"Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree"

 

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

            Miles Morales was having difficulty with his dual life as both a student at Brooklyn Visions Academy in New York and as the superhero Spider-Man. He couldn’t keep a date and his grades were slipping. Miles didn’t have a lot of people he could confide in about his secret identity, just his best friend Ganke Lee, his father Jefferson Davis, and a few of his fellow superheroes. Miles’ declining grades were becoming a concern to Miles’ mother, Rio Morales, who was becoming suspicious that something was going on in her son’s life. Blackheart, Prince of the Underworld, came to Earth, intent on laying claim to it. The Avengers all fell in battle with the demon. Miles left school to fight the demon. Miles chased off Blackheart and was left standing alone over the defeated Avengers. Peter Parker/the Amazing Spider-Man found the scene and misread the situation. Peter expressed he wished to rethink giving Miles Peter’s blessing for Miles to go by the name “Spider-Man.” Blackheart returned and knocked Peter unconscious. Miles then fought and defeated Blackheart singlehandedly. The revived Avengers kept the cops from apprehending Miles, and Peter gave Miles Peter’s renewed blessing for Miles to be Spider-Man. Miles went to his parents’ house to find that Rio had called Miles’ grandmother Gloria to straighten Miles out. Gloria confiscated Miles’ phone, saying Miles could have it back when Miles earned it. Miles’ friend and fellow teenage superhero Lane Baumgartner/Bombshell came to visit Miles, but Gloria turned her away, convinced her presence there involved illegal substances. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, concerned that Miles missed a meeting with their superhero team the Champions, came to visit Miles, and was almost caught by Gloria. Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, looking the secure her place as a leading crime boss, formed an alliance with fellow New York crime boss Hammerhead to go eliminate the new Spider-Man. Brooklyn Visions Academy welcomed a new student, former X-Men trainee Fabio Medina/Goldballs. Ganke was a huge fan of Goldballs, and Ganke told Fabio that Miles was Spider-Man, hoping to build a bridge between Miles and Fabio. This angered Miles, and Miles left to go web-swinging. Ganke invited Fabio to room with Miles and Ganke, and Fabio accepted. Black Cat and Hammerhead sent missiles after Miles and shot Miles down, then kidnapped Miles. Gloria, determined to find out Miles’ secret, hired private investigator Jessica Jones to investigate Gloria’s grandson. Black Cat and Hammerhead tried to learn Miles’ secret identity by scanning his fingerprints but were unable to due to S.H.I.E.L.D. placing a restriction on Miles’ personal information in case anyone was to ever try to identify Miles in exactly such a way. Miles broke loose from being tied up and took down and webbed up Hammerhead and left Hammerhead for the police, but Black Cat escaped. S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill talked Jefferson into returning to his position as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

            Tony Stark/Iron Man called Miles to talk to him about Ulysses, a newly emerged Inhuman with the ability to allow people to view a potential future. Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel wanted to use Ulysses’ power to take action to prevent crimes from happening, which Tony viewed as profiling, something that Miles sympathized with. Rio went to Jessica Jones, feeling that Gloria had gone too far by hiring a private investigator to follow Miles, and offered to pay Jessica to give up the investigation, but Jessica refused, saying she would only give up the investigation if Gloria called it off. Ulysses showed a vision of Bruce Banner/Hulk losing control and killing all the superheroes. Jessica Jones and her husband Luke Cage came to Miles to tell Miles that Jessica had figured out Miles was Spider-Man, but as a profession courtesy would not tell Gloria, but did tell Miles that Miles needed to be more careful with guarding Miles’ secret identity because Jessica had a very easy time figuring it out, and if Jessica could find out this easily, the wrong person could do so as well. Miles was called to the Triskelion with a gathering of superheroes by Captain Marvel to confront Bruce Banner. On the mission, Clint Barton/Hawkeye put Banner down. Ulysses had a vision of Miles killing Steve Rogers/Captain America on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Intent on proving this vision would not come to pass, Miles hopped a train to Washington, D.C. Miles’ teammates in the Champions Ms. Marvel and Sam Alexander/Nova came to Miles’ parents’ apartment looking for Miles and ran into Jefferson. Ms. Marvel and Nova informed Jefferson that Miles was missing. Goldballs went to Bombshell, concerned about Miles, but Bombshell told Goldballs that Bombshell was not worried about Miles. Ganke went to Spider-Man obsessed social media poster Danika Hart to inform Danika that Spider-Man was missing, hoping Danika’s influence could help locate Spider-Man. Jefferson went to Maria Hill to ask Hill about Miles’ location, worried that Hill may have already arrested Miles, but Hill informed Jefferson that Hill did not know where Miles was. After the climax of the second superhuman Civil War, Miles returned to Brooklyn Visions Academy and relayed the events of the final confrontation to Ganke, Fabio and Ms. Marvel.

