Miles Morales Spider-Man #12: Just Walk Away. Please.

Miles Morales Spider-Man #12 features a clash between Miles and his troubled Uncle Aaron once again, and while it isn’t the most eventful issue in the series, it certainly does entertain with plenty of action!

This issue plays out like one long fight, and while it is busy and full of intense action that makes it a lot of fun to read, because of the history between these two the outcome is somewhat predictable. There was an opportunity to explore something fresh in their complicated relationship, but the overarching narrative seems to have taken precedence. The impact of this is twofold…

First, this issue suffers as a result of pushing the main story forward. The character development that was right on the edge of occurring is shelved in favor of getting back to the matters at hand. However, this brings us to the second impact which is the value of this issue in collected format. It’s the type of story that fits quite well from a trade paperback perspective and I can appreciate that.

The artwork in this issue is not unlike the rest of the series in that it is just brilliant. David Curiel’s colors give such pop to every panel that it’s a true joy to look at. This issue is packed full of awesome opportunities for the artists to shine and it feels like they took advantage of all of them. Multiple splash pages make for a beautiful book, but I did notice that it also sped up the reading process significantly. Due to the nature of the content, you can get through this issue fairly quickly.

My biggest complaint about the issue is Man-Mountain Marko. I had pretty much the same response as Miles whenever he makes his gratuitous appearance.

“Man-Mountain? Are you joking?!”

I understand we need to see Spidey punching on some baddies every now and then, but this whole character just brought me out of the story. It’s good for a laugh, but honestly, I probably don’t need to see Man-Mountain again in any future issues.

At the end of the day, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #12 is a fun book despite being a bit inconsequential. This doesn’t hamper the quality of the series thus far, but it does place more weight on next issue regarding developments in the story. This is a creative team that has repeatedly shown themselves capable of pulling off a great story so just kick back and enjoy the action!