Beyond The Bonds Of Blood: Reviewing ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #26

Family isn’t the easiest thing to deal with in life. It’s a concept that extends far beyond shared blood. At the end of the day, it’s something that can be found and chosen if one so desires.

This is the space where the high-flying Starling finds herself as her grandfather the Vulture and her boyfriend Spider-Man continue to throw down in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26. Another pitch-perfect issue from Cody Ziglar, Federico Vicentini, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit.

Month after month, this book just keeps hitting. It grabs on to that exact Spider-Man formula, adding its own Miles-flavored twist, balancing the action that comes with the super heroics with very human nature-related situations.

Issues like this provide a teed-up showcase for the flawless visual work of Vicentini, Valenza, and Petit.

Spider-Man is a character that needs a particular energy for any action sequences. Here we get to see a full hardcore fight between Spider-Man and Vulture, and then Starling and Vulture. It’s very much a frantic no-holds-barred affair, with figures flying, bouncing, and swinging all over the place. Panel angles are placed all over, letting the audience feel like they are accurately watching someone with the chaotic energy that Spider-Man embodies fighting.

I swear with each month that passes Vicentini is capturing it better and better, which is wild since the first issue already came with the recipe perfected.

Dense and hefty always are great words to describe what’s on the page. All that detail and frantic energy is boosted by the color palette Valenza delivers. There are lots of shadowy and darker color choices scattered throughout to give the story a deep, just right touch of grounded energy. Playing against it, yet in connection, are all the slicker and more vibrant colors that bring the more other worldly elements to life.

All the elements on the page are beyond cohesive. A well placed, colorful, and loud SFX punctuates moments that are tense or bombastic. Panels shift and slide around taking on all kinds of shapes, sizes, and points of view with ease. This allows dialogue and captions to slide around as well, as Petit makes sure they flow with a powerful punch, capturing every bit of emotion, tone, and volume with a few well-placed font, bubble, or color modifications.

There is never a concern that a moment that is meant to be bold or personal will not hit exactly as it should, and then some. There is an authenticity that is genuine and effervescent.

Miles’ particular voice as Spider-Man is something that Ziglar and Petit have crafted to a science by this point. Sure he’s got quips and speeches about power and responsibility just like Peter, but there is a specific delivery and meaning behind it all that is unique and engaging.

While at the end of the day Vulture is the one most truly “in the wrong” (and is the cause of his relationship with Starling ending), there is greater depth explored here. Miles is not afraid to admit his own wrong-doings in the situation as well as pointing out that he’s not the best boyfriend at times, but he’s trying his best and willing to do better. We are given a story that goes beyond typical heroics and villainy as expected from superhero comics.

Instead, it goes to human nature and the nature of relationships and how they can be ruined or fixed all dependent upon the intent and willingness of the participants. Losing your only family and clinging to the idea of blood is not easy, even when you are the reason they have been lost. Vulture’s struggles here are not fantastical or beyond understanding. There are many that will find it relatable because of those in their life that did similar, or the fact that many of us in life have unfortunately been the reason that a relationship soured without realizing or being willing to admit it.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps me engaged in hero comics. Really taking a mirror to the human experience and creating actual depth and development for characters. The constant recycling of status quos and keeping certain characters in boxes that in many cases that are older than myself or other swaths of the fan base is tiring. As proven in this issue, there are ways to explore and develop characters without having to remake the wheel or fly too high beyond whatever bubble the powers that be feel a character must remain.

If I were to keep a particular pile or stack of comics to show people “This, this is how you should approach comic book characters,” this series would for sure be amongst the rest.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26 is now available from Marvel Comics.