Tag: Miles Morales

  • Miles Morales NEEDS his Own Codename

    Miles Morales NEEDS his Own Codename

    Okay, so this is just my personal opinion, but Miles Morales really, really needs his own codename. Of course it didn’t matter when he was introduced in the Ultimate Universe, because Peter Parker was dead, and he was the only Spider-Man in town.

    But after the 2015 Secret Wars, Miles joined the 616 cannon, where they already had a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man! So you’d think they’d call Miles something else? Something unique right? Nope. They still called him Spider-Man. They even doubled down by titling his relaunch Spider-Man. No “Miles Morales” or “Ultimate”. Just Spider-Man. Talk about confusing the brand!

    Miles not having a different codename to distinguish him from Peter’s Parker’s Spider-Man is an issue that has led to people getting… creative… for a solution. Some TV shows took to making up names for him (of course when they’re marketing toys, they need different names on the packages so kids know what to write on their Christmas lists!). In Ultimate Spider-Man, they called him Kid Arachnid. I thought it was dumb at first, but I got used to it. They could’ve, and probably should’ve, stuck with that! Now in this new show, Spidey and his Amazing Friends, a Disney Junior show for kids (like, little kids), they call him Spin. Spin!!! My friend Johnathan put it perfectly when he said that sounds like a Symbiote reject that was just a little too inbred!

    Of course, in the media where they don’t make up a name for him, like the 2017 Marvel’s Spider-Man show and the 2018 video game, (and, you know, all of comics) Peter and Miles just shout each other’s real names across the battlefield! They’ll be tangling with Rhino, and Peter will be like:

    “Miles! Web his legs!”

    And Miles will say:

    “You got it Pete!”

    I mean, that’s not good! Right? Am I crazy for thinking that? Spider-Man is one of the few heroes that still cherishes his secret identity! Shouting it for the world to hear doesn’t behoove him in any way. Honestly, this whole situation didn’t bother me before, it really didn’t. But the more popular the character gets, the bigger a problem it becomes.

    They had the same problem with Gwen! When she launched, she was “Spider-Gwen” which, hey bad guys, my name’s Gwen by the way! But, to be fair, she was never meant to go past her Edge of Spider-Verse story, and she was called Spider-Woman in-universe. Which also wouldn’t fly because there were already about 50 of them before the Spider-Verse! So they changed it to Ghost-Spider. Twice. In cannon, she literally had the idea to change her name to Ghost-Spider twice. And they’ve called her that ever since; comics, movies, TV shows, you name it, she’s Ghost-Spider. It’s still catching on, because it’s hard to change a name when so many people utilized the first one, but it’s happening! Because they committed!

    With Miles, it’s like they don’t care! Call him something, anything! They could have just kept calling him Ultimate Spider-Man, to be honest. I don’t understand. He’s already had a feature-length movie and a AAA video game, and my guy doesn’t even have his own name. Honestly, I think it’s too late now. Spider-Man will forever be distinguished from Spider-Man by his secret identity, Miles Morales. Poor kid. That’s it for me, Face Front True Believers, and I’ll see you in the Multiverse!

  • Spider-Man: Return to the Spider-Verse Episode 1: Amazing Friends

    Spider-Man: Return to the Spider-Verse Episode 1: Amazing Friends

    The Sinister Six have been defeated, but Spidey is stuck in another dimension! While he figures out how to get back home, he’ll meet the other members of the Spider-Verse, and get acquainted with his new lair: The Spider’s Nest!

    Guest starring Eileen Nestman as Ghost-Spider!

    This episode also featured some fun comic covers featuring each member of the Spider-Verse. They went by pretty quick in the vid, so I’ve put them in a gallery below for your enjoyment!

  • Miles Morales Variant Covers!

    Miles Morales Variant Covers!

    5/5 Marvel! Let’s gooo!

    When Marvel announced these variant covers (based on Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales) for the past few issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Miles Morales: Spider-Man, I knew I had to have them! In fact, the one for Amazing Spider-Man #55 revealed that the Prowler was in the game!

    So I made it my mission to collect them all! And by made it my mission, I mean I asked Eric down at Greg’s Comics to see if he could snag me the variants… Greg’s comics, by the way, northwest corner of Alma School and Guadalupe if you’re looking for a quality comic shop in AZ. Clearly, I mean, they got me my variants! 20% off all day everyday!

