In preparation for the new Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse movie, I read my kids Shiv (7) and Roshni (4) the early adventures of Miles Morales; namely Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man issues #1-#12, and the crossover mini-series Spider-Men. Here’s a short discussion we had after reading the comics and watching the movie…
Gordon: So we’re going to talk about Miles Morales, Spider-Man. And he first appeared in the second or third relaunch of Ultimate Spider-Man [Note: a continuity set in a parallel universe to the regular comics], which was called Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, this is the one that introduced Miles Morales, and issue one is where he first got his powers, and the first five or six issues is basically where he learned to use the powers and became Spider-Man. So what did you think of Miles Morales as Spider-Man?
Shiv: I thought he was pretty cool, and I really liked the fact that in the movie he likes doing graffiti on the walls and when he was making his costume I thought that was pretty cool when he was using the graffiti paint.
Gordon: Yes, so they didn’t have that in the comics. In the comics he’s a bit more of a scientist, a bit more of a smart kid. What did you like about his character in the comics?
Shiv: I liked that he was, well I don’t know how to explain it, but when he was fighting against his Uncle Aaron; I thought why would he be fighting against his uncle, because why would his uncle want to fight him?
Gordon: Right, so it’s confusing; you felt confused? Basically what was happening was he was standing up to his uncle. Now you might not remember, but in the original Spider-Man, when it was Peter Parker, he had a different relationship with his uncle, didn’t he? He had an Uncle Ben, who he loved very much, and so what we’ve got here is a contrast, it’s different. Miles Morales doesn’t have an uncle that loves him and supports him in the way that Uncle Ben did. He’s got an uncle that was actually a bit naughty, a bit nasty, and who wanted to exploit him. And so he had to basically stand up to his uncle. And so what he had was similar, but different. They both learned through it and they both grew up through it. What did you think about when Miles first met Peter Parker?
Shiv: I thought he was pretty amazed. Like, at first he thought that he didn’t come from another universe, but then he did. And then when Peter Parker saw Miles Morales, he unmasked him, so then Miles Morales tried to unmask Peter.
Gordon: Yes you’re right, they took off each others’ masks. It’s a very nice story because it basically is a sort of passing of the torch. Miles sort of grows up a bit in meeting with the older Spider-Man and is inspired by him. He basically feels validated, he feels better about himself from having met the older Peter Parker. So that’s sort of a closure of the old [Ultimate] Peter Parker story, and it’s really the start of the new Miles Morales story as Spider-Man. So overall, do you think you would want to see more of Miles Morales?
Shiv: Yes
Roshni: Yes!
Shiv: I think Miles Morales is pretty cool; you know like all that swinging stuff and stuff, I really like Spider-Man. I especially like that Miles Morales can give you a Venom Sting.
Gordon: You like his Venom Sting? It’s different; he’s got different powers doesn’t he, because he can turn invisible aswell. So okay, you like the Venom Sting, that’s your favourite one…
Roshni: I like his invismal powers
Gordon: His what power?
Roshni: In-vis-i-mal
Gordon: His invisible powers, yes; so he’s different from Peter Parker isn’t he? He’s slightly the same because he can jump around, he’s got the spider-sense, and he obviously has this funny relationship with his uncle, but he’s different because he has different powers, and a different look. Well I’m glad you enjoyed the comics and I’ll try to read some more to you some other time.
The issues discussed above have been collected in the trade paperback Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection Book 1.
