YMMV / Miles Morales: Spider-Man

• And You Thought It Would Fail: When Miles Morales was announced to be the new protagonist of Ultimate Spider-Man following the death of that continuity's Peter Parker, the character was hit with a tidal wave of vitriol from detractors over the simple fact that he was replacing a widely-beloved incarnation of Peter, which was also followed by a disturbing amount of racist backlash targeting his ethnic background. For this reason, these same detractors believed that Miles would have a very short future in Marvel before being Put on a Bus and written off as a failed Ratings Stunt. Lo and behold, Miles Morales became Spider-Man's most successful Legacy Character by a significant distance, having achieved a level of fame, critical recognition, and a fan-following that eluded the likes of earlier cult-favorites such as Miguel O'Hara, Ben Reilly and Mayday Parker. That popularity would result in Miles and his supporting cast being directly imported to Earth-616 after the destruction of the Ultimate Universe, where his adventures continue in his own ongoing series. This also culminated in Miles being adapted across various mediums, the most famous being Lord and Miller's Spider-Verse Film Trilogy where Miles serves as the central protagonist.
• Angst? What Angst?: The destruction of the Ultimate Marvel universe means that, other than the handful of characters that the Molecule Man saved for him and some other canon immigrants, everybody else he had ever known (or just everybody else, period) ceased to exist. He has never been seen worried or troubled by that. However, some comics imply that in the cosmic retcon he lost his memories of all of that and just thinks that he has always lived on the prime earth, and in others that he still remembers it all.
• Badass Decay: In the Ultimate Spider-Man comics the Green Goblin was both the Big Bad and a supremely powerful villain, and a threat to be feared, both against Peter Parker and the one time Miles fought him. He became a Canon Immigrant in Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2018), but just as a punching bag for Miles and a minion for Ultimatum.
• Base-Breaking Character: By virtue of being a Legacy Character who replaced the beloved Ultimate Peter Parker this was inevitable. With criticisms ranging from that, he was too much like Peter to the years after he's now been established over whether he should still be Spider-Man or not.
• Broken Base:
  • During Bendis' tenure while writing the character, his reliance on the Venom Blast power to end conflicts was frequently criticized for crossing into Story-Breaker Power territory. This seemed to get indirectly referenced by Saldain Ahmed as he would often have villains adapt to the power.
  • Whether or not he should remain in the 616-verse or go back to the Ultimate universe. Proponents of the former cite the setting's potential for interesting interactions with other heroes, primarily the Champions (2016) and the main Peter Parker, while defenders of the latter say he works better as the primary Spider-Man of his own world and want to see Earth 1610 again after being it largely absent following Secret Wars (2015).
• Can't Un-Hear It: So far, most readers hear either Nadji Jeter's take (Marvel's Spider-Man, Spider-Man (PS4), Spider-Man: Miles Morales) or Shameik Moore's (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) when reading Miles.
• Die for Our Ship: Woo boy, the literal minute Marvel teased the idea of a crossover and romance between Miles and Spider-Gwen, this immediately cropped up.
• Funny Moments: Jefferson's bemusement that not only does Miles have a girlfriend now, but a cute blonde girl ^note actually Gwen Stacy wanting to talk to him about something Spider-Man-related just dragged him off somewhere with great urgency.
  Jefferson: Suddenly the boy's got game...
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In a crossover with Spider-Gwen, Miles ends up visiting a universe that's heavily implied to be the DC universe specifically ending up in Metropolis near the Daily Planet. Cut to a year later and Brian Michael Bendis Miles's creator is writing Superman.
• My Real Daddy: Phil Lord & Chris Miller's work in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is often universally considered the turning point for Miles' character, as more attention was paid to fleshing out Miles' hobbies and personality quirks compared to Bendis' original run. This movie has since gone on to influence Miles' characterization in both Saladin Ahmed's run and the Insomniac Video Game.
• Narm: The Spanglish spouted by Miles' grandma once introduced into the 2016 series.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The concept of Peter Parker having a Legacy Character and an Affirmative-Action Legacy is as old as ASM Issue #87, published in the early '70s. In that issue, Peter after going in a depressive funk comes clean to his friends as Spider-Man but on seeing Gwen Stacy's hysterical over-the-top reaction to the idea, Peter decides to make this a Fiction as Cover-Up by asking his former enemy-turned-friend Hobie Brown, aka Prowler I, to pose as Spider-Man in his costume. Prowler I had tech that gave him wallcrawling ability and so could pass for Spidey in a limited setting. This was the first time someone other than Peter wore the Spider-Man costume, and the first man to do so was an African-American character. In effect, Miles and his Uncle Aaron are a case of Decomposite Character for Prowler I.
  • Peter's first legitimate Legacy Character was Spider-Man 2099. Miguel O'Hara was a Hispanic-Irish Spider-Man in Nueva York, just like Miles is part-Hispanic. The concept of Peter being replaced by a Younger and Hipper alternative was also explored with Ben Reilly in the Clone Saga, while Peter playing a mentor and quasi-parental role was explored in Spider-Girl where he trained his daughter Mayday. Miles' differs on the whole in being a fundamental Setting Update of Peter's classic archetype (teenage Working-Class Hero) unlike Miguel (an older corporate scientist-whistleblower-turned superhero), Ben Reilly (Peter's clone who was young and single as opposed to married Pete), and Mayday (a middle-class daughter to a power couple).
