Miles Morales is the last man standing against the onslaught of Ares, the god of war. But the tournament’s newest battlefield is now Miles’ home turf of Brooklyn. Spider-Man draws a line in the sand. No retreat. No quarter. He knows victory will come at a cost. Is Miles willing to pay? Miles Morales: Spider-Man #36 is written by Cody Ziglar, drawn by Marco Renna, colored by Bryan Valenza and lettered by Cory Petit.
When we last saw Miles and his group, they had just been transported by Ares to the campus of Miles’ school, Visions Academy in Brooklyn. Ares no longer cares about whether he hurts mortals, as long as he gets to beat up Anansi. Of course, Miles isn’t going to stand for that, but he’s going to have his hands full fighting Ares and his team while trying to protect civilians. It’s a good thing Miles has a team of his own, but it might take more than his brother Jaime, his Hulk therapist Powerlift, his wind-powered friend Gust, and the gods Hercules and Anansi to defeat Ares.
One of the best aspects of this issue is how it mostly unfolds like a two-on-two tag battle in a fighting game like X-Men vs. Street Fighter or BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. The most hilarious team-up is Hercules and Powerlift, with the former attempting to flirt with the latter while fighting the giant red birds from issue #34. Another interesting team-up is Miles and one person from Ares’ team who ends up switching sides and turning things in Miles’ favor. If you kept up with the overall “God War” event, you can guess who it is.
Other notable character moments occur solo, such as Anansi and Ares’ second clash and Miles rescuing civilians. The latter was especially amusing as Miles rescues his best friend Ganke and his history teacher, who was present when Zip attacked the school in issue #31. His expression and dialogue are relatable for every tired and underpaid teacher out there. I also liked seeing Miles’ final conversation with Anansi near the end of the issue.
Enhancing the action and characters are dope lettering, colors and page progression. I especially liked the single page showing Miles and one other person rescue civilians from the school. It is shown step by step with multiple versions of Miles swinging in and through the school before exiting. A particular bit of lettering I liked is when Hercules and Powerlift punch Ares at the same time with a satisfying “THOOM.”
The only issue I had with the finale to “God War” is that I felt the conflict between Anansi and Ares was resolved a little too neatly after the dust settled post-climatic battle. I was hoping something involving Arachne would be mentioned besides the new terms Anansi made Ares agree to.
All in all, I enjoyed “God War” and I’m looking forward to seeing Miles’ next adventure. The end of this issue teased the next arc with the appearance of the characters Inari and White Cat, so we will see where that takes us.
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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.
