Miles Morales Spider-Man (2026) # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Miles Morales is back with another new title. This time I decided to hop aboard and see how his solo adventures play out. Let's check it out!

"Level 1: Sins of the Father" opens with Miles at college working alongside a Ukranian exchange student named Valentina on a science project. As they discuss nuclear physics, Miles is a bit hungry due to his... other job earlier that morning.

We jump back six hours earlier as we see a construction cane collapsing high above the city. The crane operator calls off but Miles swoops in to grab him in time. Miles swings the guy to safety. As the crane continues to come down, Miles uses two webs to propel himself into the air towards it. He creates a large web to catch all the falling crane parts. 

Miles makes sure everyone is OK and tell them to run the next time they see huge metal things falling from the sky. He swings off, thinking he's got this Spider-Man thing figured out.

Back to the present time, Miles and Valentina walk down the halls together. Valentina thought she was going to be the weird kid on account of her accent. Miles says he was the weird kid, but no accent. Valentina says he does have an American accent and asks why everyone seems to hate accentuating their t's. Valentina asked if she heard about Spider-Man stopping the crane earlier that morning. Miles says he heard a bit about it and adds that Spider-Man is always doing something.

Valentina says she noticed him looking at her eyes and he should ask. Miles says her eyes are pretty, as he monologues about feeling awkward having just ended a relationship recently. Valentina has Waardenburg Syndrome which gives her grey eyes. She says she doesn't have any powers, but it does make her vampire costume come together. Miles says he feels icky about vampires, which makes sense given he was one for a good while now.

Valentina asks if he wants to ask her out. Miles says he just got out a thing. She says she likes tea and asks him to find a cool place. Miles figures this should be a normal date with a normal powers. No powers other than her grey eyes and possibly being a super genius. She boards her train and waves goodbye. Miles calls up his friend Ganke to recommend a good tea place. Miles says he's not asking him because he's Korean, he's asking because he's ever had two cups of tea in his life. As he does so, he gets a message on his watch, a family invite.

Later on Miles meets up with Spider-Man 2099 and Ghost Spider. Gwen tells him there's a potential cosmic Armageddon destruction event at a molecular level. Gwen asks if he's in. Mile asks if they need him there of if Gwen wants him there. Miguel says they might be tactically better off without him. Gwen says it would be nice to have the band together again. Miles declines and says he needs to do his Brooklyn thing for a while, and he's getting the hang of it again. Gwen and Miles fist-bump and she says they'll miss him. Miles heads off and tell them to call him when they really need him.

 

Elsewhere, Brooklyn police are called regarding a potential super-powered bad guy in the area. The cops enter a church and see someone on the balcony, cloaked in shadows. The man asks if they're armed and adds that he was hoping they would be. One of the cops tells the man to slowly walk out of the darkness. The man obliges as he leaps towards the cops. The police open the fire and the man lands with such force that the floor shatters and explosive energy sends everyone flying back.

The man creates a huge axe made of solid energy and swings it, sending most of the men flying out the church windows. The man approaches one of the fallen cops. He says he is beyond the threshold and is ready for what must be done. He says he doesn't hate the officer... but he can pretend her does. He swings his energy axe down at the man.

Back at Miles' place, Ganke is surprised that Miles pretty much told the other Spiders to 'kick rocks'. Miles says he didn't say that, he just said if he wasn't needed he wants to stick around here. Ganke asks if 'the Neon Spider-Man' was mad. Miles says he was chill but Gwen was kinda disappointed. Ganke says Ghost-Spider is fine, and Miles says he never seen her face.

The guys relax and play... Marvel Tokon Fighting Spirits (I'm not joking, they're using Miss Marvel and Magneto). Miles mentions the other Spider-Man (Peter) and his deal with great power and great responsibility. Right now Miles just wants to be responsible for helping the people in town. He also wants to be responsible for beating Ganke in Marvel Tokon. Ganke says he just won because he has Spider-Reflexes.

Miles says he wants balance, a way to be both Spider-Man and live a normal life. He says he's spent so much time in other universes, he forgot which one is his. Ganke says they need to rank out Mile's powers, like one would with a fighting game. Miles has invisibility, the venom sting, and his electric sword, which makes Ganke question why Spider-Man can make his own sword. He says they have to figure out how far he can take them and also measure out the pros and cons. Mile says it's not a bad idea and it's like 'labbing' in a fighting game. Ganke says he's his 'main in the chair' so he's supposed to have good ideas. He asks Miles to spill the tea on Valentina.

