Before I talk about Miles himself, I have to discuss the Ultimate Marvel Universe a bit. In the late 90s, the comic book industry was doing badly. The speculator bubble had burst, and Marvel Comics had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was also felt that potential new readers were feeling intimidated by the long history and continuity of the Marvel Universe.
It was Bill Jemas who came up with the original idea for the imprint. What made it unique was that unlike other comic book reboots, there was no in-story explanation for this new universe. Also, comics set in the mainstream Marvel Universe would naturally be published, satisfying old and new fans.
The imprint's goal was to provide an updated and then-modernized take on the Marvel Universe. The first title in this imprint would be Ultimate Spider-Man, created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. Their critically-acclaimed run would last 111 issues, making their collaboration the longest in American comic book history, even beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's run on Fantastic Four (102 issues). The universe would be expanded further with Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and The Ultimates (The Ultimate Universe's version of the Avengers).
Morales first appeared in Ultimate Fallout #4 (August 2011), which explored the effects of the death of the Ultimate Universe's Peter Parker. Co-created by Brian Michael Bendis and Italian artist Sara Pichelli, Bendis drew inspiration from actor/rapper Donald Glover's appearance in Spider-Man pajamas in an episode of the TV series Community. Morales would become the lead character of the Ultimate Universe's Spider-Man book. Fun fact, Morales is also Puerto Rican on his mother's side, making him the second Latino Spider-Man (The first was Miguel O'Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, who was half-Mexican).
The Ultimate Universe would reach its end with 2015's Secret Wars event. As a result, Miles was brought over to the mainstream Marvel Universe. Once there, he's spent time as one of the Avengers, and is more recently associated with the Champions. Miles would become popular enough to appear in other media outside of the comics. He's appeared in the 2012 animated series Ultimate Spider-Man (appropriately, he was voiced by Donald Glover), and the 2017 animated series Spider-Man. The Marvel Cinematic Universe alluded to Miles in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which featured a cameo by his uncle Aaron Davis. Davis was played by Donald Glover. Heh.
Most notably, Miles was the central character of the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, voiced by Shameik Moore. The film would be a critical and box-office smash, and even win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
The comic we're going to look at is the first issue of his fourth on-going series. Yup. His first two were set in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, and the latter two in the mainstream Marvel Universe. Let's take a look at Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1!
The cover is pretty cool. It's a Brian Stelfreeze piece. It's a basic cover, just Miles in his Spider-Man costume standing in front of some buildings in New York City. The cover shows basically that this is who you're going to meet in this book. I also like that Miles's costume is practically bordered by the buildings' lights. Puts him right front and center.
"Untitled"
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Penciler: Javier Garron
Inker: Javier Garron
Colorist: David Guriel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editors: Nick Lowe, Kathleen Wisneski
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
The story begins with our hero in class.
You see, the narration in this comic is from Miles's point of view, in the form of a journal he's writing as part of a class assignment. His journal is a place where he can write down his private thoughts. The only way to fail the class is the journal gets read by someone else. I can presume this means the journals are read without the consent of the writers.
Miles thinks the idea of writing a journal is kind of silly, but his friend Judge is more open to it. In fact, he's been doing so already. You see, Judge started doing so as part of his poetry class last summer. He thought it was silly at first like Miles did. However, it ended up sticking. It allowed him to vent and get some things out of his head. This convinces Miles that he can use a journal to write about being Spider-Man.
It allows us to get a recap of how Miles got his spider-powers, and about being Spidey. In the journal, he admits that like Peter Parker before him, being Spider-Man can be rather complicated. He has trouble getting enough sleep before his classes, for example. Back in reality, Miles and Judge meet a fellow student named Barbara Rodriguez.
