‘They should just get rid of Peter Parker’: A hot Spider-Man take is hard not to agree with after watching ‘Across the Spider-Verse’

Spider-Man fans are campaigning to get rid of Spider-Man. How many parts of that sentence just confused you? It’s not what it seems, however, as Marvel Comics readers rally together to form an argument for why Miles Morales should be Marvel’s main Spider-Man over Peter Parker, who’s been at the superhero game for over 60 years now. In 2011, news broke of a ‘new’ Spider-Man in Marvel Comics; a half-Black, half-Hispanic teenager by the name of Miles Morales. Seemingly overnight, Miles had more media attention and cultural exposure than Peter Parker has had in decades.

But that’s not the only reason why it’s time to retire Peter Parker. Over on TikTok, avid comic reader and content creator @60_second_comic_facts perfectly articulated why replacing Peter Parker with Miles Morales is the only way to go for Marvel’s future, especially if they want to appeal to Spider-Man’s target audience, which is young teens. And with Miles, it’s young Black/Hispanic teens especially. Peter Parker doesn’t exactly appeal to that demographic as a white man who’s somewhere in his 30s by now.

Not only is there a snippet from a real news broadcast that features Mile Morales, but there are some excellent points made by the author of the video. “Let’s let Miles Morales be the main Spider-Man for a while,” he says. “Miles is a much more relatable character,” he continues, “For a very, very long time now, Marvel has tried to make Peter Parker a teenager again. And when they created him, they shot right through that and went straight to the college stuff.”

And honestly, it’s a valid point. We’ve known nothing else but Peter Parker as Spider-Man for a very long time now. And as proven by the immense success of Sony Pictures’ animated Spider-Verse trilogy, the people have spoken — and they want Miles. Although Parker does feature in those movies, he’s not the center of attention, nor should he be. The spotlight shines on Miles, a teenager living as a minority who gains extraordinary powers and becomes more than a stereotype or the type of person society labels him as. That’s the kind of motivational content we should be showing our youngsters, especially as Halle Bailey’s Ariel takes off more than Jodi Benson’s ever did.

The creator elaborates more, suggesting that Marvel is so desperate to market Peter Parker as Spider-Man that they’re missing what’s been under their noses the entire time. “Ever since then, they’ve been trying to de-age Spider-Man when they’ve got the teenage Spider-Man right here. This is the target demographic for the audience they’re going for.”

And especially after watching Across the Spider-Verse and seeing the reception for Miles, it’s hard to deny that these arguments are right on the money. Whether Marvel will listen or not is an entirely other story.