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Your personal biases aside, it's a common naming convention for character page splits to name them "franchise: character". The alternative would be to call it "Spider-Man: Spider-Man". The name Characters.Spider Man was already taken, as it's the index for all characters in the Spider-Man franchise.
EDIT: I realized after writing this that the page name was only yesterday just changed from "Spider-Man The Character". But my point still stands; "franchise: character" is the common convention, "[X] The Character" isn't.
Edited by DragonRanger
Plus, it still doesn't change the fact that at least two other people have taken up the Spider-Man mantle in their own stories - it's not like Batman where Nightwing and Azrael briefly took the mantle for some books, or like Superman where it's always Clark Kent. Ben and Miles had full-fledged comic lines dedicated to their time as Spider-Man, and Miles is becoming more popular every day thanks to things like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, so the distinction actually is necessary.
Edited by STARCRUSHER99
Ben Reilly has always been a relative unknown character to average Americans, and people still refer to Miles Morales by his full name because that's the easiest way to distinguish him from Peter Parker, the one true Spider-Man. For better or worse, Ben and Reilly will always be compared to Peter. That's just how legacy works.
And our wiki works differently. We're being objective, not playing favorites or trying to capture Peter's legacy.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
The discussion, fwiw, is here
; it's part of an effort to standardize comic book character pages.
Also, there's no "One True Spider-Man". There's just "The most famous Spider-Man".
And just so it's clear, I did start a discussion for titular characters/groups character page names here to discuss a consistent way to name them, but no one was interested.
I agree with Michael Katsuro here.
So we're just gonna democratize superhero names just because Marvel's doing the same? Brilliant.
Sure, why not? It's not like this is a new thing. You brought up Batman and Superman at the beginning; Spider-Man might have been like that before, but these days, it's — to continue the DC analogies — more of a Flash or Green Lantern situation. Barry Allen and Hal Jordan might be the first and most prominent people to hold their titles in the modern era,* but guys like Wally West and Kyle Rayner have more than proven themselves in the role alongside them. Saying Miles isn't a "real" Spider-Man is like saying Wally isn't a "real" Flash or Kyle isn't a "real" Green Lantern.
- And that's ignoring the fact that Barry and Hal were themselves successors to Jay Garrick and Alan Scott.
You don't need to agree, but the wiki isn't the place to fix this.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
So, I just found out that the character page's title for the protagonist of the Spider-Man saga was changed to "Spider-Man: Peter Parker". I have to ask "was this even necessary? Was anyone even asking for this?"
As far as the average American is concerned, Peter is the one true Spider-Man, just like Bruce Wayne is the one true Batman and Clark Kent is the one true Superman. This might be my personal bias talking but characters like Miles Morales and Ben Reilly are just occupying the Spider-Man whenever Peter is unavailable. Try as Marvel might, it cannot overcome popular culture.
I don't mean to cause controversy, but this change, in my opinion, was unnecessary.
Edited by MasterHero