    Anyways, I gotta say #53.LR and #55 are my favorites, (the covers, I’ll get into Last Remains later…) but I do quite enjoy all of them. They will make a fine addition… to my collection. My Gamerverse comic collection that is. City at War, Velocity, The Black Cat Strikes, and all of the Avengers prequel comics! Somebody wake me up when we actually get some in-universe Miles comics, ’cause I’m gonna get those too!

    Did you get any of these variants? Or all of them? Let me know below. That’s it for now, Face Front True Believers! And I’ll see you in the Multiverse!

  • The Night I Met Donald Glover: A Miles Morales Story

    The Night I Met Donald Glover: A Miles Morales Story

    So GameStop said that their shipment was delayed, and so now I can’t get Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales until tomorrow! Perplexed, and confused, I decided to calm myself and make this video. Episode 2 of The Face Front Show! True Believers, I present to you, The Night I Met Donald Glover: A Miles Morales Story!

  • Miles Morales Spider-Man #2

    Y’all reading that new Miles Morales? Yeah, so TL;DR, Miles’s girlfriend’s cousin got roped into a ‘mind controlled kids’ operation that also happened to rope in Rhino’s niece. So Rhino and Miles teamed up to stop it only to find out that Tombstone was behind it! When they couldn’t figure out how to work together properly, Tombstone got away, but none other than… Captain America… showed up to help save the day…

    So I was able to get past Rhino and Spider-Man teaming up. Rhino’s a Spidey villain, and though I found him going a little too soft on Miles, I respected his motivation and I think that a Miles/Rhino duo is a fun situation! And then Tombstone is back in the mix, he’s always underutilized, so why not? But… Captain America shows up out of nowhere to help? Yeah, y’all lost me. But hey, I’ll keep reading! What do you guys think?

  • Welcome to Marvel City

    Hasbro, eat your heart out! Welcome to the future! Welcome, to Marvel City! I had time, I was bored, so why not?

    Looks like All-New, All-Different Spider-Man has a bird’s eye of the entire scene below!

    A city of heroes…

    Bound by honor…

    To protect it at all costs!

    Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty and the First Avenger, never relents in the fight against the forces of HYDRA!

    Black Bolt has something to say, and when he talks, people listen!

    Wasp patrols the skies, while Thor summons strength from Odin in Asgard above! And Star-Lord’s always ready for action! But where’d his tunes go?

    Of course, no one stands a chance when Iron Man and War Machine team up to take down the bad guys!

    Lifelong friends Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel are two women you DO NOT want to mess with! Unless you want a venom blast and a cosmic punch to the face! And is that Vision phasing through the ground behind them?

    Speaking of Venom, what rock did this Sinister Symbiote crawl from under?

    Falcon soars high, but a particularly sneaky Black Cat gets away with some pilfered goods! Oh Felicia, will you ever learn?

    By the Ruby Rings of the Crimson Bands of the Hoary Hosts… Whatever! Doctor Strange is here to make with the hocus pocus!

    Black Widow gives Hawkeye a lift on her sweet ride, they always worked better as a team! Let’s just hope that Ms. Marvel can stop fangirling long enough to Embiggen!

    ‘Ol J. Jonah Jameson isn’t too happy with all these superheroes tearing things up outside of Bugle offices! It doesn’t help that Giant-Man is mocking him either…

    There are tales… legends of a Spirit of Vengeance… The Ghost Rider, making the best of a deal with the devil!

    What did Deadpool get himself into this time? Maybe a certain Infinity Gauntlet-wielding Mad Titan wasn’t too fond of Lady Death’s fascination with this clown…

    Looks like the newest Spider-Man on the block, Miles Morales, snagged a classic Spidey baddy, the Shocker! Great job Miles!

    Meanwhile, the Immortal Iron Fist has engaged the terrible Taskmaster in combat! Don’t use your best moves Danny, you know he can copy them!

    Storm and Silk watch over the city, a valiant long-time member of the X-Men, and a Spider trying to find her place in the world after 10 years away…

    Bravery is not measured in size, and Rocket and Baby Groot prove that throwing down with one of the biggest Marvel villains out there, the Rhino!

    But there are always bigger Marvel villains, lurking in the distance…

    But here to protect his city is none other than Daredevil! Keeping a watchful… ear, from above! And Spider-Gwen aka Ghost Spider doesn’t look stressed, she’s listening to the latest hit from her band the Mary Janes! Wait… there’s Star-Lord’s tunes! Dang it Gwen!

    But down below, titans clash, as Hulk pins down one of his worst foes, the Abomination!

