"Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Months before Peter Parker was shot and killed, grade-schooler Miles Morales was about to start a new chapter in his life at a new school—when he was suddenly bitten by a stolen, genetically altered spider that gave him incredible arachnid-like powers.

                Washington was decimated. The government was a mess. The Southwest was in chaos. States were seceding from the union. America was falling apart. Steve Rogers/Captain America and Tony Stark/Iron Man met to discuss the existence of a new Spider-Man. Captain America blamed himself for Peter Parker’s death since Peter was young and untrained and wanted to shut Miles down, but Iron Man tried to convince him otherwise, until the news broke that Spider-Man was accused of murdering Aaron Davis/Prowler. Miles’ father Jefferson Davis broke the news that Spider-Man murdered Miles’ uncle to Miles. Miles’ best friend Ganke Lee tried to convince Miles he did nothing wrong. Miles received a phone call from May Parker, Peter Parker’s aunt, asking to meet with him. On the way to the meeting, Miles fought a robber called Batroc the Leaper and his crew, and though Miles was able to defeat them, the police on the scene tried to arrest Miles and Miles had to flee from the crime scene. At Miles’ meeting with May and Gwen Stacy, Captain America arrived to tell Miles if Miles went into action as Spider-Man again, Captain America would call Miles’ parents. Captain America was called off to fight the Rhino at the Lincoln Tunnel. May gave Miles Peter’s web shooters and encouraged Miles to do what he felt was the right thing to do. Miles assisted Captain America in defeating the Rhino, and Captain America agreed that Miles needed training.

                Miles was questioned by New York Police Department homicide detective Maria Hill about the death of Miles’ uncle. Miles pretended to know nothing about it and Hill informed Miles Aaron’s death might not have been Miles’ fault. Due to the outbreak of war in America, Miles’ school Brooklyn Visions Academy was closed until such time as the city felt it was safe for the school to open again, and the students were sent home. Miles hitched a ride to the Triskelion, base of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Ultimates, and asked Captain America if Miles could join the Ultimates. Jefferson was on his way home when he was stopped at a S.H.I.E.L.D. blockade. He got into an argument with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and was detained in a S.H.I.E.L.D. van. Captain America told Miles to go home, when a Quincarrier hijacked by Gorgon and a squad of Hydra agents attacked the Triskelion. Miles assisted in taking down the Hydra squad, and Captain America, impressed by Miles, invited him to join the Ultimates, an invite Miles accepted. Captain America was elected as the president of the United States of America. The Ultimates fought Hydra outside Casper, Wyoming. Miles was assigned to team up with Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman. The S.H.I.E.L.D. van Jefferson was in was stopped by Hydra agents. Jefferson was freed and took down the Hydra agents. Miles was separated from the fight and had to contend with a Giant Woman Hydra agent, then was found by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and brought home.

                Daily Bugle reporter Betty Brant was investigating the death of the Prowler and made a connection between Prowler and Spider-Man. Betty went to Aaron’s apartment and found the dead spider that gave Miles his powers. She brought the spider to current Roxxon Industries scientist and former Osborn Industries scientist Doctor Conrad Marcus, who had worked on the Oz project. Marcus confirmed to Betty that this spider could, in fact, have created the new Spider-Man. Betty mistakenly concluded that Jefferson was the new Spider-Man. Betty brought this news to Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, but Jameson refused to publish it. Betty was going to bring the news to another source, but she didn’t live long enough for that to happen.

                Miles ran out of web fluid. He and Ganke tried to figure out how to crack the formula Peter Parker left behind for Miles. Maria Hill interviewed Jameson about Betty’s death, and Jameson lied, saying Betty never revealed to Jameson who the new Spider-Man was. Reporters came to Miles’ apartment to interview Jefferson about his heroic actions against Hydra, but Jefferson did not want to comment. He went to the reports to ask how they found where he lived when a new Venom symbiote host arrived, looking for Spider-Man and believing Spider-Man to be Jefferson. Miles fought the monster. The monster, seeing both Spider-Man and Jefferson in the same place at the same time was confused, and after a brief fight with Miles, the monster retreated, but during the fight, Jefferson was severely injured. Jefferson was rushed to the hospital. Miles’ mother Rio Morales went with Jefferson but told Miles to stay behind. News of the Venom attack made the news, and Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker’s girlfriend Mary Jane Watson rushed to aid Miles. Gwen and Mary Jane told Miles what they knew about symbiotes and the potential reason why Venom might be looking for Miles. Maria Hill arrived at Miles’ apartment, aware Miles was Spider-Man and tried to spur him into action. Venom attacked the hospital, looking for Jefferson. Miles made it to the hospital and fought Venom. Rio came to Miles’ aid. Miles was able to defeat Venom, but at a terrible cost. Following a devastating loss, Miles decided to be Spider-Man no more.

