Whatever a Spider Can’s Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 review

As I said in the recap for Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 I don’t know a lot about Marvel’s Ultimate universe, so my knowledge of Miles Morales, his supporting characters and friends, as well as past events in the Ultimate universe was severely lacking so I was both full of trepidation and excited to be reading my first solo Miles Morales Spider-Man Ultimate universe comic.

Surprisingly the first thing I can say is that, unlike Amazing Spider-Man #1, or All-New Ultimates #1, this was the first new #1 issue for a Spider-Man title that I found eased a new Spider-Man comic-book reader like myself in pretty well. The relevant pieces of information needed from previous events was neatly placed earlier on in the issue so that when events happened later on you knew what they were referring to.

For example I picked up that Galactus may have killed a whole bunch of people in Jersey, that Captain America, Peter Parker and Norman Osborn were all presumed dead (at least before this issue) that Spider-Man is now part of a new super-hero team involving Spider-Woman, Cloak and Dagger and Bombshell (although All-New Ultimates #1 covered that as well) and finally that Miles’ dad left him after blaming Miles for the death of his mother.

That’s a lot of information from previous Ultimate titles that Brian Michael Bendis has deftly filtered through this issue without making it obvious he’s using exposition, or using too much dialogue space. As a result I felt like I was able to buy into this story easier, and settle down as new plot developments happened without being confused or having to immediately take to the internet to find out what on earth these characters are talking about.

Bendis also seems to have an uncanny knack for characterisation and character moments, this issue is almost entirely character driven from the very likable S.H.I.E.L.D employee handing over Norman Osborn (who isn’t dead, contrary to popular belief) to the softer, more emotive moments between Miles and several people including his girlfriend Katie Bishop, his friend Ganke and Mary Jane Watson. Comic books are well-known for their action but would be nothing without the character developments that Bendis is so superbly captured here.

On the back of the driving arc of the issue which was Miles’ internal debate on whether or not to tell his girlfriend he’s Spider-Man we’re given several other storylines to go with as well. This is great because the overall focus on character emphasis makes it seem like not a lot happens but in reality we’re introduced to a duo of Spider-Men copycats, an escaped and looking for revenge Norman Osborn, Miles searching for his dad and of course that shocking last panel reveal.

Of course I only know it’s shocking because earlier on in the issue Bendis made sure to specifically reference that Peter Parker was dead, hence the S.H.I.E.L.D employee punching Norman Osborn. Otherwise Peter Parker showing up in Miles’ apartment as a cliff-hanger would have been completely lost on me. But as it turns out the first impression is that both the original Spider-Man, and the original Spider-Man arch-nemesis aren’t as dead as first believed.

Whilst I’m here I also want to state that I am a big fan of the art by David Marquez and Justin Ponsor and I have to say that so far it’s probably my favourite art in comic-books. In particular the explosion scene showing Norman’s escape and the Green Goblin silhouette is fantastic as well as the general look of all of the characters just resonating more with me than others.

All-in-all I really enjoyed Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and I’m now really looking forward to #2. This is a world that’s completely new to me, a character that’s completely new to me and I’m really eager to find out more. How will Miles deal with the Spider-Duo and Norman Osborn, will he tell Katie he’s Spider-Man, is that really Peter Parker? I can’t wait.

Check out Whatever a Spider Can’s other Spidey comic book recaps and reviews
Amazing Spider-Man #1 recap, and review
Amazing Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl #1.1 recap, and review
All-New Ultimates #1 recap, and review
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 recap

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