There was a leaked memo explaining how the cinematic Spider-Man would be portrayed by the studio. As many have pointed out, the memo spells out that Spider-Man must be male, heterosexual and white. Here is part of the contract as printed in Variety –

The agreement spells out that mandatory Spider-Man traits must always strictly conform to the following list: male; does not torture; does not kill in defense of self or others; does not use foul language beyond PG-13; does not smoke tobacco; does not sell/distribute illegal drugs; does not abuse alcohol; does not have sex before the age of 16; does not have sex with anyone below the age of 16; and is not a homosexual (unless Marvel has portrayed that alter ego as a homosexual).

A good number of people saw the leaked information and justifiably were upset with the restrictions on the character but like with many news reports, you have to dig deeper to get the whole story. Notice that in parenthesis it notes ‘unless marvel has portrayed that alter ego as a homosexual.’ In other parts of the lengthy memo, over 12 pages, there are many passages listing a lot of items Spider-Man can and cannot due, but there is the proviso that suggests that the information must be adhered to unless Marvel makes changes.

As noted in Gawker, the memo was put out in September of 2011, a month before the Ultimate Spider-Man Miles Morales was introduced. Since he was in the alternate Marvel universe, he wasn’t the ‘real’ Spider-Man, but I think this agreement was more for Marvel’s integrity than it was for Sony’s. Look at the uproar over the Black Human Torch. For me, the argument has always been that the studio made the change, not Marvel. In the past year Marvel, in its main universe, has changed Captain America (to the Falcon, who is Black) and Thor (changing the person wielding the hammer to female). Very expectantly, sales of those books have gone up.

I will always stand by my belief that the biggest problem fans have with changes movie studios make with characters is the tone deaf reaction they have to longtime fans. Changes seems to be made for a whim or an attention grabbing marketing ploy, not because the change corrects or improves on something from the source material. People like myself, who have had to suffer through years of badly made adaptations, remembers bad choices studio executives made in the name of gathering a larger audience. Just the mention of movies like Supergirl, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Superman: The Quest for Peace and more show that years ago executives were not the friend of the comic book fan.

Think about this, when the first Marvel Avengers movie came out, there was very little criticism that Samuel L Jackson was playing Nick Fury. If someone was a casual comic book fan, they would remember Nick Fury as being a white male. There was even a made for TV movie that had David Hasselhoff playing Nick Fury. Since the racial change in the character was in the comics, and it was established in the main Marvel universe, fans of the comics, for the most part, accepted the change.

What has happened recently is studios executives have made some choices in characters that have worked in the eyes of the public and that has been the fuel for them to tinker with beloved characters. There is no doubt Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has been a studio favorite, but I was one of many fans of the comic that felt the over six foot actor was wrong for the role. I can talk until I’m blue in the face for the issues I have with Jackman, but he has become the face of Wolverine for many non-comic book people, and those numbers far outweigh my protest. That bit of lucky casting gives some executives the power to make unnecessary pains for themselves, such as casting a Black Johnny Storm.

The memo leaked about Sony, as old as it is, was probably a safeguard by Marvel to make sure any changes to the character could be made by them, cultivated by them, so by the time a changed character made it to the screen the core audience would be comfortable with it. The Black Johnny Storm definitely proves as small as the comic book audience is to the potential worldwide audience of a film, if they are constantly negatively talking about your production on the internet, the small but loyal fan base can injure the potential revenue of a film.