Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #12 (Final Issue) Review
The final issue of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man is out now. As the series comes to a close, I’ll give you my review of both the issue and how I thought the series was. So let’s get into what happened in Issue #12 of Miles Morales’ story.
The comic opens with the teacher noticing that three students, Miles, Katie, and Ganke, are missing and asks Judge if he had seen them. A sensible person would have sent the dorm guy to go check their room, but instead Judge is the one who has to do that and finds out the place has been trashed. Seriously, how did no one notice him being kidnapped if they made that much of a mess?
Meanwhile, Miles has been captured and hung up in a suspension cube by Doctor Doom. You see, he has a thing against Miles because he invaded Doom’s castle in a crossover with the All-New X-Men. Doom makes it clear he’s going to mine him for every biological secret he’s got and then make a bunch of super-Hydra agents. Miles explodes with a new power, gets free, and begins to curb-stomp everyone off-screen.
Judge, the ever-curious person, goes to Miles’ house to see that was also trashed and runs into Cloak and Dagger, who scare him until he explains that he was his friend and thinks something has happened to him. They decide to gather their remaining friends and Maria Hill to try and find Miles, receiving a notice about an explosion in a warehouse district. By the time they arrive, Miles and Jessica have mopped up everything.
Miles finds everyone safe and sound, breaks up with Katie by letting Dagger stab her (just knocked her out), and the comic ends with their planet about to smash into the 616-universe.
Okay, review time…
You can tell they rushed this with the whole Hydra subplot. Doom’s beef with Miles comes out of left-field if you didn’t read the All-New X-Men issues, we suddenly get him having either a new power or a souped-up Venom Blast unlike what he unleashed on Osborn, and the world is getting ready to end. You can tell they just wanted to get things into place so they can close the Ultimate Universe with Secret Wars after Ultimate End.
It was rushed, so I can’t give it more than a 3 out of 5.
As for the series as a whole, it wasn’t bad. In fact, it was the one series I never got completely jaded or frustrated with. I flat-out dropped All-New Ultimates and Uncanny X-Men because they were flawed through and through and I just couldn’t take it anymore. But asides from bringing Peter back from the dead and Jefferson’s flashback, this was a good series overall.
It gets a 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #11 Review
Okay, after Miles basically got his ass caught for stupidly revealing his identity, he’s now captured by HYDRA. What happens next, you ask? Read my review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #11!
The comic opens with the fake spider guys robbing another SHIELD place, only this time Jessica Drew is waiting for them. Much like every other time we see her trying to do something alone in this series, she gets her ass-kicked and de-masked. Would it have killed her to have taken Cloak, Dagger, or Bombshell? Then again, Miles didn’t even put up a fight so….
Speaking of him, Miles’ father is calling for him, but doesn’t have his phone. Ganke does, and it turns out he and Miles are both horrible at keeping his secret identity a secret. Their roommate for the last year knew all this time, because he’s not an idiot and these guys are loud. Roxxon was right, he did a horrible job of protecting his secret identity.
Miles wakes up to find Katie there waiting for him, and she explains she had nothing to do with this. But she did tell her sister and when your whole family is HYDRA, it naturally leads to this. He breaks out of the ropes holding him down, but Katie’s father has captured his family and friends so he’ll settle down rather than punching through him like he’s made of plywood.
He chews Miles out stating that his actions have cost them a number of agents despite losing his mother because of his actions, but he’s alive because Katie asked that he be given a chance and he’s a valuable piece of genetic engineering. Miles tries to flee, only to get shot because for some reason he forgot he has camouflage powers and Spider-Sense and Agility, only for Doom to show up with Jessica Drew in tow.
Okay, review time….
To be fair, Doom had made it clear he was going to get Miles back in the All New X-Men series, so I really wasn’t surprised. Even if the cover hadn’t given him away. I’d consider it proper continuity, but the Ultimate Universe is doomed next issue anyway so it doesn’t matter.
Still, 4 out of 5.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #6 Review
The big secret behind Peter Parker’s return is revealed in Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #6! Read my recap and review of the cop-out of his epic death and more proof that the Ultimate Universe is coming to an end! But despite that I did like it!
