Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, Book 3

Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man

by Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez (Illustrator), Mark Bagley (Illustrator)

The Ultimate Spider-Man is back in action! Unfortunately, Galactus has arrived in the Ultimate Universe, and he hungers. Miles must undertake a dangerous trip to Galactus' home universe if Earth has a chance of surviving this cataclysm! Then, Miles faces the worst villain from his predecessor's past: the Green Goblin - the man who killed Peter Parker! But is Peter truly dead? As events unravel in surprising fashion, Spidey takes on Spidey - and only one of the two will rise! COLLECTING: CATACLYSM: ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN 1-3, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 200, MILES MORALES: THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 1-12

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Spider Man, Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2015

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Updated review - 25.06.2023

It was even less enjoyable this time around. I hate seeing Miles take a backseat in his own book but we pause to make this about Peter Parker for a while and that’s definitely not what I read the series for.

I also still hate taking an interesting character like Kate Bishop and doing this with her Ults counterpart. How boring.

I enjoyed the bits with Miles and Ganke. I thought Judge sort of being more a character in this was good, although it’s so glaringly apparent after reading Ahmed’s wonderful Miles series that Miles just doesn’t have a real community in this books. After what happened with his mother and his uncle (who’s a lot worse in the books than the films), having his Dad be so awful to him before abandoning him for a while just highlighting how little family Miles really has. It gets worse in Bendis’ later books and it just makes me appreciate the work Ahmed did so much more.

Ahmed really made a point to give Miles community.

Original review:
3 stars
*Sighs*

Okay, so this was nowhere near as good as the previous books. Every character seems slightly off and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Let's start with Cataclysm. It was a 3 issue tie in where Miles deals with Galactus eating/destroying (?) Newark, New Jersey. It's a lot of wreckage and a lot of people are getting hurt. Miles is running around saving people and pulling survivors out of planes. He goes home to save his dad and decides to reveal that he's Spider-Man. His dad has been very anti-super and anti-mutant in the past and I have no idea why he decides to tell him now. He reacts horribly and promptly abandons Miles because he's kind of a terrible father in this book. This man who's done everything to support and protect his son is suddenly a horrible father? Oddly enough, I thought this would be more about him being anti-super but the reason we get later is a lot less though out, in my opinion.

Then we get an issue about Miles going to May's house on the anniversary of Peter's death. The fact that this is in a book about Miles makes this kind of boring. I get it; Ults Spidey ran for a very long time and they want to pay tribute to him. Miles was kind of a footnote. We get some great stuff where Peter's friends imagine what their lives would be like if Peter had lived. We get an odd moment with Gwen and Ganke.

Then the Marvel Now run of Ultimate Spider-Man. This is where everything went downhill, got worse and then finally found it's place in the last 2 issues. What's going on with the fucking dialogue in this series? I don't know if Marvel just loosened the reigns or Bendis suddenly realized he could make character's swear but everyone was dropping f'bombs and it made no sense? It was awkward and slightly obnoxious. I have no problem with characters swearing once or twice but it was in practically every line of dialogue. The dialogue was already bad and the overuse of "%&*$##*@" made it worse.

As mentioned in my previous review, it's clear now that Bendis had no intention of making Ganke a gay character. He went full "no homo" in this one because Ganke's suddenly girl crazy. He's in love with all 3 girls in this book. While I still think Bendis missed an opportunity, I didn't expect any better from him on this front. Again, this isn't a book from Brian K. Vaughn or Kieron Gillen, and I knew better.

So, in this one, Miles' dad has abandoned him because he's terrible and Miles is staying with Ganke, now. Miles takes on Norman Osborn and Peter Parker returns from the dead. We don't get a lot on how Peter came back and I have no idea why they decided to resurrect him. Especially considering the Secret Wars storyline was coming up anywhere.

The fight scene with Green Goblin and Miles was weird? Like, he kicked ass and the art was fantastic but the dialogue was so odd for Miles. It felt like a mesh of Miles and a bitter Peter Parker and it was too much. It was so over the top and it grew annoying. I have no idea what happened between the last series and this one.

Miles' dad finally explains why he was such an ass and those two issues really dragged this down for me. The backstory doesn't seem plausible but okay. It certainly doesn't give a satisfying explanation for him hitting his son with a cane. Sorry, but I'm still side-eying the fuck out of Miles' dad.

