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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years ago

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (semi-stream of consciousness) Thoughts Part 2: A Superior Spider-Miles

Lets talk about how this movie handled its primary protagonist, Miles Morales. SPOILERS ahead.

Look I could just go on for ages listing off specific examples of how this movie is hilarious, action packed, emotional and so on, but I think you can take that as a given. It’s all round great okay, so let’s maybe talk in more specifics.

Miles Morales is of course the primary character in this movie.

As I began to get at in the last part of my thoughts on this film, there is a distinction to be made between the primary protagonist and the sole or main protagonist.

In Spider-Man movies of the past there has been one main character, one protagonist, one lead character, Peter Parker of course.

This movie doesn’t simply switch that focus to Miles because that would mean the other characters who get play are supporting players in Miles’ story and that is not the case.

This is an ensemble/team story with Miles as the central focus of that team.

I suppose the most apt comparison would be that in Lord of the Rings Frodo might be the primary character but Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf and Gimli are more than merely supporting players in the story, they are vital and integral protagonists along with Frodo, even if the story belongs more to Frodo than to them.

So Miles in this movie = Frodo, even right down to having his mentor die and his uncle be semi-nasty.

As such most of the characters featured in the movie are filtered through the lens of serving the story wherein Miles is the heart and soul of the piece.

We will discuss the other characters a bit more in a future instalment, but broadly speaking their roles in relation to Miles is to serve as a barometer of how far he has to come to truly become a Spider-Hero among their ranks. This is after all his origin story and unlike the Maguire or Garfield Spider-Men he lacks the benefit of a montage sequence or time skip to herald in his experience.

The film follows his origin very linearly across the space of what at best is a few weeks thus we truly see Miles clear progression from unable to control even his wall-crawling to fully fledged Spider-Hero. Albeit one who still has much to learn and stumbles from time to time.

It is a beautifully executed arc that allows Miles to far more earnestly earn the mantle of Spider-Man compared to his comic book counterpart.

Indeed this version of Miles and his origin is for the most part grossly superior to how Bendis did it in the Ultimate Universe.

The singular drawback of the film’s take on Miles’ origin is that it is comparatively less grounded than Miles’ in the comics due to the presence of parallel universes, global/universal stakes and things of that nature.

However the film perfectly justifies this as a more faithful rendition of Miles origin simply would never have worked.

I’ve said countless times before in defiance of those foolishly insisting that Miles Morales should have been the Spider-Man of the MCU that this was utterly impractical.

And one the biggest reasons for this is the fact that Miles simply doesn’t have enough source material upon which to base a trilogy of movies.

This is owed to his being created as recently as 2011, his adventures being frequently derailed by crossovers and tie-ins with other characters (thus defeating the purpose of stories focussed upon him) and his stories playing out under the ‘written for the trade’ format. This means that whilst there were around 24 stories about Peter Parker in the first 28 issues of ASM’s publication (excluding annuals, but including his entire high school career) there was in truth just 7 in Miles’ first 28 issues. And not all 7 of those would have been useable in a film adaptation.

In fact if we consider just the first two (and most critically acclaimed) live action Spider-Man movies we can see that they combined elements from across Spider-Man’s then 40+ year history.

Spider-Man one combined elements of Spider-Man’s origin, the retelling of said origin from Ultimate Spider-Man, The Death of Gwen Stacy, ASM Annual #39, ASM Annual #9 and multiple other smaller elements from Spider-Man’s wider history, such as his job at the Bugle, his relationship with Mary Jane, etc.

Spider-Man 2, whilst chiefly based upon Spider-Man No More (ASM #50), also combined elements from ASM Annual #1, the broader concept of Doctor Octopus from his decades of history, ASM volume 2 #38 and other things I’m sure I am forgetting.

Again, not every Spider-Man story unto itself was particularly friendly towards being adapted into film but such a rich history made cherry picking workable elements to form a movie possible.

Miles possessing a shorter, more linear and decompressed history makes this much harder. Compounding the problem was that in order to introduce Miles to wider audiences necessitated doing an origin movie for him.

In 2018 superhero origin movies are something of a touchy subject in the wake of in excess of two decades worth of them, and for there to have been a less that 20 years a THIRD film presenting a story about a scientifically gifted NYC dwelling teenager to be bitten by a spider, gain super powers that he does not immediately use altruistically, thus generating guilt that propels him to wear web spandex and become a hero was never ever going to fly.

Unfortunately Miles’ origin is one of his relatively few reliably ‘filmic’ storylines. In fact this movie combines his origin story with elements from the second Miles story arc featuring his uncle the Prowler as well as the Spider-Men mini-series and the crossover between him and Spider-Gwen.

Oh and the Spider-Verse crossover (though in truth I think the movie owes more to the grand finale of the 1994 Spidey cartoon).

Oh and technically elements from every individual Spider-Hero they adapt into the movie, so Spider-Man: Noir, Spider-Gwen’s SP//dr’s origins from Edge of Spider-Verse (which were both anthology one shots) and Marvel Tails (Spider-Ham’s origin). And let’s not forget tiny elements from Peter’s history, including his marriage to Mary Jane, the Death of Spider-Man arc from Ultimate, etc.

