Your Toddler Will Never Know Spider-Man Was White

Miles Morales breathed new life into the stale Peter Parker coming-of-age story. Children who look like him can now strongly identify

Miles Marshall Lewis
LEVEL

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Actor Shameik Moore (English language voice of Miles Morales) takes a selfie with a fan at MCM London Comic Con. Photo: Mike Marsland/Getty Images

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“Y“You’ll believe a man can fly,” promised the movie poster. Back when Richard Pryor was the funniest black man in America and “Le Freak” by Chic topped the pop chart, a Loews theater stood at the center of the Parkchester projects in the Bronx. With my eighth birthday fast approaching, my parents made a wintertime date night out of Superman: The Movie, starring the late Christopher Reeves as the big blue boy scout. Adults giggled when Supes used X-ray vision to tell Lois Lane her panties were pink; whatever else he was seeing never dawned on me.

Up past bedtime, I flew down the snow-lined block afterward, adrenalized over the first real superhero blockbuster. I’d never felt more like Superman in my young life, with senses on high alert and gas-guzzling cars gunning out the parking lot, kicking up grey wet slush. That’s when my mother said five words, a beam of green kryptonite from her lips. “Be careful. You’re not Superman.” No paraphrase necessary; when your heart sinks that far…

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Miles Marshall Lewis
LEVEL
Writer for

MML’s writing has appeared in GQ, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and many other outlets. His book on Dave Chappelle drops in 2024 from St. Martin’s Press.