Miles is struggling with keeping his secret from Katie Bishop (I hate saying this name. Hate it, hate it, hate it). Can someone better informed than me tell me if there's more about this girl in another book? I don't know a damn thing about this version of Kate and she has no personality at all. We only see her complain that Miles is hiding something from her and that Ganke doesn't seem to like her. Tandy hates her guts and I have no idea why. Miles decides to tell her and we get the big reveal and I join Tandy in the "I Hate Katie Bishop Club". Gotta say, I love that Ganke told Miles not to do it from like day one.

There's a big showdown with Katie's father as Miles breaks out of the Hydra base. Judge helps gather the All New Ultimates team to go find Miles and Ganke and it seems like that would build to a fight where they help Miles take down Hydra. Right? It all ends rather abruptly and I feel certain that this was because of the Secret Wars event. Bendis had to cut that off just as it was getting interesting because of yet another book wide event. Only, this one doesn't just interrupt the book. It got rid of Miles' whole damn universe. What the hell, Marvel?

Anyway, the best part of this book was this little scene:





Their relationship remains the highlight of this series for me

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It Pains me. PAINS ME! To give this less than 3 stars. It's just to unbalanced to give it that "Good-Great" rating. it's not horrible but it's just so meh that I can't bring myself to give it higher than that.

I never got to read this part of Miles story. I stopped reading right after venom and years later now came back to it. Man oh man, what happened?

So it starts off with the crossover of Galactus coming to earth and fucking it up. I feel this event could have been something amazing. I mean big old Galc just standing in the middle of what used to be New Jersey and taunting everything to come at him? That's fucking scary! So Miles decides to help people in danger when this is happening. Then we have a story of, you guessed it, Green Goblin returning! Wait I thought he died? Nope! Guess who else is back? PETER PARKER! OH SNAP! And then the very end of this volume focuses on Miles pop's secret past and the "Spider-Twin" villains.

Good: I actually didn't hate the crossover. I thought watching Miles save people and shit going crazy all over the place. I also thought the golbin's moment with Jamerson were scary and screwed up. Also Ganke made me laugh quite a bit and Miles had some great fight scenes in this one with the Goblin.

Bad: The Hydra story fell REALLY flat. The return of Peter nearly ruined his AMAZING death. Then they just left it up in the air because, screw it. Also sometimes the less you know the better it is. Miles pops story of his past was dull to say the least.

Overall this was a big old disappointment. I'm hoping when I get to Spider-man (Miles own story in 616 universe) it'll be better. This was a big let down. It's too bad too because I love the supporting cast too.

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the "new and improved" (translated= SJW characters based off established characters whose only claim is that they are a different gender/race/sexuality) characters out there- Miles Morales was certainly my favorite. The first volume of his Ultimate Spiderman was superb.
Miles is back in his third volume and seems like a lot has changed. His mom is dead, his dad now knows he's Spiderman and Norman Osborn is looking for him. Ok then. Bendis does a decent job with the Morales story, but the new "twists" are a little bit of a strain to credulity. One is this fascination with Miles telling everyone he's Spiderman. Umm bad news bro..your enemies? They will kill these fools to get to you, so why not keep that fact a secret? Too many people know who he is...

The other twist with his father being a SHIELD agent was also a bit much. I mean you had a great thing going with the uncle as a criminal and the dad as a cop, why did you have to throw in this rather implausible scenario as well? It didn't do it for me..also the Peter Parker is alive but deciding to let Miles be Spiderman doesn't really jibe with Peter's "...comes great responsibility" line. Finally Mile's girlfriend- *sigh* Katie. I know in the SJW world it is quite common for women to show the most irritating forms of fashion as the "norm"..case in point Katie with her red and brown hair. Seriously? Are you 12? Kids color their hair different colors in an attempt to "express" themselves. Fine. But it's also an eye-rolling form of pretension. "ohh look at me! I have blue hair because I'm expressing myself." Ugh. Anyways why Miles would date this goof is beyond me as I don't subscribe to the SJW religion. The fact that he also tells her who he is is face-smackingly stupid. I won't say more but I think Dagger, of Cloak and Dagger, says it best "Shush skank". Couldn't have said it better myself..and something Miles SHOULD have said when he first met her.

