It also shows that his powers don’t solve his personal problems, in fact it makes some of them even more fraught with complications. This allows us to dig in deeper within the character, to encounter surprises and to see more of the vulnerable side of him that is human - not solely a powerful superhero. We meet him at the age of 16, he’s been Spider-Man for several years and is asking the question “does anything I do matter or make a difference?”ĭue to a few changes about the circumstances of his uncle’s death - which haunt him each night, we get the feeling that this may be a re-imagining of or a parallel universe to the Mile Morales we meet in Into the Spider-Verse.

It features Mile Morales, but older than we see him in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. One of the things we love most about this book is that the story is not an origin one.

This book is one we’d both like our children to read, especially as they navigate their early teenage years. It doesn’t feature violence, the romance is awkward and realistic to the feeling of having a first crush, and the thoughtful and deft exploration of themes like helping within your community, standing up against injustice, finding your voice, and what systemic misuse of power looks like are nuanced and based on experiences we witness firsthand. It feels important to explore, because this book feels like it appeals to a wide range of readers. But we agree that the age range feels squarely in early YA, just outside of Middle Grade. We open this conversation by talking about how to categorize this book, it absolutely could be considered in a special category of comics or superhero fiction. This episode serves as our wrap up for our Marvel and Comic book storytelling episodes, and we feel it’s a great one to end on. Today, Fable and the Verbivore share our July book club episode on Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds.

Miles morales by jason reynolds