Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 1 — Revival

While the three issue miniseries that tied into “Cataclysm” was actually quite good, the past two volumes of Miles Morales’ adventures as Spider-Man were weighed down by Bendis’ decision to put him through various situations without developing the character or his cast properly.  Venom isn’t as interesting without a direct connection to the title character, and the fourth volume of Miles’ adventures was way too early to do any kind of “Spider-Man No More” kind of story.  Especially when it was reversed in the following volume.  Regrettably, that trend continues here as Miles encounters Peter Parker, alive and well, and also wanting his web-shooters back.  If bringing the new hero face-to-face with the one he replaced wasn’t enough, the writer also saw fit to throw in Norman Osborne’s latest return as well.  All of this stuff screams “IMPORTANT ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN STORY,” and yet I’m left wishing that it had just been all about Miles in the end.

That’s because the stuff centering around him is generally pretty good.  As always, he remains an appealing presence and the scenes where he’s agonizing about whether or not to tell his girlfriend Katie are really quite good.  This particular plot point also goes off in a fairly unexpected and intriguing direction by the end of the volume.  There’s also the mystery of the twin criminal “Spider-Men” robbing Stark Industries sites which is handled well enough that it could’ve been developed into the main story.  Also, after thirty-two(!) volumes Bendis finally ends one on a genuine “To Be Continued” cliffhanger.  As it’s something he’s never done before in this series, I’m actually curious to see how things play out from here.  I’d be even more excited if the central elements of this story were more compelling.  Nothing here is actively awful, it’s just disappointing that Miles can’t seem to have a story that’s all about him these days.