                One year later, Miles had a girlfriend named Katie Bishop. Spider-Woman tried to convince Miles to be Spider-Man again, but Miles refused. While at a Chinese restaurant, Miles ran into Gwen, who was working as a waitress. Suddenly, the restaurant was caught in a fight between Lori Baumgartner/Bombshell and the team of Ty Johnson/Cloak and Tandy Bowen/Dagger. Ty and Tandy had been student council presidents of their high schools. They were on their way to their senior prom when their limo was in an accident. Doctors Layla Miller, Nathaniel Essex, Samuel Sterns, and Arnim Zola III, the Roxxon Brain Trust, procured Ty and Tandy, had Ty and Tandy pronounced dead, and injected Ty and Tandy with Dark Matter. Ty and Tandy revived with new powers and became Cloak and Dagger. Lori’s mother Lana Baumgartner had been arrested and transferred to Roxxon for experimentation in lieu of going to prison. Lana was pregnant when she was experimented on, and Lori was born with powers as well, and when she grew older, she became Bombshell. Ganke was mad at Miles for witnessing a superhuman fight and not getting involved. Spider-Woman came to Miles again and explained her connection to Peter Parker in an attempt to convince Miles to be Spider-Man again. Spider-Woman wanted to team up with Bombshell, Cloak, and Dagger to take down Roxxon. Despite being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and despite S.H.I.E.L.D. and Roxxon having business connections, Spider-Woman did not trust the company. Roxxon hired Anthony Masters/Taskmaster to bring Roxxon’s experiments back to the company. Miles then had to decide if he wanted to once again take on the great responsibility that came with his great power and be Spider-Man again.

