Marvel Comics is no stranger to replacing its heroes with new faces from Sam Wilson aka Falcon taking up the mantle of Captain America to Spider-Gwen, the new Wolverine X-23 or Kamala Khan becoming Ms. Marvel. However, none have ever reached the same level of success as Miles Morales, a new web-slinging hero introduced in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man after the untimely death of Peter Parker. Miles Morales quickly became a fan-favorite, starring in the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the upcoming PlayStation 5 launch title Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
After Marvel axed the Ultimate Comics universe, Miles Morales made his way into the mainstream Marvel Comics universe where he exists along-side Peter Parker. However, one ongoing problem that many new superheroes often suffer from is a lack of unique and compelling villains and Miles Morales is no exception. Spider-Man has one of the greatest rogues galleries in all of comics but that took decades to build-up and a long history that Miles Morales simply doesn't have. Insomniac has a real chance with Spider-Man: Miles Morales to succeed where the comics have failed and give Miles Morales the rogues gallery he deserves.
Creation of Miles Morales
In late 2000, Marvel launched a new line called Ultimate Comics aimed at creating modern incarnations of its heroes that weren't tied to any existing continuity. Fast forward to the 2008 US presidential election, Marvel Comics' then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso saw the election of America's first African-American President as a catalyst to look at one of its most popular heroes, Spider-Man, and take him in a whole new direction for a new generation. While there wasn't enough time to develop the new character for the 2008-09 "Ultimatum" arc, Marvel new it wanted a new character to headline the series following the "Death of Spider-Man" arc in 2011 and thus, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichell created Miles Morales - a new and younger, black Spider-Man.
A Brief History of Miles Morales
Inspired by President Barack Obama and American actor and musician Donald Glover, Miles Morales is an Afro-Latino teenager raised in Brooklyn, New York. Miles became Spider-Man at the age of thirteen after being bitten by a radioactive spider created by Norman Osborn in an effort to replicate the original formula, giving Miles a similar powers to Peter Parker's Spider-Man, as well as the ability to camouflage himself and an electricity style attack called Venom Strike. Debuting in Ultimate Comics: Fallout #4, Miles would later headline his own series in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, followed by Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, and multiple new series after the end of the Ultimate universe in 2015, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales and All New All Different Avengers.
Spider-Man's Rogues Gallery
When it comes to the origins of Miles Morales and characters that have played integral roles in his story, the list is relatively small: Peter Parker, his father Jefferson Davis, his mother Rio Morales, his best friend Ganke Lee (the inspiration for Ned Leeds in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Gwen, his girlfriend in current continuity. As for villains, it was in the Ultimate Comics universe that Miles Morales had major rivals and most of them had established ties to either Peter Parker or another superhero including Scorpion, Venom, Kangaroo, and Taskmaster. The only villain to shape Miles story is Prowler, a cat-burglar and Spider-Man villain that was rewritten in Ultimate Comics as a brand new character called Aaron Davis. Prowler is the uncle of Miles Morales and unknowingly stole the engineered spider from Oscorp that would later give Miles his powers.
Unfortunately, the Prowler died in a confrontation with Miles early into his story and after he was later revived in the mainstream Marvel universe, it didn't have the same emotional impact as the character took on a very different role as the Iron Spider and leader of a new Sinister Six. In order for Miles Morales to build out his own rogue's gallery or develop an archnemesis, Marvel and Insomniac would need to either create brand new villains for the hero to face off against or revive existing villains in new and interesting ways as it originally did with the Prowler, making them relevant and integral to the story of this version of Spider-Man.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Standalone for PS5
Warning: MAJOR STORY SPOILERS ahead for Marvel's Spider-Man. In Marvel's Spider-Man, villains like Scorpion, Black Cat, Taskmaster, and Sinister Six have already been set up in Peter Parker's world, so retreading old ground wouldn't make much sense. In regards to Miles family, both of his parents played fairly significant roles in the story and it was the death of his father that led Miles to meet Peter Parker and become Spider-Man in the first place. That creates the perfect opportunity for Prowler to come back in a big way, filling the void that was left when Miles lost his father and potentially creating an emotional betrayal and nemesis on the same level as Doctor Octopus in the main game.
Insomniac Games has proven it's more than capable of taking known characters from the Marvel universe and telling new and unique stories with them whether its Mr Negative, Doc Ock, or Miles Morales himself. Outside of the obvious desire that we start to see some new and original characters that could shape the Marvel universe, there are plenty of lesser-known and less common villains that could easily step up including Chameleon, Hobgoblin, the Spot, the Elementals, Ghost, or the Jackal. Insomniac has already done a great job with its villains, so undoubtedly the team likely has something up its sleeves that fans are going to love.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales will be released this holiday season for PS5.
