Comics Explained: Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has brought my favourite version of Spider-Man to the attention of the mainstream public: Miles Morales. Morales didn't first appear in the mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth-616) but instead the 'Ultimate' Universe (Earth-1610) - something we'll explain in a bit. Miles offered a new insight into the teenage hero world being an Afro-Latino teen struggling to find his identity in the shadow of the first Spider-Man. He became so popular that later he was sent to the mainstream universe and has featured heavily in two of Marvel's recent major events - Civil War II and Secret Empire. 

Background

To understand Miles we really need to understand the Ultimate Universe. Comic books for a long time have played around with alternate realities and Marvel had constructed an in-depth system to identify each one - the mainstream one was given the number 616. In the late-1990s comic books were failing and many companies were going bust - which you can read about here - and Marvel was close to collapsing. Marvel wanted to make its comics easier to get into, to attract new readers, but they were also fearful that they would alienate current readers. As a result, the Ultimate comics were made - a separate comic series that would update or reinterpret characters or stories. Even then, it was not clear if Ultimate would save Marvel; Brian Michael Bendis, who was one of the biggest contributors to Ultimate, said 'When I got hired, I literally thought I was going to be writing one of the last — if not the last — Marvel comics'. The Ultimate comics proved popular, although not enough to entirely save Marvel, and would even inspire movies - the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken inspiration from Ultimate just as much as the mainstream universe. After a decade the Ultimate Universe started exhibiting the same problems the mainstream comics had - confusing stories, story-arcs not paying off, and dead characters returning from the grave constantly - as well as many more. Ultimate got the reputation for being 'edgy' for the sake of it as perfectly shown in 2009's Ultimatum - it featured characters dying or killing others in needless ways with the intention to shock the reader. However, Ultimate Spider-Man largely managed to escape this trend, largely thanks to good writers like Brian Michael Bendis.

Bendis in The Death of Spider-Man decided to kill off Peter Parker, something which confused mainstream media which thought that Marvel was killing off the mainstream Parker. This would not be the end of the Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis and Sara Pichelli, (if you look carefully you can see them mentioned in Into the Spider-Verse), decided to create a new Spider-Man - originally Parker was going to die in Ultimatum but Marvel decided last minute to spare him. The 'Obituary' for all those died on the back of the last issue even lists Spider-Man. Bendis and Pichelli decided to make this new Spider-Man Afro-Hispanic leading, particularly the conservative, media to report that Marvel was trying to be politically correct. Miles first appeared Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 and soon got his own comic line, and has since become one of Marvel's favourite heroes.

Origins

Miles' debut in Ultimate Comics Fallout #4

Miles' backstory was later explained in Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2. Like Peter Parker he was from New York, although he was from Brooklyn, and was the son of a police officer, Jefferson Davis, and a nurse, Rio Morales, and was close to his uncle, Aaron Davis. However, Davis had criminal ties which made his parents not want their son to associate with him. After the Green Goblin was outed as being Norman Osborn and arrested his labs were broken into, but a spider hitched a ride in the thief's bag. Osborn had been trying to replicate the formula which gave Spider-Man his spider powers, and this mutated spider happened to be accidentally stolen by Aaron. When Miles visited Aaron the spider bit him giving him the powers of Spider-Man and a few extra powers - Miles can camouflage and have a 'venom' strike. However, Miles doesn't want to be a superhero - as a 13-year old he felt it was too much responsibility. Also, his father has a distrust of superheroes seeing them as unregulated vigilantes. That is until, after two months of having his powers, he sees Peter Parker dying protecting his family from the Sinister Six under the Green Goblin. 

Inspired by his friend, Ganke, and after talking to Gwen Stacy Miles decided to become Spider-Man but was routinely criticised for taking advantage of the image of the recently dead Parker. The struggling Miles is confronted and arrested by Spider-Woman who took him to Nick Fury. Fury revealed how he knew all about Miles' family and his uncle's criminal history in Ultimate Spider-Man #5, but as he helped Fury defeat Electro he decided to let Miles go with a gift: a black and red Spider-Man suit. As he started to become his own Spider-Man he met someone special: Peter Parker. In 2012's Spider-Men when fighting Mysterio mainstream Parker accidentally was transported to the Ultimate reality where he encounters Miles. The story sees Parker partially training Miles and also Parker dealing seeing the younger, and alive, Gwen Stacy - his girlfriend who was murdered by Green Goblin. At the end as Parker went to his own universe he gave Miles his blessing and later decided to look up his reality's version of Miles only to be shocked - this potential plot was forgotten for five years until Spider-Men II.

