Marvel Seemingly Admits Defeat On Miles Morales Name Debate, Officially Tag Him As ‘Spin’ In ‘Radioactive Spider-Man’
Ever since Marvel began seizing upon Miles Morales’ popularity as yet another merchandising opportunity, their insistence on having him and Peter Parker share the core ‘Spider-Man’ moniker has long been a subject of fan debate, with many finding the publisher’s refusal to differentiate between the two to be more than a bit confusing – but after almost a decade of digging their heels in on this name-sharing scheme, the latest issue of Radioactive Spider-Man suggests the publisher may be ready to throw in the towel.
As far as comic books go, the idea that multiple versions of a character may exist at once is pretty much par for the course thanks to the medium’s regular use of alternate universes and timelines; Heck, the first mainstream ‘multiverse superhero adventure’, Flash of Two Worlds, took place between two versions of the Scarlet Speedster, Jay Garrick and Barry Allen.
But what’s less common is for two or more variants to go by the exact same codename, especially when they’re both actively operating in the same universe, as doing so serves only to leave readers and in-universe characters scratching their heads as to just who is being referred to at any given time.
In light of this need to differentiate variants, a combination of deliberate writing and the general phenomena of ‘fandom slang’ will usually result in the ‘main’ version receiving the core title and all others taking on a unique colloquial ID.
For example, while Barry (or Wally West, or Bart Allen, depending on the run at hand) and Jay wear the mantle on their respective worlds, the former is usually known ‘The Flash’ while the latter is more often identified as ‘The Flash of Earth-2’ or simply ‘Jay’.
While a generally annoying storytelling practice on its own, what makes the Spider-Man name-sharing case particularly egregious, even outright insulting, is that Marvel threw out the unique identity Miles already had in order to push him as being on ‘equal ground’ with the veteran Peter.
Originating in the Ultimate Universe and making his web-slinging debut only after the death of his world’s Peter Parker, this unfortunate tragedy left Miles as both Earth-1610’s one-and-only Spider-Man, and on a multiversal scale, the new ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’.
Though his early career saw him carving out his own niche in the Web of Destiny, this began to change with 2015’s Secret Wars, which ultimately conclude with Miles and his family making the jump to Earth-616, where rather than giving him some sort of unique identifier now that he was working directly alongside Peter, Marvel instead continued to present him as just ‘Spider-Man’.
Their decision partly motivated by the ham-fisted ‘diversity push’ of the mid-to-late 2010s, as well as a desire to capitalize on it, Marvel’s efforts to ‘draw no distinctions’ between the two heroes only served to inflame the divide between Miles fans, who sought to defend his worthiness as an official Spider-person, and Peter fans, who felt that putting him on the same level as his successor was yet another instance of the publisher crapping all over his character for cheap drama.
(In the interest of fairness, a not insignificant amount of this discourse was beset by genuine racists. However, such intellectual dishonesty and stupidity really doesn’t warrant respect for proper rhetorical consideration – in other words, f–k ’em.)
Though Marvel would only feel emboldened in this name-sharing following the release of Into the Spider-Verse thanks to its message of ‘anyone can wear the mask’, the 2021 release of the Disney Junior’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends would see a noticeable waver in their conviction, as rather than Spider-Man, the animated series instead tagged Miles as ‘Spin’ (as in, ‘spin a web’).
For the next four years, this name would stay relegated to Spidey and his Amazing Friends, with every other piece of Marvel media still referring to him by his proper hero title – but that all changed with the release of this week’s Radioactive Spider-Man Vol. 1 #2.
Penned by current Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 7 scribe Joe Kelly as part of the X-Men’s current Age of Revelations event, said miniseries follows Peter as he attempts to continue serving New York’s friendly neighborhoods in the wake of the novel X-Virus’ infection of humanity, the mutation-causing effects of which he attempts to stave off by continually overloading his radiation-positive, spider-power-granting cells with even more radiation.
And though he initially believes that the disease’s effects have rendered him alone in his wall-crawling duties, Peter is nearly brought to tears when he finds himself saved from a P.D.C. beatdown by the sudden appearance of both Ghost-Spider and Miles, who in this desolate future has abandoned the Spider-Man name and now goes by, you guessed it, Spin.
Admittedly, this is not exactly irrefutable evidence that Disney and Marvel may be looking to permanently change Miles’ name, especially as Radioactive Spider-Man takes place outside of Earth-616 canon in a potential future.
However, the fact that the name Spin was even used to refer to Miles in any sort of official comic book capacity shows a major shift in both company’s operations that suggests Marvel may finally be realizing that trying to address two distinct characters by the exact same moniker is a headache no matter which way you slice it.
NEXT: Marvel Comics Exec Editor Confirms Ben Reilly Heel Turn Was Done In Order To Prop Up Miles Morales And Spider-Gwen: “There Really Isn’t A Whole Lot Of Room On Stage For Yet Another Middle-Of-The-Road Spider Character”
