Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2 – Oh, Father Who Art Thou?

Revenant, the newest brute to bust up Brooklyn is proving to be a bit more than Miles can handle. With his father caught in the sights of Revenant’s wrath, Spider-Man is definitely going to have a lot of hard conversations after this one.

Revenant continues his hunt forJefferson Davis and Miles is feeling the worst of it so far. Revenant’s villain origin story is a bit basic, but as an introductory villain to this current run he’s not offensive overall even if he is one-note. The lack of Jefferson outside of flashbacks this issue does hamper the emotional throughline of the story, but it’s not egregious as long as its not a recurring issue. How are you going to have a villain that wants to kill Miles’ dad, but not have said Dad show up (despite him being on the cover)?

Bryan Hill’s script is solid, but not much beyond that. As I said before Revanant’s character is fairly basic, but the flashback shows glimpses of a softer man that felt betrayed by someone he thought was a friend. There is a deeper tale about how the government can pit people in a community against each other, but I don’t expect the story to go below the surface. Miles feels a little superfluous in the villain fight because a lot of his time is devoted to his growing relationship with Valentina, who so far is fine but definitely fits that “manic pixie dream girl” archetype. Her dialogue with Miles is a tad contrived but still has bits of charm layered in-between.

Valentine De Landro’s flashback scenes remain grounded, giving me similar vibes to Alex Maleev’s Daredevil art, though not as detailed. The colors also make things a bit muddled in spots, leading the characters faces to be obscured or barely visible. This isn’t a problem in the present though as Nico Leon’s stellar art carries the book everywhere else, especially in terms of the action. Each hit has weight and does a great job in showing just how much power Revenant possesses.