Headscratchers related to Ultimate Spider-Man, the comic book series.
- How exactly does Miles Morales ethnicity works? He's supposed to be "half-Hispanic and half-black", and he's said to have "an African American father and a Puerto Rican mother"; but his last name "Morales" is Hispanic, implying his dad is the Hispanic half. Unless both his parents are African-american of Hispanic descent or Miles got his name from his mom, we have a bit of a contradiction
- Mile's dad's brother is named Aaron Davis. So presumably, Mile's dad originally had the surname "Davis", and later took the name "Morales" from Mile's mother when they were married, dropping his original last name. It makes perfect sense that he'd do that, as Miles' dad is very ashamed of his criminal past and of his brother.
- So, long story short, yes, Miles Morales' last name is from his mother, not his father.
- It is indeed possible that Miles' father is a black Hispanic.
- But wouldn't that make him whole Hispanic? I mean having two Hispanic parents?
- Another thing is that people mix up race and ethnicity. He is Black physically. That is race. His ethnicity is Hispanic.
- Original Poster here. I'm not from the States, so I have no idea how the race-ethnicity works there; but I looked into it and according to my research "Hispanic" is a person from Latin-america or Spain (not racism there, no sire!) or anybody who identifies as Hispanic. So if I follow this correctly Miles must have a dad who is Black Hispanic and a mother who is Puerto Rican of some race (probably zaguate); and he's called Half-Black because his mom isn't. I still don't understand the Half-Hispanic part. Ethnicity in the States is way to complicated.
- Did you know it is possible for Black people to be from Latin America? Strange, I know.
- Maybe his dad has a hispanic last name for some weird reason? Maybe his dad was adopted by a hispanic couple? Maybe his dad took his mom's name at their marriage? It's not that out there.
- His mom is Puerto Rican and his dad is black.
- I haven't read the comic, but I think it's been clarified that Miles' dad's original surname was Davis, and that Morales is his wife's surname. Presumably he adopted his wife's surname instead of vice-versa to further separate himself from his brother.
- There's no proof that Mile's father changed his surname though. It's just as likely that Miles was born out of wedlock and got his mother's surname.
- Considering that Miles is almost certainly Jefferson's biological son, and Jefferson is married to Rio, it's far more likely that they all share the same surname of Morales, i.e. Jefferson changed his surname to Rio's.
- To finally clarify this matter, Miles' name was originally intended to align with Puerto Rican naming customs, in which both men and women carry their two family names. As such, his full name would have been Miles Gonzalo Davis-Morales in accordance with this custom. However, the official answer was later revealed to be that Jefferson had chosen to give Miles his mother's last name because Jefferson's own father had been abusive, which prompted Jefferson to refuse to pass on his father's last name. Additionally, Jefferson did indeed later change his own surname to Morales to further distance himself from his family as well as to partially avoid sharing a name with the President of the Confederate States of America.
- What is the relationship between Peter's parents and Aunt May and Uncle Ben? May refers to Peter's mother as her sister several times, but everyone has the surname Parker. Were Ben and Richard brothers who married two sisters? Were Ben and Richard unrelated, but co-incidentally both had the same surname? Was Parker in fact May and Mary's surname, and both their husbands took it on marriage (similar to the Morales suggestion above)? It all seems a bit odd.
- If I recall, they were 2 brothers who married 2 sisters. Don't quote me on that; I can't seem to find a source.
- If that's not the case, than May and Peter's mom may have just been sisters-in-law who were very close.
- If Doc Ock's armed harness is spot-welded to his torso by scar tissue, how can he put on a shirt and underwear, much less a skin-tight suit, around it?
- He's a genius. He will surely find a way that we, mere commoners, can not even begin to understand.
- Shouldn't someone of Black Cat's profession wear something like, oh, I don't know, a bullet proof vest? Because that big hole in the front of her costume just screams professional thief, and a not something like, say, hooker?
- Black Cat doesn't seem like she's too concerned with what people think of her, much less whether or not she looks like a hooker, and the obvious vulnerability in her costume could simply be her way of letting people know that she's too badass to need a bullet-proof vest. The real question is, how do her breasts not spill out when she's fighting? Her suit would pretty much have to be fused to her chest for it to stay on. And in Ultimate Comics: Spider-man, she has even less support.
- A well known panel of the mainline Spidey comics reveals her ample assets act as "ballast", take that as you will. Presumably, her costume is designed to take advantage of that.
- Her bad luck powers actively prevent her from sustaining serious injury and she has shown to use it from stopping herself from getting shot so who is say that she doesn't use it to make sure she doesn't use them for preventing nip-slips.
- If we're discussing this, we might as well ask why Spider-Man doesn't wear a bullet-proof vest too. Most superheroes wear tights instead of something actually protective. It's how the genre works.
- In the first arc, in the thief scene before Parker shows up, why was all the police outside of the warehouse? It was just a lone guy with a gun, and he had no hostages.
- Because he's still a desperate man armed with a lethal weapon that he's willing to use. He might accept that he can't escape with that many police officers outside, and surrender. For that to happen, the police need to amass enough officers to make it clear that any resistance or escape attempt is a lost cause. And if he doesn't give up, the more police officers you have to stop him, the better the odds are that he'll be stopped before he can do any damage.
- This might be a stupid question, but given it was later established that Oz gave both Peter and Norman immortality, hence why they didn't stay dead... where are Harry and Doc Ock? Not only were Harry and Octavius were exposed to Oz, too, they were exposed to it in the same accident that turned Norman into the Green Goblin.
