Watch Donald Glover as Spider-Man in black
Donald Glover will be voicing the alternate-reality Spider-Man Miles Morales in an upcoming episode of the Disney-run television series coming up this Sunday. For those of you (what we must imagine the very few of you) that know Miles Morales from the comic book series, this should come as an awesome surprise. The original character was, after all, based in part after Donald Glover in the first place.
"Ultimate Spiderman: Web Warriors" will debut this character in his first animated form. Originally created for Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, Glover's Spider-Man was made by writers Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli working with Marvel editor-in-chief Alex Alonso.
The concept for "an African American Spider-Man" began with Alonso and staff speaking about the diversity of the characters present in Marvel Comics several months before the election of Barack Obama. The concept was reinforced when Community Season 2 Episode 1 was released, featuring a tiny clip of Donald Glover as Troy Barnes on the NBC TV series Community wearing Spider-Man pajamas.
The concept was hatched well before the Community episode, while immediately after the episode aired, a viral campaign was started in support of Donald Glover auditioning for the part of Spider-Man in the upcoming (then upcoming) "The Amazing Spider-Man" movie. Hashtag #donald4spiderman was born.
The look of the new comic-book-based Miles Morales Spider-Man was influenced directly by Donald Glover. That specific Community episode specifically sparked Bendis' comment on how they began concepts for their Spider-Man well before the campaign for Glover, acknowledging then that he was inspired by his look.
The comic Ultimate Fallout #4 was released in August of 2011 with the first appearance of Miles Morales in a black Spider-Man costume. It should be clear, here, that this is not the same costume as first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #252, The Spectacular Spider-Man #90 – and whose first appearance in the Marvel timeline occurs in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8.
That costume was later ripped from Peter Parker and became better known as Venom. It became best buds with Eddie Brock and they remained best friends for many years.
Now you'll see the newest iteration of Spider-Man in Miles Morales in "Ultimate Spiderman: Web Warriors" on TV for the first time this year. That's what you'll see here – be sure to go fullscreen, as this tiny box is far too tiny.
FUN FACT: This is not the first time that a Marvel Comics character's look was inspired by a real person, followed by that real person depicting that character in a movie or TV show.
The Marvel Ultimate Universe revealed the Ultimate version of Nick Fury in 2001 in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #5. He later appeared in Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Iron Man, Ultimate Captain America, and Ultimate pretty much everything else.
Created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Allred, permission was asked of Samuel L Jackson to use his likeness. He said yes, of course, and the character also summoned an attitude not unlike Samuel L Jackson's public persona. Jackson would later go on to portray Nick Fury in nearly every new-age Marvel Comics Avengers-universe movie to date.