            Hill called Jefferson in for a simulated S.H.I.E.L.D. test to see if Jefferson had the resolve to go back in the field. Jefferson passed, and Hill sent Jefferson on a real mission. Rio, concerned when Jefferson did not return home, called Miles to share her fears.

            Hill contacted Miles to tell Miles that Jefferson had been sent on an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. operation to obtain a piece of tech that allowed travel between dimensions but was now missing in another dimension. Hill told Miles that Hill needed Miles to rescue Jefferson because the mission Hill had sent Jefferson on was unsanctioned and Hill could not send any S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives because of this fact. Hill gave Miles a dimensional transporter that would get Miles to the dimension that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s science division last tracked Jefferson’s location to. Miles traveled to that dimension and ran into that dimension’s version of the supervillain the Ringer. Miles defeated the ringer and ran into that universe’s Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman, whom he had previously met in another interdimensional crisis. Miles told Gwen his situation. Miles and Gwen were confronted by Matt Murdock/Kingpin and the Hand. Murdock had been supplying Gwen with the serum that gave Gwen spider powers, courtesy of the evil organization S.I.L.K. Murdock told Miles and Gwen that Jefferson was causing problems for S.I.L.K., which also caused problems for Murdock and gave Gwen a VIP pass to Club Scorpion where Jefferson was known to be, instructing Miles and Gwen to bring Jefferson to Murdock. Gwen went to Club Scorpion, where an auction for the tech that former head of S.I.L.K. Cindy Moon had stolen when she traveled to another dimension. Gwen was recognized at the auction and was attacked. Miles came to Gwen’s rescue, and ran into this dimension’s version of Jefferson Davis, who was the crime boss called Scorpion. Miles called Scorpion “dad,” but Scorpion did not acknowledge Miles as Scorpion’s son and attacked Miles. Miles and Gwen defeated Scorpion and webbed Scorpion up. The police arrived and arrested Scorpion. Miles tried to go back for his father, but Gwen webbed Miles up. The cops came after Miles and Gwen, and Gwen activated Miles’ dimensional teleporter to travel to another dimension to escape the cops, then return back to Gwen’s dimension in a safe location. Miles got a signal of his dimensional transporter to return to origin point, so Miles and Gwen traveled back to Miles’ universe. Peter Parker had already webbed up a group of S.I.L.K. agents who had been attempting to steal batteries for Scorpion. Miles and Gwen came across the S.I.L.K. agents, who suddenly teleported away. Scorpion was trying to make his own teleportation technology and used it to help his agents escape and needed the batteries for Scorpion’s device. Scorpion was enraged his agents failed to obtain the batteries and sent another group to steal batteries. Miles gave his dimensional teleporter to Gwen and followed the S.I.L.K. agents through their portal, telling Gwen to follow Miles using Miles’ teleporter. Miles fought Scorpion until Gwen arrived, and Miles and Gwen were sucked through a portal. Miles and Gwen traveled through several more universes together, until they were separated. Miles arrived in Gwen’s universe, where he found his father. Gwen arrived in a universe where Gwen and Miles had been married for twenty years and had two children, Max and Charlotte, who were being babysat by Peter Porker/Spider-Ham while Miles and Gwen were celebrating their anniversary by going on a second honeymoon. Gwen had to return to her universe to have the ultimate team-up to stop Scorpion, save the multiverse, and help Miles rescue Jefferson. Miles and Gwen then had to decide where they wanted to take their relationship, seeing that there was a potential future for Miles and Gwen as a couple.