There is after all a reason this movie isn’t called ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ or something like that and rather ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’.

Sony Animation wisely realized they had to /out of necessity had to overlay Miles’ origin with a whole other story and then emebellish both by cherry picking from the wider Spider-Man franchise.

Because Miles on his own, especially if you just did his origin, wasn’t going to be enough.

What is to be praised though is how organically the film makers weave (no pun intended) the different storylines together and improve upon the source material.

Much like Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man PS4 before them, they recognized certain weaknesses in said source material (Miles’ origin and the Spider-Verse crossover) and turned the subpar lemons they got into delicious lemonade.

In this movie Miles has only recently begun attending the Brooklyn Visions Academy and the film first and foremost focuses upon his home life and as a consequence this mitigates Miles attendance to a school the likes of which most teens do not attend, making him more relatable.

Also appreciated is the de-emphasis upon his being ‘just a good kid’ and science skills.

In the comics these are aspects that respectively undermine the idea of him as a flawed hero and make him too similar to Peter Parker.

Peter Parker was founded upon the basis of being both a hero with problems and an imperfect person. When Miles uses his powers to risk his life and save people from a burning building within a few days of getting them, it makes him come across as a good, nice and admirable person for sure. But that’s not exactly the right philosophical approach to Spider-Man. Peter Parker was selfish and irresponsible with his abilities and nursed pent up frustration when he got his powers. He was a good person but far from immediately altruistic.

Miles in this movie has an artistic side and employs that to make stylized stickers he slaps around the city and at times engaging in graffiti. He also finds studying an incredible burden and purposefully tries to fail his classes in order to get kicked out of the school he feels is elitist and doesn’t fit in at.

Miles is a million miles away from a criminal or a vandal of course, but these minor bits of misbehaviour do much to sell the idea of Miles as more well rounded and flawed like Peter was, but in a very different way. Similarly his artistic side gives him a unique interest distinct from Peter’s passion for science, whilst the movie still sells him as intelligent (but not the science whiz Peter is). His artistic side is also used beautifully in the third act of the movie where he uses spray cans to customize one of Spider-Man’s classic red and blue costumes and turn it into his black and red comic book costume, or at least a version close enough to it.

As far as making Miles a legacy character is concerned this is perhaps an absolute stroke of genius.

The symbolism of it is just delicious isn’t it?

Miles the inheritor of Peter’s legacy literally wears Peter’s suit then uses his own special skills to make it his own. He does however leave the fingers of the gloves unchanged thus the costume incorporates a clear visual signifier that beneath it lies the original costume, thus the original Spider-Man will always be beneath Miles helping to be the basis of who he is as a hero.

The transformation is made all the more compelling when we consider that there is a clear visual progression for Miles throughout the movie.

In the first third or so of the movie he is simply in his regular clothes. Then in the second third when he adopts a cheap high street Spider-Man costume. Then in the last act he adopts his comic book suit covered up by street clothes as the posters for the movie make clear, before shedding the clothes and unveiling the finished costume.

Its one of those things you just feel frustrated wasn’t in the original comics version of the story

Miles goes from a normal person, to someone trying and failing to be Spider-Man, to being someone ready to take the leap and become Spider-Man (symbolized by his wearing his costume under normal clothes, in other words infusing Spider-Man as part of his normal life) to finally BEING his own Spider-Man.

This new approach to the costume isn’t just superior to how the comics handled it, it highlights part of the problem with how Miles adopted his suit in the comics. There Miles was simply handed his costume courtesy of Nick Fury. This again undermined Miles as a successor Spider-Man because it meant Miles, unlike Peter didn’t make his own suit (or at least stylize it himself, like Ultimate Peter did) and thus undermined his sense of independence.

In this version of the story Miles might not have literally sewn together his costume but he also wasn’t just handed the suit. He actively seeks it out and is permitted to have it by Aunt May before taking it and literally making it his own. This accentuates the idea of Miles as his own man as much as it does him being a legacy to Peter.

Speaking of which the movie also alters Miles relation to Peter’s death. In the original story Miles saves a family from a burning building then resolves to never use his powers again. Awhile after he learns Spider-Man has been shot as part of his final battle with the Green Goblin and heads over to the battlefield just in time to witness Peter’s death. He blames himself for not using his abilities thinking that if he had this would have led to him befriending Peter and being in the loop, allowing him to help him when the time came. His BFF Ganke dissuades him of this notion. Whilst Miles can still be interpreted to hold guilt over Peter’s death his role in it is far more tenuous than Peter’s role in Uncle Ben’s death and the personal pain Miles feels is somewhat questionable.

But in the movie, Miles is present for the final battle as it happens, he interacts with Spider-Man. First by him saving Miles, then promising to train him and finally imploring him to destroy the Kingpin’s machine to ensure the city’s safety. Miles considers helping Spider-Man but is too scared to do so, he witnesses Kingpin murdering him and fails to destroy the machine as he promised. Then he goes home somewhat traumatized and very clearly deeply upset by Spider-Man’s death.

