Miles Morales vol. 2: Bring on the Bad Guys

I liked the first volume of “Miles Morales” well enough, even if its stories didn’t really break out from the established “Spider-Man” story mold.  Vol. 2, however, is a big step in the right direction. The first issue is essentially four-stories-in-one as Ron Ackins, Alitha Martinez, and Vanessa Del Ray join regular artist Javier Garron for stories about Miles and his Uncle Aaron (a.k.a. The Prowler), Bombshell, his parents dropping a bombshell, and a tease for the intense two-issue story that follows.

It’s intense because some bad stuff happens to Miles in it.  He’s captured by an unknown party and put through some brutal tests to determine his capabilities.  The story is cold and clinical as Miles is subjected to some awful stuff, while Garron makes some good use of black borders around the art to emphasize the hopeless situation the title character is in.  Yet it’s the second issue, when Aaron teams up with Miles’ parents to rescue him, that got me to see what helps set the character apart. Miles, unlike other Spider-People, actually has a functional family unit around him.  One that supports him in his superhero endeavors and has his back when things get rough. That’s not something we see a whole lot in Spider-stories, and it could be the key to finally getting Miles’ to stand out. (Aside from that one time he entered the Spider-Verse, that is.)

So kudos to writer Saladin Ahmed for bringing that aspect to the fore and for continuing to write a solid take on the title character.  Even down to making his recovery in the final issue feel natural, with some welcome birthday cheer and guests. It’s all enough to make me willing to see where he’s going to go with the character who shows up at the end of the final issue, even if I really didn’t want to see him again.  So even if there’s only four issues — and a cute pizza-centric Free Comic Book Day story from Tom Taylor and Cory Smith — in this volume, that’s not a problem here because they’re all pretty great.