Miles Morales: Spider-Man

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Miles Morales: Spider-Man Book Cover

Miles Morales: Spider-Man is a book written by Jason Reynolds. Miles Gonzalo Morales is a fictional superhero appearing in publications by the American publisher Marvel Comics, and is one of the characters known as Spider-Man. The character was created in 2011 by writer Brian Michael Bendis and Italian artist Sara Pichelli, with input by Marvel's then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso. [1]

Plot

Miles Morales is just an average teenager. Dinner every Sunday with his parents, chilling out playing old-school video games with his best friend, Ganke, crushing on brainy, beautiful poet Alicia. He’s even got a scholarship spot at the prestigious Brooklyn Visions Academy, and he is a Spider-Man. Suddenly, Miles’s spidey-sense has been on the fritz. When a misunderstanding leads to his suspension from school, Miles begins to question his abilities. After all, his dad and uncle were Brooklyn jack-boys with criminal records. Maybe kids like Miles aren’t meant to be superheroes. Maybe Miles should take his dad’s advice and focus on saving himself. As Miles tries to get his school life back on track, he can’t shake the vivid nightmares that continue to haunt him. Nor can he avoid the relentless buzz of his spidey-sense every day in history class, amidst his teacher’s lectures on the historical "benefits" of slavery and the modern-day prison system. But after his scholarship is threatened, Miles uncovers a chilling plot, one that puts his friends, his neighborhood, and himself at risk. [2]

Controversy

This book has a teacher character that shows racism, Mr. CHamberlain. In class, he says something about discrimination, such as, “Slavery was the building block of our great country. We shouldn’t just blindly write off the argument for the Confederacy wanting to keep it.” and “We underestimate the bond between slave and master. So many slaves were comfortable with being enslaved. Happy even.” He romanticized the antebellum South, praised the prison system for keeping slavery alive, and actively worked to dehumanize two Black students under his charge. His goal, and the goal of the other Mr. Chamberlains that have made flooding the school-to-prison pipeline their game, is to enslave Black people in the 21st century. There’s also a scene during the aforementioned Halloween party where Miles has an opportunity to spy on the Chamberlains and they’re all standing around crowing about how well they’re doing in their attempts to return to what was, for them, “a better time”. And when Alicia, a black girl character in this book, protested against what the teacher said, she got punished. [3]

References

  1. Miles Morales. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 1 2021.
  2. Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Goodreads. Retrieved February 1 2021
  3. (Book Review) Miles Morales – A Spider-Man Novel. Stitch's Media. 13 August 2017. Retrieved February 1 2021.