PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Comic Con attendees were left uncomfortable and confused after a man dressed as Peter Parker went on an ambiguous and potentially bigoted tirade, sources confirmed.
“I just don’t see the point of this,” said Rob Plummer. “Everybody knows what color Spider-Man is. You know it. I know it. A child could tell you. He’s been that way for sixty years! Now these hack writers want to come in and impose their own agenda. They’ve gotta change the whole suit and give him slightly different powers. I guess the regular Spider-Man just wasn’t cool enough for woke Gen-Zers, or whatever.”
Comic Con guest Nate Haynes said he was left feeling distressed after being forced to listen to Plummer’s rant while in line for a photo-op with Marisa Tomei.
“At first I was sure he was talking about Miles Morales,” said Haynes. “But he never actually named the character. He just kept saying ‘Black Spider-Man.’ He did keep calling him a parasite, which made me think he was talking about Venom, but he could have also just been super racist. I thought he was going to clear things up when he started saying he, ‘didn’t have a problem with it as long as they made it a new character,’ but then he referenced Ebony Maw, who is an alien like Venom. But, like, does he just think Maw is a Black guy? All I know is I never want to be within earshot of that guy ever again.”
Comics writer Brad Weber noted that this type of confusion is common in the fan community.
“The problem is that there are normal, regular people who don’t like Venom,” said Weber. “He may be a beloved character now, but a lot of older fans still hold a grudge against him. If they’re not careful, it can be really easy for them to come across as prejudiced against non-white characters taking up the Spider-Man mantle. To clear up any confusion, displeased fans should express themselves by saying, ‘I have a problem with the direction that comics were taking in the late eighties and into the nineties, and that displeasure was manifest in Spider-Man’s Alien Costume becoming its own, edgy character.’”
At press time, Plummer was heard claiming that the new Spider-Man wouldn’t have been able to invent webbing on his own.
