"Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Hero in Training"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Hero in Training” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Following the revelation that businessman Norman Osborn was the monstrosity dubbed “the Green Goblin” created by one of his own experiments, Osborn Industries was shut down. One of their projects was the Oz formula that had been injected into a spider that was responsible for turning teenager Peter Parker into the superhero Spider-Man. There was also another spider that had been injected with the Oz formula that was not secured before the closure of the Long Island laboratory facility of Osborn Industries. When the serial burglar called the Prowler broke into the shuttered Long Island facility of Osborn Industries to steal an item and money, the Oz spider also snuck into his bag. Young Miles Morales won a lottery admission into the Brooklyn Visions Academy. In his excitement, he went to tell his uncle Aaron Davis the good news. Aaron and Miles’ father Jefferson were estranged due to a past criminal history that caused a riff in the family where Jeff had gone straight but Aaron did not truly give up his criminal ways, a fact Jeff could not forgive. While at Aaron’s apartment, Mile’s was bitten by the stolen Oz spider. Aaron had to call Jeff after Miles passed out in reaction, and while the two argued over Jeff’s suspicion Aaron had given Miles something, Miles ran away. While running, he turned invisible, showed feats of amazing acrobatics, and when held up by a gang of teenage thugs, he let off an electric discharge that stunned his accoster. Freaked out, he went to his best friend Ganke Lee to show him his new powers and share his fear that he might be a mutant. Jeff found Miles and told him off his criminal history, not wanting Miles to walk down the same path. Ganke equated the emergence of Miles’ powers with the spider bite and compared it to that of Spider-Man. Miles then discovered that he could also walk on walls. Ganke encouraged Miles to test out his new powers, but Miles was resistant to this, until while on a walk the two passed a fire. Miles rescued two people from the fire, but left the scene before he could be identified, but Miles insisted to Ganke that he didn’t want to be like Spider-Man. Miles and Ganke started at Brooklyn Visions Academy in a triple dorm room with their new roommate Judge. One night, news of a superhero fight called all the students out of bed, and the news broke that Spider-Man had been shot. Miles snuck out of school to see the scene for himself and watched teenager Peter Parker die. Watching the death of Spider-Man was the push that made Miles decide he himself wanted to be a superhero. Ganke gave Miles a Spider-Man Halloween costume and while out on patrol, Miles found the criminal called the Kangaroo attacking a bar. Miles defeated the criminal, but was told by witnesses the Spider-Man costume was in bad taste. Upon returning to his dorm, Miles and Ganke caused trouble with the dorm guard when Judge was locked out of their room, where doors were not supposed to be locked, and students were only allowed to leave school on weekends. Miles continued to go on patrol and was caught by Spider-Woman and brought to the Triskelion, headquarters of the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and their team the Ultimates, where he was interrogated by director Nick Fury. Maxwell Dillon, the supervillain Electro, who was being detained following the death of Peter Parker, escaped and went on a rampage. The Ultimates went to try to recapture him and failed, but Miles jumped in and managed to take the villain down. Miles was allowed to leave the Triskelion, and the next day was presented by Spider-Woman with his very own Spider-Man costume.

            Aaron went to Mexico City to deliver the stolen item to the crime boss Maximus Gargan also known as the Scorpion, but the deal changed, and the two fought. Aaron tried to use tech given to him by the villainous mechanic known as the Tinkerer, but the tech didn’t do what Aaron thought it would do, and Aaron was arrested. Miles continued his new career as Spider-Man, and news of a new Spider-Man on the streets broke out. Miles decided to hide his identity as Spider-Man from his parents after hearing his father’s distaste for Spider-Man at a family dinner. Aaron returned to New York and took his revenge on the Tinkerer. He also did the math and deduced that his nephew was the new Spider-Man. News of the new Spider-Man reached as far as Paris, France, where Peter Parker’s Aunt May and her ward Gwen Stacy had retreated to following Peter’s death. Aaron confronted Miles at Brooklyn Visions Academy and told Miles he knew he was Spider-Man and that he could help train him. The Scorpion arrived in New York with the ambition to become the new Kingpin of crime in the city. Miles defeated the supervillain called the Ringer and had a run in with the police. Captain Frank Quaid, out of respect for Peter Parker, allowed Miles to leave the crime scene. Miles barely covered his escapades from the dorm guard, and Judge got annoyed. Aaron had a fight with the Scorpion and decided he couldn’t win this fight on his own and contacted Miles. Aaron tested Miles’ abilities in a fight and then informed Miles that Miles and Aaron were going to be working together. Miles attempted to refuse, but Aaron blackmailed Miles with the threat of going with the truth to Jeff. The two fought the Scorpion and were successful in stopping him, but Miles’ alliance with the police did not hold up and he barely managed to escape arrest. Aaron also managed to escape the scene, but Aaron texted Miles that he wasn’t done with him just yet. Meanwhile, Aunt May and Gwen Stacy returned to the United States, where May used her connections to speak with Tony Stark, the Ultimates member known as Iron Man, wishing to get in contact with the new Spider-Man. Miles confronted Aaron about ending their deal, and the two fought for the last time.