So these "twists" make the story sort of banal. Still, Miles is such a likable character that this was a pretty decent volume. Noting to rave about, but worth reading if you are a Spiderman fan. The artwork is quite good throughout. There is Bendis' trademark tongue in cheek humor. A simpler plot (without the SJW tropes) would have worked better. Miles should stand on the strength of his character alone (and he certainly can) without the SJW tropes and the goof with red/brown hair. Grow the fuck up. Also WTF is Doom wearing? He looks like he stole Ultron's body. Oh and umm Fisk in a leather jacket is uhh unflattering at best. 3 stars.

[kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m loving this series so much!!!
It’s filled with so many wonderful, complex characters and has such a great balance of action, suspense, family, friendship and life as a teen hero. I’m having so much fun with it. 🕷

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough times in the Ultimate Marvel Universe as Miles Morales struggles against foes, friends, and even family to fulfill his role as Spider-Man.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the previous volume, things took a personal toll on Miles as following the death of his mother Rio, he was Spider-Man no more. One year later, the Ultimate Spider-Man is back in action and this is where the third volume picks up from. Unfortunately, despite Miles rediscovering his purpose of being the web-slinger, Galactus hungers for the Ultimate Universe and thus the Ultimates (this universe’s version of the Avengers) are called to arms, whilst the youthful heroes, including Miles save as much as people in the neighbourhoods if Earth has a chance of surviving the cataclysm.

When it comes to the Ultimate Marvel comics from The Ultimates to Ultimate Spider-Man, event titles never succeed, especially when a lot of sequences of American cities being demolished by terrorists, which unnecessarily evokes the destructive imagery of September 11th. As for this three-issue tie-in to “Cataclysm”, it does not shy away from the destruction, but at least it gets to show Miles – along with Bombshell and Cloak & Dagger – saving the people who are dreading that this is the end of the world. As a tie-in to an event that I will most likely not read, it doesn’t add much, apart from a revelation that shapes Miles in the subsequent issues.

In issue #200, Miles, his friend Ganke Lee and others visit Aunt May’s house for the second anniversary of Peter Parker’s death. More as a celebration of this much-loved contemporary version of Peter, not much happens in the issue, other than seeing these various characters interacting with each other – some are funny and others and touching – and talking about the fact, since Peter died at such a young age, characters like Gwen Stacy, Iceman and Kitty Pryde give their own interpretation of what Peter’s future would have been if he remained alive. This allows numerous artists who had worked previously on the title such as Mark Bagley and Sara Pichelli to illustrate stunning double-page spreads of Peter’s alternative future adventures.

As part of the Ultimate Marvel NOW! relaunch, the twelve issues of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man does not work as a starting point for new readers, but really as a continuation of an ongoing arc for the eponymous wall-crawler, from him coping with the disappearance of his father, who recently discovered his son’s costumed outings, as well as wanting to out himself in order to truly commit to his romance with girlfriend Kate Bishop. To make things even stranger, both Peter Parker and Norman Osborn are suddenly resurrected, much to everyone’s confusion. Will history repeat itself?

As much as “The Death of Peter Parker” somewhat marked the end of Ultimate Spider-Man, it marked the beginning of a new character in the shape of Miles, who not only has to carry the legacy of his predecessor, but also forging his own identity. Bendis has acknowledged that Miles would be an also-ran if Peter never got killed and so resurrecting the OG Spidey does somewhat contradict what he was initially aiming at, although seeing Peter back from the dead and looking back at his own mistakes is an interesting prospect. Sadly, the mystery of his comeback is never revealed and for the most of this initial arc, it is re-treading familiar ground with the return of the Hulk-ish Green Goblin, ready once again to cause havoc in the Parker household.

In the final arc for this volume, Miles’s relationship with both his father and girlfriend takes a greater focus, from Jefferson Davis finally getting to reconcile his thoughts towards Spider-Man through his son, to Katie finds out his boyfriend’s secret identity, which catches the attention of her Hydra parents. Since Miles’ introduction, he has never entirely seen eye-to-eye with his father and through this confessional conversation between the two, exploring Jefferson’s brief history as a SHIELD agent, the relationship between father and son finally becomes full circle and it feels satisfying. Obviously, when it comes to Spidey, the happiness does not last.

Despite the impressive covers by prominent artist David Marquez, showcasing Miles in his Spidey suit being contrasted with the Hydra logo, the Hydra action feels insignificant and that largely comes down to a common problem with the entirety of Ultimate Spider-Man, in that Bendis can be more interested in the teenage soap opera than the superhero spectacle. However, Marquez’s art (coloured by Justin Ponsor) makes this one of the most visually stunning superhero comics ever published his realistically-drawn characters that are expressive, dialogue and action sequences are spread over double pages with clever usage of panel layouts.

