Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14 Review

 

Writer: Cody Ziglar

Artists: Federico Vicentini

Colorist: Bryan Valenza

Letterer: Cory Petit

Cover Artists: Federico Vicentini & Alejandro Sánchez; Inhyuk Lee

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: December 27, 2023

 

Hightail wants to arrest Spider-Man. The Hobgoblin and the Prowler intend to kill him. Why's everyone so angry with Miles? And who'll get to him first? Let's thwip into Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14 and find out!

 

Story

The Hobgoblin offered Aaron Davis (The Prowler) cash to kill his nephew. The partners in crime convinced three of Peter Parker’s earliest enemies--Fancy Dan, Montana & Ox of the Enforcers—to aid their cause. But Hightail and her teammates Scorpion and Gust get to Miles first. With organized crime carving up New York City, Agent Gao suggests Hightail enlist Miles in her Cape Killers squad.

 

Colleen Wing--Miles' sword tutor—realizes that's a non-starter in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14. Misty Knight tries to hush her quippy partner at the Daughters Of The Dragon detective agency. But Hightail doesn’t need a reason to arrest Miles. She’s been on his trail for too long. She even got turned into a vampire while chasing him! Yet he's always eluded capture. Hightail may have failed R’YM’R, but she won’t fail Agent Gao. Hightail orders her team to take Miles and his friends down.

 

Sadly for Hightail, she takes too long to apprehend him. Agent Gao calls Hightail again to say she needs her back at HQ. Intriguingly, the Amazing Spider-Man calls Brooklyn's Spider-Man at the same time. When Miles tells Spidey about Hightail, She-Hulk takes the phone. Jessica Walters argues the finer points of law with Agent Gao. The two go toe-to-toe, neither relinquishing their positions.

 

Here are some interesting legal takeaways. She-Hulk states that Mayor Cage deputized Spider-Man (Peter Parker). Yet Wilson Fisk's anti-vigilante law prevented Luke Cage from being seen leaving the Limbo Embassy with Spidey after they met with Madelyne Pryor. Then Hightail tells the ultimate whopper. The speedster claims Spider-Man's actions violate the Powers Act, not Fisk's Law. Does the speedster believe the Superhuman Registration Act is still in force?

 

We don’t need no Civil War!

 

Readers can look forward to the interplay between Scorpion and Miles and meeting the Cape Killers' recruit Gust. Also, we learn that Miles has sent his friend Starling on a mission. Yet Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14 leaves us pondering Uncle Aaron. Is the Prowler working with the Hobgoblin or merely pretending?

 

 

 

Art

Snow still covers the street in Brooklyn where Spider-Man tangled with the Buzz Boys and Frost Pharoah. Gust whips ribbons of bluish-white, entangling combatants. Highlights glow and sparkle on Spider-Man’s costume while avoiding Scorpion’s whipping tail. Blackbirds flock with Starling as she wings her way to Brooklyn Visions Academy. Federico Vicentini makes the stylish Enforcers look like they deserve the spotlight, while the Prowler and Hobgoblin’s features often elude capture in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14.

 

A warehouse looks gray and lifeless until the Enforcers, the Prowler, and Hobgoblin fill it with bright and nuanced colors. The sun splashes yellow and red upon Starling's orange mask. Yet when she enters the Academy, Starling meets someone also wearing red. Orange-clad Hobgoblin follows the Gang War via color monitors in his gray headquarters. Miles, Peter, and Hightail’s cell phones summon holograms of their callers. Colorist Bryan Valenza distinguishes the projected faces with blue-white outlines or haze.

 

Uppercase black letters fill white dialogue balloons in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14. Spider-Man’s thoughts fill red narrative boxes with white lettering, while Starling shares her thoughts with red words in yellow boxes. Cory Petit signals Hobgoblin's appearance with the sound of his glider's engines, helps us hear Gust wield air currents, and makes us feel heroes hurtle into a parked car or a stone building. Yikes! That's going to leave a mark!

 

Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

While the Hobgoblin prepares to give Madame Masque a run for her money, Brooklyn's web-slinger plans to step up in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

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