                Okay, so we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now let’s get to my personal part of this review. As usual, we’re going to start with my own opinions on this book. I will start by saying that I found the stories in this book to be highly enjoyable. First off, the fractured America storylines in Divided We Fall and United We Stand are extremely relevant in this day and age thirteen years later. But this blog does not discuss politics, so I will go no further than just saying that. I will say I felt like there was a contradiction between this volume of “Miles Morales: Spider-Man” and the previous volume. It seems like the “Spider-Men” storyline from “Hero in Training” was ignored in “Spider-Man No More” since in this volume, Miles met Aunt May and Gwen Stacy for the first time and received Peter’s web shooters, while in the previous volume, Miles also met Aunt May and Gwen and did not have the web shooters, so I’m confused about the timing/existence of the storyline. That said, I loved Gwen’s reaction to Captain America trying to shut Miles down. I also liked Miles’ self-monologue complaint about the lameness of his villains, particularly Batroc the Leaper. I liked the choice to make Maria Hill an NYPD homicide detective; Hill is a character I’ve loved to hate for almost twenty years now. Seeing her in a different role and actually helping Miles was refreshing. I liked Jefferson’s conflict with being a hero and not wanting to be one, it mirrors Miles’ conflict from the previous volume. I don’t quite get how Captain America got to be elected president of the United States, I read the story thirteen years ago in “Ultimate Comics Ultimates,” but I honestly don’t remember all the details. I loved Jameson’s rationalization for not wanting to out the new Spider-Man, not wanting to ruin a man’s life, I’m glad he learned something from the death of Peter Parker. I did not like this portrayal of Betty Brant, I found it completely uncharacteristic of any other depiction of her, I did not enjoy seeing her as a money-hungry, opportunistic… (word I’m not going to use since this is a G-rated blog). I found the Venom War storyline to be the best story in the book. It was written with so much emotion, and the ending was just heartbreaking. I enjoyed the Spider-Man No More storyline, it’s something that every Spider-Man goes through, and I thought Miles’ was a good one, particularly that he lasted for a year. I loved how even though Peter Parker was dead, Brian Michael Bendis still found use for Aunt May, Gwen, and Mary Jane Watson. I don’t know why Bendis picked to use Layla Miller as part of the Roxxon Brain Trust, since in the main Marvel Universe, Layla was not a doctor, the same as making Miles’ girlfriend Katie Bishop, who in other universes is Hawkeye, the choices to use those names seemed really random. I enjoyed the evil corporation plot with Roxxon, I know that’s a little bit of a cliché, but Bendis still managed to make this entertaining. I enjoyed watching Miles’ growth and maturation over the course of this book, both as a teenager and as a superhero, I thought the progression was brilliantly written. Unfortunately, I found some conflict with the artwork in this graphic novel. All of these artists just had a way of drawing faces that just didn’t appeal to me when they were close up, but their action scenes were all spot on. I especially did not like the Venom design. I thought it just looked horrible. As for the choice in title, I felt like it was an appropriate pick. Honestly, the best choices were “Divided We Fall,” “United We Stand,” “Venom War,” or “Spider-Man No More,” and the only two titles that would truly sell would be “Venom War” or “Spider-Man No More,” the latter of which, in my opinion, taking up enough of the book to be a more proper representation of the entirety of the book itself, although “United We Stand” would, in my opinion, be an adequate representation of the content of the book as well. But overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but I just wish I could have had art I appreciated more.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve explained this over six dozen times before, and I know I’ll be doing this dozens more times over the course of this blog, but once again, there are people reading this post now who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and are wondering what the heck I mean by accessibility. So when I use the word “accessibility” in this blog, I’m saying how easy it would be for someone who has never heard of Miles Morales before or knows nothing about Marvel Comics or otherwise has no prior knowledge of what they’re about to read to go to their local bookstore or library or favorite shopping site and pick up this book, and then read it and understand everything they’ve read. This book has two accessibility issues. The first is that this is Vol. 2 and it picks up exactly where Vol. 1 left off and continues a story that’s already begun and not having read the previous volume is extremely detrimental to understanding the content of this particular volume. The second issue is that Divided We Fall and United We Stand were event storylines in “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man,” “Ultimate Comics X-Men,” and “Ultimate Comics Ultimates” and the rest of the event, especially “Ultimate Comics Ultimates,” contains more details to the story that this book doesn’t have and leaves a great deal of confusion to those who haven’t read the other series. Heck, thirteen years later, even I practically need a refresher. So, I will say if you are new to Marvel Comics, this is not a good starting point for you. Even if you’ve seen the “Spider-Verse” films or played the video games, they are nothing like this comic series and it’s essential to read the first twelve issues of “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” (2011) before reading this graphic novel.

                Okay, I’ve been going on for a very long time at this point, I think we’re ready to get to my numeric score now. Now, for those of you who have never read one of my reviews before, my scoring scale is extremely simple. I score on a scale of exact integers between one through ten. If I score a book as a one, that means it is a flaming hot pile of trash and that every single copy of this graphic novel should be taken out of sales, thrown on a pile, and set on fire, then never be reprinted again. If, on the other hand, I give a book a score of a ten (which honestly doesn’t happen very often), then that means this book is sheer perfection, and every copy should be bought and read again and again and demand should be so high that this book needs to be reprinted every year. Now, I’m a very hard critic, I don’t just give out tens for no reason. To get a ten, the book has to exceed expectations. The story has to be gripping, exciting, interesting, intriguing, and engaging, hold my interest from start to finish, make me not want to put the book down, be full of surprises, and make me wish the book had more when I get to the end, and the art has to be consistently appealing, if not blow me away, and make me want to look at each panel for longer than needed just to appreciate the artwork. On the other hand, I’m not fond of giving out low scores either unless I feel like the book honestly deserves it. I very rarely give ones, I can count the amount of times I’ve done that so far on one hand. Well, you can probably guess that this book doesn’t exactly hit either pole, and if you made that guess, you’d be absolutely right. So, let’s talk about what score I’m actually going to give this graphic novel. As my regular readers know, I have a metaphorical blender for making review scores. So I’m going to take this entire book, the story I found to be highly enjoyable, the fact that I do have some complaints about certain details, the art that I wasn’t a total fan of, and the title that I thought fit the book well, and I’m going to dump it into my blender. Next, I’m going to hit mix and keep it going until this book is completely blended. Then I’m going to pour it out into my cup and look at the score, and it is… a seven. I honestly did enjoy this book and feel like it deserves a good score, but there were a few faults, and I have to gripe about the art, so the point deductions are, in my opinion, fair, and this score is, again, in my opinion, fair. Had this book perhaps had different artists, this could have gotten an eight. I also had to take a strike at the score for the contradiction between the two volumes due to the “Spider-Men” story in the previous volume as I feel like the lack of continuity made the stories rather confusing and I’m not sure if/when this story was even supposed to take place. Otherwise, I felt this was a commendable effort and an enjoyable read and I had a blast consuming this graphic novel.

