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| He's no Peter Parker, but he's as great a Spider-Man as anyone could ask for. |
Okay, since I’ve gotten Birds of
Prey out of the way, and we’re still in the month of February, now seems like a
good time to show case a few up and coming African America superheroes. And,
who better to start off this category than arguably the most popular Afro-Latino
character to come out of comics in the last decade, Miles Morales. The Ultimate
Universe’s original Spider-Man has gained massive popularity since his introduction
back in 2011 and has been one of several characters to make the jump from the
now defunct Ultimate Universe into the Main Marvel Universe, causing the same confusion
to some as DC’s several Flashes, Green Lanterns and Blue Beatles running
around. But I’ll get into that later, let’s get to it.
For those new to my posts or whom
are forgetful, I’ll point out that the Ultimate Universe is a separate comic
book continuity from the Main Marvel Universe. The events in it are similar to,
but distinct from the Marvel Universe that has been running since the 1960s or
so. The biggest being that all modern heroes began popping up around 2000,
certain origins and character dynamics have been tweaked and death is largely permanent.
For example, in the Main 616 universe, Peter Parker gained his Spider powers
and battled several villains in his early days that were all created in
unrelated lab accidents. In the Ultimate Universe, Spider-Man’s powers and most
of his early nemesis could all be tied back to Norman Osborn and Oscorp.
Something that obviously the main universe couldn’t do since they didn’t debut
until several years after Peter’s origin. You follow me? Good, let’s move on.
Miles Morales was born in the
Ultimate Universe to Jeff Davis and his wife Rio Morales. Jeff had something of
a checkered past before turning his life around and becoming a police officer,
so he insisted that their son be given his mother’s name instead of his own,
his way of giving Miles a “clean slate” in life from the get go, in case you
were wondering. Miles life was relatively normal for the first decade or so, he
was raised by his parents, went to school, and occasionally hung out with his Uncle
Aaron much to his father’s annoyance. The brothers Davis have a lot of tension
between them due to that checkered past mentioned above. It’s that last bit of
seeming normality that really changed Miles life.
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| Yeah, that's about my reaction to seeing a spider. Wish one would bite me and give me super powers. That'd be sweet! |
A few months prior, in universe,
industrialist, scientist and all-around asshole Norman Osborn was revealed to
be the criminal Green Goblin and arrested. After said arrest, costumed
supervillain/vigilante the Prowler broke into an abandoned Oscorp lab and stole
some of the labs research, which was focused on recreating Spider-Man’s superpowers.
During this raid, a spider that the lab had inject with the superpower inducing
drug OZ slipped into his bag. Oh, Aaron Davis is the Prowler. That’s important.
A few days later, Miles stopped by to hang out with his uncle and complain about
being put into a charter school. While there, the spider slipped out of Aaron’s
duffle, crawled onto Miles and bit the young man. Shortly there after Miles went
through a similar yet distinct mutation and power discovery that Peter Parker
did before him. He found that he could cling to walls and was unusually strong
and agile like Spider-Man, but could also camouflage himself and generate a
powerful bio-electric shock that can stun his opponents. He only revealed these
powers to his friend Ganke Lee, and they both decided that it was probably
better to leave the superhero stuff to guys like Spider-Man. Miles, unlike
Peter, just desired a simple life and had zero interest in being anything more
than an average kid. He was content with his life, and didn’t want to see it change.
Then a few months later… tragedy
struck.
Spider-Man faced off against the
Green Goblin, trying to protect his loved ones from the unhinged businessman
and super criminal. During the fight, Spider-Man was unmasked and ultimately
killed. Miles arrived just in time to see Peter’s dying breath as he was held
in the arms of a sobbing Mary Jane Watson. Realizing that he potentially could
have helped Peter, Miles is disgusted with himself for taking the “easy way out”
and ignoring the good he could have done with his powers. Peter’s friend Gwen Stacey
speaks with him a few times and gives him the “With Great Power Comes Great
Responsibility” line in Peter’s place. Inspired to take up the Spider-Man mantle,
Miles puts on a store-bought Spider-Man costume and goes on patrol.
