Summary: Miles Morales is Spiderman in an alternate reality.
I am not really a comic book guy. But I like the idea of superheroes even if I have not spent a lot of time reading about them. I did spend a lot of time watching the cartoons when I was a kid, and while I am years behind, I do watch the Marvel movies.
My wife took a children’s literature course over the summer for her grad school and read Jason Reynolds and I have been meaning to read something by him for a while. So with the movie coming out (this is not a novelization of the movie) and it being written by Jason Reynolds and it being available at my library on audiobook, I picked it up and finished it in two days.
There are aspects of the original Spiderman story. Miles Morales is a teen, bitten by a spider and he becomes Spiderman. But aspects are different. His parents are both living, and married. His dad is the one that instills in him the responsibility for the community and the “˜with great power comes great responsibility’ that is traditionally from Peter Parker’s uncle Ben.
Miles has an uncle too, and indirectly Miles was responsible for his death as well, but in different circumstances. Several people know about Miles’ power. His roommate at an elite boarding school that he attends (on scholarship) during the week and his father.
What I have liked about Spiderman is that there is lots of internal angst and motivation. And that is the case here. There is not a ton of Spiderman action. The villain is not really explained well. But there is really good character development. And Miles remains a real teen, for good and bad. He is part of a strong family. He has a real community around him.
I enjoyed the character enough to pick up Ultimate Spiderman and read more of the back story.
Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook
First off Mr. Reynolds is, I think, is a good writer. His descriptive of a local neighborhood teen with angst and family and friend issues is good. He really took me there. The problem was there was two much of it, the resolution is essentially done in the last two chapters. Ironically the writing about said action was awesome just two short.
That being said I cannot wait to ‘see’ his next adventure, by this author, he’s really good.
Mahalo J. R.