This makes Peter’s death cut much, much deeper for Miles than in the comics, adds a layer of guilt to him and drive to become Spider-Man and truly save the city so he can live up to the promise he made to a dying hero. So again, like a perfect legacy character, the movie renders Miles similar yet different to the original hero.

Other improvements made to Miles himself includes the way the movie handled his powers. Rather than having Miles easily have access to all his abilities the film unveils them gradually and doesn’t give him particular control over them.

Whilst by the end of the movie Miles is mostly fighting and web-swinging like a pro, he spends most of the movie bumbling around. Usually I hate this in Spider-Man media but here it works. Unlike in Homecoming where we are expected to believe Spider-Man after nearly a year is still a jackass, Miles has literally only had his powers for maybe a few weeks at the absolute most has had little chance to practice or refine them (even comic book Peter did a little bit via his show business career). Moreover whilst most versions of Peter make him relatively competent very quickly (presumably a biproduct of his scientific acumen) having Miles NOT be like that again works for his character.

Having Miles be less competent than Peter was off the bat again makes him more distinct than Peter and frankly is a better way to handle most legacy characters. When a legacy character is actively removed so as to allow for a replacement to fill their role one of the worst things you can do is have the replacement measure up to the skill of their predecessor particularly quickly. You want them to earn that role and begin with a major skill gap that they gradually improve upon. Case in point in the excellent Batman Beyond TV show, Terry McGinnis did not in his first season have anywhere near the competency of Bruce Wayne in his prime. He had talent but it grew over time.

In the comics whilst one could argue Miles either wasn’t truly as skilled as Peter was in the same amount of time (or if he was then it was sufficiently justified) a lot of that went out the window when you factor in his invisibility and venom blast powers.

These particular abilities opened up two problems with Miles character. They both over powered him or alternatively made him look foolish.

With the Venom Blast alone Miles could deliver extremely potent finishing moves to various opponents, even electrically powered ones with there being for the most part little limit on the effectiveness of the power. Similarly his invisibility doesn’t seem in my experience to be a power with many drawbacks meaning that between those two abilities alone (let alone his other powers) Miles could simply sneak up on and zap any opponent into submission, even immensely powerful foes like Blackheart.

This creates a Superman problem for Miles where there is either no drama because he could easily end most conflicts or else there is false drama because the stories must wilfully ignore his ability to easily end most conflicts.

The movie side steps these problems by simply making Miles incapable of using these abilities (or his wall crawling) on command until the third act climax, thus Miles isn’t over powered and his mastery of these abilities exists in tandem with his acceptance and transformation into Spider-Man. This is beautifully illustrated by him taking a literal leap of faith from atop a high building and demonstrating he is now fully capable of engaging his wall crawling powers (perhaps Spidey’s most iconic ability) at will.

Whether his invisibility and venom blast powers will be problematic going forward remains to be seen but within the context of this self contained movie, relegating mastery of them to the climax mitigates the problem of potential false drama.

The last bit of improvement this movie made was in his relationship with his ‘Uncle Ben analogues’.

Of course Peter Parker is to Miles what Uncle Ben was to Peter. But Miles also has a literal uncle, Aaron Davis a.k.a. the Prowler.

I already spoke of how the movie greatly improves Miles relationship to Peter’s death, but the movie’s nature as being about parallel universes allows it to have it’s cake and eat it.

Because of course there is another Peter Parker who can function as Miles’ mentor. It is by the way very, very telling that the most acclaimed and beloved versions of Miles (both of whom have come out in 2018) both have Peter Parker as a mentor baked into their origin stories, as the PS4 game did the same thing in a very different way.

Whilst PS4 Peter and Miles are akin to an older and younger brother, movie Peter and Miles are more like father and son or uncle and nephew or perhaps yet more appropriately Peter is the Mr Miyagi/Phil from Disney’s Hercules to Miles’ Daniel LaRusso/Hercules.

Pretty much EVERY Miles fan and a large number of Peter fans love this dynamic. They LOVE seeing Peter as a mentor and Miles as his student.

Even those, like me, who feel that comic book Miles should exist in his own universe independent of Peter Parker, acknowledge there is fertile ground from that dynamic that should be cultivated.

And yet frustratingly in spite of crossovers when they lived in different dimensions and guest appearances when they lived in the same one, this well of potential has remained untapped. As much as the comics pay lip service to Peter as Miles’ mentor the truth is it is simply not a thing in the comic books, Peter Parker has never truly trained Miles.

This movie gives us some training scenes but more poignantly interpersonal bonding scenes where both characters grow and improve via their relationship with one another.

Then you get to Uncle Aaron. In the Ultimate comics Aaron was a super villain thief who sought to use his nephew for his own gain, was willing to kill him and then presumably died. Then crazy shit happened because of Secret Wars but that isn’t important.

In the movie though, Uncle Aaron starts off as the cool uncle and rogue to Miles as in the comics, and is changed from merely a thief to also hired (and very deadly) muscle. However unlike the comic he never uses Miles and his attempts to kill him only occur when he does not know who he is. Arguably the most dramatic and engaging scene in the movie is when he finally learns who Miles is and we see him make a fateful choice...to protect his nephew. And immediately die at the hands of Kingpin for it.

