A Whole Lot Of Magical Math — Reviewing ‘Strange Academy: Miles Morales’ #1

School might be out for the summer, but the learning never ends, especially at the magical academy of Doctor Strange. That’s right, the students from Strange Academy are back, and ready to take a leap into the wider Marvel Universe.

Having the same creative team for all of existence can create a sort of ‘taste’ or feeling for a title. This was surely the case with Strange Academy having Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, and Clayton Cowles guiding the magical youths the whole way. It set a tone, and it was one that worked. Part of that was the fact that the characters only appeared in that title and didn’t pop up in other books anywhere.

Now that their main story is over, this has changed, and the creative hands have changed as well. Change is not a bad thing on the surface. I’ll make it clear that the change here to Carlos Hernandez, Juann Cabal, Álvaro López, with Delgado and Cowles still aboard is not a bad one. Just a different one.

Putting the kids with Miles Morales, one of the most popular young Marvel characters, is a solid choice. Execution just felt a bit off to me, as there was something of the spark missing both with the Academy kids and Miles. Any time characters change hands and move beyond their creators can be a jarring process. I would say I definitely felt jarred.

There is a ton of talking going on. Characters are just spewing exposition and the overall story felt like it was lacking a hook. As noted in the editor page at the end, Hernandez is a novelist which likely points to why the overall story work is a bit different. Changing from prose to a more visual medium isn’t always an easy transition. We get a lot of telling rather than showing in many cases, even the usually less than-talkative Gus was dropping lots of words on us.

On the showing end, the art of course can’t replace the sort of whimsical, rough, but detailed fun that Ramos provides. But Cabal of course is one of the top artists at Marvel these days and there are reasons for that. It’s not whimsical but it’s detailed and deep and moves at such a smooth pace. It fits to bring the characters into the wider Marvel Universe, and it looks great.

I’m not as familiar with López’s work but it has some of the same qualities. It’s not as smooth, a bit rougher in some cases but that works as it fits some of what we’re used to with the characters. Most of the stuff flows well and the paneling from both is pretty solid. There are a few pages where some of the characters are off, Shaylee suddenly looks like she is a hard-living 30-something, but it’s just those few spots.

Delgado continues to do a fabulous job at matching the colors to the two art styles. Things are quite as vibrant and magical as they were in the previous book, but the setting and the content don’t fit that as much. Still, plenty of shadows and darkness mixed into the overall, adding depth, as he has done in the past. It’s very grounded in many ways, even with these fantastical elements, since they are mostly hanging out in regular old classrooms/auditoriums most of the time.

As I said, there are tons of words, and Cowles gets it all out there in the best way for the page. Even with giant bouts of exposition scattered around, he makes sure it flows and fits the page in a way that doesn’t visually overwhelm. So many words are overwhelming and a bit much but they are carefully laid out as possible. I don’t personally feel the personality of each character as much here, as Hernandez is clearly trying to figure them out, but Cowles does bring the energy and tone.

Even though it looks cool, I wasn’t as sold on the big ‘villain’ reveal. It just felt a little too clear but also muddled and overly monology. These students just took down one of their own and Dormammu, and a math nerd fairy with a book took them down. It’s comics, that happens all the time, but I don’t know just felt a bit forced if I’m being honest. Not bad, just forced.

Also, it has nothing to do with the creative team, but it does irk me about the title of this issue. Miles Morales is Spider-Man yet his issue is just using his name while the one with Peter Parker that ends this trio of one-shots uses Spider-Man as the title. Easily we could have had Strange Academy: Spider-Man and Strange Academy: Amazing Spider-Man, but nope. Marvel goes on about how Miles is Spider-Man but continues to make sure he’s called Miles on titles as much as possible.

These two Spider-Men have entirely different looks, not like we’d be confused about which Spider-Man the title means.

Strange Academy: Miles Morales #1 is now available from Marvel Comics.