                New up on our agenda shall be my recommendation. I always do this segment in two parts, answering two questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to anyone reading this review or to anyone else I talk to such as friends or family interested in comic books? The second question is, regardless of the answer to question one, who do I think would be the best audience? You can probably already guess the answer, but I’ll say it for you anyway. The answer is yes, I would recommend this book to anyone reading this review who is now interested in reading this book based on what they have just read. I tried to keep the spoilers to a minimum in order to give you a reason to actually want to read the book to find out how it ends. As for who I think the best audience is, I’d say it’s most appealing to people who are fans of Miles Morales, or to those who are fans of the work of Brian Michael Bendis, but if you want to read this volume, I’d recommend reading “Hero in Training” in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format first.

                Okay, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re ready to just about wrap things up. Before we part ways, there are a few things I would like to say first. Firstly, I have been doing this blog for almost five years now. At this point, I have now done over 170 posts. Over five dozen of them have been reviews of Epic Collections, and I have done other book reviews and events reviews as well. If you liked this review and want more Miles Morales content, feel free to search for “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Hero in Training.” I’ve also written other kinds of content on this blog, such as short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. Feel free to keep browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more posts, there’s plenty to see. I can tell you that I post on a very frequent basis, usually at least once a month. I am a die-hard Marvel fan and purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection that is released as soon as I can after they are released and if possible, put up a review. There are a few Modern Era Epic Collections I have yet to review, maybe one day those will be remedied. You can expect to see my next post within the next four weeks, it will be “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Road Trip” so if you are interested, keep an eye out for that. And that’s really all I have to say for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"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!

"Spider-Man: The Clone Saga" / "Miles Morales: The Clone Saga" Comparison

            The following piece is a comparison piece of the Marvel Comics Events “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” and “Miles Morales: The Clone Saga.”

            Hey, guys, welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! My name just happens to be Tim Cubbin, and I just happen to be the writer of this blog. I might actually let someone else write for this blog, but for today, I’m your host!

            So, we have some fun planned for us right here, right now. To those of you who don’t know, I am a major Marvel Comic Books fan. I’ve been reading regularly since 2001, so by now that’s twenty years (I know, I’m so old). Over the past year, I’ve been doing this blog, posting reviews of Marvel prose and graphic novels. I have done several comparison pieces on graphic and prose novel with the same title and adaptations. This, however, is a first. I’m going to compare two COMIC book stories with similar titles. On July 25, 2021, I did a review of the Marvel Comics event “Spider-Man: The Clone Saga” and a few hours ago on November 16, 2021, I posted a review of the Marvel Comics event “Miles Morales: The Clone Saga.” For those who don’t know, Miles Morales is the new Spider-Man. So these two reviews are the Clone Sagas of two different Spider-Men. If you haven’t read my reviews of the two events yet, I totally have to tell you to break now, then read the reviews by themselves (I gave you the dates posted for this express purpose), then come back and enjoy reading this comparison post. If you do this big favor for me, you are THE BEST!

            Okay, obviously I need to give you a little background on the Clone Sagas I previously wrote, for the purpose of differentiating the two Clone Sagas and preparing my comparison purposes.

