Marvel Comics is celebrating Miles Morales’s ten-year anniversary with variant covers and, this Wednesday, an extra-sized anniversary issue. The issue is a must-read, in part because it features some big-time Hollywood talent, another fabulous backup story by Cody Ziglar, and a main story that features Miles’s new costume. ‘Nuff said, right Marvel fans?
As a spoiler-free review, don’t expect any story details not featured in the preview. The main story opens with Spider-Man swinging through the city with his costume on full display while we read his thoughts via the captions torn from his notebook. Carmen Carnero draws the main story and does a fantastic job showing the speed of Miles as he zips around. Many of us are going to read this to scope out the new costume, and Carnero puts in a lot of effort to flesh out little details that make it come alive. It doesn’t just look like spandex — it’s a functional-looking costume.
There is also action, too, with plenty of webbing up of baddies. Erick Arciniega’s colors do a good job of making the look of the city and costume feel grounded and realistic. There are a lot of energy effects that shine through, too.
Cory Petit letters all of the stories here, and the main story puts him to work. The standout word balloon features a ton of words in a single bubble for story reasons, and the effect is well done. Petit has to really stretch the word balloons at times, showing how placement and the look of the balloons are so important when strung together.
Love this opening splash!
Credit: Marvel
Writer Saladin Ahmed hits a lot of elements that make Miles Morales so great for casual fans to cling to — he’s late for something, has things going well for him in his personal life, and he’s generally hopeful. The baddie in a mechanized suit is just one problem he has to solve, which helps show Miles’s selflessness.
Spider-Man has always been best as a slice-of-life hero, and he nails it here. There’s also a great cliffhanger reminiscent of another moment in Spider-Man history that fans will get hype for.
Since the backup stories aren’t in the preview, I’ll just say Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Kemp Powers, Jeff Loveness, and Sara Pichelli do a great job connecting Miles Morales to New York. It’s a theme made all the more important ever since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, and they do that and more here, capturing the togetherness of New Yorkers in more than one way.
There are clever choices connecting Spider-Man to the community and using technology that is easy to understand and follow. Pichelli gets to flex some comedic muscles. Rachelle Rosenberg backs her up on colors with a great sense of atmosphere and lighting.
Wrapping up the extra-sized issue is a story by Cody Ziglar and Anthony Piper that takes a unique approach with Miles Morales. I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers, but it’s a neat way to show growth. Ziglar also supplied a backup story for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #25, which also took a unique approach as far as how Miles speaks in slang. It thoroughly grounds the character as more realistic and while it’s not how he speaks usually, it gives readers a sense of Miles’ closeness to the community and the people he’s protecting.
Piper gives Miles a lot of attitude and puts him in cool poses. The use of color sets Miles’s classic costume apart from the nighttime scene in a neat way, too.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #30 is a great way to celebrate the character and what he stands for. Across all three stories, each creative team has done well to show how selfless, caring, and down to Earth Miles Morales can be. It’s a comic that reminds us Miles Morales is a feel-good superhero that’s grounded and relatable.
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