Hot on the heels of their fellow stans’ harassing an artist for drawing a gender-bent Spider-Man 2099 as less-than-overtly-muscular, yet another contingent of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse stans have begun attacking even more illustrators, this time taking issue with anyone whose use of lighting led to Miles Morales being depicted with less-than-jet-black skin.
Miles Morales (Shamiek Moore) learns of the reason for the Spider Society’s establishment in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-verse (2023), Sony Animation
One of the first such pieces to draw the ire of the visually-challenged was created by South Korean artist @fier001225.
Featuring the ‘Earth-42′ version of Miles being held at gun point by a snow-white-skinned individual, the illustration’s use of a harsh light-source on the villains’ skin soon drew accusations of white-washing and demands that @fier001225 fix their art in accordance to the mob’s ignorance.
@fieroo1225 via Twitter
“This don’t look like him at all, like the skin, the facial features, the hair,” @zvvwryy proclaimed, seemingly missing the fact that the Miles drawn was a variant and not the one fans are familiar with. “None of it. U should’ve just made a random anime character.”
@zvvwryy via Twitter
@spideychiles bleated, “PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST TRY”.
“IT TAKES LESS THAN THIRTY SECONDS TO LOOK UP A PICTURE AND CHANGE THE COLOR ON UR COLOR PICKER” they further cried.
@spideychiles via Twitter
“I’m just gonna put this here and ask you to try again,” said @its_breadd before condescendingly providing an insulting, ignorant-of-how-lighting-works guide for fan artists to follow in order to ‘properly’ depicts Spider-Verse‘s non-white characters.
@bread_lm via Twitter
@luv4constance disingeunously exclaimed, “WHY IS HE WHITE”.
@luv4constance via Twitter
@kerratokatossa took things a step further, ignoring the basics of color theory and lighting in order to ironically recolor @fier00125’s Miles with a far darker skin tone than he normally bears.
@kerratokatossa via Twitter
Eventually responding to these complaints, @fier00125 explained that, in creating their piece, “I paid more attention to the overall color and lighting effect of the character, I didn’t mean to make him ‘look like’ white.”
“In fact I think black skin is really beautiful,” they added, before inviting critics to “check my previous posts [depicting Miles Morales] if you don’t mind” before casting judgement on their character.
Unsurprisingly, this response did little to quell the outrage against them, and @fier001225 would go on to face even further harassment after its publication.
@fieroo1225 via Twitter
Meanwhile, in a different part of the Twitter-verse, stans accused Algerian-French artist @sahiim of similar art-based racism for his piece depicting a battle-damaged Mile, his face illuminated by the light of the multiverse shining out from behind the upgraded form of the villainous Spot.
@sahiim_ via Twitter
“It’s just crazy how this movie woke up all these artists that a) don’t know how to draw black features/skin or b) draw black characters lighter on purpose,”@21SADBITCH accused.
@21SADBlTCH via Twitter
“It pisses me off every time we have a dark skin character, artists want to draw them lightskin,” proclaimed @JaceTheDon_ “Miles is dark skin and proud to be dark skin. If you don’t like it, don’t draw him. Simple.”
@JaceTheDon_ via Twitter
@koryskorra insultingly declared, “If you cannot, or better yet refuse, to color Miles’ skintone the way the animators intended it to be then you do not need to be an artist.”
@koryskorra via Twitter
Refusing to engage with such dishonest criticisms and accusations, @sahiim reponded to the harassment by double-down on his piece, definitively informing the mob that Miles’ lighter skin was not an accident, but an intentional choice.
“I know how to draw black skin,” the artist shot back (translated via DeepL). “But I wanted to do a chocolate milk shade psk I wanted to do it. This will be my only answer.”
@sahiim_ via Twitter