Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10 Review

 

Writer: Cody Ziglar

Artists: Partha Pratim & Federico Sabbatini

Colorist: Bryan Valenza

Letterer: Cory Petit

Cover Artists: Dike Ruani & Alejandro Sánchez; Romy Jones; Mike McKone & Ruth Redmond; Federico Vicentini

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 13, 2023

 

Like Peter Parker in writer Dan Slott’s Spider-Man series, Miles Morales’ Spider-Sense is on hyperdrive. Living with constant and directionless alerts confuses and grinds him down. Can N. Y. C. give Miles a breather? Let's thwip into Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10 and find out!

 

Story

Miles meets with Doc Sampson. Life transformed the green-haired therapist into a jolly jade Bigfoot. Still, Doctor Sasquatch wants to help Miles avoid burnout. He compliments Miles on his coping techniques. When trauma and stress increase, Miles should add to his self-care skillset. The session doesn’t cure Miles but gives him concepts to process later.

 

 

 

That’s all good, as Miles’ coping skills get tested when Sandra Santos—a.k.a. Hightail--apprehends him in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10. Agent Gao, leader of the Cape Killers anti-vigilante task force, puts Miles on his watchlist. Seeing Miles swinging above the streets, Hightail decided to bring him in. But will Miles let her?

 

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10 highlights the need to manage stress, while laying the foundation for later events in Cody Ziglar’s Bad Blood story.

 

 

Art

Lost in thought, Miles passes the trashbag his parents asked him to take out. Despite his downward gaze, he doesn’t notice the envelopes spilling from a mail pickup slot to the floor. Kneeling before tall, muscular, and furry Doctor Sasquatch, Miles looks haggard. Yet his eyes brighten as new possibilities broaden his worldview.

 

Partha Pratim and Federico Sabbatini use diagonal lines to define panels: a gentle reminder that Miles’ life isn’t running straight and true. Yet whatever’s wrong with his life, Hightail’s is infinitely worse. While lithe and fit, she succeeds in looking edgy. Perhaps it’s the frown she wears in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10. Miles discovers what it’s like to be powerless when the speedster yanks him in her wake. Suddenly, the birds he casually disturbs while web-slinging are obstacles, not ambiance!

 

 

 

Bryan Valenza colors Miles’ apartment in calming earth tones while the trees outside his home signal the arrival of fall. Miles sees a hologram of the glowing green giant through a purple haze. Broadcasting from his green-and-blue station, interior lights—and perhaps the stars glimpsed through the transparent dome—throw shadows and highlights on Doctor Sasquatch. With his mask, blue jacket, and red backpack, Miles evokes another Spidey-Peep who's recently gone all evil and chasm-y. Yet the blue garment turns purple in some panels: perhaps another reminder of the ground shifting beneath Miles’ feet after his encounters with Rabble and Carnage.

 

Cory Petit translates Cody Ziglar’s story into white dialogue balloons, red narrative thought-boxes, yellow footnote boxes, and scraps of tan paper ripped from Miles’ journal. White uppercase letters deliver his thoughts, and black uppercase words inhabit balloons and boxes in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10. Similarly sized to those in Amazing Spider-Man, Cory’s font looks thinner, and his background fields darker, lessening contrast and readability. His subdued sound effects help us hear Hightail plow through the air, Spider-Man shoot webs, and a sword slash through the darkness. But who wields it?

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Targeted by former allies, a rattled hero struggles to cope in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #10. His life life couldn't get any more crazy, could it?

 

Rating 8.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.