Time as Spider-Man

Miles against Electro

Like Parker Miles had to deal with his superhero life clashing with his civilian life. Aaron quickly realised that Miles was the new Spider-Man in Ultimate Spider-Man #8. Like his mainstream counterpart Aaron was the Prowler but unlike his other counterpart he never converted to being a hero. Aaron needed help against the Scorpion so threatened to tell Jefferson that Miles was Spider-Man if he didn't help him. They succeeded and Prowler got hold of a suit used by the Vulture. As the two kept fighting other criminals Miles realised that Aaron was using him as an enforcer to fight more powerful opponents. He decided to confront Aaron in #12 but during an earlier battle Aaron's weapons, Shock Guantlets used by Shocker, had been damaged so during their fight it exploded killing Aaron. This would become one of the biggest character defining moments for Miles - he had to face the fact that his uncle was a villain but also deeply cared for him simultaneously. I will not go through too much of some of the other stories mostly because they are very confusing to talk about unless if I was doing a specific post on them - including a civil war in the US caused by the followers of an insane Mr Fantastic wiping out the US government, and then Captain America becoming president. It took Ultimate a decade to get just as confusing as the mainstream did in four decades.

During this civil war Jefferson had got national fame for his fight against HYDRA which brought media attention to Miles...and Spider-Man. However, Betty Brant incorrectly believed that Jefferson was Spider-Man so using her information the new Venom attacked Jefferson in #19. A battle against time began as Miles and his friends hoped to find Venom before he attacked again. Then in #22 Venom attacked the hospital where Rio worked. During the battle Miles managed to separate the symbiote from its host, (who were both then killed by the police), but unfortunately Rio was mortally wounded. In her dying breath she told him that she was proud of him but he should never tell his father. Declaring 'No More' Miles gave up his Spider-Man identity. A year passed in the Ultimate Universe where Miles refused to take up the mantle of Spider-Man again after being traumatised by his mother's death. Throughout this time he had started a relationship with the Ultimate version of Kate Bishop and had debated telling her of his past. In #25 under the request of SHIELD and Jessica Drew (who is Spider-Woman in Earth-616) convinced him to become Spider-Man once more when the Roxxon Corporation's genetic mutations escape.

Catacylsm

Miles sees the arrival of Galactus

Age of Ultron was far more extreme than the MCU's version of the event. Ultron had basically won and wiped out the world, so Wolverine and Invisible Woman travelled back to the past where Wolverine killed Hank Pym before he could make the first Ultron. This created a dystopian universe thanks to the butterfly effect so they went back in time again to stop them from killing Pym, but also to convince him to put a virus in Ultron which would stop the machine from destroying the world. However, doing so broke the time-space continuum causing beings from different realities to fall into alternate realities. Earth-616's Galactus was sent to the Ultimate reality where it began to destroy New Jersey. Miles and the Ultimates (the alternate version of the Avengers) began saving civilians and trying the fight the unstoppable Galactus. Tony Stark realised that this Galactus was from Earth-616 so he thought that enlisting the aid of 616's Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic) to help them. Then the Ultimate version of Reed Richards arrived to offer help - unlike his mainstream version Ultimate Richards had become a genocidal megalomaniac. Stark decided to send Richards accompanied by Miles, but fearing the world could end he decided to tell his father of his identity. Unfortunately, Jefferson couldn't accept Miles - he just saw the person responsible for the death of Aaron and Rio. Despite being disowned he journeyed to Earth-616 and managed to get Richards of that reality to successfully defeat Galactus. In the aftermath Miles would help found the Young Ultimates and grow closer to Parker's family.

Parker's Return

Parker's return

In Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 when returning to his apartment he was surprised to find his version of Peter Parker, seemingly alive and well, in his apartment. Parker managed to briefly knock out Miles leading him to believe that he was a clone - and he found bad luck once again when Kate Bishop broke up with him after finding out that he was Spider-Man. He also found out that Green Goblin was alive and ended up encountering the villain when he went to warn Mary Jane. Parker showed up and using Miles' venom strike managed to defeat the Goblin. Peter revealed that he had woken up in a lab, returned to New York, and with Mary Jane had dug up his grave to find it was empty: he was no clone. Green Goblin soon broke out of custody, and it turned out that Miles' venom strike had increased his power, and attacked J. Jonah Jameson. Osborn had revealed that the formula which granted the powers which he and Parker had also granted 'immortality' explaining why they were now alive (because comics), before killing Jameson. The two Spider-Men once again teamed up and took down Goblin, and the two would continue as their own versions of Spider-Man. I'm going to skip over Morales' stories a bit - including one where Bishop and her family turned out to be HYDRA sleeper agents working for Dr Doom - to get to how Miles got to the mainstream reality.

