Miles Morales #35 concludes one arc and leads into another. As the Assessor and Quantum return to wreak havoc on Miles’ life, he and Shift have to seek out some unlikely allies. Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35 written by Saladin Ahmed, drawn by Michele Bandini and Luigi Zagaria, inked by Michele Bandini, Elisabetta D’Amico, and Luigi Zagaria, colored by David Curiel, and lettered by Cory Petit.
I can’t say I was a big Game of Thrones fan. I watched the first season in full, and caught an episode every now and then from there. But! I’m an avid fan of the internet and Twitter, and boy, did the internet and Twitter love Game of Thrones.
Until it didn’t.
I remember watching one particular episode, the Massacre at Hardhome, which was (and still might be!) one of the most impressive sequences, visually and thematically, that I’ve ever seen. It was a masterpiece, filled with fighting and fear and foreshadowing. Awesome!
Which well, you know, isn’t how the series ended. The less said, the better.
After reading Miles Morales #35, I couldn’t help but think about that particular episode and the resulting path of the series afterward. The issues big bad, The Assessor, made his mysterious debut way back in July 2019 (wow was the world different!) in MM#8. That issue, much like the massacre, was a high-water mark for me: gone were references to Peter Parker or forced family drama. There was just Miles, alone, being put through his paces, methodically, abruptly, cruelly, by an entity we did not know for a purpose we could only imagine. It was, for lack of better terms, good comics, filled with fighting and fear and foreshadowing. Awesome!
And..well…
You see where I’m going with this.
To be completely fair, Miles Morales #35 is a pretty darn good comic. The pencil and ink team of Michele Bandini, Elisabetta D’Amico (ink only), and Luigi Zagaria have created a wonderful looking piece of work here, especially and specifically the two-page spread where Miles electrifies his webbing to attack the (multiple!) Assessor(s). As pure Saturday morning cartoon fare, this book works: it moves quickly and linearly, has hard-hitting action, and doesn’t ask too many questions.
It’s also, like so many Saturday morning cartoons, painfully predictable.
In the same way that the indomitable Ice King was taken out way (wayyyy) too easily, The Assessor (now with tenuous ties to the Beyond Corporation because of corporate synergy – literally and figuratively!), an AI construct who could apparently capture Miles with little effort back in July of 2019, now succumbs to Miles using the most fickle of effort. In isolation, this is fine: again, the comic is pretty to look at and reads enjoyably. But compared to the depth and horror of the character’s inception, the resolution left me disappointed and frustrated – but, sadly, not too surprised.
The issue ends with Miles bowing out of the current Beyond arc (in a way he should bow out of all of Peter Parker’s mess) and entering a dimensional portal to find his Uncle Aaron. It’s a little frustrating that Miles has to keep leaving this universe (616) to find a place where he can thrive on his own terms. Maybe after his interdimensional retreat, he’ll return invigorated and ready to rule on a throne of his own. But given how this issue ends – and given how that other Throne crumbled towards the end – I won’t hold my breath.
A proud New Orleanian living in the District of Columbia, Jude Jones is a professional thinker, amateur photographer, burgeoning runner and lover of Black culture, love and life. Magneto and Cyclops (and Killmonger) were right.
Find more of Jude’s writing here.
