Miles Morales: Spider-Man #9 Review
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jeff and Aaron Davis step onto center stage, teaming up to rescue Miles from the nefarious super-science baddies who have been pounding on him.
It's a refreshing slice of supporting cast dynamics within Miles's family. It's also a fun rescue-heist-fight caper. And though it keeps its titular star off-panel for most of the issue, it delivers tons of insightful and heartwarming thoughts on Miles.
It is also a useful lesson in how to be a better Comics Nerd. To whit:
Aaron scores a super-suit off Ceres, the under-utilized supervillain tech specialist from the previous volume. And it is, inevitably, a Prowler suit.
Now, if you were a Bad Comics Nerd, you would take this information and witter about how he's stealing Hobie Brown's identity and he was never the 616 Prowler and this is a blatant attempt to cut-n-paste bits of the Spider-Verse movie into the comics.
But that would be Bad Comics Nerd-ing! Look at this from the Good Comics Nerd perspective:
Aaron Davis does have Prowler experience from the Ultimate universe. To him, that's his identity as much as anybody's. And yes, Hobie Brown is still out there and was last seen as an active user of the Prowler identity.
Which means Prowler vs. Prowler becomes an awesome story that needs to be told. Maybe it's a future arc in this title, maybe it's a miniseries. And maybe it digs deeper than a straight fight over a costume; maybe somebody wants to unpack what the 616-1610 universe collision means to one of the few people who made the jump.
Making Aaron Davis the Prowler again is contentious. But it is the best kind of contention; it inspires fascination and curiosity rather than disbelief.
Okay, enough fandom! How about the comic at hand? As I said, it's a fun, fast caper story with some real heart coming out of Jefferson's thoughts about his missing son. And, of course, from his complicated relationship with his brother, which does evolve significantly here.
Saladin Ahmed delivers a wonderful script. It gets decent visual support from Javier Garrón's art and David Curiel's intense colours. There's an all-time great page blocked out for Jeff and Aaron to super-spy fight their way down a stairwell full of goons.
But that page is the exception rather than the rule, unfortunately. In many other places where the layouts pull the "camera" back and show characters in wide shots, excess detail clumps together and makes things muddy.
And the final fight scene, which teams the older heroes up with Miles to combat a teleporting baddie, is the wrong kind of confusing. Granted, a teleporter fight should be confusing. But I came away from this one able to say litte beyond, "Wow, that was confusing." I think some visual storytelling opportunities got passed up there.
In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #9, The Davis brothers capably step into the lead while rescuing Miles. The script does more than the art to fully pay off the potential of the scenario. The plot develops at a fine pace and this title remains solidly entertaining, but this is not my favourite issue of the series to look at.
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jeff and Aaron Davis step onto center stage, teaming up to rescue Miles from the nefarious super-science baddies who have been pounding on him.
It's a refreshing slice of supporting cast dynamics within Miles's family. It's also a fun rescue-heist-fight caper. And though it keeps its titular star off-panel for most of the issue, it delivers tons of insightful and heartwarming thoughts on Miles.
It is also a useful lesson in how to be a better Comics Nerd. To whit:
Aaron scores a super-suit off Ceres, the under-utilized supervillain tech specialist from the previous volume. And it is, inevitably, a Prowler suit.
Now, if you were a Bad Comics Nerd, you would take this information and witter about how he's stealing Hobie Brown's identity and he was never the 616 Prowler and this is a blatant attempt to cut-n-paste bits of the Spider-Verse movie into the comics.
But that would be Bad Comics Nerd-ing! Look at this from the Good Comics Nerd perspective:
Aaron Davis does have Prowler experience from the Ultimate universe. To him, that's his identity as much as anybody's. And yes, Hobie Brown is still out there and was last seen as an active user of the Prowler identity.
Which means Prowler vs. Prowler becomes an awesome story that needs to be told. Maybe it's a future arc in this title, maybe it's a miniseries. And maybe it digs deeper than a straight fight over a costume; maybe somebody wants to unpack what the 616-1610 universe collision means to one of the few people who made the jump.
Making Aaron Davis the Prowler again is contentious. But it is the best kind of contention; it inspires fascination and curiosity rather than disbelief.
Okay, enough fandom! How about the comic at hand? As I said, it's a fun, fast caper story with some real heart coming out of Jefferson's thoughts about his missing son. And, of course, from his complicated relationship with his brother, which does evolve significantly here.
Saladin Ahmed delivers a wonderful script. It gets decent visual support from Javier Garrón's art and David Curiel's intense colours. There's an all-time great page blocked out for Jeff and Aaron to super-spy fight their way down a stairwell full of goons.
But that page is the exception rather than the rule, unfortunately. In many other places where the layouts pull the "camera" back and show characters in wide shots, excess detail clumps together and makes things muddy.
And the final fight scene, which teams the older heroes up with Miles to combat a teleporting baddie, is the wrong kind of confusing. Granted, a teleporter fight should be confusing. But I came away from this one able to say litte beyond, "Wow, that was confusing." I think some visual storytelling opportunities got passed up there.
In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #9, The Davis brothers capably step into the lead while rescuing Miles. The script does more than the art to fully pay off the potential of the scenario. The plot develops at a fine pace and this title remains solidly entertaining, but this is not my favourite issue of the series to look at.
A Look Inside
Comments