Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Appreciation 2022

[CrimsonEchidna]

So a lot of times with issue #1s, they feel like a soft reboot of the series. With this one though, honestly it could just as well have been issue #43 because tone-wise it legit feels like a continuation of where the last run left off. Two new characters in the form of Miles' new teacher and the new villain but honestly from the Journal to the continuing undercurrent of Miles' anger issues.

I liked it. The stumbling to the last run was Saladin speeding through the arcs and minimizing his supporting cast outside of his family. He committed to Selim being the big payoff to the all arc and that was a really flat final boss so I'm hoping Cody Ziglar has a better balance with his stories. The biggest problem with comics in general IMHO is theres now obsession with these long form, multi year building arcs. And Miles especially really didn't need that.

[Matt Rat]

This issue also touches a fraction or so on the Zeb Wells mystery, as Miles points out in his journal he felt a bit cut off as Peter started acting like a 'weirdo'

[CrimsonEchidna]

Alright so it's after noon so an actual summary of events now:

spoilers:

The issue opens up with a local teenager in Brooklyn named Raneem who is feeding the homeless. Miles is monologing in his journal about the stress of living his double life and Raneem almost gets caught up in the crossfire in a fight between Miles and Scorpion. Miles manages to save her before returning to his fight with Scorpion in defeating him. After the fight, Miles ends up getting grillied by a new agent instated by the Powers Act, Gao, starts grilling Miles on the collateral damage of the fight. If you remember, one of Wilson Fisks final acts as Mayor during Devil's Reign to enstate a new form of the Superhero Registration Act to make life harder for vigilantes. It turns out Mayor Luke hasn't managed to get it overturned so now Miles finds himself in the sight of some these Agents. Gao decides to let Miles off the hook this one time as a "warning." At school Ganke is trying to rush Miles to get changed for class because of his repeated tardies. Miles has a nasty shiner from the fight. Miles has a new teacher, Mr Akpolo who's a real hardass on Miles for his constant tardiness and skipping class. He accuses Miles in front of the rest of the class of taking advantage of his privleged of being a lottery student, outright implying that other kids deserved it more. Miles gets into an argument with Akpolo and gets suspended. Miles gets a call from his parents later on who want to hear his side of the story and he opens up about his recent struggles with balancing everything. They give him a pep talk and Miles decides to go swinging for a while to try and clear his thoughts. During so, he ends up having a run in with Bumbler, who's using new tech to rob a store. Bumbler was that new villain Ziglar created for the 10th Anniversary issue last year. Miles gets pissed off because in their last encounter, Bumbler swore he would turn over a new leaf, but Bumbler tries to justify his crimes because he's fallen in on hard times. Miles doesn't want to hear any of it and takes his anger out on him. Miles catches himself before he can go too far and leaves him wrapped up for the police. As he swings back home the final scene returns to Raneem again who is returning to her apartment. It's implied that she was in the running for the lottery to enter the Academy all those years ago and she's been using her technology to stalk Miles and his family. So she's definitely Rabble and have been outfitting Miles' villains with new tech.

end of spoilers

Honestly this issue felt very much like a throw back to those early Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man issues so I'm really enjoying it. I think Bumbler has a really good making of being a "frenemy" for Miles. After all the mystery box shenanigans in the last couple of runs of Amazing, I'm cool with getting the reveal for Rabble right away because I just want to know what her characterization and "justification" for hating Miles is going to be. Ziglar is now the third writer going with Miles having an anger streak so I'm hoping there will also be some payoff here. Like I always kind of headcanoned that Nadia would be his friend to recognize it since she's had episodes herself.

So good issue, I'm looking forward to more.

[Dron]

Finished up. Really enjoyed it. Took a minute or two get into Ziglar's voice for Morales but it clicked for me by the end. as Crimson mentioned before it really does feel like a straight continuation than say a big reboot like new #1's tend to feel. I like that. I know it's more of a method of keeping track of when a new creative team comes on but Ziglar pulling from Saladin and even stuff from way back in the Ultimate Bendis days is cool. I like the art especially the fight with Scorpion. A promising start, let's hope it keeps up.

spoilers:

Oh yeah and the allusion Miles makes on the rooftop to Parker is that about Dark Web or him getting erased in Spider-man. There probably isn't an answer just yet but I was wondering when this takes place.

end of spoilers

[Dragonick]

Pretty good first issue, and I'm in agreement about it feeling like a continuation, I think that really helps make it feel solid.
spoilers:

Legitimately surprised that Rabble is just a completely new character. I would've bet money on it being Olivia, guess we'll see how it pans out. Also that Spider-Man issue isn't too great for Peter or Miles, one's a monster and the other's dead.

end of spoilers

[Majesty]

Looks like we'll be getting some Across the Spider-Verse news on the 13th:



https://twitter.com/SpiderVerse/stat...DTkdLynLEsAAAA

Really hope they commit to the Gwen/Miles relationship. As there's a lot that can be done with it, and also because they were so great in the first film.