Concluding before the 2015 event Secret Wars where the Ultimate Universe will be no more, this is a decent conclusion for this era of Miles Morales’ spider-like adventures, which suffers from moments of filler, redundancy and rehashing.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a perfect example of everything I find annoying about marvel in the last decade. First, they bring Peter back, which undermines all the emotional weight they've put into his story. Then he just disappears, making that whole arc kind of pointless. They act like the story with Hydra is a big deal, but then they suddenly wrap it all up in a one page fight we barely see so they can be ready for a crossover.

Events you only see half of in a tpb, arcs that go nowhere because the authors are too dumb to realize they'll have to return to the status quo and write with that in mind, and fight sequences that last like two pages. Little wonder young people would all rather read manga.

[Andy Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit disjointed and ends pretty abruptly but this gave a proper ending for Peter and MJ, which is what I mostly cared about. Curious where Secret Wars and Ultimate End go but even if they are bad, I got the ending I needed.

[Trike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, crossovers. I hate them. HATE.

Galactus shows up and eats New Jersey. Which I get. It's the Garden State, and you always eat salad before dinner. What I do NOT get is why they didn't include the rest of the story. Or at least a summation, if it's all about selling a different collection. Sum it up for me, Marvel. WTF happened with Galactus?

They won, obviously, because the next issue features Miles and the gang going, "Gee that world-eating thing sure was wacky, wasn't it?" "Yep. Hey, boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, such a pain amirite?"

Ugh.

I know what happened with the Galactus story. I went and illegally torrented read a summation of the rest of the tale. Not too bad. The ending was a bit of a shocker, frankly. But not having the end here means this collection is broken. You shouldn't have to go outside a book to find out how a significant portion of the tale plays out. This is like publishing the ending of the Battle of Weathertop and the Council of Elrond in a separate book from The Lord of the Rings.

Sigh.

Okay, heavy duty spoilers.

Norman Osborn comes back from the dead. Turns out he was in a secret SHIELD prison and after SHIELD stops existing (which happens offscreen because of a stupid crossover) he gets handed over to the police or FBI who drop the ball. Somehow, while being sedated for two years in an underground prison, or maybe in the 12 hours after he gets free, Norman knows who Miles is and the secret Miles' dad, Jefferson, is keeping. He's insane and doubly so when he's all Green Goblin-y, but seems lucid enough when the plot demands it.

And then Peter Parker comes back from the dead. This is getting ridiculous, even for comic books. Osborn gets beat up by Miles and Peter, then confronts and murders J. Jonah Jameson (which is never referenced again for some reason). So then Gobby goes back for round two and ends up dead. Or maybe not, who can tell any more?

There's a lot of back and forth between Miles and Peter which is just soap opera nonsense because Peter and MJ steal MJ's mom's car and drive off into the sunset. Never referenced again.

Clearly Bendis knew of the Secret Wars crossover a year or more before it happened, because he drops in little references to it throughout. There's a cross-dresser in a Captain Marvel outfit being arrested at the police station shouting about all the Earths converging until there's only one left, which just seems like random lunacy if you don't know that is exactly what's going to happen.

The Secret Wars crossover is terrible, too. I encountered it in the Ms. Marvel collections, where it also messes up the story. Seriously, collectors, stop buying that crap: you're ruining comics.

The whole Peter Parker/Norman Osborn thing just feels like a retread, as if Bendis is spinning his wheels waiting to go on to other stuff and can't be bothered to come up with new ideas, so he just recycles the previous USM story.

Then it turns out the secret Jefferson has been hiding is that in his younger days he was a mole working for Kingpin as an operative for Nick Fury. Peter's parents having some sort of Osborn connection for which they were murdered was a bit much but not too bad. It negates the randomness of Spider-man's origin, but it's an alternate universe, so no biggie. But having Jefferson also connected to Nick Fury is making this world seem really small.

Then Miles comes out to his girlfriend, who freaks out and runs away. But the reason she does this is because her family and she are all members of Hydra. Seriously. So of course her dad kidnaps Miles and he's cooperating with Doctor Doom. Which feels really random, too. Maybe there's something missing here as well, because all the teen heroes have become the new Ultimates (this universe's Avengers) and that's never talked about in this book, either.