            In another universe, Peter Parker is still alive, is an adult, and is Spider-Man. One night, while on patrol, he saw a strange light and went to investigate. It led him to a warehouse where he confronted the supervillain Quentin Beck/Mysterio. During their fight, Peter was sucked into the light. When he emerged, New York was not exactly correct. He swung around and ran into Miles. The two fought, and Miles won. Not sure what to do with there now being a Peter Parker swinging around as an adult, Miles brought Peter to Nick Fury. Peter was surprised to learn that everyone knew his identity, and Fury wanted to investigate the dimensional rift. Mysterio used an avatar to attack Peter and Miles. After winning the fight, Peter swung away and went to see this universe’s Aunt May and Gwen Stacy. At first, the two were not happy to see him, thinking him an imposter sent to insult them, but after a while, the group began to talk, giving Aunt May and Gwen their much-needed closure. Nick Fury called in Peter and Miles to join him and the Ultimates to find Mysterio, defeat him, return Peter to his universe, and destroy the dimensional rift.

            Okay, now that we have the synopsis out of the way, let’s get to my own personal opinion on this book. First off, I have to say that I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I thought it was extremely well written. The character of Miles Morales back in 2011 was a character I was a little hesitant about at first, I will admit. After all, we just had Peter Parker as Spider-Man since 1963 (with the exception of his clone Ben Reilly in the 1990s for a while). So having someone completely new being Spider-Man was something that was uncharted territory. And flat-out killing Peter Parker to set this up was a huge shock. And while Miles is not my favorite Spider-Man, after a few issues, I grew to be able to accept him. So here I am, fourteen years later, revisiting his origin story and writing this review. Miles has become extremely popular over the course of this time, and I’ve come to enjoy reading his stories, so going back to the beginning was an experience that I was happy to partake in. So, after reading this book, I will say that his origin story was well executed. I’ve always enjoyed the work of Brian Michael Bendis, his run on the original “Ultimate Spider-Man” was one of my favorite comic series, and I’ve always thought he was a brilliant writer, on par with the late, great Stan Lee. He did so much work for Marvel, created so much, and I’ve just always loved reading his comics. I’ve reviewed several of his works on this blog before, I think what hurts his reviews weren’t his stories per se, more so the artwork of his partners was what deducted points from my scores. With this graphic novel, I thought his work was brilliant, and I loved the artwork of Sara Pichelli and David Marquez, but Chris Samnee did fail to please me visually. Now, let’s talk more about what I enjoyed about Bendis’ work on this book. I liked that while he created a new Spider-Man, he didn’t insult Peter Parker in the process. Yes, it was very sad that he killed Peter Parker, but he created a new hero with a whole new story. And Miles even has some powers which Peter didn’t have and is actually much cooler. And I enjoyed his decision not to give Miles webbing intrinsically or give him instinctual knowledge of how to create webbing on his own. I liked how Miles didn’t immediately want to be a superhero and was hesitant to use his powers and had to be inspired to actually use them. I like the character of Ganke, Miles’ best friend, and I liked how the two had to constantly cover Miles’ escapades from the dorm guard, I found those moments to actually be quite amusing. I liked Bendis’ subtle blend of comedy in with the action, and how Miles was able to wisecrack on par with Peter. And I liked the crossover between 616 Peter Parker and 1610 Miles Morales, I thought that their meeting was quite entertaining, especially Peter’s visit with Aunt May and Gwen Stacy, it was quite an emotional segment. Almost all-in-all, I found reading this book to be an excellent experience, with the exception of the two issues illustrated by Samnee, I’m a nice guy, I’m not going to elaborate on what I actually thought of his artwork because I don’t want to be insulting to Samnee, who I’m sure tried their hardest when doing their work, but I just didn’t find it to be artwork that I could find enjoyable. Otherwise, I thought this book was stellar, and I totally had a great time reading it.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know I’ve said this over thirty times at this point, and I’m frankly getting tired of doing it, but I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before, so I am obligated to explain what I mean when I use that word. When I say “accessibility,” what I mean is how easy it is to pick up this book and read it, even if you know absolutely nothing about Marvel Comics. I will say that this book is extremely accessible. I’d say this is perfect entry level Marvel work. This is a brand-new character with a brand-new story. It honestly doesn’t call on knowledge from other comics to understand what is going on in this book. I’d say you can never have heard of Spider-Man before (which seems totally impossible, but hey, it could actually be possible) and still be able to pick up this book, read it, and know what’s going on in it. There are also no events going on from other series at the time, so there are no missing pieces in the story. And while there are two series in this book, they compliment each other, so it doesn’t seem out of place having that being in this book. I’d say if you’ve never read Marvel before and are looking for a place to start reading, this book is actually perfect for you.