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| I wonder what hurts more, his face or his pride at getting hit by a dude with a super mullet? |
Things go about as well as you can
imagine, which is to say, not well at all. His first encounter is with a D-list
Spider-Man villain named Kangaroo. Miles is able to defeat Kangaroo, but this
is mostly due to everyone being shocked at seeing someone run around in a
Spider-Man costume. Miles muses that using a facsimile of the recently dead
hero’s costume might have been in poor taste, but before he can really do anything
to change that he’s attacked and knocked unconscious by Spider-Woman. If that reaction
feels a little extreme for Spider-Woman aka Jessica Drew, who knows Spider-Man
and is fond of him but has no really strong connection to him, keep in mind in
this universe she’s a female clone of him. Same rules as Laura Kinney to Wolverine,
Peter is kind of her “dad,” kind of her twin brother. With that in mind, the
idea of her attacking someone dressed up as her recently departed parent/sibling
without much warning makes a ton of sense. Spider-Woman takes him into the
triskelion where he’s interrogated by Nick Fury. In classic Fury fashion, he
reveals to the young Spider-wannabe that he knows everything about him and that
he also has some concerns about someone trying to take Peter’s Mantle. Nick was
another of Peter’s mentors in this universe, and he took the boys death
particularly hard because he felt he pushed Peter too hard. Their interrogation
is interrupted by Elector waking up from a coma and starting to wreck the place
with his lightning blasts. The Ultimates, this universe’s Avengers, and Miles
are able to put him down once again. Seeing Miles bravery in his first real
supervillain battle makes Jessica change her mind on Miles and she give him her
blessing to take Peter’s mantel. Nick also gives him a new Black and Red costume,
to differentiate Miles from his predecessor while still paying homage to him.
After stopping a mugging in his new
costume, the news of an all new Spider-Man hits the papers and explodes across New
York. Ganke also shows Miles footage from the Spider-Man movie that had just
been released that included real footage from a recent battle with Doc Ock.
Ganke suggests that Miles try to watch such footage to get an understanding of
Peter’s fighting style and be a better superhero. He has to deal with the
classic issue of “heroes’ parental figure not approving of his costumed identiy,”
with his father calling the new Spider-Man a menace while his mother tries to
sway her husband to see the good any Spider-Man brings.
A short time after this, main
Universe Peter visits the Ultimate Universe on one of his own adventures. He and
Miles team up to defeat Mysterio, the instigator of this reality hopping adventure.
Over the course of their time together, Peter and Miles bond. In a pretty short
amount of time, Peter starts to really like this kid and decides to give Miles
his blessing to be this world’s Spider-Man. I suppose if you can’t get your
dimension’s blessing, getting one from a parallel world’s version is the next
best thing.
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| It's a good group. |
Miles later has a run in with
ex-soviet super Mutant, Omega Red, whom was smashing up the area. During the
fight with the mega Mutant, Miles discovers his Spider-Sense for the first
time, and uses it coupled with a Venom Strike to disable Omega. After the
battle, Miles and Ganke muse about ways for Miles to improve his skills so he
can be a better fighter, when Aaron shows up. Aaron reveals that he deduced his
nephew’s identity as Spider-Man after the latest batch of news on the new
Spider-Man. He coerces his nephew into helping him battle Mexican crime lord,
the Scorpion, on pains of revealing Miles new identity to the boy’s father. Miles
goes along with Aaron’s demands for a while, before it dawns on him that Aaron
will just keep using that threat of paternal reveal against him. Realizing that
his uncle was trying to turn Miles into an enforcer and set himself up as a new
criminal kingpin, Miles refuses to help his Uncle any further. Uncle and Nephew
battle, which leads Aaron’s weapons to malfunction, explode and kill him. Well,
I guess Uncle Aaron isn’t much of an Uncle Ben. Just saying.
His next few stories are about Miles
basically gaining the approval of the other Marvel heroes and acceptance from the
late Peter’s loved ones. Aunt May, Gwen Stacy and MJ do this by giving him
Peter’s webshooters, and he earns Captain America’s respect and training. He
also does battle with the Venom Symbiote’s latest host, with his mother getting
killed in the crossfire. After this, Miles gives up the Spider-Man mantle for a
year to mourn, before Ganke and Jessica Drew convince him to take up the mantle
once again. He also reveals his identity to his father, and how his actions unfortunately
contributed to the deaths of Jeff’s brother, and the love of his life. He takes
it poorly, disowning Miles and running off to be on his own for a while, but he
and Miles are able to mend things after Jeff processed things a bit.