            Let’s talk about the two Spider-Men to start this up. We’ll begin with the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Peter was a high school nerd, bullied and ignored by the other kids in his school. He went to a demonstration on radioactivity. While there, a spider got in the way of radioactive rays and became irradiated and bit Peter Parker and Cindy Moon before it died (Cindy Moon is the super hero Silk but has nothing to do with these stories, so she will not be mentioned in this review again). Afterwards, Peter Parker discovered he had spider-related powers. He has adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength and agility of a spider; and a precognitive awareness of personal danger he calls “spider-sense.” He was orphaned as a boy and was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. At first he tried to use his powers for personal gain. One day, he let a burglar run by when Peter could have stopped him. This burglar broke into Peter’s home and shot and killed his Uncle Ben. Peter stopped the burglar, and decided to use his powers to help others. He truly became Spider-Man and lived by the mantra that with great power there must also come great responsibility.

            Miles Morales was a high school student. His Uncle Aaron was a criminal called the Prowler. One day, Aaron stole from Oscorp, and accidentally grabbed a genetically altered spider. While hanging out with his Uncle Aaron, the spider bit Miles. He discovered he had spider-related powers. . He has adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength and agility of a spider; the ability to direct a mild electrical charge he calls “venom blasts;” the ability to turn invisibility; and a precognitive awareness of personal danger he calls “spider-sense.” He decided to use his powers to help others who needed help, like his hero Spider-Man and became the new Spider-Man himself.

            Okay, those are the origins of the two Spider-Men. Let’s talk about the storylines leading up to both Peter and Miles’ Clone Sagas.

            In college, Peter Parker fell in love with fellow student Gwen Stacy. Secretly, their professor Miles Warren also fell in love with Gwen. Gwen was killed by Peter’s super villain enemy the Green Goblin. Warren was a geneticist and became the super villain the Jackal. The Jackal cloned Gwen and Peter. Both clones were presumed dead. Peter’s clone, however, did not die and left New York to live a life of his own as Ben Reilly. The Jackal was able to create more viable clones of Peter and Gwen. When Aunt May had a stroke, Ben returned to New York, and he and Peter originally fought, but were eventually able to live in coexistence.

            As for Miles Morales, Miles was abducted by the Assessor, who studied Miles to the point of torture and created a clone of Miles. Miles faced the clone, but the clone turned out to be inviable and fell apart. However, the Assessor managed to create three semi-viable clones. Miles was lured by his clones who began to commit crimes in his name, including a scientist to create a cure that would stabilize the clones, but not knowing this, Miles destroyed the cure, incurring the wrath of the clones Selim, Mindspinner and Switch.

            For more details of the actual events of the two Clone Sagas, read my reviews of both events (if you haven’t done so already). Okay, now I’ve got to compare the two Clone Sagas. I must say, however, there were almost no similarities between Peter and Miles’ Clone Sagas. Both had clones, and both had clones that were inviable and tried to stabilize themselves. Both had clones that tried to ruin their reputations. Peter’s clone Kaine committed murder and Peter was put on trial after a fingerprint match implicated Peter. Miles’ clone Selim stole equipment and kidnapped a scientist, who Selim went on to murder. And that’s about as far as similarities come.

            Okay, now you’re probably wondering which Clone Saga I preferred. If you read my reviews, you know I score my reviews on a scale of one to ten, one being totally awful, ten being totally awesome. You will also know at the time of writing the reviews, I gave Peter Parker’s Clone Saga a five, while I scored Miles Morales’s Clone Saga at a six. Please note I sometimes have a change of heart after writing my posts. But you may have read that I thought Peter Parker’s Clone Saga was too long, whereas Miles Morales’s Clone Saga was too short. There was just an imbalance on the length of the stories. Peter Parker and Ben Reilly both had solo stories and connecting stories. I felt that Miles Morales’s clone Selim just did not have enough time to be thoroughly established. Granted Selim was an evil clone, I thought more development of Selim, Mindspinner and Switch would have actually been more interesting if each clone actually had a story rather than just being deteriorating. So, yes, my promised preference. This is actually a very tough decision to make. Both had flaws. Both had good points. I have to say that, though being lower scored, Peter Parker’s Clone Saga was my preference, owing to each clone actually having a developed storyline rather than just eight issues solely focusing on Miles. It could have had much potential.

