Miles Morales New Era Officially Begins Today
Warning! This article contains major SPOILERS for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1.Not only is it a brand-new day for Peter Parker’s Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but it’s also a brand-new day for Miles Morales’ Spider-Man in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1, released today. It’s been quite a while now since the previous Miles Morales: Spider-Man run ended, and, as a result, many fans might be concerned that they don’t remember minor details that might bleed into this new one.
But fret not. As it turns out, this new Miles Morales: Spider-Man run is being treated like a soft relaunch that doesn’t appear to have much connective tissue between it and what came before. It has some growing pains, naturally, and yet readers may not be wholly enthusiastic about how much this run is already willing to retcon or gloss over.
Bryan Hill’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man run is yet another reader-friendly jumping-on point/relaunch for Marvel Comics, and it’s treated with as much accessibility in mind as possible—to a fault, maybe. It’s made fully transparent that this run is swearing to adhere to a street-level tone, with Miles declining an invitation to thwart “potential cosmic armageddon” from none other than Spider-Man from the year 2099 and an alternate-dimension Ghost-Spider (Spider-Verse movie synergy, surely).
However, this issue is worryingly backsliding in terms of Miles’ characterization and development, summed up succinctly by him having said, “I think I’m starting to figure this whole Spider-Man thing out.” In many ways, it feels as if this run is intended to be a blank slate with no familiarity about the previous run being necessary at all, and that’ll obviously be mildly disappointing for anyone who enjoyed the previous run, as well as the narrative and character development it had fostered. In this sense, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 banks on a brand-new villain and a brand-new love interest to carry its intrigue.
Miles and Ganke Lee are seen playing Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a real-life 4v4 tag-team fighting game that was released recently.
Fans who’ve read Cody Ziglar’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man run will be alarmed—horrified, potentially—to learn that Miles and Tiana Toomes/Starling had apparently broke up off-panel, between runs, with Spider-Man now perfectly content to move on and have a crush on Valentina Ludvenko, a Ukrainian exchange student, and readers who are completely in the dark about what occurred in the most recent Miles Morales: Spider-Man run will be none the wiser.
The solicitation for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2 reads as follows:
SINS OF THE FATHER! ENTER GRENDEL — a super villain from Jeff Morales’ past who will stop at nothing to have his revenge against the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent... but their seemingly perfect plan didn’t count on SPIDER-MAN! But how can Miles Morales fight an enemy who has a counter for his every move and power? What tragic events led to Grendel’s fall - and what does Miles’ dad have to do with it?
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 is out now.