Instantly Aaron is transformed into a more compelling, nuanced and realistic character. Frankly the vast majority of uncles really WOULD protect their nieces or nephews rather than harm them, and this juxtaposed with his role in Spider-Man’s death makes Aaron a more grey and sympathetic character than his comic counterpart.

His death is arguably overly derivative of Miles but this is offset by the presence of Miles’ still very much alive parents. After all there is a critical difference between being motivated by a fallen hero and/or your uncle vs. your father figure as Uncle Ben was to Peter. The scene is then touchingly used as a springboard to showcase how each of the Spider-Heroes has lost someone and been driven by this and for the arguably OTHER most compelling scene in the movie. Jefferson and Miles’ conversation through the door, which then leads into Miles final transformation into Spider-Man.

Finally the conceit of the parallel universe idea allows for the movie to once again have it’s cake and eat it in regards to Miles’ role as Spider-Man within his universe.

Miles gets to transform into Spider-Man due to the direct involvement of Spider-Man, but he also gets to be the Spider-Man who picked up a fallen hero’s mantle and become THE Spider-Man of his world, meaning he isn’t over shadowed by the presence of another Spider-Man simultaneously. Plus he has access to all of Peter’s villains most of whom are unique to their more mainstream counter parts, with special attention going to Olivia Octopus.

However you slice it, Sony punched up Miles’ source material and just leaves me abjectly miffed that this version of Miles isn’t the one we got in the comics.

#Miles Morales #spider-man #Ultimate Spider-Man #Brian Michael Bendis #Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse #Into the Spider-Verse #Peter Parker #Uncle Ben #Ben Parker #the prowler #prowler #Aaron Davis #Sony Animation #Marvel #Marvel Comics #Ultimate Marvel

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ultimate-miles · 6 years ago

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1048 Miles Morales is not 1610 Miles Morales (and that’s fine)

[Originally Posted @videogamesincolor 11/7/2018]

Miles Morales as a character is only officially seven years old in terms of publication, debuting in 2011 in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and prior during the Death of Spider-Man arc in Ultimate Comics Fallout, just three or four years before Marvel’s Ultimate Marvel line would come to an abrupt end in 2015.

From 2011-2017, Miles Morales has been consistently written and drawn by a specific team: Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, and David Marquez.

Since Bendis’ departure from Marvel to DC Comics, Pichelli and Marquez moving on to other projects, the character is probably now more open to reinterpretation in popular media than he was when Bendis and Ultimate Marvel were still a thing to consider.

In the case of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man (or Spider-Man PS4), the writing team have reinterpreted the character to suit the designated 1048 universe that their game and their version of Peter Parker inhabit.

LITERAL vs. REMIX

I don’t think you can say Insomniac Games’ writers don’t know or are ignorant of Miles Morales’ history. It’s pretty clear they’re familiar with it just from what they’ve chosen or chosen not to use for their story. This is more of a case of what most multimedia Marvel properties have done to established superheroes, and that’s change parts of his backstory to suit their version of the Spider-Man canon while maintaining other elements.

Best example I could use is X-Men’s Rogue and other X-Men characters as reinterpreted by David Hayter and the associated screenwriters for the original X-Men film. They made deliberate changes, not out of ignorance, but convenience to their own take on the X-Men canon.

It happens, it’s the backbone of Marvel’s multiverse, and that’s not necessarily a negative depending on the execution. I’m not of the mind that a character’s origin story can’t be changed or shouldn’t be changed. There’s a possibility to make a Miguel O’Hara Spider-Man without the pretense of 2099, there’s a possibility to create Peter Parker Spider-Man without the death of Ben Parker, there’s a way to make Miles Morales Spider-Man without Peter Parker in any pretense as a necessity to his story. Again, it’s all about execution.

The expectation of a 1:1 adaptation of a character in different mediums is an expectation fans of any medium assume way too often. Yeah, it’s clear that a lot of characters are closer to their comic book carnations than most sometimes and it’s a game of pick and chose, but those choices shouldn’t be viewed as inherently malicious or done out of ignorance, not when Marvel encourages its content creators to do different things with their brand characters for the sake of relevancy.

It’s fairly clear what they were trying to do with Miles Morales, which is the same method they used on Mary Jane Watson (who has garnered similar complaints from 616 fans of the character).

I don’t think Anya Corazon is really a solution. Even if Insomniac decided to used Anya, her backstory would’ve changed to suit the canon of game, just like Miles’ was. And it’s clear that Miles was chosen for the same reasons he continues to appear in new Spider-Man cartoons: His relevancy and his connection to Peter. Anya really doesn’t have that.

The absence of characters like Ganke Lee, Aaron Davis, or even Jefferson’s frayed relationship with his brother doesn’t mean they were ignorant of them, so much as they weren’t things they could tie to Peter Parker as a means of creating a relationship with Miles. Ganke and Aaron are crucial bits to 1610 Miles Morales in a universe where Miles was, initially, only tangentially connected to Peter Parker (despite the fact his character more or less orbits around him, to his detriment) and Spider-Man was an afterthought prior to his being bitten by the Oscorp Spider.

