Spider-Man’s first task as spider-god Anansi’s herald? Battle to the death against Anansi’s ancient enemy, Ares, god of war. Hercules may lend Miles his strength against his old foe, but Team Spider-Man is going to need a lot more muscle if they hope to best Ares’ champions. Introducing War-Cry, Philomelus, demigod of Earth, and Pyrrah, demigoddess of water. Miles Morales: Spider-Man #33 is written by Cody Ziglar, drawn by Luigi Zagaria, colored by Bryan Valenza and lettered by Cory Petit.
Miles Morales needs all the help he can get if he is going to stand a chance in this God War event. Unfortunately, the only help available is the last three people Miles spoke to: Jaime, aka Miles’ brother Shift; Jaime’s new friend and classmate Jade, aka Gust; and Miles’ therapist, Dr. Keisha Kwan. Before we get to their involvement in the God War, let’s take a closer look at each of these characters.
Jaime clearly has a lot of potential. Not only can he alter his shape and grow multiple limbs, he also has a spider-sense, superstrength, durability and reflexes similar to Miles. He also can make his own webbing and is awkward yet sweet. The latter is evident in his first interaction with Jade at school, when they meet at lunch. Jade sits with Jaime when no one else will, sparking the beginning of a beautiful friendship (and possibly crush). Really appreciate Cody Ziglar for writing such realistic teen voices.
Speaking of Jade, this is my first encounter with her, but she seems just as cool and inexperienced superpower-wise as Jaime. According to the character profile I looked up, she can manipulate air by creating wind bursts, flying and suffocating people by sucking all the air around them or in their body. Basically, she’s kinda like an Airbender from the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe. Cool power set aside, she seems really nice; it takes a kind heart to sit down with a new kid in school like Jaime after everyone else gets up and leaves the table.
Last but not least, Dr. Kwan has been a fabulous therapist to Miles. As I mentioned in my mini review of issue #32, she has done her best to give Miles space to feel and discuss his feelings, which is super important in a world that often doesn’t allow Black boys to do so. However, this issue eventually reveals that Dr. Kwan is more than meets the eye, as she has durability and strength of hulking proportions that allows her to withstand blows from Philomelus, demigod of Earth. She looks good unveiling those powers as the gamma-powered Hulk Powerlift, particularly on the issue’s final page. Shoutout to artist Luigi Zagaria and colorist Bryan Valenza for making her look swole and gorgeous.
Now that the new challengers have been introduced, let’s get to the action. Earlier I mentioned that Dr. Kwan throws hands with Philomelus, but I didn’t mention why. To participate in the tournament of gods, there needs to be four champions on Anansi’s and Ares’ respective sides. However, since Miles is Anansi’s only champion, Ares rushes Miles to pick three more people to fight by his side. Once this is done, Ares picks Dr. Kwan for the first bout and pits her against his champion Philomelus.
In addition to exchanging blows that are accented by sound effects like “THOOM” and “CRACCK,” Philomelus and Dr. Kwan also exchange words that are enhanced by Cory Petit’s lettering. For Philomelus’ dialogue, Petit uses a font that is reminiscent of ancient Greek and speech bubbles highlighted brown. While Dr. Kwan’s words and speech bubbles are normal, her and Philomelus’ words are occasionally punctuated by Miles’ concerned words and Anansi’s mostly calm rebuttal. I say mostly because there is a point where Anansi loudly scolds Miles and uses magic to stop him from intervening in Dr. Kwan’s fight. Anansi’s words and speech bubbles are stylized similar to Philomelus’, except Anansi’s are red. Similar features are also seen in the commentary by Ares’ other champions, War-Cry (aka Agent Gao), Zip Zephyr (demigod of wind) and Pyrrha (patron of the drowned).
Based on the words exchanged during Dr. Kwan and Philomelus’ fight, both Anansi’s and Ares’ champions are underestimating each other for different reasons. Miles can’t see the untapped potential of his crew yet, while Ares’ crew thinks they have an easy victory. However, Dr. Kwan tapping into her abilities as Powerlift is set to turn the tables, and I can’t wait to see her even the playing field in the next issue.
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Latonya "Penn" Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others. Follow them @wordsfromapenn.com on Bluesky.
