Teen Angst Meets Blood Lust: Reviewing ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #23

Miles Morales’ time as a teenage hero with great power and responsibilities has been tough. Now he’s an undead vampire. Things just got a whole lot tougher for the increasingly less friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

With the Blood Hunt over, it’s time to deal with the fanged aftermath in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #23. An emotionally taxing tale for our hero from Cody Ziglar, Federico Vicentini, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit.

As much as the idea of turning established teenage characters into vampires feels tiring, sometimes there are ways to make it work. Ziglar takes this change and uses it to showcase the struggles of trying to keep one’s composure and self-control. Building upon the foundation created within this series of Miles seeking professional help from Doctor Sasquatch (formerly Doc Sampson) and his associate Doctor Kwan. Really hammering home, the ways that mental health help are beneficial and necessary, for people of all walks of life.

Most especially those who deal with extreme stresses and traumas. Like say, superheroes.

We get a whole section of this issue (and previous ones) dedicated to discussion of the changes happening to Miles and how his mental health work factors in. Personally, as someone who struggles with mental health at times, it’s so refreshing to see more comics tackling these things openly, with the larger platform that superhero stories take up.

Also, I’m definitely down for us to finally get some more Starling focus and really get into her head too. Grandpa Vulture about to stir up some trouble for sure.

No matter if it’s the solid smooth chaotic energy action sequences or the more focused dialogue heavy beats, Vicentini always nails it. This book just has such a dynamic unique feeling to it because of the way that the artist captures that Spider tone. These are powered folks who bounce around every which way and have no formal or informal training. So, scenes with them should feel even just a tiny bit messy.

Alongside that is just a great eye for capturing the facial and body language required to make these scenes work. Allowing the emotional energy to resonate through every panel and page. Making sure that it’s not just the fight scenes that pack a punch.

Add onto that the colors of Valenza and we’re sailing along.

Hitting the right amounts of over-the-top vibrant and grittier darkness. Valenza’s colors make sure this feels like a superhero story that happens smack dab in a place that feels familiar and real. Even with all the fancy mutli-color costumes and powers, it’s always leaning onto the right side away from too outlandish. It helps that the backdrops are always very deep and detailed with color palettes that skew closer to a toned-down neutral level.

As noted, there is talking and internal captions that carry a lot of the emotional load as well. Good thing that Petit is always along for the ride of this series. Doing all the right little things to allow the words to live their best life and allow us to really hear everything. From the emotions down to the voices, it echoes in the head as we read.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #23 is now available from Marvel Comics.