Secret Wars

In 2015 Marvel decided to shake up its multiverse with Secret Wars. Two different realities would smash into one another destroying them (the 'incursions'), and for a period of eight hours the two universes existed side-by-side. After the two realities were destroyed the ricochets from the destruction would accelerate the rate of impact until the multiverse was entirely destroyed. However, if one universe was destroyed as they crashed into one another the destruction could be averted. Eventually, Earth-616 and Earth-1610 began to crash into one another so the Reed Richards of both worlds created vessels to survive the apocalypse - 616 Reed put his friends and family inside as 1610 put his followers in his vessel. Miles accidentally entered the 1610 vessel and survived the destruction waking up in Battleworld - a universe created out of the remains of all the destroyed realities. This new reality was ruled by the omnipotent God Emperor Doom who ruthlessly crushed opposition and locked universe ending threats - including zombies from Marvel Zombies and a version of Thanos recreating the Infinity Gauntlet - behind a wall called the Shield. Miles was rescued by 616's Dr Strange who had found the vessel containing the heroes of Earth-616. Miles helped lead a revolt against Doom in the Kingdom of Manhattan, made up of different versions of Manhattan, and went with Peter to find Doom's power. They found a captured Molecule Man, a being able to warp reality and had journeyed with Doom to try and stop the first Incursion but had accidentally started it. Miles gave the starving Molecule Man a hamburger which he had in his suit from just before his reality was destroyed. As the heroes attacked Doom Molecule Man managed to grant Doom's power to Mr Fantastic who reconstructed Earth-616. 

Miles woke up in Earth-616 alongside several other alternate heroes - including the Wolverine from Old Man Logan. As Miles had given Molecule Man the burger he decided to reward Miles - his friends were taken to Earth-616, and his parents and uncle were brought over as well or resurrected. Miles quickly became accustomed to the new reality being mentored by Spider-Man, and through membership of the Avengers he became close friends with the new Nova and Ms Marvel. Meanwhile, Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, their kids, Molecule Man, and a few others started reforming the old realities one-by-one, including the Ultimate one. However, Miles would remain in the 616 reality.

On Earth-616

The aftermath of Civil War II

Since 2015 Miles has been a recurring character in the mainstream comics. For one, he became a major player in the, albeit rushed, Civil War II. An Inhuman arrived on the scene being able to see future crimes before they happened straight out of Minority Report. This divided the superhero community between those who wanted to use it (including Captain Marvel and She-Hulk) and those who believed it punished individuals before they committed a crime (including Captain America and Iron Man). Miles became embroiled in this when the Inhuman had a vision of him killing Captain America on Capitol Hill. After seeing a successful vision played out, where Bruce Banner was killed, Miles became fearful that his emotional issues could lead him into becoming a killer. Captain America supported Miles and the two travelled to D.C. to test fate, but this caused Captain Marvel to arrive to arrest Miles. A fight broke out between Captain America (supported by Iron Man), and Captain Marvel which resulted in Stark being paralysed, and being rescued by Miles. Disenchanted with the adult heroes Miles helped found the Champions with various young heroes.

Miles with the other Champions

Spider-Men II in 2017 finally answered the question: what is the 616 version of Miles like? The 616 version of Miles was much older than his parallel counterpart and never went down a hero route. Instead he worked for the mob and became a close associate with Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Miles had attempted to go straight and settle down but the untimely death of his partner, Barbara Sanchez, brought him back to Fisk. Miles had found out that Barbara was alive in a parallel universe so hired the villain Taskmaster to find her which brought him to the attention of Peter and the younger Miles. After a few battles the older Miles went to the new universe and met up with Barbara whose bar had been wrecked in a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin - this turned out to be the remade Ultimate Universe. Meanwhile, the reborn Jefferson didn't resent Miles for being Spider-Man, in fact he supported his son, and decided to join SHIELD to look over him. Aaron Davis, still retaining his memories of the Ultimate reality, became the Iron Spider in Spider-Man #234 helping a new Sinister Six obtain SHIELD technology for Latveria (Doom's country). However, in #240 a note to Miles has indicated that Aaron may have abandoned his life of crime. At the start of December 2018 a new title called Miles Morales: Spider-Man has began under Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron - it has just started as of writing but it should continue to expand Miles' history.

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