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Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #3

5

Miles comes face-to-face with Norman Osborn!

The Good

The Ultimate Universe went through so many changes during Cataclysm, but luckily one of those changes wasn't a new creative team on Earth-1610's best character: Miles Morales. Hands down, this is the best book to come out of the post-Cataclysm world, mainly because it has the same creative team on it as the one in the previous volume, before Galactus started eating everything.

This series is still about Miles Morales adapting to being Spider-Man. There's still a learning curve and even moreso right now, since he recently had his web-shooters taken away by "Peter Parker." That little moment has an effect on Miles in this issue, so although it's a small moment, it's nice to see it play out. There's also the fact that Miles doesn't want to lie to everyone, so he feels he needs to tell people he is Spider-Man. It's something he struggles with here, but as fans have seen in the past, that's not always the best idea.

This issue is all really about Norman Osborn returning to the series. While the face-to-face moment fans have been waiting for between Osborn and Spidey doesn't happen until the end of the issue, the pay off is in the build up as Norman takes on Monica Chang and proves he's still a villainous force in the Marvel Ultimate Universe. The scene between the two characters is exciting and brutal. This is the Norman Osborn people have wanted to see come back.

As always, the art team of David Marquez and Justin Ponsor (colors) does not fail to impress the reader. The art work is clear and crisp and Marquez has a style that can make an epic battle come off just as exciting as Ganke and Miles chatting in the streets of New York. Ponsor does some wonderous work with colors and shading. No one else can do what he does on this book. He's set the bar high.

I was super-surprised and excited to see both Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez drawn into this issue as bumbling detectives, the best kind of detectives.

The Bad

Not much to complain about here. This book really takes the reader on a ride and has such a fantastic creative team behind it.

The Verdict

MILES MORALES: THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN sets the bar high for super-hero books. It does an amazing job at balancing super-hero elements while keeping the series relatively grounded. We finally get the return of Norman Osborn who is destructive as ever and while the big pay off will be in the next issue, the build up here is near perfect. Everything about this series is top notch and it's a series that needs to be on readers' pull lists everywhere.