Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1-5

 Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1-5

Originally released in 2011

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Art by Sara Pichelli

After reading Spider-Men, I wanted to go back and see how Miles started out, more or less. (he made some one-off appearances in earlier comics, but this is his first series and details his origin)  His backstory isn't too different from the Across the Spider-Verse movie, though there's no multiverse material in here.  Rather, the spider that bites Miles snuck into some material that his uncle, Aaron Davis (a.k.a. the Prowler) stole from an abandoned Oscorp lab, and it bites Miles when Miles comes over to visit Aaron. (which has me wondering if there's a What-If issue where the spider bites Aaron instead)

Like in Across The Spider-Verse, the spider that bit Miles is numbered 42, though I'm not sure of the significance of that choice - it could be a reference to Jackie Robinson (a baseball player who wore the number 42 and broke the colour barrier, though I'm not sure if Miles's introduction is doing anything that dramatic), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (where 42 is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything), or it was just picked randomly. (It could be a reference to an older Spider-Man issue, but the original Stan Lee-penned issue of Amazing Spider-Man #42 didn't seem to have anything to do with Miles, Norman Osborn, the Prowler, or any other significant figure in this issue, though it was the first full appearance of Mary Jane)

Miles's parents both feature in this story, though his father has a much more important role. (He's named Jefferson Davis here, but years later, he would legally change his name to Jefferson Morales, taking his wife's name - I'll stick with Morales for him since naming a black man after Jefferson Davis, the first/only president of the slave-holding Confederate States from the US Civil War was certainly... a choice) He's worried about his son, and has a nice heart to heart about his past with Aaron and how he felt like he was trapped in the criminal lifestyle that Aaron continues to live in until he met Miles's mother.  However, he's also an anti-mutant bigot, which makes it difficult for Miles to admit that he got powers when Miles thinks that he became a mutant from that spider bite at first.

One major difference between Miles's origin and Peter's origin from the original 60's comics is that that a culture of fear has been built up around certain types of powers (primarily mutants), and that's shown scarily well here, with people reacting with fear and disgust when they see Miles's powers manifesting and they think that he might be a mutant. (How Miles manages to save people from a burning building in broad daylight without a mask or costume and nobody makes the connection between him and the new Spider-Man that appears shortly afterwards, I have no idea)

Despite his initial reluctance to use his powers, wanting to live a normal life, get through his schooling, and get a good job, Miles has his Uncle Ben moment with the death of the Ultimate universe's Peter Parker. Bendis does a good job of showing Miles's guilt here, as Miles feels like Peter could have been saved if Miles wasn't so afraid of his powers and did something to help.  It's an interesting twist on the premise, since Miles isn't connected to Peter and didn't know him, but he still feels like he could (and should) have done something to save him.

After Peter's death, Miles starts to actively use his powers more often, though his store-bought costume is almost universally agreed to be in poor taste.  Jessica Drew, a.k.a. Spider-Woman (who, in this universe, is a clone of Peter Parker) takes Miles to Nick Fury, and when Miles helps with stopping a rampaging Electro, Fury is willing to give the kid a chance and gives him a unique costume.  I preferred how the Spider-Verse movies handled it, with Miles making the costume on his own (or at least modifying one of Peter's own costumes), but the ending shot that reveals Miles's costume in full is a nice one.

It's a good start for the character, and even this early on, I can see how audiences grew attached to him so quickly. One advantage that the Ultimate universe seemed to have over the main (616) universe in Marvel comics is that changes could be made and actually stick.  This can backfire horribly (as seen with Ultimatum, which killed off dozens of characters in the most mean-spirited or anti-climactic way possible with seemingly no plan for where things would go from there), but in this case, it was a major shake-up to the status quo that definitely worked.