It’s A Gods Thing — Reviewing ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #32

Spider-Man just can’t catch any type of break. Fighting off rivals, vampires, Deadpools, old enemies, and even the Black Panther. No wonder Miles Morales is ready for his mental health journey toward healing to hurry up and finish.

There’s only so much stress a teenager can really take on their shoulders before they break. Unfortunately for Brooklyn’s web slinger, there is no rest for the good nor the wicked. Godly threats assemble as Cody Ziglar, Marco Renna, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit strike the first blows of the “God War” saga.

Having Thor and Hercules (front and center on the cover) in an issue is a pretty big thing. Surely this is because they are godly beings in this universe, but also, they are Avengers. It continues the drive to showcase Miles bumping elbows with the big hitters of this universe. After over a decade, well, Miles is one of those heavy hitters now. This comes with being behind the spider-themed mask. Not to mention being in all those adaptations and other mediums.

Having such large (in size and stature) characters needs a specific touch.

Renna has such a big but also down-to-earth sort of artistic style. There is a ton of depth and detailed elements in play, exuding a very fun animated whimsical sort of energy at the same time. This gives characters their due with emotional range as well as kinetic energy. Marco makes great choices for how to place things panel-wise that bring the most out of the moment.

Each space we visit feels unique with how it’s presented, allowing them to feel lived-in while also making them vast or confining, depending on which place we’re talking about.

Spider-Man stories need a particular energy that befits their chaotic sort of style. These are not heroes who are trained to fight. They’re bouncier and all over the place in their battles. Renna picks up on that with the action sequences here, really leaning into the specific energy that Spider-Man demands.

It doesn’t matter who is drawing the issue, Valenza’s colors are going to be spectacularly symbiotic. The palette shifts to match the given style, picking up any textural intricacies along the way. Really popping here to create a lush and vibrant showcase. This keeps the more background colors to be very baseline to help set the overall setting mood. Therefore, all the colors for the more fantastic beats can breathe and pop.

Speaking of Avengers, former member Ares is the big instigator of conflict currently. I love how Ziglar references so many previous stories here without it being like an expositional “remember this” dump. Just so organic and smooth to the overall storytelling.

How Petit handles the dialogue in this case helps create this feeling. Not letting it really fall over each other or bunch up in any direction. Finding the right tempo to the flow and giving every word the intricate care it deserves. Character voice and tone are always clear as a bell, little flairs (chiefly for the Gods here) really helping differentiate the voices further.

We also get more time with Miles seeing Doctor Kwan for his mental health. It means so much to have a series like this where the character takes such things seriously. Seeking out and continuing to partake of help with the massive amount of mental health stress that has been heaped upon him is great modeling and representation. Superheroes being proponents of mental health services and mental health awareness, will always have a space in my heart.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #32 is now available from Marvel Comics.