1048 Miles Morales is literally informed by Peter Parker’s actions, and Miles’ heroism is more or less informed by Spider-Man because he is Miles’ hero. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is more or less playing on the same scenario, but on a different track. The nameless kid from Miles’ intro more or less indicates, yes, Miles has friends, but they’re literally not important to his story arc so they’re not getting screentime remotely.

The Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon has one version of Miles Morales that attends Midtown High instead of Brooklyn Visions Academy (but he doesn’t know Peter), while the other (”Kid Arachnid”) followers his 1610 narrative a little closer (but his father is dead). The 2017 animated Spider-Man has Miles attends Horizon High with Peter Parker (they also happen to be friends). The Miles of Marvel’s Spider-Man could be attending Midtown High (but the game never verbalizes that as fact) and later becomes a friend to Peter.

1048 Rio Morales is a school teacher (instead of an apparent stay-at-home mom) who teaches science, Peter Parker is a struggling scientist working a public funded project with Doctor Octopus. 1048 Miles is also into science, and likes to fix or tinker with things. 1610 Miles simply was not (and his original comic book title never really explores or makes plain what his favor subject or hobbies are like it does with Ganke).

1048 Rio’s game profile says she was born in New York City, New York, 1048 Jeff Davis’ profile emphasizes that he was born in Brooklyn, but the its clear that he is a beat cop who clearly works within the city. From all of that, it wouldn’t be out there to assume that the 1048 Morales family lives in NYC instead of Brooklyn, NY in this Spider-Man canon.

Everything they do, including attending school, is within that area. They don’t commute to or from Brooklyn or do anything there despite Miles and Jefferson being born there. There is no Brooklyn Visions Academy or Brooklyn apartment in 1048 to worry about.

I don’t see their version of Miles being a fan of Spider-Man in this canon as negative, but it is illustrative of Insomniac tying their version of Miles closer to 1048 Peter Parker, in the same way Jefferson Davis’ introduction and death acts as the catalyst for Miles and Peter’s mentor/student friendship later on in the game.

I don’t believe Jefferson dying was ever meant to represent the death of 1610 Peter so much as it was meant to be that “tragic backstory” moment for Miles. It was also meant to give Peter and Miles a reason to talk to each other, and mirrors Doctor Octopus’ metaphorical “death” in Peter Parker’s eyes. (They were doing a whole “death of the father figure” thing, obviously.)

The removal of Jefferson from the narrative to facilitate the Peter/Miles relationship is your standard anti-Blackness. It makes no bones which of the characters is more important for their version of Miles, which, like other things in the game, is Peter Parker. (It’s reminiscent of Bendis of killing off and minimizing Riri Williams’ family to make a stronger connection between her and Tony Stark.) I find that as questionable as Marvel’s insistence to make Davis a cop in alt-universes instead of a father with a off-screen job, or, hell, an Agent of SHIELD. But, I get Jefferson’s profession is another narrative convenience in the same way Mary Jane Watson being a reporter instead of a model/actor was also narrative convenience.

1048 Miles was written and designed to be Peter’s supporting character, so a lot of the elements that make him the lead character of his own titles are not necessary. If he was made to be anything else (like a leading character or the lead character of the game), I’d probably view of all these ties to Peter as an outright negative. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a): just another way of differentiating him from his 1610, b): not far off from what Marvel is already doing with the character anyway.

The fact the writing in the game is upfront about its preoccupation with connecting Miles closer to Peter, instead of pretending otherwise (as Bendis has), probably makes me less inclined to dislike their take on Miles. 1048 Miles is just another cog in this Peter Parker’s mythos, yes, but Flash Thompson he ain’t.

1610 Miles Morales was designed to be and had the potential to be a character set apart from Peter. Bendis and Marvel simply squandered that by undermining him with the constant fallback on Peter Parker and his history.

Even the MCU, when they had the opportunity to create a Miles Morales Spider-Man without the pretense of needing Peter Parker, just reduced him to a throwaway line for a miscast Donald Glover to utter, then used every element in his story for their version of Peter Parker. If we’re doing a compare and contrast, I’ll take supporting character Miles Morales over a Miles Morales that’ll be standing next to his white clone as portrayed by Tom Holland.

JEFFERSON’S SURNAME

Jefferson never renounced his last name in such a way that he stopped using it. He might be married to Rio Morales, but it’s clear he never changed his surname to hers. For the entire run of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man, Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen and the 616 soft reboot (Spider-Man), Jefferson has always referred to himself as “Jefferson Davis”.

The characters he interacts with - either personally or professionally - always refer to him as “Mr. Davis” or “Jefferson Davis”, or “Jeff Davis”. Insomniac’s narrative does nothing to alter this whatsoever and sticks to the status quo established by the comics. The most Jefferson ever did was dissociate himself with his brother because Aaron refused to shape-up. Miles doesn’t use his father’s surname (and, sure, you can spend a lot time theorizing the in-universe reason for that), but it’s a clear writing decision on Bendis’ part that the Morales surname was to ensure no one would question whether or not Miles was, in his words, a "Black” and “Hispanic” character.

