After a brief hiatus, Miles Morales gets a new #1 issue and creative team with Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1. Written by Cody Ziglar and drawn by Federico Vicentini, the new ongoing joins two Peter Parker-focused Spider-Man titles at a time when Spider-Man feels as fresh and new as ever. Miles Morales hits hard in its first issue thanks to incredible art and a well-established take on the character.
What’s evident from the start of this issue is Ziglar and Vicentini are bringing Miles back to the streets. Spider-Man always worked best as a street-level character, but with multiversal stories and alien invasions left and right, the character hasn’t felt very grounded in a while. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, but it’s different, and you’ll see it feels a bit more back-to-basics under the new creative team.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 opens with a young woman who makes sure to give some food to the homeless lady on her route. She’s kind and a good person, but we smash cut to Scorpion nearly killing her on the next page and Spider-Man saving her life. She may seem like a random person getting saved, but she comes back at the end of the issue, giving this first issue a nice book-end feel.
When the action hits – and it hits early on for a good stretch – it hits hard. I’ve said it repeatedly when reviewing X Lives of Wolverine, but Vicentini’s style suits kinetic, action-heavy comics. That goes double for a franchise like Spider-Man, which features an agile and super fast-moving character. Add the fact that Vicentini draws some of the coolest-looking webs, and you have a jaw-dropping work of art on your hands. Vicentini also uses cool effects like blur or little details on the edge of Miles’ mask to create a sense of movement.
Love how the random pigeon is used to close off the panels.
Credit: Marvel
Bryan Valenza’s colors are also stupendous, with a great sense of lighting that adds dimension to Miles’ black mask, for instance. The webs also seem to glow, making them look special and mesmerizing. The blue used in the webs also give them a unique feel we don’t see very often.
As far as the story, Ziglar does a good job reminding us of Miles’ responsibility to the school, and how even when he screws up, his parents are there to back him. It’s uncommon in superhero comics to have such loving and supportive parents, and it’s nice to see that element lifted up here. Separating this take on Miles from past ones is how Miles is on his own now that Peter Parker has been cast out for whatever he did six months prior in Zeb Wells’ story. Miles has the support of his parents, but he’s on his own with the superhero stuff and having a big brother watching out for him. It’s also interesting to see Miles have a bit of an attitude. He’s going through stuff, and it’ll be interesting to explore that going forward.
Dialogue is also great as it sounds natural and how young people talk. There’s no fake slang or anything, from his texts to his captions.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 hits you like an electroshock with great action and impressive visuals while offering a grounded and real take on the character. Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1 is thrilling comics and a total blast.
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