‘Spider-Men’ crossover to help mark Spider-Man’s 50th anniversary

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Marvel Comics says Spider-Man’s alter ego Peter Parker will meet his counterpart in the Ultimate Comics universe, Miles Morales, in a June crossover. The death of the Ultimate Comics Peter Parker was Marvel’s best-selling comic of 2011; Morales replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the Ultimate Comics line shortly after.

The Ultimates imprint is separate from Marvel’s bigger universe; the original Marvel Universe Peter Parker continues his adventures in “The Amazing Spider- Man,” published twice a month. “Ultimate Spider- Man” debuted in 2000 and is among Marvel Comics’ best-selling trade paperback collections. “The idea is to create a small Marvel universe,” writer Brian Michael Bendis said in a 2001 interview with The Oklahoman. “If you present an honest portrayal of teenage characters, (teenagers) will want to read it.” Peter Parker will meet Miles Morales in the upcoming series “Spider-Men,” coming from Marvel in June.

Morales is a half-black, half-Hispanic New York teen whose debut issue set digital sales records for Marvel. The five-issue story is by writer Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers vs. X-Men, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man), artist Sara Pichelli (Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) and cover artist Jim Cheung (Avengers vs. X-Men). “This year is the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man and we’re so happy that the stars aligned for us to tell a Spider-Man story that nobody has ever seen before,” said Bendis in a news release. Peter Parker was introduced in 1962′s “Amazing Fantasy” No. 15 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Miles Morales was introduced as the new Ultimate Comics Spider-Man in “Ultimate Fallout” No. 4 and became the star of the new “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” series.

Locally, retailers think the first issue of the new series will drive sales, though the timing of the event was debated. “I think it would have been in their best interest to wait,” said Brian Berlin of New World Comics, 6219 North Meridian Ave. He thinks this crossover is coming too closely to the introduction of the Miles Morales character. “If anything, it will just kind of confuse the average person,” he said. But he thinks curiosity could move the needle on sales.

“It will lead to sales of that first issue if people think it’s cool,” he said. Meanwhile, Justin Allen of Second Chance Books, 3909 N MacArthur in Warr Acres, thought the move could be a good one to introduce the Ultimate Comics universe to more casual Spider-Man fans.“Financially, as far as the popularity of the books, I think this is a really good time to do it,” Allen said. “It brings the Ultimate Universe into focus a little more.”

Allen said fans have approved of Bendis and Pichelli on the new Spider-Man series thus far. “I hope it works, because Miles is pretty awesome,” Allen said. “Everybody I know that’s reading it is pretty excited about him as a character and how it’s being handled.” Meanwhile, Oklahoma City University’s Marc DiPaolo, author of “War, Politics and Superheroes,” said he expects high drama when the two Spider-Men meet.

“I’ve been waiting years for the Spider-Man I grew up with to meet Ultimate Spider-Man,” DiPaolo said. “Interestingly, in the end, he’s meeting not a younger, alternate-reality version of himself, but Miles Morales, his successor. And I’ll bet that — in this story — Peter Parker will find out that he’s dead in this other reality. It should be a very dramatic story. I expect Peter will come face-to-face with his own mortality and give Miles the seal of approval of the original Spider-Man.”

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