Brian Michael Bendis’ crossover event between Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man and the All-New X-Men’s conclusion is a fantastic way to end what has been an engaging, exciting and well-written comic book story-arc that has properly utilised all of the disparate characters within it. I’m left wondering what would’ve happened had Bendis been more involved in the Spider-Verse storyline which lost its way at times, but nevertheless back to All-New X-Men #36.
It was refreshing to see that following the cliff-hanger ending with Mile’s heroic gambit the good-guys were on the ropes at the start of this issue. Seeing Asrar’s brilliant two-page spread depicting all of the X-Men down and out following the explosion with only a maniacal Doctor Doom left standing was the closest to defeated I’ve seen the good guys in a comic book.
This made their eventual teaming up all the more effective and dramatic. I particularly enjoyed seeing the two Iceman and two Jean Greys teaming up to take down Doctor Doom and Miles Morale’s proclaimed ‘Wow’ pretty much summed up my feelings. Say what you want about convoluted stories involving different dimensions but there’s something awesome about seeing two versions of the same character working together.
I also particularly enjoyed Doctor Doom’s, and by extension, Bendis’ focus, on Miles Morales as the hero to deliver the evil monologue to. The fact that the Ultimate Universe’s Spider-Man was what spurred a relatively undeveloped and underpowered Jean Grey to go toe-to-toe with Doctor Doom was also thoroughly enjoyable.
I wrote about the growing relationship between the young Jean Grey and Miles Morales and how I hoped that this wouldn’t be a one-time thing. Even if they do end up being just good friends. However the end of the issue with the tender moment when Jean compliments Miles and thanks him for being a good friend when she needed one, followed by a kiss on the cheek perhaps suggests that Bendis is slow-burning an actual relationship for these two characters when they inevitably meet again in the Secret Wars.
The reintroduction of Carmen Cruise properly helped to bookend this story-arc and bring it full circle. Whilst her power allowed for Bendis to throw in some cool gimmicky looks at other universes I do have a slight criticism regarding the underdevelopment of her as a character. I understand that Bendis wanted to spotlight the central characters and Spider-Man but when you introduce a new character with cool powers you can’t help but be interested in them. Hopefully Carmen continues to get some page-space and wasn’t just a narrative tool for this event.
The same can be said for Doctor Doom, who is quickly growing on me as a favourite villain despite not being a Spider-Man villain. In this issue it looked like he had been defeated and was possibly dead but we all know that hasn’t happened. My guess is that 616 Doctor Doom somehow opened up a portal and teleported Ultimate Doctor Doom there, saving him in the nick of time.
This storyline has been a delight from start to finish and has left a much better taste in my mouth than the Spider-Verse did (although I definitely enjoyed the Spider-Verse). It’s just that at the moment Bendis seems to have a masterful handle on Miles Morales, as well as the X-Men and the combination of those characters together really worked!
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- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episodes 1 and 2 review: Aftermath
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Check out Whatever a Spider Can’s other recaps and reviews of X-Men and Spider-Man comic book crossovers
Amazing X-Men #7 recap, and review
All-New X-Men #31 recap, and review
All-New X-Men #32 recap and review
All-New X-Men #33 recap, and review
All-New X-Men #34 recap, and review
All-New X-Men #35 recap, and review
Spider-Man and the X-Men #1 recap, and review
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