Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #6

Background

Norman Osborn/Green Goblin has escaped from prison, Peter Parker has returned from the dead and a pair of mystery Spider-Men are on a crime spree! On top of that, ex-SHIELD agent Maria Hill knows that Miles is Spider-Man. Even worse, Miles has not seen his father since he revealed his identity and when he told his girlfriend, Katie Bishop, his secret too she ran away!

Miles faced off against Green Goblin outside Aunt May's house and was joined by Peter Parker! They fought Osborn off but were pursued by police. Miles was aided by Maria Hill and he told her the whole story.

Meanwhile, Green Goblin went to visit J Jonah Jameson and revealed that, due to Miles's venom blast, he remembers everything. He demands to go on the record but when JJJ realises that he is still the same maniacal beast, he shoots him in the head!

Miles and Maria go to Mary Jane Watson's house and find Peter there. They want answers...

Story Details

J Jonah Jameson stands over Norman Osborn's body in shock over what he's done. He calls Ben Urich who tells him to call the police but, in the background, Osborn stands up! Osborn explains to JJJ that the Oz formula made him immortal and goes to prove the difference between mortal and immortal by killing him!

In Mary Jane Watson's house, Miles Morales, with Maria Hill, demand answers from Peter Parker and MJ. Peter explains that he remembers all of his life and even his death. He tells the story of how he woke up in an abandoned lab in Atlanta with no shred of data nor clues to say how he got there. He headed back to MJ. They dug up his grave and his body was gone. He is Peter Parker. He explains his need for his web-shooters as they are the only thing left connected to his father. Now all he wants is to leave and not be a part of Spider-Man again but Aunt May and Gwen Stacy barge in at that point, overcome and overjoyed to see him. Suddenly a fiery glow fills the room and Green Goblin lands out the front! Miles orders Peter to protect the others whilst he fights! Maria shoots at Goblin whilst Miles throws a couch at him! He hits him with several venom blasts and beats the snot out of him until the venom blasts trigger his messed up genetics into turning him back into Norman Osborn. Osborn lies prone on the lawn but musters the energy to tell Miles that, without his help, he'll never know the truth about his father...!

General Comments

Let's start with the fact that David Marquez, once again, delivers an outstandingly sharp issue full of clean, dramatic and memorable visuals. The fight sequences are easy to follow and full of oomph, the level of detail in character keeps the talking head sections emotional and fresh and there is quite simply the most perfect shot of Aunt May hugging Peter (it is simply rendered to allow nothing but the emotion to be conveyed). Marquez picks up this meandering plot and gives it firepower.

Sigh.

Peter Parker died in a blaze of glory. Now he is back and all Brian Michael Bendis can do is deliver some thoughtless "I woke up in a lab" revival. One can only hope this isn't the end of his story and we get a much better explanation than that but at the moment the exact thing I though was happening has in fact happened: Peter Parker is back to sell the book entitled "Miles Morales" and it pains me! There is some handing over of the torch in this issue but considering Miles was running with the torch before this arc started anyway, it's all a little desperate to find positives. Peter is not necessary; all this could have been done using the strong supporting casts that both Miles and Peter have (which would have captured the magic of Ultimate Spider-Man #200).

Then there's the death of JJJ. This I like as he's had his one final blaze of heroics in shooting Osborn. Of course he's probably not dead either and will be revived further down the line.

Bendis has to pull this back with some character work soon or I'll start to depreciate Miles and what a wonderful character he has the potential to be. Stop mucking around with the past and get on with telling some new stories about the title character!

Overall Rating

It looks great but I can't buy in to actual Peter's actual return.