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Secret Wars is in full spin at Marvel, despite delays, and there's only so much we know about what the Marvel Universe will look like once the dust settles. But one thing is clear: Miles Morales will be the Spider-Man in the title Spider-Man. Not in another universe, not in a cross-over; just... being the Spider-Man of the main Marvel Universe continuity.
"Our message has to be it's not Spider-Man with an asterisk, it's the real Spider-Man for kids of color, for adults of color and everybody else," Miles' co-creator Brian Bendis told the New York Daily News. He and the character's other co-creator, Sara Pichelli, will be writing and drawing (respectively) Spider-Man, beginning with a renumbered issue #1 at some point this fall.
"Many kids of color who when they were playing superheroes with their friends, their friends wouldn't let them be Batman or Superman because they don't look like those heroes but they could be Spider-Man because anyone could be under that mask," Bendis continued. "But now it's true. It's meant a great deal to a great many people."
Here's the full cover for this fall's Spider-Man #1:
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In his Ultimate Universe origins, Miles is a young kid of Puerto Rican and African-American descent who's bitten by a spider that was involved in the same experiments as the spider that gave Peter Parker his powers. Frightened by the idea of crimefighting, and his father's distrust of superheroes, Miles didn't swing into action until after he witnessed the death of the Ultimate Universe's Spider-Man. Knowing that he might have helped if he'd only had the courage and experience, Miles donned a black and red costume in tribute to the late Spider-Man and began his career in crimefighting.
Secret Wars promises to fold the best parts of the Ultimate Universe into the main Marvel continuity, and according to the New York Daily News, while Miles is headlining the title, he may not be entirely alone. Peter Parker is alive and well in the main Marvel Universe, and may be acting as a mentor figure to his younger counterpart.