Also in general I'm just looking forward to seeing this film in it's entirety!

[Jaychance]

The new issue was really refreshing and the new villain makes their first appearance this issue instead of issue two unless they treat it as first appearance then first appearance as said villain next issue.

[XenobladerX]

This was a very good start to the new series and put some of my concerns about Zigler writing Miles at ease. And, yeah, this definitely feels like a Miles Morales: Spider-Man season 2 rather than feeling like a reboot or disconnected from what came before. Which is great.

[CrimsonEchidna]

So since the first issue was pretty good, I still kind of got a my ongoing wishlist of developments I'd think would be cool.


Antagonists:

• Miles' rogues being a mix of newly created antagonists and some actual underusued villains like Hydro Man/Paper Doll.
• I always thought it would be cool if a new villain for Miles was actually a young rogue Wakandan. Part of this is influenced by that rumor of the MCU Kraven getting reworked into being from Wakanda. Maybe someone with actual mystical powers like Shuri.
• Would be cool to see Alpha return as antagonist. This is just on a meta-level something that would make too much sense since Miles and Alpha debuted in the same year and both represented seperate reflections of Peter Parkers mythos and they had polar opposite trajectories and fan reception.
• Have Lori Baumgarner join Beetle's Sinister Syndicate.
• Tombstone eventually becomes the big crime boss of Miles' book. This is definitely a reflection of the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon.

Supporting Cast:

• An actual one-on-one teamup with Sam Alexander would be nice. I know Kamala is supposed to be Miles' closest superhero friend, but its overdue.
• Establish Jefferson's career finally. Ahmed closed the door on the whole SHIELD agent thing and with the way comic Jefferson has been written, I doubt he would be a cop. I'm still of the opinion that he should be a Community Center counselor for the homeless/vets.
• The debut issue introduce Agent Gao, a character Miles will have conflict with on the force so this is nice.
• Bring back Danika. I dug her characterization in the video game as being a podcaster. It beats the Bendis portrayal of her being a shallow vlogger.

[ZuLuLu]

This was a solid issue 1 by Zigler, I agree with everyone that this felt like a continuation of the previous series and I think this issue benefited from that as Zigler used the history we already have with Miles to show all the struggles that Miles is facing both as Spider-Man and Miles Morales.

This issue was action-packed and Vicentini's art delivered vibrant and kinetic fight sequences.

I like that Zigler brought back Bumbler because I think his relationship with Miles going forward can be interesting, and I hope he continues to introduce new characters that would be original to Miles' book.

I'm looking forward to the next issue.

[Huntsman Spider]

Generally cosigning all the positivity here so far. Glad Ziglar's gotten off to a decent start. And yeah, let's see if he can keep it up for at least the whole first arc.

[Tapioca Blitzkrieg]

Saw them. Plot looks good. Ziglar dialogue is a little off I can't pinpoint why

Ditto, this issue got me optimistic for Miles as a character, Ziglar seems the type to value introspective and vulnerable character moments, thats a plus in my book.

about the dialogue, my guess is the prominence of slang can be off-putting if you don't dose it right. If you get too niche you might alienate some ppl, as not even ppl in the same comunities share the same repertoire of slang terms and it can end up feeling really weird and imersion breaking. Thats where i got a little bugged anyway, don't know if thats what got to you or if it something diferent altogether.

[Kurolegacy]

So is it just me or did the back and forth between Miles and Scorpion where he was talking about how good Miles’ costume looks feel a bit like a tongue in cheek wink at the audience at the fact that they ditched the new costume for his original?

[Cornbread11]

Really hope they commit to the Gwen/Miles relationship. As there's a lot that can be done with it, and also because they were so great in the first film.


Also in general I'm just looking forward to seeing this film in it's entirety!

Same here I want to see them go all in on it and build it up threw these 2 films and yea I agree there is so much there. With kemp powers also helping lord&miller on the story I expect to see some really good character moments and bonding with them on par with soul.

[Nerwrax15]

So is it just me or did the back and forth between Miles and Scorpion where he was talking about how good Miles’ costume looks feel a bit like a tongue in cheek wink at the audience at the fact that they ditched the new costume for his original?

I mean, he's a Spider-Man, he was always going to return to his classic duds eventually. You don't want his shiny new #1 to have a suit not know to the super casual punlic on the cover.