The Miles Chronicles: Miles Morales Spider-Man #5 review

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5

Hello True Believers! Last issue was an in between issue about Miles’ vice principal trying to get him in trouble for skipping school. Will this issue be another in-betweener, or will it start a new story line? Let’s find out!

Title: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5

Writer: Saladin Ahmed

Artist: Javier Garrón

Color Artist: David Curiel

Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Cover Art: Marco D’Alfonso

Editor: Nick Lowe

Published: April 17, 2019

 

Overview:

Miles and Ganke are walking around New York, getting some Jamaican food, when Miles hears gunshots. He follows them and finds that Tombstone’s gang is staging a takeover of New York, causing lots of violence in the streets between them and rival gangs. He eventually finds Tombstone’s main hideout where a new (hero? villain?) person shows up causing one of Tombstones men to run away screaming. This new person introduces herself as Starling. To be continued……

Highlights:

It was nice seeing Miles start to become more of his own character it seems like. Miles is definitely starting to turn more into a “street” type person with strong ties to his community. He’s still very much like Peter Parker, but he’s slowly drifting into his new character.

We also saw an addition of a new Flash Thompson-esk character. It seems like he’s been Ganke’s bully for a while but is now going to start messing with Miles. This character has a lot of potential but it does kind of slot Miles back into the Peter Parker character. This character, Sean, seems like one of the preppy, rich bullies but he’s also trying to act tough like a jock and it has a slight disconnect. But if they’re trying to create a character that you hate the minute you see them, they did a good job.

I’m still trying to figure out this outfit. Sneakers, rolled up skinny jeans, a chain, earrings, a button-up shirt with the top 3 buttons undone, a vest, and a yellow cardigan. With the worst haircut in the world. And he thinks he can beat up Miles? Really?

A thumb ring too!? Wow this guy is a stuck up jerk. I think he might be scared of  a mirror because then he’d realize he’s been looking like an idiot for a while.

 

It was also awesome seeing Miles just beat the crap out of some gangbangers.

Yeah, Bloody Machete Crew is a horrible name.

 

What was lacking:

Ganke is making Miles’ webfluid now? Since when? It also made it seem like Miles had no clue what Ganke was talking about when he was making the webbing. Miles is supposed to be really smart. That’s how he was able to get into this new school! I’m not a fan of Miles getting dumbed down.

Also, they made the mention of Miles getting low on webfluid, yet that did not come into play at all! I kept expecting it to be a problem he had to face because this will be the first time Miles runs out of webfluid and has to fight and get around without it. That would have been awesome to see! The only thing is can think of is that it will come into play next issue, but at that point most people will have probably forgotten that this was a thing by that point.

Chekhov’s Webfluid?

 

This issue, and the past couple, have felt off. I just can’t put my finger on it but they just don’t feel right. When I’ve been reading, I’ve noticed this but I can’t find anything inherently wrong. The writing isn’t bad, the character is a good character, the stories aren’t bad. I don’t know what it is. Hopefully this will get sorted out soon.

 

 

MISLEADING COVERS IS MAKING A COMEBACK Y’ALL!

What have we got here?

Alright, so we got Tombstone standing over a fallen Spider-Man, dual wielding some really big guns. Tombstone isn’t even in this issue! The only thing we get with Tombstone are some of his lackeys, much less Tombstone fighting or beating up Spider-Man. I expected a Tombstone fight when I looked at the cover.

Can we also talk about how the issue number and author credit had to get pushed down to make room for more of that gun drawing and now its just awkwardly sitting further down than normal. Why didn’t they put it in the bottom corner if they were going to move it? It just looks bad.

And it’s a shame too because this art is really good. There’s a cool stipple effect on Miles and the colors are vibrant and eye catching. I just hate that we’re going to go back to this after the past couple issues have been fairly accurate. Sure, issue #2 (sheesh, these issues need better names) didn’t have something that depicted what was in the issue, but this issue’s cover is blatantly misleading.

 

Final Grade: B-

There wasn’t much wrong with it but it just doesn’t feel right. I don’t feel like I can mark it down much for ‘feeling off” without pointing out exactly what it is that it’s doing wrong and i just can’t find that. That being said, I’m really excited for next issue to see who this “Starling” person is and I hope a running story with Tombstone will help Ahmed find his feet with Miles’ character.