Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20 Review

 

Writer: Cody Ziglar

Artist: Federico Vicentini

Colorist: Bryan Valenza

Letterer: Cory Petit

Cover Artists: Federico Vicentini & Matt Milla; Goran Parlov

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 15, 2024

 

Miles’ family is growing. He introduced Shift to his parents, and they embraced his shape-shifting clone. Will Joe Public accept Miles' Swole brother? Let's swap our black-and-red costumes for street clothes, leap into Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20, and find out!

 

Story

So much has happened recently that his journal seems like a foreign land. Still, Miles takes up his pen and reflects on how his life has changed. Rabble destroyed his home, but his family moved into another. Less enlightened parents might find a shape-shifting clone of their son weird, but Miles’ father and mother have welcomed Shift. Baby Billie adores her new older brother. After all the trauma, Miles’ family is still around, and he’s there for them.

 

Miles’ family isn’t limited to blood relations. A day at the park gives Miles a chance to hang out with his friends. While surveying the artists’ stalls, Shift and Kamala bolster their burgeoning friendship, and Miles reconnects with his pal Ganke outside school.

 

While family provides benefits, it also comes with responsibilities. It’s been ten issues since Miles’ parents asked him to take out the trash. At the time, it seemed like an innocuous request. Yet performing a household chore ended in a fight with vampires and a team-up with Blade and Bloodline. In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20, his parents ask Miles and Shift to babysit little Billie. So, the brothers take an infant along on their art walk. What could go wrong?

 

Recently, Miles helped Misty Knight prevent Black Obsidian from selling weapons to street gangs. While Black Obsidian and his gang employ the Hard-Light constructs differently than in Giant-Size Spider-Man #1, Miles recognizes Rabble's inventions. The weapons are an unwanted reminder of the disturbed woman who tried to kill Miles and everyone he loved. Still, Miles and Kamala suit up to apprehend the gangsters while Shift protects Billie and the folks in the park.

 

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20 gives Miles a glimpse of normality before the skies go dark and Blood Hunt begins. Ziglar also hints at Shift's creative side and how Tombstone's rise to power has altered patterns of criminal behavior in New York City. But whether the story focuses on Miles or reveals High-Tail’s new life, Ziglar’s story focuses on our love for family and how hard we’ll work to protect it.

 

 

Art

Federico Vicentini shows the joy suffusing Miles' family. As the morning sun brightens Miles' neighborhood, his parents clear the table. Miles' smile is as wide as Billie's as Shift holds her while sprouting another set of arms from his neck.

 

In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20, Shift straps his young sister into a  Baby Carrier, slips on a backpack, and thwips through the neighborhood. Miles follows in close pursuit. After the Morales Spider-Men change in an alley, Miles can't escape Ganke’s friendly headlock while Kamala approaches Shift. The Inhuman and Mutant shapeshifter’s eyes bulge, and Kamala presses her hands to her face when gazing down at Billie.

 

Bryan Valenza contrasts the soft morning light by casting the ground, stall interiors, and other shoppers in cool blues. Shift shines in his red hat and yellow jacket amid the cheery red-and-white canopies. Valenza bathes a sculptor shaping clay and an artist using markers in blues while the morning sun lightens a young spray painter’s mural in yellow. Although Rabble designed Black Obsidian’s Hard-Light Constructs, the weapons produce yellow rather than pink or lavender energy. Backgrounds show through as Miles pulls on his costume, suggesting he opted for invisibility as a quick-change artist.

 

Cory Petit welcomes us into Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20 with black uppercase letters on tan journal paper. He thwips the same black letters into white dialogue balloons and white letters into red narrative boxes. A bang announces that trouble is brewing, while a giant transparent crash shows what happens when someone makes Ms Marvel mad. Don't disturb Kamala's free time, folks. You wouldn't want to see her when she's angry!

 

Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

A former gunrunner develops an interest in art, Shift takes responsibility for Miles’ young sister Billie, and High-Tail's past returns to haunt her in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

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