    This Marvel power couple knows no bounds, Cyclops and Phoenix are always here to save the day, and mutant-kind!

    And bow down (wait, they don’t do that there…) for the King of Wakanda, Black Panther! With Okoye by his side, nothing’s getting past him! Wakanda forever!

    So there you have it. Heroes…

    That swore to fight.

    To stand for justice.

    To Assemble. In our darkest hours.

    And to let us know, that they will always be here.

     

     

  • Yay! Into the Spider-Verse Toys- Oh, Wait, Never Mind…

    So, like any Marvel fan with a pulse, I am stoked for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I’ve been reading Miles since issue #1, and Donald Glover himself gave me the backstory behind his conception (I promise, that article is coming!), so this movie is a dream come true for me. The only, the ONLY, thing that could pump me up even more is toys! Well, that’s what I thought…

    Okay, so let’s take a look at ‘ol Miles here:

     Mhmm, okay, very nice. I like the aesthetic, the ‘spray painted’ chest spider, I dig it, I dig it. Electro-shock web blast, always a nice touch, given his power set. Great articu- STOP! Hold the phones! Where are the knee joints? He can’t bend his knees! Okay, I can live without the ball joints on the legs, but the little brother can’t bend his knees! He’s Spider-Man! Spider-Man’s always in some kind of crouched pose or another! Like… bruh, Hasbro, who thought this was a good idea!? The figure is beautiful! Even if he doesn’t have that polished Marvel Legends look, it works for a movie tie-in figure, but… you’re gonna cut costs on the knee joints? Oh no, no, no, no… Let’s look at mentor Spidey.

    Great! He’s top heavy, like in the trailers. The balled fist has that ‘animated’ look about it, I’m really digging the… He can’t bend his knees either, can he? Dude, come on! What, am I supposed to sit him down and have him eat a burger all day? I don’t care if that’s what he does in the trailer, he also teaches Miles to be Spider-Man! And what’s included in ‘Does whatever a spider can’? Bending your knees! Oh, don’t worry, Gwen has locked knee syndrome too.

    And Prowler gets the same treatment:

    Look, I get it. They’re kid’s toys. They’re not for the hardcore Legends collectors. But even the kids deserve better than this! Just… why! The figures look great! It’s just the knees… Well, I’ll still probably pick ’em up, I want all the merch from this movie and MSRP is only $9.99, I guess I just won’t be able to pose them a ton… heck, maybe I’ll leave these guys on the cards. The box art is legit.

    Well, those are the main figures, then there’s this Collider play set:

    Okay, them calling this a play set is a tad insulting. The 46″, $100, Mega City Play Set I have, that’s a play set. The Sky Rider and Alleyway play sets I’ve got from back in the day, those are play sets. Heck, that weak Spider-Man: Homecoming Vulture Attack Play Set barely makes the cut, but it’s a play set. This is a 3D target game practice with Miles Morales. It’s not a play set. Cool idea, looks like fun, but don’t call it a play set.

    There’s some more kiddie stuff, like the Titan series and this cute little shock strike Miles Morales:

     Neat stuff, cool for the kids, but honestly, I’m more excited for this advent calendar-like Movie Countdown board:

     

     

    It’s filled with stickers and knick-knacks, and I’ve become quite the knick-knack collector. All in all, everything looks like great fun, but if we could just have the knees bend on the main figures, that’d be great! Make a mental note for next time Hasbro!

  • We All Have that One Friend…

  • Ultimate End: Brian Michael Bendis No More

    This is a game changer. Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Marvel! And not only that, but he’s going to DC!!! Now, we’re all (presumably) adults here, so we’re not gonna chastise him or call him a traitor, but I just can’t help but wonder what led to this? Brian Bendis is Marvel’s dude! He’s the go-to guy. It seems like every other Marvel event has been written by Bendis. The Ultimate Universe exists (well… existed) because of Bendis! Miles Morales, Jessica Jones, the reason Samuel L. Jackson is currently Nick Fury, it’s all due to Brian Michael Bendis! So what happened?

    Granted, he’s had some missteps, Civil War II gets grilled a lot, and I have to say Disassembled was a bit of a mess. But everyone has a bad day at the office. And when you look at just the sheer contributions Bendis has made to the Marvel Universe over 17 years, it’s unprecedented. Secret Invasion, AvX, Age of Ultron, so, so many more. The movies borrow so much from the Ultimate comics, especially Spider-Man movies. Ultimate Spider-Man lasted an entire run, from 2000 to present, had a very popular video game, and a TV show! This guy literally belongs in the same conversation as Stan Lee.

