Spider-Man has got a new alter ego. The face hiding behind the comic strip hero is no longer white Peter Parker, but coloured Miles Morales. Marvel Comics, the series' publisher, presented Peter Parker's successor on Wednesday.

by Klaas den Tek and Erik Klooster

Teenager Miles Morales is of mixed Afro-American and Latin American blood. He lives with his parents in New York's Queens neighbourhood. His predecessor was a white orphan from Brooklyn. A closer look at other comic characters reveals that new Spider-Man is not the only multicultural role model in the world of superhero comics. (Story continues below)

The Black Panther (1966)
The Black Panther is seen as the first Afro-American superhero in a comic strip. He makes his first appearance as a character in the Fantastic Four, a team of superheroes. The Black Panther was born in the imaginary African country of Wakanda. In the 1970s he was called The Black Leopard in order to avoid being associated with the Afro-American movement The Black Panthers.

The Great Ten (1996)
The Great Ten are a team of Chinese superheroes, appearing in a series which is being sponsored by the Chinese authorities. The characters are all representing aspects of Chinese mythology. Some say that the Great Ten were based on a 14th-century Chinese legend.

Northstar (1983)
Northstar is the first gay superhero. He is one of the X-men, a group of mutants. Northstar's first appearance was in 1983, but he only came out of the closet in 1992. Until then, Marvel Comics felt the issue to be too too sensitive.

Storm (1975)
Like Northstar, Storm is one of the X-men. She is able to influence the weather and is flying on the wind. Storm was a streetkid in Cairo until her powers began developing. In Kenya she was worshipped as a goddess, and then she ended up with the X-men in the United States. Storm was the first African superhero character ever.

The 99
The 99 are popular in Arab countries. The series has 99 characters, whose nicknames are derived from the '99 beautiful names of Allah'. The comic is seen as a response to major Western comic strips such as Batman, where dark forces are rife.
RNW's The State We're In spoke to the series' creator Naif al-Mutawa earlier this year.

Silver Scorpion
The latest superhero is Silver Scorpion, a physically handicapped Muslim whose task it is to put an end to tensions between the Western and the Islamic world. In other words, he's got to bring about world peace. 

(rk)