Judge lets Miles hang with her a bit, teasing them a bit about the slight romance they seem to have. The two exchange a bit of banter, and Miles tells her he'll text her on Saturday. The day comes. In the morning, Rio Morales (Miles's mother) reads about him saving some kids from a fire, and expresses pride in him. It's an interesting contrast with Peter. You see, Miles's parents know he's swinging around as Spidey. Back in Peter Parker's teen years as Spider-Man, his Aunt May was unaware that he was the original Spider-Man. In fact, she was terrified of Spider-Man.
Rio laments that the whole world seems to be going crazy, while showing a newspaper with a headline about immigrant children being detained. She works at a hospital, and tells him that people are scared to bring their kids there because they fear they'll be locked up. It does seem like evil is winning everywhere...
That afternoon, Miles meets up with Barbara. She has a little friend with her: her cousin Eduardo.
He's from California. Miles offers to get Eduardo some ice cream. Barbara explains to him that his father was deported last month. His mother has been trying to get citizenship for herself and him. Eduardo had been living in the United States since he was 2 years old. She asks how Miles is doing...and what exactly is going on between them. Miles...can't give her an answer. At least a good one.
In his journal, Miles writes that in honesty, he's very confused. He's confused about everything. The comic shows him swinging by a soup kitchen, a little girl staring up at him sadly. Miles is very sure about his power, but the most important thing about being Spider-Man is responsibility. And he's never been more confused about that. You know, Miles...you could talk to Peter about this. I'm sure he's grappled with those issues himself, and maybe he could offer some helpful advice.
Miles hears a burglar alarm, and goes to check it out. A group of men are stealing some tech. Miles may be confused about a lot of things, but he can understand a robbery. Miles swings down to kick their butts, but something about this robbery catches him a bit off-guard.
The robbers are dead quiet, and look more like advanced androids than people. Miles also notices that one of them looks rather small, almost...child-sized. His Spider-Sense alerts him there's danger nearby, and the young Spider-Man almost gets ran down.
Yup, it's the Rhino! Amusingly, he mistook Miles for Peter. Dude, their Spider-Man costumes were completely different! How can you get them mixed up?! Anyway, the classic Spidey villain isn't in any mood to fight, so he tells Miles to go home and play some Sega. He's got business here, and he doesn't need Web-Heads right now. Miles assumes the Rhino is behind all this, and the two end up tussling.
Rhino is able to get the upper hand on Miles easily, due to the teenager's lack of experience and his being rather tired. He tries to web up Rhino, but the powerhouse is easily able to rip his way out. Miles then uses his "venom blast" at full strength, which actually manages to hurt Rhino a bit. Rhino admits defeat...but this robbery wasn't his job. He's here because he's looking for his niece. She's been kidnapped, and he was following the robbers. He thinks they had something to do with her disappearance.
Miles webs up the thieves' truck, and they surrender. He takes off the masks of one of them, and gets a nasty surprise.
It's Eduardo, the cousin of his main squeeze Barbara! The kid's eyes are blank, like he's being mind-controlled or something. The story ends with Miles and Rhino receiving a very nasty electrical shock and falling into unconsciousness.
This comic is really good. It does a great job giving us an idea of who Miles Morales is, and shows off his own little corner of the Marvel Universe. The fight scene with Rhino was really good, as it helped show off Miles's powers and potential. The narration being done in the form of a journal that Miles was writing was quite a clever way to get into our hero's head. I was very fond of the twist that Rhino wasn't the real bad guy of the comic. I would love to see Miles and Rhino develop a bit of an odd friendship, as their interactions are great.
I also really like Javier Garron's art on the comic. The characters are expressive, and there are nice little flashes of character.
All in all, this comic is a...well, spectacular jumping-on point if you're interested in reading about the adventures of Miles Morales. I knew almost nothing about Miles's own corner of the Spider-Man mythos before reading this comic, and I did not feel lost or confused by anything. If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend hunting down the 2019 trade paperback Miles Morales Vol. 1: Straight Out of Brooklyn.
Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! See you next time, where we check in on Wonder Woman as the Amazing Amazon undergoes her second labor...
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