Tired of origin stories? How about one that’s for a whole new character and something just a little different? That I can get behind.
What They Say:
Introducing Miles Morales–the new Ultimate Spider-Man!
The Review:
With the death of Peter Parker and a fair bit of ridiculous controversy, our new Spider-man is finally here! I write that sentence with enthusiasm because this really does feel like a new beginning. The issue starts off with a flashback where Norman Osborn explains that he created Spider-man and is instructing one of his scientists to recreate the formula that did it. We are then introduced to Mile Morales, a 13 year old boy whose parents are taking him to a lottery in an attempt to get him accepted to a private charter school. This initial scene gives us everything we need to know about Miles. We see the personalities and behaviors of his parents, and the fact that he is just a young boy. Miles is written extremely well in that every panel, facial expression, and word reveals something about who he is.
After the lottery, Miles visits his criminal uncle, Aaron. It is revealed at this time that Uncle Aaron is the burglar shown to have broken into Osborn Labs and accidentally stowed away one of Osborn’s genetically enhanced spiders. This is a little different spin on Spider-man’s origins. Miles is not a super geeky over-achiever who gets bitten on a field trip to a laboratory; no, he is a normal kid who has had the world beat him down to where he is resigned to just simply live and make it through. And he is bitten by the spider at his uncle’s apartment of course. The book ends shortly after he is bitten and his father shows up and has some choice words for his ‘less than respectable’ brother. During the argument Miles runs outside of the apartment building to just ‘get away’. Miles’ father goes looking for him and instead of avoiding his father, Miles calls out to him to let him know where he is. The only problem is that almost isn’t there. The final page shows us a new ability that hasn’t been seen in other Spider-man renditions, camouflage! Why is this important? Because it’s exciting! Here we have a new Spider-man being born, a completely different type of Spider-man, and he is looking to have all new powers too!? What isn’t exciting about that!
In Summary:
What a great introduction to the new Spider-man! In this single issue we are introduced to a complex, interesting character and teased with the promise of new abilities and powers. These two factors alone could mean a complete overhaul of everything we thought we knew about Spider-man, and the fact that they are done extremely well with no pacing issues and amazing art to boot means that this is a must buy series. Also, notice how I hadn’t mentioned anything about his ‘controversial’ ethnicity? Yeah, that’s because it doesn’t matter. Not only does it not matter on an intellectual, ethical, and moral level but Bendis and Co. have introduced this character perfectly. This comic is so good that the issue of Miles’ ethnicity should never be brought up again, just how great a character he is.
Grade: A
