Miles Morales vol. 4: Ultimatum

I’ve made my feelings on Ultimatum, the Miles Morales from the mainline Marvel Universe, clear in the past.  So any storyline using him was facing an uphill grind to get me to care about it.  Saladin Ahmed does his best here to do that as he plays up the connections that Miles has to this villain as he enacts his master plan to take over Brooklyn’s criminal underworld.  In the end, he can’t quite convince me that these two characters are two sides of the same coin and Ultimatum just comes off as a big shouty villain with his size-changing powers and a Not-Osborn goblin henchman.  The same can be said of the climax of this storyline as it’s kind of a big mess of guest stars punching goblins while Miles and his family try to figure out how to save the day.  Carmen Carnero and Marcelo Ferreria do their best with the art, but they can’t really elevate things.  It may be gratifying to see all the heroes come together like this and the emotional content of the ending can’t be denied, but the arc overall still winds up coming off like a letdown.

Which is too bad when you consider that the first half of this volume was pretty great.  The first issue is all about Miles taking his baby daughter out for the day, and then on some Spider-Man business.  It’s hugely irresponsible of him, but still pretty funny to see in action.  As for the two issues that follow, it’s also fun to see Miles active in the community, giving a boost to a troubled teen, mixing it up with the forces of C.R.A.D.L.E., and going to dinner with his family.  That last bit leads to the start of the title character’s own “Clone Saga” and the return of the most effective villain this series has produced so far.  Even if this volume didn’t end all that well, Ahmed still does a lot of stuff right to convince me that he’s got a solid read on Miles’ character.  Solid enough to carry us through a clone-driven storyline in the next volume?  We shall see…