Miles Morales, the second Ultimate Spider-Man or to a lot of people, the black Spider-Man.
You know, because of his cool black costume.
Miles, was a smart kid whose life was turned upside down when his uncle, Aaron Davis A.K.A.
master thief the Prowler, stole a genetically modified spider from OzCorp.
You see, after Normal Osborne discovered that one of his spiders turned Peter Parker into
Spider-Man, he desperately tried to duplicate the process on himself which turned him into
the Green Goblin.
However, the spider that Prowler stole got loose, bit Miles and lets him do what a spider
can.
You know, wall crawling, the Spider Sense, super strength, etc.
However, what sets Miles apart from Peter is that he also has a paralyzing venom touch
and can camouflage himself!
This all might seem awesome, but Miles did not want this!
He considered himself a freak, just like those dangerous mutants that the news and his own
father were always talking about, but everything changed when Peter Parker died.
Miles shows up to Peter’s funeral and asked Gwen Stacy (who was walking by) about WHY
Peter chose to be Spider-Man and she told him the famous words that we all know and
love.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
With no one to fill in after Peter’s death, Miles took these words to heart, donned a
Spider-Man costume from a local shop, and became the second Ultimate Spider-Man!
Even after stopping his first super villain, the Kangaroo, the public scoffed at Miles
and said “That costume is in poor taste.”
Curious about the new Spider-Man in town, Spider-Woman stops Miles and hauls him back
to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Everyone was skeptical of Miles due to his age and experience until the S.H.I.E.L.D.
HQ was attacked by Electro and somehow made chumps out of everyone!
In a shocking turn of event, it was MILES who stopped Electro and earned the respect
of everyone including the head honcho himself, Nick Fury. Old Saint Nick congratulated Miles
on a job well done, gave him a kick ass black and red costume and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s blessing
to continue on as a hero.
From that point on, Miles truly was the new Spider-Man!
But Nick Fury wasn’t the only one to approve of Miles!
In the Spider-Men book, the main continuity Peter Parker travels to the Ultimate universe
and goes on a crazy adventure with Miles.
In this book, Miles even gets Ultimate Peter Parker’s web shooters from his Aunt May
and get’s the mainstream Peter Parker’s blessing!
How cool is that?!
Shortly thereafter, Betty Brant, a reporter for the Daily Bugle, incorrectly labels Miles’
dad as the new Spider-Man, but J. Jonah Jameson actually refuses to publish this out of respect
of Peter Parker’s death and he even FIRES Brant so she goes and tells a Roxxon scientist
who unbeknownst to her is hosting the Venom symbiote!
Venom goes after Mile’s dad, but Miles saves the day.
However, Venom attacks his dad in the hospital, knowing that Miles would swoop in to save
him a second time which he does.
Unfortunately, the police try to help and… do the exact opposite considering that Miles’
mom is killed in the crossfire.
Because of this, Miles retires as Spider-Man until a year later when he is dragged back
into the superhero business and forms the Young Ultimates alongside Cloak and Dagger,
Spider-Woman, Bombshell, and Kitty Pryde.
Also, when Ultimate Peter Parker magically comes back to life, the two of them have a
fight and tag team an also magically revived the Green Goblin.
Ultimate Peter and Ultimate Mary Jane end up running away together, but before he does,
Ultimate Peter gives Miles HIS blessing as well.
That’s right, both the mainstream AND the Ultimate Peter Parker are cool with Miles.
Despite how awesome that is though, Miles’ life is brought back down when he finds out
that his girlfriend was actually part of a H.Y.D.R.A.
family and... that does not matter because Secret Wars destroyed the entire Marvel multiverse
and left only Battleworld in its place.
Miles managed to sneak onto a kind of universe lifeboat spaceship thing and ended up in Battleworld
eight years after it formed along with the mainstream Spider-Man.
Aaaaaaand since Marvel is deciding to launch the brand new Spider-Man #1 while Secret Wars
is still happening, you’re up to date and ready for the relaunch!
Enjoy!
If you want to get started with Miles, then I’d recommend checking out Ultimate Comics:
Spider-Man Volume 1, Spider-Men, and Marvel promises that the new Spider-Man comic will
be pretty good for new readers.
So what other All-New, All-Different Marvel character would you like me to cover next?
Old Man Logan, or Silk?
Click or comment to cast your vote!
If you want more spider goodness, check out our video on when Carnage became a good guy
or a history lesson on Spider-Woman!