Following the media witch hunt about Marvel and Sony’s contract about the depiction of ‘Spider-Man‘ and Peter Parker on the big screen (which basically said they could not stray far from the comics, especially in race or sexual orientation), Stan Lee has decided to speak out in favor of the company he helped put on the map, and if anyone has a say in how Spider-Man should appear, it is the man who created and wrote his earliest adventures. For Lee, he feels that the character has been around for 53 years, and that they should stay as true as possible to who he is in the comics:

“I wouldn’t mind, if Peter Parker had originally been black, a Latino, an Indian or anything else, that he stay that way…But we originally made him white. I don’t see any reason to change that.”

However, fans should remember that in an older interview Lee also said that he enjoyed the appeal of Spider-Man for people around the world:

“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume…And that’s a good thing.”

He also points out that he is flexible on some issues, such as where a Spider-Man movie would take place, saying that for him location is only important as long as it is a real place, and not a fictional city like Metropolis:

“It doesn’t have to be New York; it could have been Kokomo…I think the point is that having a fictional character come from a real place makes the character seem more real. When I was young, I loved to read Sherlock Holmes. And the fact that he lived on Baker Street in London, a real place, made me enjoynthe stories more, with a greater feeling of authenticity.”

In his last thoughts on the controversy, Stan basically goes on to defend himself and Marvel, basically saying that there should be more ethnic and gay superheroes, but there’s no need to throw out established continuities and the work of writers and artists with 53 years of history just to turn an already popular character into something more PC:

“I think the world has a place for gay superheroes, certainly…But again, I don’t see any reason to change the sexual proclivities of a character once they’ve already been established. I have no problem with creating new, homosexual superheroes…It has nothing to do with being anti-gay, or anti-black, or anti-Latino, or anything like that…Latino characters should stay Latino. The Black Panther should certainly not be Swiss. I just see no reason to change that which has already been established when it’s so easy to add new characters. I say create new characters the way you want to. Hell, I’ll do it myself.”

What do you think of Stan’s thoughts on the matter? Is he oversimplifying? Or do you (like me) feel he makes an interesting point? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: Newsarama