The comic begins with JJJ having a moment of guilt over shooting Osborn before calling Ben Urich about it. Let’s face it, sometimes you have to put the monsters down and he could argue self-defense. Unfortunately for him, Osborn is apparently immortal now ad believes he’s responsible from creating new gods like Spider-Man. Then he kills JJJ.
Meanwhile Miles finally wants answers if Peter is real or not. MJ tries covering for him, but he wants answers from the man himself. Peter believes that he came back from the dead because he remembered his life and death, waking up in an abandoned lab in Atlanta and then making his way back to Queens, where he ran across MJ. They dug up his coffin and found it was empty, realizing that someone would have stolen his corpse for being a wonder of science.
Seeing how MJ broke down at seeing him again after years he decided he couldn’t show his face to the others since they had closure and Miles was out there. He only wanted the web-shooters since they were the only connection he had to his dad, who made the original formula. But Aunt May and Gwen state otherwise as they appear, stating that they could figure out he would be there because where else would he go?
Unfortunately Osborn thinks the same way and shows up for Round Two, stating they are his Spider-Men as Miles goes in alone. Osborn demands his respect as he gave birth to his powers, but Miles zaps him until he submits. As the comic ends, Osborn tells him that without him around he’ll never know where his powers came from and who his father really is.
Okay, review time.
Begrudgingly, I have to admit Peter has a good reason for not telling the others he was back. I mean, they had closure and were being left alone now that he was gone. Him being alive again would put targets on his family and friends back since everyone knows who he was. It’s fucked up in how much sense it makes.
But with Peter Parker and Osborn coming back, it’s safe to say that Marvel is crapping on their own rules when it comes to ‘Dead means Dead’ and are circling the drain in the grand scheme of things. Since Peter’s death was a turning point of epicness and meaningfulness, having both him and Osborn come back sets a bad precedence, especially if he ain’t a clone, and with the other Ultimate Titles being canceled it doesn’t bode well for them.
That being said, 5 out of 5.
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #2
Our story begins with Norman Osborn returning to his defunct company, Oscorp, only to find his office robbed of almost everything important except for a picture of a stallion. Why this sole painting was left hanging isn’t clear, but it’s revealed to have hidden a retinal scanner that leads to a secret lab that must’ve been operating with one massive hidden power source given the lights work after over two years. He finds whatever he’s looking for there and gets to working on whatever he has in mind for the next issue.
Meanwhile Miles touches Peter in ways that are almost inappropriate while trying to figure out how he’s alive. Peter keeps asking for the web-shooters and states that he’ll leave once he gets them, but Miles calls his ass out on why he hasn’t told anyone he’s alive. The fact that this guy tries to skirt the issue alone is sending up alarm bells.
Eventually Peter tries to take them and gets a reflexive Venom Blast for his trouble, which if he had his Spider-Sense he would have dodged because it takes about three seconds to work on contact. Then again it worked on 616-Peter…anyway, he shakes it off long enough to knock Miles on his ass and then knocks him out, taking them while he was out cold. When Miles gets up he thinks to himself that it must be a clone, which honestly isn’t that far of a stretch when you consider that Scorpion is still around as far as we know, and runs off to tell Ganke.
The imposter Spider-Men show up at a Stark facility and beat the crap out of the guards while bantering with each other, with one guard calling for back-up. He comes out when the rest are down and tells them he doesn’t get paid enough to get his ass-kicked and just tells them to take what they came for. They tell him to help get something from the boat labeled “Latveria”, which can’t be good.
Miles and Ganke talk about the Peter Parker he just ran into, with Miles dropping the bomb on Ganke that Jessica is a female clone. The boy thinks Peter must have had a great tush. Puberty hit him hard given how he seems to go after every hot older woman he knows. Anyway they discuss the merits of telling May about this or not, since she’s been so good to him and through so much pain that he doesn’t want to trouble her if he’s wrong. It doesn’t help that Jessica’s phone is off.
The discussion derails the moment Miles’ girlfriend shows up. Both of them suck at lying, so she quickly figures something is wrong and asks if he’s breaking up with her. The comic ends as he decides to just come clean.
Okay, review time.
Not much progress other than the fact that “Peter” is being secretive and kind of a dick, shocker. Good art though. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5 for the time being.
Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Review
Okay, Miles has been around for a bit so it’s time he got a series named after him. So in this continuation of his life upon donning the Spider-Man mask again I’ll be reading and reviewing it to give you my biased opinion of what I think of it. This is the first review of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man and it already contains swearing so beware!
