It has finally arrived! The new spider-man Miles Morales earth 616 debut. I must admit I came to this book not expecting anything spectacular, but tried to keep an open mind and not let the every growing list of spider titles turn me off to the idea of yet another romp in the web of spider men. Now the spoilers!!!!!
The book opens with a epic scene showing a damaged New York and a pile of defeated avengers it is soon reveled that this is all caused by none other then Blackheart!(more on that later). then the book flashes back to earlier and you can already see that Bendis writing is nothing less the exceptional giving you a great feel of miles social status and personal life making this a great jumping on point for new readers and what more could you ask for in a number 1 title. We get several pages of Miles talking with his best friend Ganke and his parents which help to show how far along his spider journey he is as well as some of his great accomplishments and 616 relationships. Overall I think it works well to establish Miles as a young and likable character with real life problems that made peter so amazing and the art style works very well with him.
The pace is a bit rushed along as Miles is suddenly called into action and this is where the book truly shines. We get to see how much he actually accepts and feels comfortable in his spider man role but at the same time see how inexperienced and awkward he is with his hero status with civilians offering him suggestions as what he should do next. Finally we are back at the books opening where we get to see Blackheart completely decimating the Avengers while miles comes to the rescue and we even get an incredible image of him picking up and holding captain Americas(falcons) shield as he begins to engage blackheart in battle.
I have to take a moment to say just how awesome this is, the original version of Blackheart which faced off against peter parkers spider man and daredevil when he first appeared in Daredevil #270 was a hulking demonic thing of nightmares. This version of blackheart does not disappoint with his intimidating size and a creep factor that has been multiplied several times over he original blackheart making this face off all the more grand. it ends with miles besting blackheart and him dissappering vowing to return and then we get a visit from peter parkers spider man with the words "What did you do!?"
Overall it was definitely a great jump in to what im sure is going to be a great run for the Miles Morales Spider-man and I can not wait to see what else they have coming for this title. In these times of variant covers reboots an multiple cross over events I hope this can be the grounded new York based spidey title that can stand on its own and offer a continuous and consistent story for readers.
