Face it, haters and racists. The upcoming Spidey movie hit the jackpot with model and singer Zendaya reportedly playing the iconic Mary Jane Watson.">
According to a report this week at The Wrap, former/future Disney actress and musician Zendaya is playing iconic comic book character Mary Jane Watson in Marvel and Sonys SpiderMan: Homecoming, opposite Tom Holland as the teenage Peter Parker. According to irate Spidey fans, this is an abomination, as Zendayawho is biracialdoes not look like Mary Jane, the love interest traditionally portrayed as a green-eyed, red-headed, very white lady.
Sorry, but MJ is a white red head. Why cant we just keep characters the same? wrote @mattblake94.
Others decried the move as an insidious example of blackwashing which, P.S., is not an actual real thing.
In a running gag, Aunt May kept trying to set Peter up with the sparkplug girl next door only to
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have him spend nearly 20 issues avoiding her, convinced she wasnt his type. When he finally came face to face with Mary Jane, Peter realized what a doofus hed beenand would spend the rest of his canonical life on-and-off chasing the most important love of his life.
Thats a quality that was hinted at in the trailer Marvel debuted last month at Comic-Con, even if the 7,000 fans in attendance didnt realize it at the time. In it, Hollands dorky Peter moons over his dream girl at school while masquerading as his web-slinging alter ego in secret. Its Zendaya, appearing briefly as an artsy-looking outsider chick classmate of Peters, who busts his balls and notices his constant disappearances, as if shes the only one who really sees him.
The Mary Jane secretwhich Marvel has yet to officially confirmis reminiscent of the deliberate obfuscation Paramount spent an entire press tour spinning, pretending that Benedict Cumberbatch wasnt playing Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, only to reveal when the film was released thatsurprise!that was his characters real name all along. Will it matter very much to the plot of Spider-Man: Homecoming, a stand-alone that serves as a piece of the overarching Avengers-dominated Marvel Cinematic Universe? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Zendayas rebellious Michelle will casually reveal that her parents gave her the super-lame name Mary Jane, wink-wink, and Manic Panic her way to flame tresses at the end of the movie, and weve all just spoiled a fun little end-credits Easter Egg for ourselves a year early.
The bigger takeaway from this weeks Mary Jane hubbubwhich the coolly unflustered Zendaya has yet to deign to addressis not that there are retrograde superfans out there who will loudly whine that progressive casting choices are ruining their childhoods. (Hello again, Ghostbros.) Its that the pro-Zendaya as Mary Jane horde came out in force against racist fanboy backlash, real and pre-emptively perceived, to passionately support Marvels bold and overdue move for what it is: A step forward toward a near-future in which heroes dont all look like they did 50 years ago.
That can be seen as a corrective measure of sorts: Marvel brass demonstrating that they know not everyone in New York looks like Toby Maguire or Kirsten Dunst or Andrew Garfield or Emma Stone, and in turn answering fan demand for greater inclusivity with action. Its certainly not as bold and refreshing a push as, say, casting a non-white Peter Parker might have beena fancasting fantasy Marvel apparently wasnt quite ready for, as Donald Glovers appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming may end up inadvertently reminding us.
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Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/19/zendaya-spider-manhomecoming-and-the-beauty-of-a-black-mary-jane.html
Zendaya, Spider-Man Homecoming, and the Beauty of A Black Mary Jane
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