With Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse hitting theaters next month, it’s become clear that Miles Morales is a character that sells. Filling the shoes of Marvel’s most iconic hero, Spider-Man, is an unenviable task for anybody. Miles was young and inexperienced, and unlike Peter, had to live up to a name that already had a beloved legacy.
Thankfully, there have been many great stories to come out of Miles’ adventures in Marvel Comics. However, there’s a whole decade of Miles Morales stories to go through. Weirdness wasn’t just a possibility, it was inevitable as far as comic books were concerned.
10 Miles, Son of Asgard
There was no avoiding this one. What If...? Miles Morales (2022) #4 by Yehudi Mercado, Paco Medina, and Luigi Zagaria was controversial for a lot of reasons. However, the main driving force behind this controversy was the unfortunate stereotyping of Miles as the God of Thunder.
Inexplicably, Miles spoke like an out-of-touch adult’s idea of what hip language for kids is like. The Dr. Seuss-esque raps certainly didn’t help matters, and many fans criticized the What If...? Miles Morales issue for rehashing harmful stereotypes of the Black community instead of producing actual character development.
9 Villainous Attraction
Much like his predecessor, Miles has had quite an interesting love life. From Gwen Stacy to Kate Bishop, he’s no stranger to romance drama. That said, some of those romantic encounters weren’t exactly a fairy tale love story. Many even wanted Miles as the second half of a supervillain couple, and they're a lot more aggressive than Black Cat was to Peter.
The villain Diamondback was never shy about her attraction to Spider-Man, oftentimes flirting with him in the middle of battle. Unsurprisingly, the feelings were not reciprocated because Diamondback was a violent murderer. On a trip to Japan, Miles even caught the eye of Tomoe the Techno Golem, who offered him a position as her personal enforcer. This also went nowhere.
8 Hulking Out
What If...? Miles Morales (2022) #3 by Anthony Piper, Edgar Salazar, and Paco Medina replaced the mild-mannered Bruce Banner with Miles Morales. Here, the teen took a face full of gamma radiation and became the Incredible Hulk. Unlike the Thor issue, this issue was well-received.
For one thing, it tackled the core of Hulk’s main story beats, and that was his intense emotional turmoil. Miles was no stranger to trauma and depression. While his life may not have been as bleak as Bruce Banner’s, it was enough that being the Hulk was a stressful process. This humanizing element makes this version of Miles feel like a real character, not a caricature.
7 Just Roommates
In contrast to Peter, Miles ended up revealing his secret identity to a lot more people during his first year. One of the first confidants Miles ever had was Ganke, his roommate and best friend. Miles and Ganke are such close friends in fact, that both Miles’ parents and future girlfriend thought they had a thing going.
They were not judgmental, but it was quite amusing seeing Miles react so colorfully to this misunderstanding. Still, this doesn’t detract from their dynamic. The close friendship between Ganke and Miles is one of the details that make him stand apart from Peter. After all, Peter didn't have the luxury of confiding in anybody during his earlier years.
6 Dominating Green Goblin
While Miles has done many things to stand out from Peter’s shadow, the flashiest difference has to be his Venom Strike. Thanks to its absurdly high effectiveness, it’s a standard part of Miles’ moveset. In an ironic twist of fate, this power turns out to be a perfect counter to the man responsible for Peter’s death.
The 1610 version of the Green Goblin thought that he could get rid of the new Spider-Man just like he did the first. Unbeknownst to Osborn, this young Spider-Man packed quite the punch. A few Venom Strikes later, the Green Goblin was out for the count. This curb-stomp of a battle solidified this new Spider-Man.
5 Miles As Wolverine
Arguably one of the most bizarre of the run, What If...? Miles Morales (2022) #2 by John Ridley, Farid Karami, and Sara Pichelli gives Miles the mantle of Wolverine. Set against a backdrop of a rise in kidnappings during the 1980s, there was potential for some hard-hitting storytelling here.
Unfortunately, the issue barely gets time to breathe, and mostly goes through the motions of an action-oriented Wolverine comic. The Thor issue was notorious, and the Hulk issue was actually good. In the face of that, Miles getting the adamantium treatment was weird but didn’t push its themes or story far enough.
4 Superior Miles Morales
Spider-Man: Life Story (2019) by Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, John Dell, and Frank D’Armata is a refreshing take on the Peter Parker story. In this version, Spider-Man started his career in the 1960s, just as he did in the original. The difference was that he aged in “real-time," and by the time of the 2010s, he was well into his 70s.
Knowing that his time was almost up, Peter took on a protégé: Miles Morales. This version of Miles put in a lot more hours as Spider-Man, with over eight years of experience as well as a dedicated mentor. In essence, this version of Miles is weird because of how much support and experience he’s gained early on, something not common for most Spider-Men. He's so impressive that Doc Ock hijacks Miles instead of Peter at the climax of this storyline, although it is short-lived.
3 Symbol Of Justice
The polarizing series starts with What If...? Miles Morales (2022) #1 from Cody Ziglar, Paco Medina, and Sara Pichelli, and it honestly wasn’t very exciting. This version of Miles Morales did not volunteer for the Super-Soldier serum. Instead, he accidentally ingests it after his uncle Aaron, inexplicably, leaves it in the fridge after stealing it.
What follows is an inoffensive but standard array of What If? tropes. The weirdest aspect of this issue was just how bland Miles was, so much so that he could have been replaced by any other character. Not much of his personality shines through in this one, even as he makes Spider-Man-esque quips as America's golden boy.
2 Spider-Men
After the events of Secret Wars, certain individuals from Earth-1610 would end up in the 616 universe, seemingly without any memory of their previous lives. Instead, they had memories of their time in the “new” universe. Miles was among that number, and he would suffer many strange nightmares of alternate dimensions.
Eventually, it was revealed that the longer a person remains in another universe, the more they forget what their past lives were. Throughout Miles’ run, however, he manages to regain all his memories, but not without difficulty. First, he had to go toe-to-toe with one of his greatest enemies: himself.
1 His Own Worst Enemy
Every Spider-Man has a gallery of dastardly rogues, and Miles is no exception. However, most of Miles’ villains inexplicably end up being evil versions of himself. The Miles that everyone knows and loves hails from Earth-1610, the Ultimate universe, not Earth-616.
Obviously, there had to be a 616 version of Miles somewhere. Unfortunately, this version was a hardened criminal with a close friendship with Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin. This version would eventually become a supervillain known as Ultimatum after stealing technology from Earth-1610.