            Okay, we have the plot synopsis out of the way, let’s get on with my own individual bits of this review. We’re going to start with, as we always do, my personal opinions about this graphic novel. First off, let’s talk about the stories. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories in this book. As many of my regular readers know, I am a huge fan of the work of Brian Michael Bendis, and I feel like he was once again on the ball with writing these stories. I also enjoyed Jason Latour’s work in the Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen crossover. I will address some of my highlights from this collection. I loved Gloria, the nightmare grandmother. I actually thought she was the greatest villain in the whole book. Gloria’s extreme tough love that went too far could have been a true threat, and I like the resolve of how Jessica Jones extended Miles the professional courtesy of not ratting him out. I liked the addition of Goldballs to the cast. Ganke wanting to unite his two heroes by outing Miles was not well thought out, but it did give Miles a new confidante, so it balanced out in the end. Black Cat is one of my favorite Spider-Man costars, and her first meeting with Miles was entertaining. I enjoyed the “Civil War II” storyline with Miles trying to disprove Ulysses’ power. I loved that Miles’ father was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. And I loved the titular “Sitting in a Tree” story arc Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen crossover. Some of my longtime readers may recall seeing this story reviewed in “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice” a couple of years back, although admittedly I didn’t go into as much detail back then, and also back then I wasn’t as big a fan of it, possibly due to not having the same context then as I do now, because two years ago, I had not read the Spider-Man issues leading up to this storyline, so I didn’t have the same details then as I do now, so now that I know both sides of the story, I think I appreciate it better. Oftentimes when I revisit stories after a great length of time, I find my opinions on them change, and it’s been over two years since the release of “Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider: Weapon of Choice” and almost a year since the last time I visited this story, so that’s plenty of time for opinions to vary. Next up to discuss my opinions on is the artwork. I will say I enjoyed the majority of the artwork in this collection. My dislike comes from the three “Spider-Gwen” issues illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez. For the rest of the book, the artwork was adequate. It wasn’t the best artwork I’ve ever seen in a comic book, but it wasn’t visually off-putting and was still tolerable to the eyes. Next, I have to talk about my opinion on the title. Yes, for those of you who have never read one of my reviews before. I critique the title and cover and how appropriate it is for the collection. There were really only two obvious choices, “Civil War II” or “Sitting in a Tree,” and “Sitting in a Tree” was the only storyline in this entire volume given a title, so it seemed like the only real option. This storyline also took up six issues, which was over a third of the book. Given these facts, I won’t dispute “Sitting in a Tree” as an adequate title for this collection. However, I do find fault with the cover. The cover features Miles Morales/Spider-Man in the foreground, with an assortment of other superheroes in the background, including Iron Man, Captain Marvel, both Captains America, Thor, Ms. Marvel, Quicksilver, Deadpool, Medusa, and Spider-Woman. While most of these characters don’t play a significant role in the stories, some don’t even grace these pages at all. Therefore, I do not feel this cover delivers on what it depicts and cannot say it was a good choice for this collection. That said, I have more of a positive opinion of this book.

