Goes Bump In The Night — Reviewing ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #21

Never fear, Brooklyn’s friendly fanged neighborhood Spider-Man is swinging through the streets ready to fight hordes of his fellow vampires. Wait…that can’t be right?

Unfortunately for Miles Morales, that very much is the truth of the matter as Miles Morales: Spider-Man #21 brings Spider-Man’s solo series right into the Blood Hunt event. Fighting off the blood lust and hunger in a tale from Cody Ziglar, Brent Peeples, Daniel Picciotto, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit.

Blade sure has messed up a lot of things since revealing himself as the lord of all vampires this Summer. Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Thor and so many more have fallen or been turned by his hand or those of his minions. Miles is just another that the former heroic vampire hunter used his relationship with to betray and bring them to the darker side.

This is the second crossover for the title in its relatively short life. What makes it work is that Ziglar always finds a way to blend in elements of his ongoing story alongside the event. Which is the best way to do event tie-ins really. It helps that there were a couple of issues earlier in the series which played a run-up to this event, involving Blade, Bloodline, and some vampires.

Speaking of which, the crux of this issue is a flashback to Blade’s betrayal as well as the return of that previous vampire threat in the form of the released Lord R’ym’r. In one swift climactic moment Ziglar blew my entire theory about Blade’s behavior in the event out of the water. Well, not fully. That theory being that Blade was being possessed by a vengeful R’ym’r which of course is disproven here.

Yet, Blade’s talk and some other clues seem to point to possession and something or someone ancient, so perhaps a rival or old friend of R’ym’r? Guess we’ll see over there.

I’m glad that Hightail remains in the series and her antagonistic relationship and semi-forced allyship with Miles remains a throughline in the book. Miles’ world has often been distilled down to just his parents, Ganke, and Uncle Aaron. Ziglar is doing the work to grow the character’s work here in his second decade of life, and it’s great to see.

Visually there is a shift, of sorts, here as Peeples and Picciotto step in to do the artwork. There is a bit more house style/superhero book energy coming from their styles than we usually get in the series. Plenty of details and depth are still there, as is a natural rough texture. The usual kinetic chaotic type of visual energy that fits the bouncy Spider types isn’t here. Things still move pretty solidly though, befitting a book that is about a web-swinging (now vampiric) hero and his speedy enemy but not enemy (frenemy feels too light for their relationship).

What does carry over though are Valenza’s colors. Just as dark and poppy as we normally get with these things, with some natural shifts to fit the different styles. A sort of heavier approach that feels a bit more washed out (in a sense) is present in the flashback pages compared to the bit lighter touch for the present moment beats.

Lettering also has the usual energy carryover with Petit still orchestrating that particular space. Making sure each bit of dialogue or captions hit with the right power, spread across the page in the most logical ways, and carrying all the emotional energy required. The best letterers throw in little changes, be they subtle or bigger, that really hit home a given feeling. A great example of this is when Miles is plummeting through the skies and is waking back up. His bubble is uneven and the font is a bit smaller and less focused. Really giving the reality feeling of a voice that is coming from someone just coming back to consciousness.

Lettering is such an impressive creative endeavor, and these types of things just elevate it even further.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #21 is now available from Marvel Comics.