MILES MORALES MEETS AN ALL-NEW HULK! The THEOMACHY rages as MILES MORALES fights a losing battle against the ancient and overwhelming power of ARES, GOD OF WAR, and his champions! But wait – Miles’ newest recruit is a gamma-powered HULK?! Miles Morales: Spider-Man #34 written by Cody Ziglar, drawn by Marco Renna, colored by Bryan Valenza and lettered by Cory Petit.
GOD WAR’S (ANCIENT) SECRETS REVEALED! The flames of the GOD WAR engulf Brooklyn – and Miles Morales rallies his band of demigods, misfits and (one) Hulk (?) to save New York from Ares’ destructive onslaught! But Spider-God Anansi’s deceived even his own champion by keeping the true cause of this primordial blood feud under wraps – UNTIL NOW! Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35 Written by Cody Ziglar, drawn by Marco Renna, colored by Bryan Valenza and lettered by Cory Petit.
Birds In The Hand
Picking up right where the previous issue left off, Miles’ therapist Dr. Kwan revealed herself to be a Gamma-powered Hulk known as Powerlift. She is ready to throw down and look good doing it, and proceeds to do just that. It helps that artist Marco Renna and colorist Bryan Valenza make her look damn good. I love how ripped she is as Powerlift and how her muscles have green veins bulging on them. Cory Petit’s lettering enhances her actions, especially as she casually tosses Phil’s plow back to him before snapping it with a flying it.
With this round won by Powerlift, it is time for the next fight challenge, a two-on-two featuring Miles and Gust versus Phyrra and Zephyr. Well, not quite. Both teams compete to fight a flock of giant red mythological birds known as Stymphalian birds. At first, Zephyr tries to take them on by himself, while Phyrra and Gust use their water & wind abilities to fight them while casually chatting with each other. I appreciated how writer Cody Ziglar showed contrast between both teams’ approaches.
Once Miles talks some sense into Zephyr, the two use an impressive combo to take them down. Since both teams beat the birds, this round ends in a draw. Things get more interesting when Anansi reveals this was his intention, so he can face Ares himself. It turns out Anansi blames Ares for the loss of his previous herald, Arachne.
For those unaware, Arachne of traditional Greek myth is a young white female weaver who challenged the goddess Athena, the patron of weavers, and paid the price [Ed. Note by being transformed into the first spider, so, THANKS, Athena…]. However, Arachne’s comic book counterpart is Black and one of Anansi’s chosen heralds. Despite Arachne’s story remaining tragic, it will be interesting to read the next issue and see why Anansi is willing to go so far to avenge her.
When Gods Fight, Mortals Suffer
If it’s one thing I’ve learned about gods from any mythology regardless of their country of origin, it is that they are almost always involved in drama. For example, there is Zeus from Greek mythology, who has been unfaithful to his wife Hera many times. In African folktales, there is a story about how Anansi tried to keep wisdom all to himself, after it was given to him in a pot by the Sky God Nyame. In the case of Anansi’s Marvel Comics’ counterpart, he has been a little manipulative by withholding from his current herald Miles Morales the reason the war between him and Ares began. That is, until now.
As it turns out, Anansi’s previous herald Arachne was a mortal weaver from Athens that Anansi admired from afar. However, Ares, God of War, decided to spread a rumor about Arachne to his sister Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and patron to weavers. Before I explain further, I want to praise the artist and colorist for designing Arachne so well. I especially like how her hair is drawn braided with little white hair bands in it; Arachne’s hair resembles a precursor to contemporary hair beads.
Despite being taught that Ancient Greeks were white, there is scholarly evidence of non-white people in Greece, like the Minoans, who came from Ancient Egypt to Greece. Some scholars also believe that the Minoans were related to the Pelasgians, another non-white ethnic group in Greece said to have been the first people there (and the originator of the Mediterranean diet). All of this is to say, it is not far-fetched to see a Black depiction of Arachne because it’s hard not to imagine her as Minoan.
When Athena disguised herself as an old woman and visited Arachne, Athena put words in Arachne’s mouth and made it seem like Arachne was putting her weaving skills on the same level as Athena. Then, Arachne was taken to the Greek gods for judgment, but Anansi never saw the outcome. That’s when Anansi confronted Ares about Arachne, resulting in a battle that hurt mortals & their world, including Arachne. As a result, Zeus and Buluku, Anansi and Ares’ respective Skyfathers, set rules so that humanity would no longer be harmed by the battle of the gods.
As I pointed out in my mini review of Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32, Anansi found a loophole in the rules and used this so that his and Ares’ chosen champions fight in their stead. However, Miles rightfully points out that by doing so, Anansi and Ares are still involving innocent people unrelated to his and Ares’ beef. It doesn’t matter that Miles’ brother (Jaime), friend (Gust) and therapist (Dr. Kwan/Powerlift) have super-powers; they can still die.
Of course, Ares’ hardheaded siddity self is not listening and decides to summon his weapons to fight Anansi, because he’s had it. As they trade a few blows, I’m pretty sure Anansi’s fighting style is influenced by hip-hop break dancing like Mugen from the anime Samurai Champloo. It’s impressive and a nice touch to Anansi’s character, and puts his strength equal to Ares. Ares soon realizes this and teleports everyone to Brooklyn Visions Academy, Miles’ school. The comic ends as Ares’ summons his full battle armor, which means things just escalated massively. I am looking forward to seeing how this “God War” event concludes and I’m hoping it involves Miles and Anansi kicking Ares’ butt.
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.
