Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #5 Review

 “The Oz formula that made Spider-Man made me into what I am.  It made the new Spider-Man.  My greatest achievement.  I created the Spider-Men.  It might be that we cannot die.”

Having survived a brief encounter with Norman Osborn, the Spider-Men are surrounded by the NYPD. While the Fly Twins take advantage of the confusion, will the Spider-Men get to the bottom of all the recent mysteries and if they do, who will be standing?

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: David Marquez

Color: Justin Ponsor

Lettering: VC’s Cory Petit

Cover Art: David Marquez with Justin Ponsor

Production: Irene Y. Lee

Assistant Editor: Emily Shaw

Editor: Mark Paniccia

The Story: The Spider-Men, surrounded by the cops, decide to make a run for it. Against orders, an officer fires, injuring Miles. As he hides, trying to decide what to do next, Detective Maria Hill pulls up and offers him a ride, revealing she’s known he’s Spidey for over a year and never done anything to hurt him. He gets in and fills her in on the recent craziness. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Fly Twins decide to take advantage of the commotion and pull another heist, apparently from the super powered division’s evidence room. Norman goes to tell his story to Jonah and Miles tracks down “Peter” at MJ’s.

Thoughts: Well, this issue is not exactly what the solicits promised, which was “One of the most defining stories in the ULTIMATE UNIVERSE explodes in a way no one saw coming! • Only one of the two ULTIMATE SPIDER-MANS shall rise!” I must admit my expectations were pretty high going in. While I enjoyed the issue upon finishing reading it with my kids, my son commented “That was fast.” I didn’t feel it went by as quickly as last issue, but as it sank in, I began to agree with him a little bit. There was definitely more going on here than last issue and we had several scenes compared to it, too.

I felt it opened strong with the Spider-Men surrounded and “Peter” (I’m gonna keep the quotes until we know if he’s the real deal) saying they’d have to get out of it the old fashioned way. I loved the banter between the two when Miles said he did know the old fashioned way back when he had web-shooters. Miles getting shot provided a mental callback to me to The Death of Peter Parker, but his wound was nowhere near as severe as Peter’s was and he’s not up against the Sinister Six. I love the splash page Marquez drew of Miles hiding out by the garbage can. It seems very “Spider-Man” to me.

I like Maria coming to Miles’ rescue and getting it out in the open that she knows his secret. She’s pretty smart and I’m glad we can get past the tired super hero clichés and have them both help each other out. Her rationale was touching, too. I’ll have to look back at Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2 to see if I spot her.

Thankfully, we get a little more development on the Fly Twins. We find out they’re actually brothers, working for a mysterious someone, and that one seems hesitant to be doing these jobs. We’re still no closer to figuring out what their master plan is, but it’s nice to finally get SOMETHING else besides them just pulling a heist.

Norman coming to Jonah caught me off guard. I love the way Marquez has a small light in the sky grow larger panel by panel until the Goblin crashes in. My son noticed it in the background right off the bat and I got a kick with his excitement level. I also liked how he handled the transition from Goblin to Norman. Both bits come out great on guided view if you’re reading digitally.

Norman’s remorse over Harry caught me off guard. As he told his tale to Jonah, I was starting to buy for just a moment that maybe he was manipulated by all those he mentioned. However, I quickly recalled that he was a jerk right from the start and treated Harry as worthless, that is, when Norman could be bothered to pay attention to him. To me, that pre Goblin difference stood out from the original 616 version. The original Norman, whilst too busy for Harry at times, genuinely seemed to care about his son and take interest in him when he could. In fact, he would revert to “normal” when he would forget he was the Goblin. Ultimate Norman couldn’t be bothered, too fueled by his greedy ambition, to focus on little else in his life, pre or post Oz formula. It’s been years since I read the issue when Ultimate Harry died. Looks like I have two stories to revisit now that I’m curious how Norman handled it.

To me, the big shocker was Jonah pulling out a gun and shooting Norman! I feel like a broken record, but Marquez knocked that page out of the park! The rage on Norman’s face and the close up on his shocked eyes are perfectly followed with the sad, but resolved look in Jonah’s face.

While I found it shocking, I don’t for a second think this means the end for Norman. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned to the Goblin the second he noticed the gun, or felt the bullet start to penetrate his skin. As I turned the page, I recalled Banner’s line from The Avengers movie, how “the Big Guy” spit out the bullet. I’m more worried about Jonah. Norman is unpredictable and has shown no qualms about killing, so I wouldn’t put it past him if he was enraged by Jonah’s insolence. It would be a loss as I genuinely like this take on him, especially as he has been in Spidey’s corner and isn’t the caricature he is over in the 616 universe. Bendis has made this JJJ feel more real and rounded out to me than the cartoonish buffoon in Amazing.

Jonah isn’t immortal, but Norman and the Spider-Men possibly being that way is an intriguing possibility. If 616 Norman has a healing factor that mends him after being impaled by his glider, it’s not difficult to imagine that the Ultimate Oz/Goblin formula could do something along those lines. With the Oz Formula being instrumental in the spider bite, it’s quite possible that it could bring Peter and Miles back, too, in the event of their demise. I’m actually starting to wonder if “Peter” isn’t a clone after all, but the real McCoy who just took some time to mend from his now maybe not-so-final battle. I had just assumed, given the longer hair cut, that it was an old clone from back when he wore it like that, but maybe he’s been growing it out to his old, familiar style whilst recuperating. Needless to say, the ramifications of Spider-Man being eternal are huge.

Overall, Bendis wrote a great issue with some nice character beats and Marquez crushed it as usual, though I’d like to see him draw the eyes on “Peter’s” mask bigger, Bagley style. The only thing keeping me from giving it an “A” is the disappointment that we were promised big, huge things with this issue, with only one Spider-Man making it through , and that isn’t what we got. JJJ shooting Norman and Miles on the cusp of getting answers from “Peter” just wasn’t satisfying enough for me this month.

My Grade: B+

Javi’s Huh?: Is that a gun in your robe, Jonah, or are you just happy to see me?