            Our next topic of discussion is accessibility. Some of you newbs who have never read one of my reviews before may be wondering what exactly do I mean by the word “accessibility?” I’ve explained this to my readers over seven dozen times by this point, but I shall do it once again because of said newbs who don’t know what I mean by my usage of the word “accessibility” in application to a graphic novel. Simply put, accessibility is how easy it is for someone who knows nothing about the source material (Miles Morales, Spider-Man, and Marvel in general) to obtain this book, read the book from cover to cover, and comprehend everything they have just consumed. This book is not easily accessible. There are a few things about this book that cause this. This volume is marketed as Vol. 4, but it is the first volume to take place in the 616 Marvel Universe, whereas the previous three volumes took place in the 1610 Ultimate Universe. However, this book ties in to “Civil War II,” a major event at the time, and has issues from a crossover with “Spider-Gwen,” a whole separate ongoing series. These require extensive outside knowledge of Marvel Comics outside what is just contained within these pages to understand the event, and the crossover expects knowledge of Spider-Gwen’s stories as well as Miles,’ which makes this book highly inaccessible. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for a place to start, I would very much not recommend this volume as your first introduction into the Marvel Comics universe.

            It’s about time we moved on to one of the most essential segments of a Tim Cubbin review: the numeric score. I know this is not the only reason people come to read my reviews, but it is a very important part of my reviews to feature as it illustrates exactly how good I think what I am reviewing is. I’ll start off by explaining the system I use when I score media. It’s a fairly simple scale, exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is my lowest score, and that means that this book is one of the worst things I have ever read and that this book deserves to be removed from circulation and never reprinted so no one else can purchase this atrocity and suffer the way I suffered by spending the money I did purchasing and reading this book. Ten, on the other hand, is my highest score, and that means that this is one of the best things I’ve ever read and if it’s not a comic bestseller, I will never understand that. I only give a book a ten if I feel like it is absolutely perfect. I can find no flaws in the story, no complaints in the art, and the title and cover fit the book adequately. So, when we take all my opinions about this book into consideration, the score I am going to give this book is… an eight! While I loved the story, there were a few issues where the artwork was not visually pleasing, and the cover just did not deliver on the prospect of what it depicted actually happening inside the pages of this book. Still, I genuinely found reading this book to be an enjoyable experience.

            Moving on, the next segment is the recommendation segment. This segment focuses on two major points, answering two key questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of if I would recommend this book to you or not, who is the best audience, and this goes beyond fans of Marvel, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, or the creators, I mean what qualities, characteristics, values, interests or types of readers would find this book to be interesting? In answer to the first question, yes, I absolutely recommend this book. If you’re reading this review and now, based solely on the words you’ve spent the past few minutes reading, you want to read this book, I would now tell you to hop onto your favorite online retailer, or head to your local bookstore, comic shop, or library, or try to find a friend or family member with this book, just somehow get your hands on a copy of this book and give it a read. I think if you enjoyed reading my words, you’ll enjoy reading the book even more. As for the best audiences for this book, Miles is African American and Latino, so those demographics can find Miles to be a relatable character. Also, Miles is a teenager, so that’s another demographic that might see themselves in Miles. This book may also be interesting to readers who enjoy spy/espionage stories. This book may be appealing to readers who like stories about interdimensional travel and alternate universes. This book could hold the interest of readers who enjoy stories about prophecies or predicting the future. And this is a book that might appeal to readers who enjoy stories where heroes fight other heroes.

            Okay, we’re nearing the end of this review. There are a bunch of more things I have to say before I hit publish. If you have more time right now, or if you want to come back another time, feel free to keep exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my posts. I am nearing the six-year anniversary of starting this blog. This is also my 200^th post. This blog features several types of content, including short stories, poems, essays, articles, editorials, and over nine dozen reviews. These reviews include prose novels, manga, graphic novels, comic events, and over seven dozen other Epic Collection reviews. The current focus of this blog is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase all of these said graphic novels as soon as I can after they are published and at my earliest availability, I post a review on this blog. Since I do this, I post on a very frequent basis, at least once every two months. If you enjoyed reading this particular review and want more similar content, feel free to search for my posts “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Hero in Training” “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More” and “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Revivals and Revelations” for more Miles Morales content. As a heads-up, I’m announcing that my next post is going to be “The Ultimates: Gods and Monsters” which you can expect to see within the next three weeks following the posting of this review. I will tell you that I love doing this blog and will keep doing it for as long as I can, so don’t expect this to be done anytime soon. That’s really all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!