Review by Frank Plowright

For any superhero fan of an advanced age the connection of Spider-Man and clones sends a shudder of terror down the spine as memories of the 1990s mess under that title come unbidden. Thankfully, Miles Morales isn’t aimed at those fans.

Before any sniff of clones, though, there are other matters to be dealt with. Saladin Ahmed opens with the Morales household being fixed and Spider-Man teaming with Starling to see off the recurring ineptitude of the Frost Pharaoh. Drawn by Natacha Bustos, it has the feel of a fill-in.

Following that there’s a King in Black crossover, entertaining enough for a single chapter until the discovery that the caption at the end noting a continuation doesn’t mention the continuation’s actually somewhere else. The next chapter of this collection opens with the symbiote mess done and dusted. It might not continue sequentially, but it’s a delightful story of Miles and Kamala Khan hanging out together and sorting out a problem along the way.

After that we hit the four chapters of clones. It’s all gloriously drawn by Carmen Carnero. She doesn’t have an especially distinctive style, but the quality is really there without a weakness. Miles and his friends are drawn as real people and when he swings into action as Spider-Man Carnero delivers exciting action pages. There’s no skimping either. Spider-Man is embedded in fully drawn locations, and isn’t that sample art of him riding a dragon great?

The clones are the work of the Assessor, as introduced in Ultimatum, but they’re far more than just copies of Miles. As genetically grown creations they’ve had other powers introduced during their gestation, and as the Assessor was responsible and devoid of conscience Ahmed introduces a level of sympathy for what they’ve endured. It doesn’t excuse what they’re doing, but it explains the desperation behind it. The smartest of them takes the name Selim, not just a clever anagram, but having a meaning, and the way Ahmed plays things out is unpredictable and leaves the series with an expanded cast.

There’s not been a bad volume of Ahmed’s run so far, and this keeps the streak going. All Eyes On Me follows. Or Ahmed’s entire run is collected in hardback as Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Saladin Ahmed Omnibus