            Now I’ll revisit my accessibility statements in order to give recommendations. If you were to actually read these events, I felt that Peter Parker’s Clone Saga required a good deal of Spidey knowledge for optimal enjoyment, while I said that Miles Morales’s Clone Saga actually felt self-contained. I still, all these months later, stand by both statements. If you’re new to the Spider-Men and want to start a Clone Saga, I’d have to tell you Miles Morales’s is easier to pick up and read. At the same time, I’m not telling you to just read Miles’ Clone Saga as Peter’s was actually rather better developed. I just have to tell you if you either prefer Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider to Miles Morales/Spider-Man, go with whoever you like. Now, let’s get serious about something. I am NOT making your decisions for you. What I may like in comics are things that you have no interest in, or even dislike and hate, while you may like things that I don’t. That is ENTIRELY up to you. If you want to read either, both, or neither of them based on what I write, that’s on you, and I can’t force feed this on you. You make your own decisions. This is From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin, after all, not “From the Mind of One (Insert Your Name Here).” My opinions are my own, I can’t expect you to always agree with me. That’s the magic of free will.

            So if you either have read or go on to read either Clone Sagas, feel free to tell me what YOU think. I’d love to hear it. You can leave a comment on my blog page, message me on Facebook, leave a Tweet on this Twitter page, I’d LOVE to hear your opinions. And feel free to Retweet or Share with your followers and friends, that’d be awesome and you are totally THE BEST! I love the support, this blog is what keeps me going from day-to-day. I’m a certified journalist unable to get a job, which is why I do this. I’m semi-professional with this blog, and I do this just so I can share my opinions and encourage you to read and connect with me. You can also check out more of my blog posts if you enjoyed this. I do plenty more than just reviews and comparison pieces, I do essays about mental health (I happen to have bipolar disorder and am a mental health advocate), editorials about stupid things that bother me, short stories, poetry, and more. I post pretty frequently, so always expect more content, and I’ll say goodbye to you, and, as always, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Miles Morales: The Clone Saga"

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics event “Miles Morales: The Clone Saga” as presented on Marvel Unlimited.

            Welcome to From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin. I’m your reviewer Tim Cubbin. If you’ve never read any reviews on this blog before, I’ll tell you how this works. If you’ve read one of my reviews before, you know the rundown, but still read the next few sentences anyway as it might be a little different from my prior reviews. First off, I am a total diehard Marvel Comics fan. I read from Marvel Unlimited pretty much every day and now any events I read I review, so here we are. Anyway, at the start of every one of my reviews, I give my opening shtick (like the one you are reading now). Then I give a brief explanation of the major characters you need to know about as you read this review. Following that, I give a synopsis of the main stories in the event. After that, I give my thoughts, what I liked, what I disliked and why. Following that, I’ll tell you the level of background knowledge I feel you should know before making the commitment to read this event. Then comes the numeric score I give the event. After that, I’ll tell you if I recommend it and to whom I think would like to read this event. Finally, I’ll give my log off message and stop wasting your time.

Well, if you’re still with me at this point and have not been scared off, let’s get right to it. The main character of the event is Miles Morales/Spider-Man. Miles was bitten by a genetically altered spider and gained several powers: adhesive fingertips and toes; the proportional speed, strength, and agility of a spider; the ability to camouflage himself to the point of invisibility; the ability to discharge an electric charge; and a precognitive awareness of personal imminent danger. He also has web shooters. He took on the name of Spider-Man (even though there already IS a Spider-Man, who agreed to share the name with Miles).

Peter Parker/Spider-Man: The original Spidey.

Rio Morales: A nurse; Miles’ mother (knows her son is Spider-Man).

Jefferson Morales (formerly Davis): Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; Miles’ father (knows his son is Spider-Man).

Billie Morales: Miles’ newborn baby sister.

Ganke Lee: Miles’ best friend.

Tianna Toomes/Starling: the granddaughter of original Spidey baddie the Vulture. Has a flight suit.

Kamala Khan/Miss Marvel: Size-changing polymorph. Miles’ teammate in the young super team the Champions.

Knull: the King in Black. Malicious god of the symbiotes.

Selim, Mindspinner, and Shift: Clones of Miles (we’ll get to them in a minute, stay with me here).

Okay, these are the main players in this little drama, what say we get right to the synopsis of the event. In the first story, Miles has a team-up with Starling. After a successful rescue, Starling kisses Miles, leaving him the question: does he have feelings for her?

