Sure, the fact that the new Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles Morales, is half-black and half-Hispanic is an important milestone in comic-book history. However, his creator, Brian Michael Bendis, sees a more groundbreaking moment at hand.
The first spider power that presents itself in the 13-year-old rookie interestingly is one Peter Parker never had — no spoilers here, but it'll come in handy later when baddies are around.
"Here's a grand opportunity to not make him just like Peter. That's the trap you could set, which is let's play it safe and make him as much like Peter as possible," Bendis says.
"Norman failed at almost everything he tried, but he did create Spider-Man — even if it was by accident. This is his masterpiece so he's trying to replicate it or weaponize it. He doesn't know exactly how he did it. He just knows it worked. He's trying African spiders and different spiders, and we don't even know what spider initially bit Peter. We can give (Miles) a venom bite and all kinds of cool stuff."
"When you have new powers you do not have full and immediate consciousness of what your body can do and how much physical resistance has been developed," Pichelli says. "I love to remember that Spidey is an ordinary person who has acquired his powers, which are not there from his birth, and must be somehow discovered and mastered."
Like with other projects he has had such as Powers, Bendis feels a very strong emotional connection to Miles Morales, and that's usually what readers and fan respond to the most in his work.
"We've been pushing to make Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man our top release to date, and the results we've seen both here and in print certainly show us that we're heading in the right direction," Marvel senior vice-president of sales David Gabriel added. "We've been doing the day-and-date comics for about a year now since the launch of Ultimate Comics Thor #1, and each subsequent release has not only seen increased sales within the app, but we've also seen a great trend in which the print comic reorders increase exponentially."
The title's first issue introduced readers to Miles Morales, a half-black, half-Hispanic teenager who takes on the mantle of Spider-Man following Peter Parker's untimely death.
Bendis recently said he was 'surprised' by the amount of controversy Morales's introduction had caused.
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #2 will be released on September 28.