Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3 opens with Raneem narrating the story of her life. How her parents met in Amman, Jordan, and how they eventually found themselves in Brooklyn, New York where they gave birth to her. We see how Raneem would use her powers over technology to help with her dad’s business and how she was part of the same charter school lottery as Miles. This is all lovingly rendered in Vicentini’s trademark style and Starling interrupts as Raneem’s story catches up to the present.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3!
Raneem gets to chew the scenery with some thematically appropriate villainous lines about machinery, injustice, and her talents. The next scene returns to Miles and Misty’s fight with Scorpion from the last issue. Their rapport continues to be delightful and they defeat Scorpion with the power of teamwork and a really big gun.
Credit: Marvel
Miles leaves Misty to deal with the authorities after taking down Scorpion when he seemingly gets a distressing call from Ganke. Upon arriving at what he thought was Ganke’s location, however, he is confronted by Raneem in full villain regalia and we get an excellent splash page of their confrontation as she introduces herself for the first time as The Rabble. The two-page spread is striking and punctuated by Vicentini’s always-welcome trademark pigeons.
Credit: Marvel
Raneem not being selected to attend Brooklyn Visions Academy is a brief moment in the early pages of the issue, but it stood out to me. The nature of charter schools in the United States is fraught, to say the least, and writers keep glossing over the fact the Brooklyn Visions Academy is a charter school whose student body is selected by lottery. Why admission is determined by lottery to begin with and what organization manages the school could be fertile ground for stories involving these street-level heroes.
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