Peter Parker then returns. Not Main
Universe Peter, Ultimate Universe Peter. Turns out, The OZ formula made him
largely immortal, but it took a while for him to recover from his wounds. He
and Miles briefly team up to defeat an also very much alive Gobby, he’d been “killed”
some time after Miles took up the Spider-Man mantle, before giving Miles his
blessing. He elected to go into retirement, to be with MJ and Aunt May. And all
I have to say is, Good for you, Ultimate Peter. What? The dude sacrifices his
own happiness in literally every other incarnation time and again, one of these
Peter Parkers deserves to be happy. All I’m saying.
More recently, the Ultimate
Universe and Main Marvel Universe were destroyed and turned into a new
Battleworld. Miles helped the heroes of the Main 616 universe battle Doctor Doom
whom had turned himself into a God Emperor of the new world and restored universe
616. Miles is dropped off in the new reality along with his father and other survivors
of their Ultimate Universe. As a sort of “Thank You” for his efforts during the
Battleworld fiasco, the reformed villain Molecule Man uses his immense power to
also restore Rio Morales to life and let the Morales-Davis family reunite. Most
recently, Miles has become a very active hero in his new reality, working along
side classic Spider-Man, the Avengers, and his new team, the Champions. While
it’s not a smooth journey by any means, things are looking up for Miles.
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| I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Spider-Man has one of the coolest method of transportation. |
Miles Morales was born a natural
human but was bitten by a genetically engineered spider. Said spider, infused
with Peter Parker’s blood and the powerful OZ formula gave Miles his own
spider-themed powers. He can adhere to walls and ceilings, has super strength
and agility, and possess the amazing Spider-Sense. For some reason, his Spider-sense
isn’t as powerful as Peter’s, and seems to give him much less time to react to
danger. But, he also possesses the ability to camouflage himself to match his surroundings
and his venom strike, an bioelectric blast of energy that stuns individuals as
big as Hank Pym’s Giant Man form. He also uses a set of web shooters and developed
the same intuition Peter has to mixing web cartages, despite not being as accomplished
a chemist. He might also be immortal, as the OZ formula has been shown to give
individuals the ability to recover from fatal wounds, albeit slowly. But Miles
hasn’t been put into such a state to test it out for sure. Fingers crossed that
he won’t have to anytime soon.
Miles Morales’ version of
Spider-Man has appeared a few times outside of the comics. Like Kamala Khan and
several other popular characters I’ve mentioned, he violates the usual decade
rule of comic book superheroes, as he appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man only
about three years after his debut. Given that, like those others, Miles’
popularity more or less EXPLODED with his debut, I can understand rushing him
out to the greater Marvel fanbase. Most incarnations try to work him in as a
natural part of Peter’s support cast these days, which might be slightly to Miles’
detriment, but it’s easier than setting up Spider-Man for several years before
having Peter pass the torch.
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| What's up, Danger? |
Might as well start with Ultimate
Spider-Man. Miles name was used as an Easter Egg in the first season episode
“I Am Spider-Man,” as the second to last choice to play Spider-Man in a musical
about said character. Yes, Peter is the last choice. He appears in full in “The
Spider-Verse” multiparter event, being one of several alternate versions of
Spider-Man that Peter Parker meets while traveling the multiverse chasing Green
Goblin. He appears in the second half of part 3, voiced by Donald Glover. Over
the course of their time together, Peter helps 13-year-old Miles overcome his
guilt of not saving Peter’s life during his battle with the Goblin, and the two
team up to defeat Miles’ version of the villain. He later reappears in the multiparter
climax to help Peter defeat his Goblin, along side Spider-Man 2099,
Spider-Girl, Spider-Ham, Spyder-Knight, and Spider-Man Noir. He returns the
next season in the episode “Miles From Home.” They swap his voice actor out for
series regular Ogie Banks, whom also portrayed Luke Cage in this show. He’s
brought in to help Peter stop Doc Ock and his Goblin, but is stranded in their
reality when the dimensional gate the Siege Perilous is destroyed. He joins Peter’s
new Web Warriors, comprised of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, Amadeus Cho’s Iron
Spider, Flash Thompson’s Agent Venom, Scarlet Spider (later dubbed Ben Reilly)
and much, much, much later Mary Jane’s Spider-Woman. He takes up the codename
Kid Arachnid to avoid confusion. Though I think Shadow Spider might have been
cooler, just saying. He’s a series regular from then on. He’s given the option
to return to his home dimension along with his mother in the “Return to the
Spider-Verse” multiparter, but he and his mother Rio elect to instead immigrate
to Peter’s reality, as Miles loves working with their team, his mother claims Miles
is the only close family she has and Miles’ Spider-Man duties have been taken
up by his universe’s Gwen Stacey. Bit of a copout, but I’m fine with keeping Miles
around.