Not once in the run of the Ultimate Marvel or Miles’ recently ended Spider-Man series, or even the Jason Reynolds penned Young Adult Novel, does Jefferson denounce his name, or refer or is referred to Jefferson Morales. There isn’t even an instance in the comic books or said book where he says, “Please, call me Jefferson Morales.”

He’s ashamed of his past, rarely talks about it, yes, but his surname? Still uses that. Jefferson Davis is a black male character created by a tone-deaf white man. The comic books (by proxy of their author, Bendis) have historically ignored the unfortunate ties behind the name “Jefferson Davis”. The most Miles Morales: Spider-Man does is have Ganke crack a joke about Miles not using Jeff’s surname, and draw explicit attention to the fact that Jefferson Davis is the name of supporter of the confederacy and a racist to boot.

We’ve never gotten a genuine discussion in either medium about how Jefferson feels about his name.Jefferson being called “Jefferson Morales” has never been a thing in Miles’ mainline titles or alternate canons. His surname has never been ignored.

COLORISM AND ASSUMING BLACKNESS

Colorism with respect to Miles has always been fairly present with the character, though not on any level as bad as it is with someone like Storm. With his most consistent artists, Sara Pichelli and David Marquez, Miles’ complexion was consistently somewhere between medium brown and dark brown. But, outside of those artists, Miles’ skintone is fairly all over the place in other titles with other artists, with his most recently ended Spider-Man title often bringing somewhere closer to Rio Morales complexion (and it happened with Jefferson as well). It gets even worse with animated shows, which give him an almost washed out, zombie-esque, pale brown complexion.

Miles’ complexion in Marvel’s Spider-Man is definitely fairer in comparison to his 1610 counterpart, or even 1048 Jefferson, and closer to Rio’s. Depending on the cinematic, it flip-flops from extremely fair to medium brown in the same way Rio goes from medium brown to extremely pale in a lot of scenes.

And with regard to Rio Morales, there’s nothing about her character model that excludes her from Blackness? But, similar to characters like Aya of Alexandria (from Assassin’s Creed: Origins) or Jade from the original Beyond Good and Evil (who, yes, could be viewed as a Black woman), the way the character is designed (both in the game and in the comics) is inherently divorced from common markers of Blackness in such a way that it’s no one’s first assumption.

Rio Morales has always been a fair skinned woman. She in no way was drawn to match the skintones of Jefferson or Miles, and she wasn’t lightened in the game at all. Her representation in the game is fairly close to her representation in the comics, which also flip-flops between “super-fair-skinned” to “medium brown” Rio Morales.

I think Brian Michael Bendis makes it very clear with his poor understanding of Blackness and its lack of exclusivity to folk with Puerto Rican parentage - that Rio Morales is a non-Black woman (or in Bendis’ words, “Hispanic”), and Jeff Davis is Black (African-American).

Miles’ selling point is that he was the “Biracial Spider-Man” in the same way Miguel O’Hara is lesser known for. That’s the divide Bendis’ writing and comprehension creates for this character. The clear avoidance of the issue for something that wasn’t a walking joke (Rio’s racial caricature of a mother) or Bendis’ “who cares if I’m black? I’m also Hispanic, so...” spiel, is another indicator.

So, yeah, even though her character design (in any medium) doesn’t necessarily exclude her from Blackness, I don’t think Rio Morales was ever a Black woman to begin with. Brian Michael Bendis never saw her as a Black woman, just the “Hispanic” side of Miles Morales’ family tree where Jefferson was the Black side of the family tree.

I can’t blame anyone for not assuming Blackness on Rio’s part, because neither does Bendis’, neither do the artists drawing her, and by extension, neither does Insomniac Games.

Honestly, I think Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse might be the first property Rio has appeared in where someone appeared to even consider the question, “Is Rio Morales Black?” when designing her character.

Missing elements in a reinterpreted character is neither wrong or a dsplay of ignorance on part of the writers. 1048 Miles Morales and the Morales family are not the 1610 iterations of the character, and that’s fine. Jefferson Davis has never dropped the use of his name, personally or personally. In addition none of the writers, white or non-Black, have ever considered questioning the history behind his name and let it be.

Rio Morales was always a fair-skinned and non-Black woman on accounts of Bendis and her artists constructed her within Miles’ narrative, which outright ignores any cultural or emotional significance Rio and Miles being Puerto Rican holds. Amid varying complexions of bright she’s been depicted, her character in the game has hardly been lightened, whereas Miles’ complexion definition has.

#spiderman ps4 #miles morales #rio morales #spiderman #insomniac games #ultimate miles meta #media: long posts #fandom: meta #fandom looked like fandom #series: marvel's spider man #1048 miles morales #1048 jefferson davis #1048 rio morales #1048 peter parker

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blackbatpurplecat · 6 years ago

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Double Review

What’s up, kittybats? Feeling a bit down today so I’ll write something positive to lift my mood.

