Donald Glover for Spider-Man!

I recently had the opportunity to watch Mystery Team. To the uninformed, it's a relatively low-budget comedy film made by Derrick Comedy, a comedy group that is known for their sketches on Youtube. You might recognize the lead, Donald Glover, from his role as Troy in Community. The film stars Glover along with the other two core members of the comedy group playing an Encyclopedia Brown-style kid detective team that has grown up into an age that it's no longer adorable as they face an adult mystery.

And it's hilarious.

Watching the movie cemented for me an idea that, until then, had only been in the back of my head: Donald Glover should get a shot at playing Spider-Man.

For those of you who think this comes out of left field, Glover currently has quite the internet following who are campaigning for him to be cast as Spidey. The actor himself has said that he wants an audition. And he should get one. Based on his performance in Mystery Team, Community, and Derrick Comedy's online sketches, Glover has the charisma, the comedic sense, and the acting chops to do it.

Comedic sense is the important one for me here. I, personally, think that anyone who plays Spider-Man should be good at being funny, a talent which Glover has in spades. I'm a big Spidey fan, you see, and I noticed something rather conspicuous missing from the Sam Raimi films: quips. Spider-Man must, must, must, must! be cracking jokes and one liners as he's punching out a bad guy. It's an integral part of what makes Spider-Man so much fun to read and watch. It also provides a key insight into Peter Parker's character, that is the change he undergoes when puts on the mask. As Peter Parker, he's timid, but as Spider-Man he's confident enough to make fun of Doc Ock's bowl cut as the villain is swinging around his deadly tentacles.

The Raimi films had that absent entirely, substituting it with MOAR DRAMA. This made Spidey out to be far more emo and depressing than he actually is. Spider-Man is about a young man who's always down on his luck and running into trouble, but maintains this optimism and basic energy about him.

Also, an actor who knows how to be funny might have made evil!Peter hilarious rather than painfully awkward in the third film. No guarantees, though.

The major issue that most seem to have with the casting of Donald Glover as Spider-Man is, of course, race. Can a black man play Peter Parker, who has always been portrayed as white?

I say yes.

There is nothing that makes Peter Parker inherently white. All Peter Parker need be in terms of background is a fairly poor, but bright, kid from Queens. This is not to say that every superhero can go through a "race-lift". I'd never suffer someone casting Thor as anything other than a big blonde Norseman and with a lot of minority characters like Luke Cage, their race is part and parcel of their character.

But if Jake Gyllenhal can play a Persian, then Donald Glover can play a kid from Queens.

I don't, however, want Donald Glover cast as Spider-Man based on breaking some sort of "race barrier". He should be cast based on his talents, as a comedian and as an actor. I don't really believe he'll be cast, as much as I'd hope he will. If all he gets is an audition, I'll be happy with that.