I don't care what his ethnicity or race or whatever you want to call it is. What I do care about is that he/she should be at least connected to the original Spidey and/or Peter in some way. There has to be some kind of already-built-up emotion from me. Otherwise, how is it not just an all together different character? Where is the incentive for my loyalty? I might as well switch to Batman or Thor if it's not going to be related to anything else in the same book, or even just stop reading comics (if that were the only title I picked up, which it's not). All the other "replacements" had close connection and logical reasons for filling the suit. If he's just some complete stranger, it is offensive and wearing that suit is in bad taste. If I were anybody who personally knew Peter or Spider-Man, I would be greatly offended. The argument, "Hey, other characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Batman have been replaced" (summarizing), I think, is a pretty lame excuse. When he ripped off the mask, my immediate reaction was not "What's up with that skin tone?"; It was, "Who the #^&% is that???". I have no REASON to give a crap about this guy. They have two, three max, issues to convince me that there is some relation. Otherwise, I'm dropping it. My wallet could use the break.
Also, I personally think it's a post-release controversy cooked up by fans who are somewhat more racist than they may realize. I don't recall any giant arrows pointing towards his face that said "Looky here! He's not white!!!". If the mere fact that he's not white is what causes people to think that they're just trying to cause controversy, how is it ever possible to have a non-white character replace a white one? How likely would it be that any white character just happens to always be white?
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