Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 Review
I can pinpoint the origins for my love of comics to the moment I discovered my Spider-Man, Miles Morales. Although I’m a straight white guy with a penchant for joking in inappropriate settings, I never quite saw myself in Peter Parker. At about 18 years old, I stumbled on some sort of video on ‘Spider-Men You Don’t Know’ and since that point I chose my Spider-Man. It wouldn’t be until much later that I would read Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli (or its predecessor featuring 1610’s Peter Parker by Bendis and Mark Bagley), but something about Miles reluctantly becoming Spider-Man in a twisted instance of cosmic responsibility spoke to me.
Suffice to say that I’ve been thoroughly vindicated in my love for Miles—be it from the lasting power he’s proven to have, or the two Spider-Verse films making him into a household name.
Since Brian Michael Bendis—the other Brian with three names—departed Marvel for DC in 2018, Miles’ potential has been just out of reach. Saladin Ahmed’s run never seemed to be able to thread the needle of giving definition to Miles beyond that of Bendis’ tenure. From there, Cody Ziglar took the reins, but again, felt more concerned with building every character around Miles and hoping for him to gain personality traits through osmosis.
This is the reason I leapt at the opportunity to review the debut issue of Miles Morales: Spider-Man from Bryan Edward Hill, Nico Leon, Valentine De Landro, and Bryan Valenza. I hoped that we could witness the revitalization of a character I love and make me return to my shop every month excited for the new adventures of my favorite web-head. Unfortunately, I fear this issue left me apathetic.
Beginning this issue, we are quickly dropped into the Fast Times at Brooklyn Visions, with Miles working alongside Valentina (A new Ukrainian foreign exchange student and future love interest) on their project designing some sort of Atomic Energy contraption. The narrative interlaces some Spidey heroics, while Miles awkwardly chats with Valentina and trying to not come off as overly-interested.
Something that there is no way of avoiding is the Starling-shaped elephant in the room when speaking on the issue. Starling, or Tiana Toomes (aka the granddaughter of major Spider-Man villain, The Vulture), was introduced within the pages of Ahmed’s run and has been Miles’ longest relationship to date. This issue drops this relationship with not-so-subtle references to how they split off-panel. I’m of two-minds on this, which is—on one hand I feel like its a disservice to a fan-favorite relationship, especially considering the limited number of Black relationships within comics—but on the other, I feel like this will be saved for further development in future issues, and opens the door for Miles to experience the ups-and-downs of teenage heartbreak.
Anyway, as we move on from establishing a potential love interest, we see Miles meets up with what he describes as the Spider-Family—comprised of Ghost-Spider and Spider-Man 2099 (y’know from the movie!). Miles laments on his recent life being in constant tumult as a result of multiversal shenanigans or vampires (don’t ask), and he proclaims that he’s getting back to basics.
The issue subsequently establishes our new villain, Revenant—and his lucrative ties to Miles’ father, Jefferson Davis. Revenant is not much to write home about, as his design is simultaneously over-complicated and unrecognizable in a line-up of Flavor-Of-The-Week villains. Jefferson regales Miles of his history with this new baddie, and ending the issue on Miles determined to track him down by swinging into action.
Artistically, I felt that Nico Leon’s pencils were more compelling within the quiet moments of character-acting, but the action set-pieces felt that they (ironically) lacked momentum or weight. Valentine De Landro’s short flashback sequence is a welcome dichotomy, giving shades of Michael Gaydos’ linework to separate the past from the present. It’s Bryan Valenza’s coloring on both artist that really gave life to this issue, in a way that made this Burrough of New York some much-needed personality.
You can feel the planting of seeds in this issue—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing—but the lack of curiosity this issue brought out of me is troubling for my future relationship with Miles Morales: Spider-Man. I’m willing to tap in for the first arc, and hopefully I can rekindle my love for reading my Spider-Man once again.
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