than The Cleveland Show. It actually has something to say.