The Avengers are down and Miles Morales stands alone against a villain with the power to destroy the universe. More importantly, his grades are in the toilet.
Summary
Peter/Spiderman and Miles/Spider-Man attend to the fallen Avengers as Peter begins to tell Miles he is changing his mind about letting him become Spider-Man. Just as Peter goes into his explanation Blackheart revives and attacks, incapacitating Peter and leaving Miles alone to face the demon. Miles gets to show off two of his powers that are unique to him; his ability to camouflage and his venom blast. with the use of these and some solid punches Miles is able to defeat Blackheart. As the rest of the heroes begin to come back to their senses, A police officer draws down on Miles saying he does not know who he is, but Peter/Spiderman assures the officer that the youth IS Spider-Man. Miles returns to his dorm room and views the videos that have been posted about the fight and generally geek out about fighting with the Avengers when a blogger points out that Miles’ skin is showing through his battle torn costume and he is black. This upsets Miles because he stresses to Ganke that he doesn’t want the “qualification” Black Spider-Man, he just wants to be Spider-Man. While on the news two commentators discuss the “new” Spider-Man and express their concerns about new villains or possibly old ones coming out of the wood works. Miles also gets a visitor about his grades, which have steadily slipped due to his heroic activities.
What I thought
In this second issue we get to see Miles use a couple of his coolest powers. The camouflage power is cool enough, but the venom blast is the absolute bomb! I had to refer back into the ultimate universe to read up on the blast, and found out that the effects of the blast are even worse for mutated beings! That explains why Blackheart succumbed to the as easily as he did. Peter was just warning Miles about his costumed being torn and a blogger sees Miles‘ complexion through his torn mask and announces to the world that we have a new Spider-Man and he is Brown! This does not sit well with Miles (as it shouldn’t) who does not want to be called the “Black” Spider-Man. Even though Peter’s warning was meant for Miles to protect his family, it is ominous because in today’s climate, having a powerful Black hero like Miles constitutes a major threat. Miles himself complains that he is half-latino, but that doesn’t change his brown skin. I looked back at Peter’s career when he started out, and he didn’t have a friend like Ganke to share his experiences with. The inclusion of Ganke once again serves to allow Miles to be that kid we know he is. Their reactions to Miles fighting the demon were classic, and even Miles’ reaction when Captain America placed his hand on Miles’ shoulder was smile worthy. One other major difference between the young Peter Parker and Miles is their support system. For Peter, no one knew his secret, and truthfully, his biggest supporter was Robbie Robinson, who, although he didn’t know Peter’s secret, was a big Spider man supporter (even though his boss, Jonah Jameson, was not sold on Spider-man’s hero status) and having a son himself, often looked at Peter as though he were his own son. Miles on the other hand, has both his parents, and his father knows his secret. We see another member of Miles’ extended family enter the picture this issue; his grandmother! Another solid issue to follow up the first one. So far so good. 4/5 stars
