The much-hyped new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, was first seen in ‘Ultimate Fallout’ #4. Of course, his first appearance didn’t give us many details about the new face behind the mask. In the first issue of the “All New” ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ series, we get a lot of background on Miles, very little info on his actual powers, and there’s no Spider-Man in the issue at all.

That said, this was probably the most pleasant reading surprise on my pull list this week. I am not a huge fan of Ultimate Spidey scribe Brian Michael Bendis, but I did like his original run on ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ back in 2000. However, if he can keep up the level of character writing that he shows with the first issue of this new volume, I may end up becoming a fan. Bendis does his best to set up the universe in which Miles lives. He reveals the big baddie (who is no real surprise) and does quite a bit to ensure that Miles is not just a Peter Parker clone with a fresh color palette.

[Warning: here come the spoilers!]

Like I said, there’s no Spider-Man in the issue. The issue focuses on Miles, who may be one of the few headlining comic heroes to actually have both his parents and a fairly good home life, as he tries to get into a charter school since his family lives in a bad part of town. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn (aka Green Goblin) is trying to duplicate the experiment that created the mutated spider that bit Peter Parker so long ago. Osborn’s experiments aren’t going well and, after he berates one of his scientists for failing yet again, one of the test spiders escapes into the lab. Later that night, someone robs Oscorp Labs and accidentally takes the spider out of the lab. I won’t give any more away but the spider, as one would expect, makes it back to Miles. Miles is bitten and given powers. On the final page, we get the first look at one of Miles’ powers and it’s something that Peter Parker could never do!

I enjoyed reading a fresh take on a classic character and I will be picking up issue #2 to see where Bendis is going to take this one.

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #1
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art and Cover by SARA PICHELLI
Cover by KAARE ANDREWS