One comic book character has been talked about frequently over the past months and the stuff related to him was great: Spider-Man! A mind-blowing game AND a Golden Globe winning animated movie were dominating headlines (not to mention the trailer to the next Holland movie) and of course, I checked out everything. Here are my thoughts:

Spider-Man (PS4)

Several colleagues of mine had asked me what I thought of the game and all I could answer was “I don’t have a PS4. :( “ So after hearing them praise it to high heaven, I thought about it a few weeks (it’s a big purchase after all) and eventually went out and bought one. With the sole intention of playing Spidey. And then I didn’t touch that game for months (THE GAME I BOUGHT A FUCKING PS4 FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE) because I got addicted to getting Arthur Morgan to Tahiti! I am hopeless. (RDR2 is amazing btw. Let me know if you care about my thoughts on it.)

Short plot intro: Spidey finally captures Kingpin and the big guy goes to jail. His absence however creates a power vacuum which is promptly filled by a mysterious gang, the Demons. Now Peter has to find out what they want and who their leader is while he’s also struggling with being evicted from his apartment, not getting paid for his lab job, working with his ex, Mary-Jane, and watching his mentor and idol, Dr. Octavius, getting fucked over by Osborn. Lots on this little spider’s plate.

Anyway, I’ve finally finished the main story and can honestly say this game is so much fucking fun! First of all, it looks AWESOME! The graphics are so pretty, the Spidey-suits look fantastic, the moves and physics are perfect! You spend most of your time swinging around Manhattan but it just won’t get boring. I preferred the swinging and flying over the fast travel option, even when I had to cross the entire map.

I love everything about the voice-acting, the dialogues, the story. I wouldn’t say I’m a Spider-Man fan but this game made me wish I was one so I could appreciate every in-joke, every easter egg, and reference even more. Towards the ending, I even got teary-eyed because the writing knew exactly how to give you the feels.

You’ll find a couple of side missions as well. If you look at them objectively you could say they become repetitive as it’s mostly the same spiel dressed kinda differently each time but I didn’t care. I enjoyed them all! Well, except for the pigeon one... Still haven’t caught them all. I hate those fucking birds...

So now I’m working through the three DLCs. Halfway through the one with Black Cat at the moment. She looks great but I wish I could cut those loose strands on the sides of her face. By the way, the human faces are quite well animated. I couldn’t help but compare them to Arkham Knight’s human faces. Characters in AK looked stiff and dead while S-M did it right, thank God.

To summarize, the Spider-Man game is definitely worth the money, it’s hours of fun entertainment and marvelous writing, and not only Spidey fans will enjoy it. It’s a lot like the Arkham games but polished and improved. HIGHLY recommend it!

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (animated film)

Another mind-blowing Spidey experience! WOW, all those styles! The music! The voice-acting! The feels! Holy cow, the feels!

So this Spidey story does not focus on our Peter Parker but the iconic black Spider-Man, Miles Morales. He’s a good-hearted teenager dealing with a lot of pressure coming from his parents and school. While he’s trying to figure out what to do with his life, he gets bitten by a radioactive spider and accidentally stumbles across Kingpin’s newest plan: building a particle accelerator underneath the city to access different dimensions. Suddenly, Miles is faced with great powers and great responsibilities as he’s helping a group of various Spider-people to get back to their universes.

This is how you make a comic book animated movie. This is it. I can’t imagine how you wanna top this.

You get introduced to every important character so you’re not forced to read up on them. You also get invested and attached quite quickly. The textures on the characters were so pretty, every face looked different (yes, even the female faces!), the animation is so smooth, agile, and fluid. Every dimension has its own style. There are tiny comic book details built in like speed lines or single words. Also the camera work was fantastic! We watched it in 3D, it was breathtaking on the big screen.

The story is simple and nothing new but executed very well. Bonus point: no forced love story. Nice! Each character had a real personality. And I absolutely loved the visual storytelling, especially when they explained Fisk’s background, that scene was powerful.

All I can say is that I adored this movie, I want to watch it again, I want it to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and I want a sequel! Gimme more Spider-Gwen, gimme Spider-Woman, Silk, Sable, Black Cat! And more John Mulaney as Spider-Ham! XD

#Personal note #review #spider-man

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arachnrd · 6 years ago

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ABOUT :

- My interpretation is primarily based on the first Insomniac Spider-Man game and its DLCs, along with the prequel book Hostile Takeover and heavily featuring my own headcanons. Personally, I don't agree with the takes in the Insomniac verse based comics, nor what they've done to Peter's character in the Miles Morales game ( including the change they made to his appearance they can completely miss me on that ), so we're just not gonna touch that here. No judgment or hate at all if you like any of that, or any of the other interpretations to Peter's character, this is just my personal preference and my portrayal. If you don't agree, feel free to move along.

- I wont accept hate over my takes on Peter's / Spider-Mans character, or theft of my headcanons, graphics, or anything I definitively create myself. And while I dont condone cancel culture or anything of the sort, I will not hesitate to bring that behavior to light if it's consistent. Im here to have fun, not deal with nonsense over a fictional character.

