The next generation of consoles is upon us, and one of the games heralding its arrival is Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the sort-of sequel to the hit PS4 Spider-Man game. And I have just the comic to celebrate this release. BACKGROUND:
Most of what I know about Miles Morales comes mostly from the original Ultimate Spider-Man runs, so I'm not really familiar with any solo stories of his from after that era. Apart from crossover titles like Spider-Verse, or ensemble titles like Champions, I haven't read a lot of post-Secret Wars Miles Morales stuff, so this is uncharted territory for me. THE WRITING: The six issues that this collection contains covers three stories. Issues 1-3 has Miles investigate a new group of superpowered criminals, and the true nature of said criminals is shocking, to say the least. Miles finds himself in an unlikely alliance with none other than the Rhino, who has a sort of personal connection to the case. And if that's not exciting enough, Captain America also gets involved. I liked this story a lot; the "unlikely allies" angle was entertaining, and the whole story did a lot to humanize Rhino (who's usually just portrayed as a dumb brute). Issue #4 is its standalone thing, and sees Miles attempt to skip a day of school to hang out with his friends. And because he's Spider-Man, trouble's not far behind, and he spends a lot of the day trying to juggle hanging out and saving the day. There's also a B-plot involving the vice principal of Brooklyn Visions, who is paranoid about Miles and is trying to catch him in the act, and it's pretty funny. Overall, this is more of a fun side story where you get to see Miles be (mostly) a regular teenager, as opposed to the typical superhero action which involves a proper conflict. The last two issues have Miles take on Tombstone's gang, but in the process, he meets a mysterious new super-person named Starling. Starling appears to have her own quarrel with Tombstone, but whether she's friend or foe remains to be seen. I'd say that this is a pretty standard Spider-Man story, but the added wrinkle of Starling's introduction is enough to make things interesting. Plus, the cliffhanger at the end sets up a new arc for the next volume. In between his escapades as Spider-Man, the comic spends a good amount of time showing Miles being a regular teenager (or, at least, his attempts of being one). You see him have a laugh with friends, have relationship troubles, deal with bullies, and more. You also see the toll being Spider-Man takes on him, as he finds himself consistently late for class due to sleep deprivation, as well as struggle to be completely honest with some of his friends. That's pretty familiar territory as far as Spider-Man goes, but seeing that double life struggle somehow never gets old for me. A fun thing this comic does is frame Miles's internal dialogue as entries from his journal (which he has to do for his creative writing class). I thought that was a neat approach. THE ART: There's not much I can say about the art other than it looks quite good. The style is in line with a lot of modern comic art, there's a lot of color variety (but it doesn't lean too hard on bright or muted), and there's a solid amount of detail achieved with varying line thicknesses and superb shading. The detail is rather evident when looking at characters like Miles himself; his figure is well-defined despite his suit being mostly black. VERDICT: Although this particular volume doesn't have any big story arcs, Miles Morales Vol. 1 is still a good read if you want some Spider-Man action. It has all the classic Spider-Man story elements; Miles kicking ass, Miles being a normal student, and Miles trying very hard to juggle both. Each little story also has its own thing that makes it interesting, like the stuff with Rhino or the debut of Starling. This is an excellent jumping-in point for new readers or fans of Into the Spider-Verse, as it's a completely fresh run that doesn't really reference anything else. This volume is available on Comixology: https://www.comixology.com/Miles-Morales-Vol-1-Straight-Out-Of-Brooklyn/digital-comic/772944?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9pdGVtU2xpZGVy - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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