Hey Friendos, and Crawlspacers! Introductions are in order, but first we got to jump right into the action cause it’s event tie in time for Miles. Cliff notes from last issue? Ok, Miles and Ganke were about to have a heart to heart over a girl. But then Knull’s Symbiote invasion event is about to get in the way.
Miles Morales: Spider-man #23 (Ultimate #263)
Writer: Saladin Ahmad
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Story: Picking up from Issue #22 at Brooklyn Visions High School. A giant dragon is attacking the nearly empty school. The fact that the school was only recently rebuilt is enough for Miles to swing into action as Spider-Man. After landing on the dragon’s back Miles relies it’s a symbiote. I guess Miles is lucky cause this is the one dragon symbiote that’s actually is a dragon with the intergalactic parasite bonded to it. Miles uses his Venom Strike to free the winged beast from the symbiote, and just in time too as Ms. Marvel sent him an emergency text in need of help.
Miles hops a ride on the dragon to rush to Kamala’s aid. Luckily riding this dragon doesn’t give Miles the urge to round house kick water bottles. As our hero arrives to the Lower East Side on Yancy Street he is attacked by a… KAMALA-BIOTE! As the Knull controlled heroine chases after Miles. He tries to talks sense into her. But he can’t reach her as she starts ranting about how humans don’t matter to the Symbiote God. She finally stanches up Miles and is ready to do some damage. Miles with no other options has to do his Venom Blast again on his close friend. He’s able to reach her finally during the attack by reminding her how strong she is. But knowing it wont be long until the alien re-bonds with her. Miles again does his blast, taking out all of Yancy Street. Kamala survives, only to find out Miles is so lucky.
So as more Symbi-Dragons come charging in. Ms. Marvel is on her own with an out cold Spider. Bringing this first part of the “King in Black” tie in to a close.
Grade: D+
It’s a pretty fun, and fast paced read. The art is a huge plus as Carnero, and Curiel work really fits the dark mood of this event perfectly. But this issue falls for same problems all event tie ins do. Everything from the main ongoing story is halted for now for this Knull event, and if not reading King in Black you probably will be wondering how everything went to hell so fast. Let’s also not forget that our editor, Nick Lowe must not being paying attention right now. Cause Saladin Ahmad seems to think that The Dragons are real dragons that bonded to symbiotes. Which isn’t the case at all, and yet no one cares to notice that mistake. The normal cons of an event comic makes this a mediocre read.
Now I want to wrap up by thanking you for reading my first of hopefully many reviews here on the Crawlspace. If you would of told me back in 2009 when I found this AMAZING site, that I would one day be reviewing comics here. I would of called you nuts. But then again, if you told 19 year old me about a lot of stuff that has happened over the last few years I would think you are nuts. Still I think this is a start of an awesome journey, and I hope you come along for the ride with me my fellow Spider-nerds. 😉 Until next time…..or should I say, Meow?
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Yeah, the dragon under the dragon symbiote ruined it for me. The umpteenth editorial oversight. Sigh.
Unless it was intentional, seeing as it was drawn differently from the other sym-dragons at the end. But that would beg the question as where did a real dragon come from. War of the realms leftover?
@Franz and Sthenurus
As per Champions questions, I think it happens either before (more probably) or after this. After all, the Outlawed narrative has been postponed by the pandemic iirc, so it probably should have never been out at the same time.
Awesome first review. I hope to read from you for a while!
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one confused by the dragon bit! Also, could you give me an idea of how Miles and champions work together in a timeline? I haven’t be able to wrap my head around it for bit now (since around the relaunch, and his appearances in champions, his own title, asm and venom….)
Welcome James.
Great first review.
I agree, the event tie-ins aren’t too strong, and the real dragon under the symbiote threw me. I guess it’s a case of “add this to your run and make it fit” from editorial and ther over-arching details were missed to the line writers.
Also still not sure where this fits in with Champions, where they are all on the run due to Kamala’s law (another ridiculous rehash of a done storyline).
-Stephen