The story begins at a top-secret SHIELD containment facility. Since Cataclysm ended the way it did, SHIELD has been disbanded and that means all their prisoners get transferred to a federal prison. That includes one special bastard who by all rights should be dead:
Norman-fucking-Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, aka the man who killed Peter Parker. Apparently he didn’t die and Fury thought to keep his ass locked up since nothing seems to finish the damn job. The guard, no longer assigned to watch him, knocks his teeth in for killing Peter and tell them to keep an eye on the bastard…it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how that’s going to end.
Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, two guys are discussing whether or not Captain America is dead. Let’s face it, they didn’t find the body so he’ll probably pop up later on. But this meta-discussion gets ended when some spider-man dressed douche-bags decide to make with the robbing of an armored truck. This is not what Miles needs.
Speaking of his needs, he’s making out with Katie Bishop when she’s asking where he was last night. Considering the shot of the All New Ultimates I would say he’s busy, but since he can’t explain that because she’s not in the loop she incorrectly assumes it was because Jefferson had came home. Apparently his Dad decided to simply abandon him…see my end notes about that. Either way the discussion comes to a close when a teacher tells him to get to class and we get an angsty teen shot.
We then skip to Long Island Expressway where Norman turns into the Green Goblin and escapes, shocker, and then back to Miles and Ganke. Miles is once again debating with Ganke on telling Katie his secret identity and Ganke argues against while now crushing on Dagger instead of Gwen. He’s got a thing for older women since puberty kicked in I guess….I can respect that.
Miles reminds him that she’s taken and out of his league and then goes pouty face when Ganke mentions he helped him be Spider-Man. He then decides to call up Mary Jane and gets some advice. She tells him that yeah it’s good to tell the girl because she shouldn’t have to find out after his death makes the front page of the news. But she also warns him that it’s like being married, you tell her then you’re connected for life, so make sure she’s not a villain or decides to go the woman-scorned route if something goes down.
Miles stress-level continues to rise as he learns about the fake spider-men and knows that he’s going to probably be framed for a crime he didn’t commit soon enough. As he enters his home he finds someone ransacking the place looking for something and when they turn around it’s…wait for it…wait for it…wait for it….
It’s Peter Parker!
Okay, review time.
Really, Peter’s back…yeah, I’m not buying it. Last time I checked, Scorpion and Jessica were the only clones still running around so I say it’s him. Actually, did those two Chameleons twins get killed off or not, because that would explain so much…
The debate about telling girlfriend or not doesn’t really interest me because it’s been done before and they have us another shot of Miles being angsty, probably because he resents being Spider-Man again now that it cost him his last family member. His life was so much better before he put it on…
Speaking of which, was the Marvel staff smoking something hard when they thought that up. Jefferson abandoning his son and Miles going angsty? You’re having the African-American father, who was reasonable up until the mask came off, abandon his son? Just to make him a troubled teen rather than the chipper kid he was like ten issues ago? Really?
This…is not the type of controversy they should be trying to stir up. It’d be one thing if Jefferson was shown as abusive before, rather than just one stress-induced incident that they could both sit down and talk about after the end of the world. I mean, he was a semi-bigot with grievances against Spider-Man, but seriously they pulled that out of their asses over the course of ten pages rather than ten issues like Jefferson one day finding his spider-suit and then stewing it over.
I shouldn’t have expected better. I blame myself…no, wait, I blame Marvel. C’mon now, having Jefferson abandon him is just fucking cheap and plays into negative stereotypes on top of Miles going angst over it. The only excuse that I’d accept is that he died and they’re hiding the body. I don’t fucking want broody Miles because his Daddy left him, that daddy issue shit gets old.
You don’t see Cloak bitching about his circumstances…just saying…and for fuck’s sake, stop taking off your mask Miles!
Anyway, I can’t give this a perfect score because of the above and we know that Peter is either a clone or a shape-shifter who appears after SHIELD is closed down. Really, sending super-villains to federal prisons just begs for it. Given that in 616 Mystique breaks in and out of SHIELD for a hobby it’s fairly obvious. In fact I’d like to be proven wrong…
It gets a 3 out of 5. Clean it up, Marvel.
Twilit Dreams Circle 