Still never at the top: representation of Asian and Black characters in Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man trilogy

ABSTRACT This article examines the portrayal of Asian and Black characters in Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man trilogy. We analyze Ned Leeds, Brad Davis, Liz Allan, and M.J. “Michelle Jones-Watson,” as well as minor characters, through the lens of racial triangulation (Kim, 1999). We focus not only on traditional white/Asian/Black comparisons across racial groups, but also on sub-triangulations within groups, such as positioning Black women in comparison to other Black women or Black men, or Asian men to other Asian men or Asian women, along with comparisons to white representations. Despite the trilogy’s diverse cast, Ned, Brad, Liz, and M.J. remain separated from and in opposition to one another, with their existence and purpose constructed around their relationship and/or relevance to Peter Parker (Spider-Man), the white main character. The trilogy furthermore employs long-standing stereotypes about people of Asian and Black descent to help maintain whiteness at the top of all triangulations. We argue for a greater need to push beyond surface representations of “diversity” to consider how media actually represent different groups.