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Ahmed is the second comic book writer to write the solo comic books of Miles Morales, after the runs of Brian Michael Bendis, who created the character. When he was hired, he pointed that he was aware of this possible reaction and that he would do his best to prevent it. He compared Bendis' run with the The Amazing Spider-Man of the main Spider-Man: a great era, that created and defined many things about the character, but at some point someone had to replace them, keeping the quality of the character and continuing to introduce things.
• Seasonal Rot: Some fans hold this of Bendis's work with Miles after Secret Wars, being just not as good as the Ultimate Universe stuff. There are also those who hold that some of Miles' Ultimate Universe stories apply as well, though as always with fans, the argument over where that applies is hard to pin down (after Aaron's death, the Venom arc, and Rio Morales' fridging, or the stuff following the Venom arc).
• Signature Song: "What's Up Danger" by Black Caviar, which served as his Theme Music Power-Up from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is regarded by many of the Fanon as Miles' de facto Leitmotif.
• Spoiled by the Format: This comic book is set after the ending of Spider-Geddon (which had not been released yet when #1 hits the stands). It does not say anything about the way it ends, but at least one thing is sure: Miles Morales survived it. A similar problem pops up with Absolute Carnage. According to Saladin Ahmed on Twitter, the Miles-related events of Absolute Carnage happen between issues 10 and 11 of Miles’ own book, ensuring that everything will go back to normal for Miles. Kind of undercuts the cliffhanger that he's at the center of in Issue 2...
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • In the Ultimate universe, Miles Morales had to endure a lot of stuff, which caused several interesting stories. The death of Peter Parker, his attempt to become the new Spider-Man and gradually be accepted by those close to Parker, the death of his mother, the reveal of his identity to his father, the attempts of J. Jonah Jameson to avoid repeating the mistakes with Parker, the return of Peter Parker and Norman Osborn, the return of his father and his old history, etc. Then Secret Wars took place, the Ultimate Universe ceases to exist, and Miles is moved to the prime earth. His mother is back and he does not remember anything from the Ultimate Universe, and now he's just The Chew Toy, whose biggest problem in life is that his grandmother's grounded him or that he has a Loony Fan on YouTube.
  • On his reappearance in Ahmed's run, Ultimate Norman Osborn, previous the Big Bad of Ultimate Spidey, and an nigh-unstoppable murder-machine, is reduced to being Ultimatum's henchman, who doesn't sound or even act like he did as written by Bendis.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The Miles Morales of Earth-616 returns as a supervillain crime lord wielding the stolen arsenal of the Ultimates and the Oz Formula to create an entire legion of Goblinoids to help him take over Brooklyn's underworld. However, he's unceremoniously sent back to the Ultimate Universe before we even get a chance to see what drove him to abandon his initial goal of leaving his life as a gangster behind or how he was even able to pull off such a heist in the first place.
  • The Green Goblin of Earth-1610 was originally the Big Bad of the entire Ultimate Spider-Man comic line who's murder of Peter Parker kickstarted the series of events that convinced Miles to step up and become the next Spider-Man in the first place. But under Ahmed, Norman is just a glorified enforcer to Ultimatum and acts nothing like the nightmarish monster he once was.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The entire Ultimatum Saga was shaping up to be the story arc that finally resolves the Continuity Snarl which has plagued the character of Miles Morales ever since his messy immigration to Earth-616. Both Miles and his Uncle Aaron finally get to remember the entirety of their previous lives in the Ultimate Universe with there even being an opportunity for them to revisit Earth-1610 and for Miles to reconnect with members of his original supporting cast who didn't get to crossover with him. However, the breakneck pacing doesn't give the story enough time to explore the existential implications of them being refugees from a previously destroyed reality, leaving many readers feeling that Ahmed shouldn't have even bothered to open that can of worms again.
  • Miles Morales initially seemed not to remember the Ultimate Marvel universe, or the events of the Secret Wars. After the cosmic retcons, he simply remembers things as if he has always lived in the prime Earth. And his first story in this new context is against a demon, and he gets all freaked out about that, unlike the other heroes who've Seen It All. But in comparison with those things he doesn't remember, even an actual demon seems like very little for freaking out. He is later on revealed to still remember his home universe, but it's a case of Angst? What Angst?.
• Tough Act to Follow: Whoever was going to write Miles after Bendis had some big shoes to fill. However, the eventual announcement of Saladin Ahmed taking over Miles' book in late 2018 was met with approval within fandom.
• WTH, Costuming Department?:
  • While Ultimatum's look is an interesting idea and a neat Mythology Gag (or several), there are some who snicker at the red and brown color-scheme.
  • The new Prowler suit featuring boots that emphasize his individual toes with a glove like fit was an oddity that's largely been dropped in his subsequent appearances for this very reason.
  • In celebration of his 10th anniversary, Miles received a brand new suit designed by Chase Conley which adopts a baggy Civvie Spandex aesthetic to replace his original streamlined look. However, a plethora of readers have expressed how much they absolutely loathe this costume. Deriding the sheer impracticality of the suit's loose-fitting turtleneck sweater, the web pattern running down the legs making it look like Miles is wearing fishnets in some angles, the mask looking too much like Kaine Parker, and how it generally looks more like a Beta Outfit rather than a true evolution of Miles' original design. It doesn't help that the Conley suit has been hit with a massive case of Depending on the Artist, spawning various design inconsistencies such as whether or not Miles is bare-chested under the sweater, or the mask's eye lenses suddenly being depicted as white instead of red.

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