    My theory as to why he left dates back to when Miles took off, then all of sudden they wanted him in everything. Miles legitimately got in, like, three big adventures before Secret Wars (2015) assimilated him into 616. Like, he’d probably be writing Miles, then Nick Lowe or someone bursts in and goes “Brian! Get this: Spider, wait for it, Men!” Then he had stop and do Spider-Men. So then he goes back to the adventures of Miles, then Lowe, or maybe Quesada, bursts in and goes “Brian! Galactus comes to the Ultimate Universe!” Then Brian has to stop and take out half the Ultimate Universe in Cataclysm. Then when he finally goes back to Miles they say “Brian! Guess what? Ultimate Universe: Gone! Secret Wars!” Then he literally has to destroy the entire universe he created and squeeze Miles into 616. I can see how that’d be jarring from a storytelling point of view, and with Marvel doing big events every 30 seconds, and recruiting Bendis to do half of them, maybe he’s overwhelmed?

    I don’t know the full story, no one but Bendis does. All I can say is, he was one of the first names I learned in comics, and he’s done a bang up job at Marvel. Whether he’s feeling oversaturated, or maybe he just wants a change of scenery after 17 years, we’ll never know. I’d personally like to know what DC put on the table for him, someone so ingrained in the Marvel Universe, to turncoat. But, for now, I guess all we can say is Face Front Brian Michael Bendis, I hope you find what you’re looking for.

    P.S. If Marvel needs someone to write Miles, I’ll gladly do it!

     

  • The City Needs Spider-Man

    Paris has never really done anything for me personally… until now! The PlayStation Paris Game Week Media Showcase has unleashed a new Spider-Man PS4 trailer! Thank you Paris!

    In this trailer, we get a good look at that work/life balance with Peter and Spider-Man that Insomniac’s been talking about so much. He’s taking MJ out to dinner, recruiting Miles to help Aunt May at F.E.A.S.T., getting evicted, all that fun Parker Luck stuff! And as per Parker Luck usual, just when Peter thinks he can have a life outside of Spider-Man, Mr. Negative turns up the heat!

    Honestly, I think Mr. Negative is gonna be, like, 1/5 of this game, but that’s the only villain they’re showing us for now, so it only seems like he’s a game-wide threat. Yes, we’ve seen Kingpin, but we know he gets busted in the beginning (and from the looks of Willie, it seems like it was a rough fight!). We also caught the most fleeting of glimpses at the Shocker, who’s always fun to throw down with in a Spidey game. But back to what I was saying, Insomniac says that this game has a massive story, so it’s hard to believe that Mr. Negative and his Inner Demons are going to be a threat the entire way through.

    We also get a lot of Mary Jane in this trailer, which is refreshing for me. For those of you who follow the blog, you know I’m a big Spider-Man/Mary Jane fan. Since One More Day they’ve been separated in the comics, then The Amazing Spider-Man franchise made Gwen a hot commodity, Zendaya may or may not be her in the movies, and even in the new Marvel’s Spider-Man cartoon we keep getting references and teases, but no MJ! I really like seeing her, not only as Peter’s emotional support, but it looks like she’s doing field work too! She’s looking into the Devil’s Breath (Mr. Negative’s drug), saving hostages, teaming up with Spider-Man. I swear, that POV at the 1:19 minute mark makes it look like you even get to play as MJ! That should be fun.

    Alright, lastly I’m gonna break down some geek-out moments:

    • Martin Li stating that F.E.A.S.T. is the “best part of me”. You know, because he has two sides, you know?

    • Osborn for Mayor! Yeah, because that always ends well…

    • Kingpin’s dressed in black, not white. So either he they’re favoring the look from Marvel’s Daredevil, or… did he get hit by Mr. Negative!?!? It’s probably the former, but still.

    • Peter’s Spider Sense effect, heart eye emoji!

    • We saw Yuri Watanabe on Peter’s com link in the 9 minute demo, but now we see her in person! Is Wraith far behind?

    • Oscorp merchendise in Grand Central terminal. What’s that about?

    • Crusher Hogan vs. The Spider poster in Peter’s apartment, nice!

    • Speaking of Peter’s apartment, October 15, 2018 is circled on his calendar. Release date confirmed!? Maybe!

    Well, that’s all I’ve got! I can’t wait for this game! How about you guys? Comment below! Spider-Man PS4 drops 2018 (maybe October 15)!