Needs Help: Affirmative Action Legacy

The current image for Affirmative-Action Legacy shows an example of the trope (Miles Morales as Spider-Man), but if someone isn't familiar with the Ultimate Spider-Man franchise, it doesn't do anything to show the Legacy Character element of the trope. I think we can make this image work if we put a picture of Peter Parker as Spidey (unmasked to demonstrate the difference in ethnicity) to the left of or above the picture of Miles, with a caption indicating that Peter is the original version of the character and that Miles is the new version.

Threads should start with a valid suggestion (an image, not an idea; or to pull) IMO. This is a waste.

edited 6th Jul '12 4:48:59 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Okay, I'll whip it up in Photoshop and then post it here once I'm done. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

Here's what I've got. I know it's not the greatest thing in the world, but it's a start.

edited 6th Jul '12 5:01:11 PM by cfive

People know that Spiderman is white.

True, but relying on the fact that most people are already familiar with something could potentially push things into Just A Face And A Caption territory. Also, someone might not know that Miles Morales is supposed to be the official successor, as opposed to someone who's similar to, or trying to imitate Spider-Manm like the Scarlet Spider.

edited 6th Jul '12 5:19:34 PM by cfive

Also, here's a vertical version of the suggestion. I think it may be a bit too tall and it would probably go too far into the exapmles, but it's slightly easier on the eyes.

edited 6th Jul '12 5:21:53 PM by cfive

Not better than current.

Also, 350 pixels tall is a good max for "portrait" images.

You've got a point. I've put together this one with a bit of each character's torso and their face. Is it any better?

Both versions are alright, but the vertical one definitely needs to come down to, say, 275 px wide.

EDIT: Ninja'd, looks good too.

edited 6th Jul '12 5:45:37 PM by Willbyr

Here it is at 275 width. I think it might still be a bit tall. I'm leaning toward the torso/face pic.

The current picture isn't confusing anyone.

While I can of course figure out immediately that "it's a black Spider-Man", I initially had no idea whether it was fanart or from a canonical depiction of some sort. The pothole is useful for clearing that up, and in any case that type of "confusion" isn't really a problem, because whether it's an official or unofficial story, it would still be an example.

Current image is just as good as the side-by-side ones.

Here's another take on the comparison pic:

So, the point of this is to help our readers who: 1) Don't know who Spiderman is, 2) Don't know what "legacy" means, 3) Refuse to read the description.

I don't know if we should be gearing the site to those people.

edited 3rd Aug '12 7:05:45 PM by abk0100

It would make more sense to help those who've never heard that there was a canonical black Spiderman. The modification doesn't actually address that at all, and it's only a marginal issue in the first place. After all, in theory a semi-canonical depiction (from an Elseworld or something) would work too, right?

I just wonder why you'd assume it wasn't a canon character. Well, maybe as a part of assuming you already know everything...

What information does the arrow convey, exactly? Did the boy on the left transform into the boy on the right? :D

Presumably the same reason one might assume anything that didn't happen in the movies isn't canon. Not everyone properly appreciates the print comic medium these days, after all. (note: as I did not make such an assumption, I'm going to conclude that you're using 'you' as the indefinite pronoun).

Do you mean properly appreciates as in believes that canon is what the comics portray, or as in knows that the films builds on the comics at all?

And yes, that you wasn't aimed at any specific person. The point was that I'd wonder why someone would come to the conclusion that it's just fanart before wondering if there were a black Spider-Man. But then again, if people assume such a thing, I don't think any picture would convince them otherwise.

Would it help to just write, "Spider-Man's successor," or something like that in the caption?

I see it as a spectrum that encompasses both of those, along with rarer and rather more extreme cases such as (for instance) those under the impression that the comics ended when the first film (or maybe just the first film they've heard of) was released, and those who have no idea that superheroes were ever in comic books in the first place.

More importantly however, those whose reaction upon seeing the image was (like mine) "I wonder if that's canon or fanart?" could use a caption too, just to quickly clear things up.

I like the image in #11.

I don't think there's any particular need for a caption (unless someone has an idea for a particularly witty one); an image link to Ultimate Spider-Man should suffice (though, parenthetically, that's kind of a weird work page that should probably be restructured a bit to highlight Miles Morales.)

Current image, which would look better if it were a little smaller (this one is shrunk to 350 pixels tall), is black Spider-Man, no comparison frame:

I like it way better than the same thing with an added white Spider-Man frame, which adds an inch and loses a mile.

The "does it look canonical?" question seems silly. Yes, it is. I think it's fine by itself, but a good caption could fill in any holes without looking bad and assuming readers are idiots.

edited 23rd Aug '12 12:47:11 PM by rodneyAnonymous

I would think Spidey is ubiquitous enough that the question of his race means as much a question of Batman's race, so a black kid in a Spidey suit that doesn't look like a bad cosplay◊ works well enough. Are we told hold T. R. Oper's hand and walk him through the reason Miles is an example or can we not just assume he is smart enough to put two and two together?

Two panels looks ugly, Spider Man is very widely known, and even the image and trope name will give you enough info to know that he isn't normally black.