Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume 5 by Bendis & others

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Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume 5
by Brian Michael Bendis & others

Poor Miles' story continues. After his mother is shot and killed, he gives up being Spider-man. No one can talk him into coming back--not Spider-woman, not Mary Jane, and not even his best friend. They try hard, but he won't do it. Instead, he just survives each day with the pain of knowing that if he hadn't been Spider-man, his mother wouldn't have died. He's a mess. His father is a mess. And there's just no helping him.

But then a possible new baddie shows up on the scene. Or is she a superhero? Hard to tell. Two others show up, fighting her, and the ambiguity only increases. Miles gets pulled into ut. the fight and, before he realizes what's happening, he's made the decision to be Spider-man again. It's not just that he has to stop evil or that he can't let innocents die... it's that it's a part of him. It's what he was meant to be.

Turns out that Bombshell, Cloak, and Dagger are all teens who had been experimented on and given powers, just like Spider-man. Together, they and Spider-woman triumph victorious over the evil corporation at the end. They're set up to be a crime-fighting group... one I definitely would love to read more about.

I really love Miles, and my love for him as a character only deepend during this collection. He's so young and so human, but so moral and strong at the same time. But my favorite moment of the story was when he was talking with Kate Bishop and Ganke came over bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get a special, limited edition LEGO set with President Captain America. This was so meta to me, with Marvel characters talking about LEGO sets that would exist in real life when there is actually LEGO Captain America in my reality. It's hard to explain, but the point is, I loved it. It was especially awesome when Miles said that girls didn't care about LEGO and Ganke said the right girl would. YES! We do exist! Don't give up, babe! :-) This volume was mostly dark, so this bit of light was great to see.

Overall, this is one of my favorite volumes in Miles' story so far.