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I think all you guys are making some great points.

I remember the Ultimate Spidey fiasco that resulted in so much hate and ignorance. I was sad to see Peter get killed but it resulted in such a bad-ass new character. And one of my favorite Spider-Man costumes ever. But had this been done in the 616 universe I would have freaked out. Not because It couldn't be just as cool as it is in the Ultimate universe but because it would feel so forced and unnecessary. As if the soul point of the change was based not on story but some gimmick.

Spider-Mans my boy and I'll always feel as I did as a child when it comes to the bug. But I love that we can have our cake and eat it too with the addition of Miles in Ultimate. Now young blacks and hispanics can have the very same relationship with a Spider-Man as I did growing up. And that is freaking awesome.

Lets not kid ourselves, image matters. And looking similar to someone is the first step to relating to them. It's sad but that old reptilian brain is still hiding in the back of our heads. It really shouldn't mater but it's psychological. Of corse nobody cares if its someone they don't really follow or give a shit about. Of corse if you're black, asian, or hispanic and you're into comics there's a good chance some of your fav's are already another race than yourself.

It would be interesting to see the reaction to a hard core 70's Nick Fury fan that is black, and how he would have reacted to the change with Samuel Jackson. Maybe he would think it was awesome. Maybe he would see it as a betrayal of the source material.

And thats my main gripe. Not being true to the source material. We all know how ape-shit some are about little things like Spider-Man being bitten on the neck instead of the hand.
Imaging what these people would do if it was a black kids neck.

In the end these are preexisting characters who have been around for decades. fans have followed them their whole lives and changes like these are a kind of half ass way to bring diversity to very Caucasian universe. It also points out just how incapable Marvel and DC are with creating new characters. That can also be seen with the constant regurgitation of the same ideas. Like Rulk, Red She-Hulk, Scar, Daken, X23, the female Iron-Man and others. Now I'm not knocking these characters but it's kinda messed up.

I would like it if some of the preexisting minority characters could get a bit more love and it would be nice to see some fresh new ones added to the comic roaster.

I would like to see more diversity and I think both marvel and DC are trying, but I think that all races deserve their own Super-Man equivalent. That is an original headlining character that the fans can grow with and not some copycat.

But just changing someone's race seems disingenuous to me. It's not the best way in my opinion to go about bringing diversity to comics. But it has worked well in some cases, Miles and Fury, and I can see room for more. But what if the British wanted a British Spider-Man. where do you draw the line? Pun...

I think it's a neat idea to explore but maybe mostly in other universes. That way everyone gets something.