Miles Morales: Shock Waves (Marvel)

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A teenage Spider-Man has to balance his life as a superhero with being a student at a prestigious private school. The art warmly depicts an urban setting, using white gutters between panels in lots of different shapes, giving it a modern, fun, young feel. The art and the colors from Pablo Leon are sleek and engaging. It’s a great-looking comic, drawing inspiration from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse without relying on its style. Leon has a great eye for color and line, and he imbues his action scenes with plenty of energy and charm. Ariana Maher’s letters are clearly laid out and quite beautiful alongside Leon’s art. Main character: Miles Morales, who splits his time in the book between planning a fundraiser for his mother’s homeland of Puerto Rico which has recently had devastating earthquakes, and investigating the mysterious disappearance of his friend’s father.

Harrison Snow, wealthy CEO of Serval Industries, who has been exposing people to Terrigen to turn them into super-powered servants, including Kyle’s dad, and his two “interns” Vex and Trinity stars. Miles Morales is juggling a lot, trying to stay on top of schoolwork, hanging out with friends and family, and fighting crime, and feeling like he’s coming up short repeatedly.When a hurricane devastates Puerto Rico, birthplace of his mum, Miles decides to raise money for rebuilding with a fundraiser. Also, a new classmate’s father is missing, and two criminals just got superpowers, and he’s got no ideas for an art project, so Miles is losing sleep trying to keep up with everything. Miles Morales is a Brooklyn middle schooler who also happens to be Spider-Man. He is not to be confused with the older, more experienced Spider-Man from Queens, although they are pals. And he has some unique powers – he can go invisible and stun bad guys with a blast of venom. Bad news hits close to home when earthquakes hit Puerto Rico, where his Mom is from. Miles helps to organize a fundraiser for those affected by the quake, and while he is handing out flyers, he meets a new student, Kyle. When Kyles’ father goes missing at the same time as earthquakes continue in Puerto Rico AND two mysterious superhero types keep appearing around Serval Industries, where Kyles’s father works, Miles has to go into overdrive to keep up with everything – school, family, the fundraiser, and helping find Kyle’s Dad. It’s funny to see a superhero trying to find time to sleep. I liked how just enough info about Miles was given at the intro to establish who he is and what kinds of powers he has. I liked this! Miles Morales is a sweetheart. He’s caring, and conscientious and funny, and the family and friends surrounding him are great.

The author makes sure that mystery and action are nicely balanced with small, personal moments, and leaves us with a nice opening at the end for more story. I was so happy to also see Ms Marvel and Squirrel Girl in the story, to remind us of how Miles and the other two are in-training at Stark Tower to get a better handle on their abilities and improve their teamwork.

Full disclosure I'm not a Marvel reader, I'm not familiar with Mile's origin story, and I've never seen Into the Spiderverse. Though I do remember when Marvel was originally launching this character. So I came in as a new reader getting an intro to this comic from this graphic novel. Art style: vibrant and engaging, clearly inspired by “Into the Spider-Verse” without being derivative. This story really combined everything you expect from comic heroes while also involving real life events like the earthquakes Puerto Rico was hit with. Mile's has family on the island as his mother grew up there and she's fundraising to send aid. Miles is so pre-occupied with balancing school and being a hero that's he's really neglecting his family life. So this story is really about him finding that balance between being Spider-Man and spending time with family and friends.