Next is a “King in Black” tie-in. Knull leads a horde of hundreds of thousands of symbiote dragons to Earth. Miles is forced to battle Miss Marvel, but is able to rescue her from Knull’s control. During the chaos, Ganke cowers in fear with Miles’ ex, Barbara, and after Knull’s assault on Earth, the two start dating.

Following that is the main story: “The Clone Saga.” Several months before, a villain called the Assessor kidnapped Miles, assessed him, and created unstable clones of Miles: Selim, the leader, an improvement on Miles; Mindspinner, with a spider form and mental powers, kind of like a psychic screech; and Shift, a gooey creature. Selim committed crimes as Miles, stealing items and kidnapping a scientist in an effort to create a cure for the clones’ instability. Miles, not knowing this, finds the clones’ lair and destroys it, and the clone stability cure. In a rage, Selim trashes Miles’ relationship with Miles’ friends, then Selim, Mindspinner and Shift attack Miles’ parents and kidnap Miles’ baby sister Billie.

I’m stopping here so I don’t spoil the ending. Now we go on to my personal thoughts. The Starling story wasn’t too bad, but I felt like the sparks between Miles and Tianna should have had some more development. “The King in Black” tie-in was my favorite story in the event. “The King in Black” was a whole other event, and I actually enjoyed that event and felt like Miles’ storyline in the whole drama was interesting and exciting, especially the drama of Ganke connecting with Miles’ ex (which actually happened to me, oddly enough) that created friction between Miles and Ganke. As far as “The Clone Saga,” I felt it was mediocre. I didn’t hate it, but if the writer had made the story an issue or two longer to develop the story a little more (such as featuring the full assault on Miles’ parents, more of the clones ruining Miles’ reputation and friendships, and extending the drama of Selim kidnapping Billie), there could have been potential for a slightly better story. As it stood, it wasn’t too bad.

Okay, let’s talk accessibility. For those of you who don’t quite know what I mean, it’s my way to tell you if this is a good jump-on point for new readers or not. I found this story to be relatively self-contained. For those with no Miles experience, I feel you can still pick up this book and be able to understand it.

Okay, now for the score. I go on a one to ten scale. One means this was awful and I only read it for continuity’s sake. Ten means this was awesome and reading it as a whole made sense and I enjoyed it more reading it a second time. Just so you know, I’m a really hard to please guy when it comes to comic scoring, as prior readers will know. Oddly enough, my score will fluctuate. Before I post, I feel like I’ll give it one score, but while a write this, my score might change, and maybe even after this post my score might change. At the moment, I give it a six. For my reasoning behind this, go back two paragraphs and read again because I literally just told you.

Now, I’ll tell you my recommendation. Do I recommend it? If you read comics regularly yet did not read this story in your perusal, I would recommend it to you. Again, the story wasn’t bad, but it could have been better. If you have never read a Miles Morales comic book before but saw the movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and liked it and wanted to find a good place to start reading a Miles Morales comic, this might be for you. If you know absolutely nothing about Miles or have never picked up a comic book before and just want a good storyline to start reading at, it’s a fairly good place to start. Now, I’ll say this: I CANNOT tell you if you’ll like this or not. I might have liked it, but I can’t guarantee you will like it because I am me and you are you. That said, this does get MY recommendation. If you read this review and are now interested in reading it, I say go for it! If you read it, feel free to let me know what you thought about it, this blog site does have a comment option, or you could just Tweet at me if you found this link on Twitter. I’d love to hear from you!

Well, now I guess I’ve gone on long enough. Your brain’s probably on overload. I just have to say, if you read this ENTIRE review, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your effort. I now ask for YOUR support. Please retweet this post, share it, follow me, contact me, whatever you can do, I’d love your input. As far as this blog goes, I’ve done plenty of work. I’ve written over a dozen reviews and will do plenty more. I also do mental health essays, an editorial series called B’ings, short stories and poetry. I’m actually a certified journalist with no job, so to pass my time I read and blog out of the goodness of my heart, getting no money for this, but I love doing this, it gives me purpose, so I just do it. There is plenty of content here and plenty more on the way, I’ll be doing this blog until I can’t do it anymore, so please feel free to check back often. I’m also working on a comparison piece involving this post and a previous post, it’ll be here in a few hours, so please hang on and come back. If you do, you are THE BEST! So I bid you farewell for now, and till next time, Tim Cubbin… out!