 

Ganke mentions Miles recently chilled on Starling. Miles says he knows and he's not trying to get into another thing. He adds that she's cool and also a regular person without being the daughter or some costumed person or another alternate version of Spider-Man. Ganke tells Miles he should take her to Japanese Cultural Society, which has an area that serve tea for free. Miles likes the sound of it. He also likes that it sounds like he's got life as Miles and Spider-Man figured out.

Meanwhile, officers Mike and Jeff hit up a food truck for some coffee. Jeff asks Mike if he doesn't mind if his son drops by for a few questions as he also wants to become a cop someday. Mike agrees and asks Jeff how Miles is doing. Just then something makes the food truck explode. Jeff is sent flying backwards as he crashes into the windshield of a car. The large man with the energy axe from before swoops in and asks Jeff if he remembers him, because he does does remember Jeff. The man leaps towards him, ready to swing his axe into Jeff. Just then webs latch onto Jeff's arm and pulls him out of the way before the man slices the car in half with his energy weapon.

Miles shows up and sees that the man uses hard-light weapons made from kinetic energy and also has a bit if telekinesis. He asks the man what his super villain deal is. The man tells Miles to leave since this does not concern him. Miles says him blowing up innocent people in his city is very much his concern. The man says he will make this ugly then. He points to an innocent woman and surrounds her with kinetic energy. She'll explode unless she starts moving.

Jeff grabs a shotgun and tells Spider-Man to go. Mile figures kinetic energy needs to express itself somehow. If the woman freezes, she'll explode but if she moves she can vent. Saving her life means keeping her in motion until the kinetic charge leaves her. Mile grabs her and swings her out of the area. He hopes his father can run to safety, but he knows he won't. 

Jeff starts to shoot the man with his shotgun, but he creates some sort of energy field to block the bullets. The man punches the gun out of his hand and then punches him hard enough to send him flying back. 

Miles swings as fast as he can can while carrying the lady. He then tosses her into the air. The man tells Jeff that 'he' ripped him apart because of him. Jeff has no idea who this guy is. The man raises his energy axe and says pain will help Jeff remember.

Miles leaps him and hits the man in the back with a flying missile dropkick. Miles then grabs onto his head and zaps him with the Spider-Bite. He quickly backflips off him and catches the woman just in time. He tells her that she will be alright now.

The man appears floating above Miles. He remarks on the bioelectric charge. He also says he notes that Miles chose to stand in his way, so he chose everything that will happen next to him. The man vanishes in a bright flash of light.

Later on, Jeff explains to Miles that he did lie and he did know the man. He says his uncle Aaron once brought him to Turk Barrett. Turks worked for the Kingpin. The meeting was a gang test. Jeff ended up getting arrested but Nick Fury showed up to give him an offer. Fury knew Jeff earned Turk's respect, so he wanted him back in. Jeff decided to work for SHIELD.

Turk was running a black market mutant growth hormone called Bio-High. Fisk knew how to run the smooth operation. It would be up by Monday and then closed up and gone by that Friday. By the time the authorities had their warrants, the operation was gone and moved to a different address. SHIELD didn't need a warrant, but they needed to know the address.

Fury told Jeff to work the bookkeeper behind the operation. He wants Jeff to become the ambitious new hire and once he's in, he can get him their working address. The bookkeeper was named Martin Moore. Jeff managed to get on the line and obtain the address, which he gave to Fury.

 

Fury got his raid and Jeff never found out what happened to Martin. He thought he was arrested but it looks like he wasn't. Whatever happened to him, he blames Jeff for it because he lied to him and used him. Jeff thought Miles was the one with the freaks coming after him, but today two men died because of him (his cop buddy and the food truck guy). Jeff says he doesn't want Miles paying for his mistakes, but he knows he won't let this go. At the same time, whatever happened to Martin, he won't be letting this go either.

Miles says he can stop him, since this is what he does. Jeff says he's just a kid and Martin is going to aim war at him. Miles says he'll be standing in his way. Jeff says the way Miles talks while in costume makes it hard to believe he's his son. He says sometimes he looks at him the same everyone else does. Miles says if the man is tracking him, he shouldn't stay home and call off sick from work. Martin is angry and loud, so it won't take too long to find him. Jeff tells his son to be careful. Miles swings off saying he's Spider-Man, and being careful isn't his thing.

