After reading the new Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1, I found myself wondering whether or not there was any way that Marvel could have just… well… skipped Miles Morales’ origin story altogether.
It’s not that what is there is especially egregious, or anything, it’s just that there is almost no way to gives Miles an origin story that doesn’t place too much stress on the character way too early. Either he has an origin filled with so much coincidence that it stretches credibility too far – The spider that just so happens to have the same number as Miles’ school lottery number (Nice Douglas Adams reference, though) just so happens to escape from the laboratory where it’s been genetically modified and then just so happens to survive long enough outside of the lab to (a) climb into the Prowler’s bag, (b) not be killed and/or discovered at any point between then and biting Miles, and (c) bite a teenage male, as opposed to anyone much-less-Spider-Man-like – or he has one that either ignores the original Spider-Man entirely (“My parents have been killed! What’s that on my window…? That’s it! I shall become a spider!”) or relies on him too much – something that I think the “Let’s recreate Spider-Man” angle at the start of UC:SM #1 flirts with, to be honest.
It’s a shame, because Miles deserves a chance to shine, instead of having to deal with the familiarity and ridiculousness of his origin so early on. I found myself wishing that Marvel had just decided to launch the book following on from Miles’ appearance in Ultimate Fallout, with him having already made the decision to be the new Spider-Man, and left the origin for an annual down the road.
Am I alone in that? Did everyone else appreciate the chance to go back to the very beginning and see Miles before everything happened? And maybe more curiously and importantly: Can superhero books start off without origin stories anymore, or has the mass audience moved past the point of being able to wait for the story of how the status ended up at that particular quo?
September 16th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
I suppose the origin, like origins generally, will provide Morales with the motivation to be a hero. Otherwise, being a hero isn’t a rational decision.
The issue allowed Bendis to write a bunch of fairly good scenes about Morales and his family. The rest — the rest was a disaster. Bendis doesn’t know enough about genes to write about them intelligently. Morales’s origin was less realistic — in that the details made no sense — than Peter Parker’s origin was. Bendis also managed to misrepresent the Arachne myth. And the coincidences. . .
This is a series that deserves to fail, not because Morales is, in isolation, a bad character, but because of the writer’s sheer ineptitude.
SRS
September 16th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
We’re not really getting origin stories in a lot of the new 52. And some of those seem to be working. OK, it’s not like we really need an origin story for some heroes, or Frankenstein, but it’s fun to be dropped in with things at a boil.
September 16th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Oh wow! That was the Prowler? I thought it was some variation on Deadpool. But you’re right, that’s totally the Prowler. Awesome! I love the Prowler! It’s about time we had an Ultimate Prowler.
And I agree with you. It would have been a lot more fun to actually read about Spider-Man as opposed to Miles. He was a cool kid in the issue, and it’s good to focus on his character…but Bendis could have done that with him already being Spider-Man.
Still, I didn’t mind the slow burn too much. I’m more than willing to give Bendis time to create.
September 16th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
I’m a fan of the personal stories. More of a root for Peter Parker, not Spider-Man sort of guy. So I liked the lack of heroics this early.
One thing I did like about focusing on Miles first was that Bendis showed his concern for others (at the lottery). It’s one of those “He was selfless, even before he had powers” things. I liked it.
September 16th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
What’s wrong with coincidences? This is a story about what would happen if all those events happened. I don’t see the problem. If all those things didn’t HAPPEN to occur, there’d be no Spider-Man (and thus no story) or Spider-Man would be someone else (and you’d be reading about him/her instead and complaining about those new coincidences).
September 16th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I don’t think every superhero needs an explicitly spelled-out origin story so much as they need an extremely well-defined motivation, which is why even superhero stories that are all about their origins often fail to hit the mark — see also: Hal Jordan coming across as an utterly formulaic paint-by-numbers Joseph Campbell “Heroes’ Journey” archetype in the Green Lantern movie. The Dark Knight didn’t need to give Heath Ledger’s Joker an origin (or at least, not a reliably narrated one), because his motives for doing what he did came through in every action he undertook. For a hero, you don’t need to go back to their childhoods or when they lost their loved ones to show the audience why they’re willing to risk their lives as heroes. And what’s unfortunate is that Bendis himself comes so close to capturing this style of characterization in this issue, when we see Miles’ reaction to his own good fortune versus the bad fortune of others. You almost could have flash-forwarded straight from that scene into him already being in costume, because it shows us that he has the EMPATHY needed to become a hero.
September 16th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Yeah, the coincidences kind of kicked me out of the story, even if the art was beautiful.
I honestly thought they’d open with Mary Jane trying to figure out who the new Spider-man is, and split the story between Miles trying to be Spider-man and MJ tracking him down. We could get bits and pieces of his origin along the way.
I don’t know. Seemed like a more interesting way to tell it.
September 16th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
I think we’re completely past the point where we need to start superhero stories with origins, whether those stories are told in comics or in movies or wherever. As a writer, we’re constantly told to start stories as late as possible, or as close to the action, and I think, especially when introducing new heroes, that it’s much more effective to start with the action and then go back and fill in the backstory once the character is established. In my mind, we should care about them enough first to want to know the backstory. Because usually the backstory is not as interesting as what happens later. And isn’t it more important what the person does with their powers or training or what have you than seeing the accident or circumstances that led to them? Starting with the origin, in this day and age, just seems amateurish to me from a storytelling standpoint.
September 16th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
<blockquote?What’s wrong with coincidences?</blockquote?
When there are several, and/or an unlikely combination of them, the entire story becomes unbelievable. And a 13-year-old is too young to be a superhero anyway.
<blockquote?And isn’t it more important what the person does with their powers or training or what have you than seeing the accident or circumstances that led to them?</blockquote?
That’s true for an action/adventure story or a mystery: hook the reader’s interest by setting up an interesting situation immediately. In comics, unless some sort of explanations are provided for motives and abilities, the initial situation might not make any sense, especially to a new reader.
SRS
September 16th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
really it can work either way,its up to the writer to make us care.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
I really agree with this article. I felt the same way. Maybe even more let down.
September 18th, 2011 at 9:16 am
“And a 13-year-old is too young to be a superhero anyway.”
Dick and Damian both started around 10 years old
September 19th, 2011 at 4:24 am
Power Pack, Franklin Richards, Impulse, Wally West’s kids were all underaged, too.
Thirteen is Thirty in comic book world.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:42 am
Age isn’t really an issue. Origins, or rather explanations, are more of an issue. Just look at the DCnU or Spiderman One More Day to Brand New Day. People wanted to know how we got from point A to point B. I remember reading a lot of posts going on about a potential new spiderman going on about how that would even be possible. Well, as of this issue, we know. Had there been no origin, the opposite question would be headlining this article, and the conversation would flow from there.
September 20th, 2011 at 12:20 am
I suppose in a way it comes down to being a fairy tale or a science fiction story, in a fairy tale we start with very little indication of character and just enough backstory to kick off: “This is the situation, and here’s what this person does”. It’s simple, but it means that the reader lends themselves into the story to fill the gaps, as opposed to “Let me tell you about the socio-political climate that led up to the story and how this person became involved in it”. If this is the first issue, intended for new readers to take off with this new character, why not lets just see this guy in action and have some fun?
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