All in all, it's jumbled, overly complicated and missing huge swaths of story. Not a lot of fun to read.



Anyway, the art is gorgeous again and any specific scene is well-written. I just didn't like the whole of it. It's a big mess.

[Burgoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this point, I'm convinced that all Miles is good Miles. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars (I'd love to throw on another half star, Goodreads) is that there the series gets pulled into some crossovers that disrupt the flow of reading.

This is the end of Miles' book in the Ultimate universe, I'm interested in what happens after he's ported over to the main Marvel universe. Keep your fingers crossed!

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

MARVEL. WHY DO YOU MAKE IT SO HARD TO READ SPIDER-MAN???!!! ARG.
ARG!!
In this volume alone (Ok, it's an "Ultimate" collection volume, but still. In this one volume alone...) the issues lead into TWO CROSSOVER EVENTS. NOT ONE, TWO!!
That's just obscene.

I have ranted and raved on every one of my Spider-Man reviews how friggin hard it is to read Spider-Man!! There is no straight guide/reading order/or book club to follow. I have to put work into every Marvel reading & it just makes this all feel like a chore.
And I don't want this to feel like a chore! I love Spidy! I love Bendis!
Make it make sense!! ＼（＠；◇；＠）／


OK. Deep breaths.
***

This volume starts off with Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man #1-3, which leads into Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand, which I hated on here for all the reasons above.
On its own, the issues were good and frantic (tensions and stakes are high), and the emotional play between Miles & his dad was written well.
I thought the whole point of this crossover event was to get rid of the Ultimates Universe, right? To make things more simple and streamlined. Wrong. That's the next crossover at the bottom of this review: Secret Wars.
:-/
So, here we are one issue later in Ultimate Spider-Man, issue #200, and poof! Peter Parker is back from the dead! ...I mean, I'm not mad MAD, I love Peter, I'm just like, can you make things easier on us and pick one Spidy to write at a time while you're destroying Universes?. Sheesh.

Finally, the real meat and bones of this volume is Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1-12.

I really liked the Green Goblin storyline & the Spidy team-up. I thought that was really fun.

I like(/hate) Maria Hill. (Like her here, hate her later with the whole Pleasant Hills thing with Kobik/Cosmic Cube in 2017 and how it led into the worst Captain America storyline ever Captain America: Steve Rogers, Vol. 1: Hail Hydra.)

I actually liked the storyline of Miles & his gf Katie Bishop. It read really Spider-Manish, if you know what I mean. Like, Miles's life turned into one really big dumpster truck fire & if that doesn't read Spider-Man, I don't know what else does! Nice that he gets a reboot though after all of Hydra learning his secret identity...

And, I actually didn't love Miles's father's backstory. It was a little convoluted and unnecessary (read as nostalgia-porn for Nick Fury). It would have read a little more powerfully if he had just apologized and admitted to f**king up & saying stupid/hurtful/untrue things without the history. *Shrug* Just my opinion.

The volume ends with the lead into Secret Wars, which makes all of this sorta obsolete, so *SHRUG* (/*SOBS*).


3.5 stars for good Miles/Spidy writing & solid art.

[Haley Yochum · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 rating*

This collection continues evolving the character of Miles in significant and powerful ways. Particularly in his relationship with his father, as well as: Ganke, his Peter Parker connections: Aunt May, MJ, Gwen Stacey, and his high school love interest: Katie Bishop. The story beats with his father really stood out. Miles exhibits such patience and strength while his dad comes around to being fully honest and vulnerable with Miles due to the pain he has built up from his past.

My least favorite issues were the “Cataclysm” issues. Not because they’re bad, but because I just like Bendis’ writing better when he’s zeroing in on Miles and his particular relationships. But, I’m getting used to this whole concept of these larger “event” issues. It does help build a certain dynamic and Miles is clearly maturing and understanding himself and his duties as a superhero better.

Ultimate Spider-Man #200 was a standout issue for its concept and art. As someone who didn’t read Bendis’ take on Peter Parker, it was interesting to learn about him through the lens of his friends and family as they reminisce about him on the anniversary of his “death.” The artists who contributed to this issue do these splash pages turning the memories of Peter’s loved ones into beautiful artworks.

Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man issues #8 & 9 were also standouts. These issues have a heavy focus on the past of Miles’ father. Marquez’s artwork really reflects the vibe of his past well with darker colors and kind of an overall “seedy” and nighttime look to it. There are also two really cool splash pages that are vertical, not horizontal, which I loved. Keeping it interesting. The writing here also excels as we end with a very powerful moment between father and son. The vulnerability and growth of Jefferson, Miles’ father, really reflects back onto Miles and how he’s able to have the maturity and wisdom that he does. Jefferson sums it up in a moment telling Miles, “The truth is, I didn’t think I was worthy. Not like you clearly are. And when you told me the truth, I lashed out at you and I ran away. And I just kept running. But, I wasn’t lashing out at you...I was lashing out at me!”

Overall, I’m liking how Miles’ relationships as just Miles and his relationships as Spider-Man are evolving and playing with each other. One can’t escape the other. They’re parallel, yet different. It was also awesome to see Peter Parker officially give Miles his sign of approval as the “new” Spider-Man and closing his own chapter. Miles is continually growing in both roles and gaining confidence and the ability to draw boundaries (particularly with Katie Bishop after her Hydra associations are revealed to Miles in a life or death scenario). I’m looking forward to this continued evolution. This is probably my favorite of the three volumes I’ve read to date. We’ll see how it goes from here...

[Tim Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final volume of Miles' Ultimate era.

This is the best of the three in my opinion. And it involves a few distinct parts:

It starts out with a 3-issue Spider-Man tie in to the Cataclysm event that spanned all the Ultimate titled. In that the Galactus we know from the normal Marvel universe has rocked up to consumer the Ultimate Earth.

I assume that, although tthe issues being collected here are called "Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 1 - 3" , they were actually the only Ultimate Spider-Man comics being published for that brief period, because there are BIG life events for Miles that happen in these pages. Like revealing to his father that he's Spider-Man.

This little 3-issue tie in did it's job though, because I went and bought the main Cataclysm event issues through Comixology.

Aaaanyway, the tie was good and left me wanting more, so served it's purpose. But it did leave me with no closure, so as part of a collection I guess it's a bit annoying.

Then we have Ultimate Spider-Man 200. In which Aunt May throws a memorial for Peter Parker on the second anniversary of his passing. This has a really nice sequence in which a few people each share where they think Peter Parker would have ended up were he still alive. And each fantasy gets a double page splash by a different guest artist. Really lovely to have Mark Bagley and Sara Pichelli each return for that.

It's very similar to the excuse Bendis used to get the guest artists all in for Avengers Finale, but that's only noticeable because I happen to have just read that. No complaints!

The rest of the collection is made up of the standard series which had now changed it's name from "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" to "Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man.

These pages are everything a Spider-Man ongoing should be. The emotional stakes, the inter-personal dramas, a self-doubting hero, and spidey learning through mistakes. I honestly loved this collection, and Bendis and Marquez seem to have happened upon a partnership every bit as incredible as the BMB's previous runs with Bagley and Pichelli.

I was surprised to find that it really felt like this collection had to suddenly wrap up very quickly due to the Secret Wars event that was spilling over from central marvel continuity, and in the end would see Miles brought over to the original marvel universe. I would have thought Bendis had more warning than most, and it seemed like some threads were only just being set up. But alas.

Here we are at the end, and I love that all of Miles to date is all in these three volumes.

[David H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another very uneven collection of Miles Morales comics. The first three issues were part of the Cataclysm crossover event which, uh, isn't resolved in this collection (which makes me wonder, narratively speaking, why you would include it in this one at all?). So you're left with an early cliffhanger and a jump forward to "oh yeah, that Galactus thing, crazy, huh?" Then we get Spider-Man #200, which is a weird memorial issue to Peter Parker, which isn't useful to me because I don't know who Kitty or the other random people are in the context of this issue. Then finally, the comic returns to focus on Miles specifically and . . . Peter Parker is somehow back. (insert facepalm emoji here) I knew superhero comics were really into resurrections, but this seemed nuts. We got a Green Goblin fight out of it, which is nice, I guess? After that arc, we get into a thing where Miles reconnects with his father (great backstory! Never had a hint of it before now!) and we get a Hydra-related arc which was all right, but it leads right into some OTHER kind of crossover event (Secret Wars?) Can we honestly not go more than 12 issues without a freaking event?