            Now we’re getting to the part of my review that is the most important part, the one you’ve mostly come here for: my numeric score. My scoring system is extremely basic and easy to follow. I score on a scale of exactly one though ten. One is the lowest score I can give and means that the book is total garbage and should be avoided at all costs. Ten means that this book is perfection (and I have very rarely given tens because it is very hard to be perfection). Now, to be a ten, the story has to be incredible, and the art has to be consistently pleasing. To be a one, the story has to be horrible, and the artwork has to be consistently awful. Now, you can probably guess that this book hits neither extremity, and if that is your guess, you would be absolutely correct. Now, the story was excellent, not going to lie, but it wasn’t quite at the exact level of perfection. And the art was not consistently pleasing at all points. So, for these reasons, points have to be deducted. So, when taking everything into account when giving this book a score, combining the story and the art, throwing it all into a blender and turning it on, mixing it up, then pouring out a score, I’m looking into the cup and the score I see is… a seven! I honestly wish I could give it a higher score than this, but for some reason I just can’t quite put my finger on, I can’t in good faith give this book an eight, even though I would love to, so I just have to settle on giving it a seven and stick with it. Still, it’s not a horrible score, all things considered. I have surely given worse. But I found reading this book to be an enjoyable experience, all things said.

            Next on the agenda is if I give this book my personal recommendation and regardless of this or not, to whom do I recommend this book to? Now, you can probably guess by the way I described that I enjoyed this book that I’d personally recommend it, and if you guessed that, you would be absolutely correct. This book does, in fact, get my very own personal recommendation. Now, as to whom I’d recommend this book to, if you’ve seen any of the “Spider-Verse” movies and enjoyed them, I’d say you’d definitely enjoy this book, and I recommend it to you. If you are looking into getting into Spider-Man and haven’t hit a starting point yet, I’d recommend this book to you. If you are a fan of Miles Morales in any capacity, this book is something I feel you absolutely must read and should get out and read it as soon as you possibly can. And if you’re reading this review and liked it and want to read it now based solely on the content of this review, I totally recommend this book to you.

            Okay, I’ve gone on about this book for a very long time, I think it’s time we all moved on with our lives. So, in conclusion, there are a few more things that I feel I need to say before I go. I have been doing this blog for almost five years now and have done over 150 posts, so there is plenty more content you can read if you liked this review, so feel free to keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more posts. I have literally done over thirty reviews at this point, and I’m not stopping. I post on a very frequent basis, so you can always expect more content to keep coming. I get every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection when it comes out and if I can review it, I do so, so there’s going to be plenty more posts coming up. You can expect another one coming up in about a month from now, so keep checking back for it. I’ve also done other content, I was an English major with a concentration in journalism in college and have a bachelor’s degree in the field, so I am very experienced. I’ve written several short stories on this blog and have even ventured into poetry. You can find some articles and essays here too, and my editorial series B’ings as well, which are totally pointless but a fun way to kill a few minutes. If you have the time, keep exploring, there’s plenty more you might like. And now at this point I feel like I’ve said all that really can be said, so I am now going to part ways and let you go back to doing what you were doing with your life and I’m going to upload this now and then go pay rent, which is something I actually have to do, and while I love doing this blog and I do a thorough job, it really doesn’t pay the bills but I do it anyway. Well, enough about my personal life, you didn’t come here to read about me, you came here to read about Miles Morales. So, I am now officially done and will just now say to you a few final words, and those words would happen to be… Tim Cubbin… out!