He’s part of Peter’s main support
cast in the newer Marvel’s Spider-Man tv show, voice by Nadji Jeter. He’s
given his powers in “Ultimate Spider-Man” after different villainous groups
attempt to steal the Spider that gave Peter his powers. He takes up the alias
Spy-D, groan, and his kind of Peter’s protégé from then on.
His biggest appearance is in Into
the Spider-Verse. He’s voiced by Shameik Moore. In it, young Miles Morales
is bitten by a sort of trans-dimensional spider while tagging with his Uncle
Aaron. He develops Spider powers just in time to see Spider-Man get killed by
Kingpin during a cross-dimensional experiment. He then meets Peter B. Parker,
an older, jaded Spider-Man that seemed to have been sucked into his world when their
Spider-Man was forced through the time stream. Miles is given a crash course on
being Spider-Man from Peter B., forms a pretty close friendship with another reality
hopper Gwen Stacey aka Spider-Woman, and earns the respect of several other
stranded spider-people, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham and Penny Parker and her Sp//dr
robot. Aaron’s relationship with Miles is slightly retooled so that he
actually very much loves his nephew and is instead killed when he can’t bring
himself to hurt Miles upon discovering his identity.
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| Young men, Don't actually try this. You will get slapped in the face and/or kneed in the crotch. |
He’s appeared in several Spider-Man
games, though usually just as an alternate skin for Peter or a non-essential
character in the larger ensemble games like Lego Marvel Superheroes 2. He
is a major character in the PS4 Spider-Man game created by Insomniac Games.
He’s voiced again by Nadju Jeter. Throughout the game’s run, he’s powerless but
forms a bond with Peter and is playable in a few stealth missions like Peter’s
love interest Mary Jane. His father is killed during an attempt on Mayor Norman
Osborn’s life, and he’s also bitten by a spider during the game’s run. In a post-credit’s
scene, he reveals his powers to Peter who reveals his powers back, and he
agrees to train Miles. In the next game. Eye roll.
While he hasn’t had a live action debut,
Donald Glover did play Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming and mention
that he has a nephew a lot like Spider-Man. There have been rumors that Miles
will appear in a later Spider-Man story, either as part of Spider-Man’s support
cast or as the inevitable replacement for Tom Holland once he either retires
from the role or gets Robert Downey Jr. big and Disney doesn’t want to pay him
as much anymore. What?
I like Miles Morales a lot. He’s
got shades of the classic Spider-Man in him, with enough unique character beats
to make him his own person. Like Peter, he’s often forced to choose between the
things he wants as himself and the things he needs to do as Spider-Man, and
like Peter before him, he almost always chooses to sacrifice his own happiness
for the good of others. He has the usual Spider powers with a few tricks that are
uniquely his. The venom strike in particular looks like it’s been useful a lot.
And while he hasn’t shined as much since joining the Main universe, I give
Marvel tons of props for him being the One and Only Spider-Man in the Ultimate
Universe for several years. While I’m a nearly thirty-year-old white guy, even
I can understand how HUGE a decision that was, and how it probably helped a lot
of non-white kids get into Marvel comics. The black kid isn’t the side kick, he’s
not the comic relief or a spin off, no, Miles Morales was Spider-Man. And a
damn good one from everything I read about him. The fact that the writing staff
made sure that Miles earned the respect of those that loved and worked with
Peter felt like a very nice nod. Miles didn’t just get to slide into the role
of Spider-Man, he worked for it, trained for it, and bled for it before guys
like Captain America and alternate versions of Peter gave Miles the nod. I read
one father describing seeing his son’s face light up when the kid discovered Miles
Morales merchandise for the first time and the kid exclaimed “I can be
Spider-Man!” Come on, that’s a huge moment for a kid. Or at least I think so. So
yeah, Miles Morales, he might go by other names now, but he’s undoubtedly a
Spider-Man for the ages. Have a good night, everybody.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/34372796
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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