 

My Thoughts-

So this was a pretty good jumping point and new beginning for Miles. Sounds like he's been having all sorts of weird adventures between being a vampire during Blood Hunt and traveling all over the multiverse. Now he wants to keep his adventures in Brooklyn and maintain a better Miles/Spider-Man balance. Too bad someone like Gwenpool wasn't around to tell him to stop talking about how everything is working out and how he has everything handled. The more he talks about it, the more he'll end up facing something beyond his control.

I've seen Miles here and there in several Marvel events and his recent series with Peter, Spectacular Spider-Men, but I never got a chance to see his status quo until now. I know I'm super late to the party for this one but I can see how the MCU's Ned Leeds was definitely based on Ganke Lee, complete with the 'man in the chair' gimmick. I believe the MCU movies wanted to give Peter more up-to-date friends. Back in Peter's day, nerds and geeks were more the outliers, which made them stand out and get picked on. Nowadays nerd culture is much more prevalent so it made sense for the movies to give their take on Peter a Ganke-ish character as his friend, instead of the son of big-time business man Norman Osborn. Even MCU Flash Thompson was updated to be more of a troll and overall jerk than the stereotypical jock bully of the 80's. 

 

Back on topic, I like Ganke and his banter with Miles. Him saying Spider-Gwen is fine and teasing Miles about how Valentina's eyes drew him in is the kind of guy-talk banter that makes their friendship believable. Sadly I'm too used to the MCU version so it'll take me a while to unsee Ganke as Korean Ned. I also don't know why the movies gave him the name Ned Leed, which was one of Hobgoblin's various aliases. MCU Ned seems way too Ganke to do the Hobgoblin hell turn. As for Valentina, we'll see how that goes with Miles. She is rather forward in an amusing way. I'm curious, since she is the new girl, if she will play a larger role than just the new potential love interest.

Also, I know it's kind of an easter-egg sight gag, but it blows my mind that Marvel Tokon is an actual game within the Marvel universe. I know you're not supposed to think too much about it, but I do wonder how that works. I mean, not only would Tony Stark want a cut of the profits for them using his likeness, but why risk putting actual supervillains in the game? It reminds me of the Batman Animated Series episode where a rich tycoon decided to open up a Casino using the Joker's likeness. This angered the Joker and made him a target, as he now wanted to blow the place up. If I were the Marvel Universe version of Arc Systems Works, I wouldn't take the chance of putting Carnage in a game and risk getting a target painted on my back. 

 

I know the game was a sight gag and they probably didn't want to call it out by name, but it would have been funny if Ganke asked Miles if he thinks he will be added later as DLC. I know, I know, but it just raises so many questions. I can see Ganke asking Miles if Arc Systems Works reached out to him somehow and if he will get a cut if they do add him. I'm a comic geek, overthinking is what we do.

The comic also has videogame references in terms of the framing. The story is called Level 1, with the next issue being called Level 2. The title page also lists the characters as if they were a selection screen from a fighting game. Then in the actual story, Miles and Ganke consider listing and testing out all of Mile's powers as if they were labbing in a fighting game. I'm curious how this gaming thing is going to factor in the rest of the story. 

As for the main story, we got a former bookkeeper, Martin Moore, turned into some sort of bad-ass viking with energy weapons. It's a hell of a glow up, from crunching numbers to chopping cars in half. Again, I'm not familiar with Mile's status quo so i was surprised that his dad knows he's Spider-Man. I like the line about it's usually his son the crazies are after. I'm curious where the story will go and what lengths Martin will go to get to Jeff. I'm now assuming he caused the disturbance at the church hoping that Jeff would have been on of the officers to report to the scene. There's also the chance that Martin might target Miles directly, but as his civilian self, since he is Jeff Morales' son.

There's an interesting art shift when get into the flashback involving Jeff and Fury. I wonder if we'll see more of this if we get into exactly what was done to Martin. I'm, so far, assuming that Kingpin blamed him for the SHIELD raid and then overdosed him with the mutant growth hormones as punishment?

Overall a good story and a good jumping-on point.  This one is staying in my pullbox. I guess the only thing this issue left me curious about is which Marvel character likes to sit back and play Marvel Rivals on their downtime?