I think I'm going to stop reading any more of these. I can't fully explain it, but in addition to hating crossovers and apparently expected outside-knowledge, it's obvious that these stories just aren't for me. I wanted a story that focused on Miles and his friends (I didn't even mind some of the repeat villains and leftover Peter Parker connections) and didn't get distracted by S.H.I.E.L.D./Ultimates/Avengers stuff. I'm glad I tried out some Miles comics, but I think I'm going to go back to ignoring superheroes, since the nature of the Marvel/DC industry is obviously not one that plays nicely with my sensibilities.

[Paul S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boink. Idk, people.

Some dialogue subtly acknowledges that the Star Trek transporter is a dangerous technology. So yeah, what is really happening there? Does it kill you and assemble a copy? If yes, that copy isn't you, right? It's a thing that's what you were. Does it matter? What's a soul? What's a Peter Parker clone to Mary Jane?

Anyway...
I read it quickly and could barely put it down.
The art is great. A joy to look at.
Some story elements are fun. Good humor. Cool conflicts.
I liked this more than the second book but this book/series has issues.

There's a wacky(typical?) tendency to pile on the twists/reveals.

Includes a crossover with an epic conflict that climaxes and resolves outside of this book! There isn't even a summary. Every reader except the most tolerant of TPB publishing will be tilted by this.

There's a cool memorial/tribute to Peter Parker featuring art from a few different artists.

Cool 80's flashback vibes.

There is a cool Green Goblin arc with some intense scenes and battles but there's an extraordinarily fast paced dead/not-dead/maybe-clone business that has all the impact of a feather.

And then... Miles fights Dr Doom. What a let down. Do you want to know what happens? Me too. Because when the fight starts, you turn the page and the scene cuts to some incoming friends outside the building; turn the page again and you're back with Miles but the fight is OVER!!!!! WHHHHHHHHHHHHAT?! Ok, sure I've seen Miles fight people before, I guess I don't care to see him handle MF'in Dr Doom and a Doom/Hydra Army. Dude. Gawd.

Some solid art tho.

[Nick Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty strong entry after the weaker volume 2. Volume 3 starts off really poorly, with the "Cataclysm" story-line. It's not integrated into the overall narrative at all, and in fact I think Galactus is never even named, much less described. I think it unfortunately had to be included because it introduced an important rift between Miles and his dad, but otherwise it doesn't feel like part of Miles's saga. After that, the story picks up well again with the story-line of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, J. Jonah Jameson, and the mysterious return of Peter Parker (the last of which I wish had been given a little more room to breathe). I enjoyed the story of Miles's girlfriend Katie Bishop and her family's involvement with Hydra , but I wish she had been a more active character in it. The back-story chapters of Miles's dad's past involvement with Kingpin and Nick Fury were really cool. I also love the character of Detective Maria Hill.

Having finished the "Ultimate Collection" series, I find it unfortunate that it falls into the trope of killing off women of color. By my count, exactly two of them appear in the series as named characters (Rio Morales and Monica Chang), and both of them are killed off as plot points without being developed into real characters.

Finally I want to give shout-outs to two awesome variant covers included in this collection:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2b/02/...
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4e/7f/...

[Enrique del Castillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was dissapointing. The art is great and there are pretty good character moments, but the overall plot is a mess; I like Miles and his supporting cast is great, but having him deal with leftovers from Peter's time as Spider-Man and poorly developed Hydra villains was not enough to make his last run on the Ultimate Universe memorable in any way.

The Cataclysm issues ended up being a lot better than the ongoing series; to see Peter again robbed such hard moment as his death of any impact (yeah, I know, comic book deaths never stick, but still) and Osborn as a villain again felt like just a rehash. Though the weakest part is the last arc, where the story just ends, to give way to Secret Wars, a great event, but it arrives so quickly, it doesn't even give Miles a "Last Days" arc like most of the other ongoing series got back then.

Overall, having read Bendis' whole run on Miles, I can see so many great character moments, but after a while, the limitations of both the Ultimate Universe and the legacy of Ult. Peter Parker end up hurting the character. I'm glad Marvel didn't leave him in that alternate world and he is part of 616.

[Agnol · Rating 2 out of 5]

After how amazing the last two collections we’re this one was kind of disappointing. First, there was the Galactus event. My dislike of crossover events notwithstanding, I’m not a fan of when the tie ins are included in collections like this, as it leaves you with an incomplete story. Past that, all the story arcs here just aren’t that interesting. Norman Osborn coming back is par for the course, but Peter Parker being back cheapens a lot of the storytelling that had been done. The arc revealing Jefferson’s past comes too late to really be impactful, and the Katie Bishop/Hydra storyline is so rushed it literally revolves itself off screen. All told, this just isn’t as good as the previous collections.