- Im not a huge fan of the MCU. Im fine with interactions with other MCU based muses, but may be selective about it and will want to talk things out before hand.

- I dont associate with the Marvel fandom, particularly here on tumblr. The original reason I left this blog back in 2019 was due to the community being heavily toxic and drama mongering, and as a result will not only not tolerate any drama or toxicity, but will be a bit selective and cautious on who I interact with from that side of the rpc.

- Unless it's established in the source material, or plotted out with me, your muse will not know Peter is Spider-Man. Im not touching giving muses ex - machina knowledge of others without it being discussed or signed off on by both parties, period.

- I will NOT interact with blogs that use youtubers, social media influencers, or anime / drawn characters for their Fcs [ Comic centered blogs I'll be selective about ] . Nothing against you, it’s just not my thing.

- I will NOT follow OC's with no bios or abouts up; Hard to know if our character's can interact if there's no info.

- I will block personal blogs that reblog or follow, as I like to keep interactions here between fellow rp mutuals.

- I may want to explore more adult aspects to Peter's character, so that, along with being an adult myself, means Im simply more comfortable interacting with those of age and will not follow or interact with minors, please respect this.

- Unless it's something applicable to our muses collectively, Please reblog memes or posts in general from the source. I'm not a resource blog and if treated as one, especially by blogs who never interact, I will soft block.

- As stated this blog is MUTUALS ONLY, meaning i will only write with mutuals. if i dont follow back there’s genuinely no hard feelings, I just get very overwhelmed with an overly busy dash and need to be a bit selective to prevent my anxiety from going nuts. you’re more than welcome to unfollow. though its very much a mutual thing; if you want to interact but dont follow me, chances are I’ll say no as I take following as a sign of interest. I may take a while to follow back as my notifications on here are the worst. If I don’t follow back within a weeks time, feel free to unfollow.

- This blog is multi-verse. Despite being set within the narrative of the game, I can incorporate elements from the movies and comics ( Mostly from the Ultimate comics since thats what I'm most familiar with and have actually read), such as dynamics between characters, etc if your muse isnt in the game. Not to mention love creating verses with writing partners. BUT, my Peter will still be played as the ps4 version of his character.

- I dont pretend to know every Marvel character. Or even ALL the characters from the Spider-man comics to their finest detail. For that my knowledge is going to be straight from whatever info you give and wikis.

SHIPPING / RELATIONSHIPS

- I ship based on chemistry between muses, but Im also very okay with pre established dynamics (whether that be romantic, enemies, platonic, familial ( though this Ill be a bit selective about ), whatever!) Considering that can be a bit easier thread wise for some people instead of starting from the very beginning. As with most things, I like to talk through it beforehand. If you have anything in mind, you're more than welcome to approach me! But I also reserve the right to respectfully turn things down or offer alternate options if things dont mesh.

SMUT

- I will not write smut on tumblr. So for the most part any if it all suggestive scenes will lead to a fade to black or time skip.

M U N

- i am a-okay with questions, especially about my muse! if you have any about anything at all i will be more than happy to answer them the best i can! Also totally fine with random IMs even if we havent talked before so hmu.

- I write under the alias Nox! ( She/Her ) and I am of age.

R U L E S / O T H E R

THREADS / PLOTTING:

- I love plotting. If given my way I'd be plot exclusive but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea. If you're ever interested in plotting, know I am already onboard.

- If you want to turn a meme or ask into a thread, I’d prefer to be asked before hand. Simply because sometimes its nice to have memes just be stand alone things or for fun.

- Additionally I take the memes I send in to others as just memes for memes sake as well, so if you want a thread to continue off one you'll have to let me know , otherwise I'm clueless.

RESPONSE TIME/ ACTIVITY:

- My activity may be a bit sparse. As it is I have a hard time keeping muse, just the way I am sadly. i know this is something a lot of people, myself included, can find frustrating (especially when you’re really into a thread) but a fair amount of the time i may take a while to respond. As much as I love this, aside from being a hobby, and having a very unreliable laptop, I have a chronic illness that makes me exhausted most days or just not in the mood to write and not in any kind of state to type out a response you lovely people would deserve. though i will always try to quickly reply when i can. Please be patient. If you ttry to harass or guilt me into a response, I wont hesitate to soft block for my own sanity. Im here to have fun and write when the mood strikes.

MEMES:

- Yes. please. send as many as you want, as often as you want. Even if we haven’t interacted, you’re free to send one my way; They can be a great place to start things off.

POST LENGTH:

- You don’t have to match my length in posts! sometimes i can write far too much when i get really into writing (and alternatively not write enough), so don’t feel obligated or pressured to follow suit by any means! whatever you are comfortable with is totally okay! it’s not a contest, this is all for fun.

GRAPHICS:

- ALL icons will be from the game/ with the exception of live icons of Peter's first ingame face model that I managed to scrape together. Comic icons will not be used.

- all icons and graphics are created by me unless stated otherwise

- PSD by plutocomissions

#pgs

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