Review by Frank Plowright

Spider-Man’s used to being shocked by villains, which is an occupational hazard of being a crimefighter, but he was blindsided at the end of All Eyes on Me when served with a cease and desist notice by men in black suits who turned up in a flying car.

Saladin Ahmed connects that with a mystery hanging over the series for a while. Just who is the Assessor and what’s his purpose? The really clever aspect of Beyond, though, is how Ahmed also feeds in something else of relevance to Miles, something that seemed cut and dried, but now isn’t. However, other than acting as a cliffhanger and prompting Miles to investigate a company, the threat of the cease and desist order isn’t followed up, or properly explained, which makes for a cheap shock and uncharacteristically sloppy writing.

Much of the previous book was slice of life drama, but this is superhero action almost all the way, yet it’s not standard because, if it wasn’t already apparent, the Assessor is a digital construct, and so isn’t going to be hindered by a punch to the face. Shift accompanies Miles, and for someone whose only communication is via grunts, he’s rapidly become a very sympathetic character. Part of that is down to the artists and the way his constantly changing form is posed, but in his case actions definitively speak louder than words. Also, just because Shift doesn’t communicate verbally doesn’t mean a lack of intellect. Stick him in a room of computers with a holographic interface and he’s a real whiz.

The sample art is from Luca Maresca by virtue of his just about drawing more pages than anyone else, but this is another collection where the artist keeps changing. Earlier in the series Ahmed wrote specific short interludes to accommodate different artists, but that’s fallen by the wayside, and here it’s turn the page for another new artist. None of them are poor, but why is it so difficult to schedule an artist to draw all the necessary pages of the same story?

There’s some flitting through dimensions to see some alternate versions of known faces, compactly handled, leading to Miles having one hell of shock leading into Empire of the Spider. Before then there’s Ahmed and Maresca’s closer which has nothing to do with the ongoing continuity. He meets Amulet to fight a horned cyclops, but there’s little to it. It’s the first ordinary story Ahmed’s served up the entire series.

Ahmed’s entire run is collected in hardback as Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Saladin Ahmed Omnibus.