[Agung Wicaksono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salah satu konflik batin yang ada di dalam komik ini adalah ketika Miles Morales mengungkapkan bahwa ia adalah Spider-Man kepada ayahnya, Jefferson Davis. Jefferson langsung terkejut dibuatnya, lantas ia pun menghilang seperti menghindari Miles. Lantas, kebenaran pun mulai terbongkar ketika beberapa hari setelahnya Jefferson menemui Miles. Ia menceritakan bahwa dulu ia sempat menjadi orang jahat dan bergabung dengan S.H.I.E.L.D. sebagai mata-mata untuk menangkap Wilson Fisk. Namun, setelah itu ia keluar untuk hidup dengan damai dan menikah dengan Rio Morales. Dengan begitu, cukup mengagetkan tapi tak mengherankan ketika Jefferson akhirnya tahu bahwa anaknya adalah Spider-Man. Mereka pun akhirnya berdamai dan menghentikan "drama" yang ada.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ughhhhh. I was going to give this one star but I'm giving it one more simply because I love Miles. A lot of the aspects of this volume didn't sit right with me at all, it's full of messy twists and retcons that perfectly portray not only some of my issues with Bendis' writing, but with the comic industry overall. I've heard that the 2016 run attempts to tackle racial commentary as well and I don't trust Bendis enough to think he'll do a good job, so I'm not excited to get to that either! Miles deserves better

[Greg Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A step down from the last two volumes. Still enjoyable, Miles never disappoints, as he continues to be super freaking awesome with each issue. That said, Bendis falls back on that old trope of his: repetition. Repeated storylines makes this issue a tad aggravating. Peter Parker's back for the second time in three Volumes. Massive universal arcs interrupt the story. Action i want to see, specifically Miles helping take down Galactus and Dr Doom, all happen Off panel, likely in other titles. Just mildly irksome, but a still pleasurable end to a long, long run.

[Nathan Duvall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The next Ultimate Spider Man series is absolutely fantastic. There are twists and turns every single page. After the original 28 issue Ultimate Miles Morlaes run I didn't know if it could have been topped. This 12 issue run is giving it a run for its money. I wish we could have gotten a longer series with this storyline. The ending felt abrupt and it needed to be a little longer, but I cannot complain about what the story gave us.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good, more mature set of plot points for a Spider-Man character. I've always known that Brian Michael Bendis helped revamp Marvel in the early 2000s, and I knew he was able to craft good stories, but I am just enthralled with the storylines involving Miles. As far as I can tell, this volume finished up the Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man run, but luckily Miles isn't done being the "Ultimate Spider-Man!"

[R J Royer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the last book in the series and I am as amazed by this as one as I was the others. I wish that they had included the stories from The Ultimates that is missing but I understand why they are. This book focuses on Miles Morales and not them but it would have been nice to have all his parts of their stories. Other than that it is an amazing collection.

[Dubzor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand unsatisfying ending. Seriously, just another case of the patented Bendis flat finale...only this time it has the added sting of the also patented Secret Wars screw over. Otherwise, a great collection of issues.

[Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Revival of Peter was soooooo lame, Bendis kept saying that when he kills a character it stays dead, but then 4 years later there he is, apparently inmortal, and so is Norman.
The second arc was also lame, too much numbers with the explanation of Miles´s father.

[ಥ_ಥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it I really did. It was good enough for a one sitting read. However, something felt a little average about it. I love the dynamic between Miles and his father. The artwork is absolutely amazing.

[putarci · Rating 5 out of 5]

no soy de leer comics pero me prestaron este y no pude parar me lo lei todo hoy de principio a fin, muy bueno, interesante plot twist, aunque creo que la resolucion de todo lo de hydra fue muy rapida. 4,5/5

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miles feels like the window into someone else’s story. He has his character arcs, he has his own side characters, but all that takes a backseat so the rest of the world can do their thing. They are definite emotional highs but if they are in between events that I don’t care about. Art remains fantastic.

[Joey Amorim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter being alive is a total asspull and I hate it. Nothing of real substance happens here. What an abrupt and completely unfulfilling end to the original era of Ultimate Spider-Man. It’s painfully obvious that Bendis had to wrap this shit up real quick because Marvel had a Secret Wars to get to.