The Comic Origin of Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is back on the calendar, and Miles Morales is heading toward the biggest swing of his life. Sony’s animated trilogy is scheduled to conclude on June 18, 2027, following the cliffhanger ending of Across the Spider-Verse. Before Miles became an Oscar-winning movie hero, though, he was a risky comic-book replacement who changed what Spider-Man could look like.

The Origin: Miles Morales Enters the Spider-Verse

Miles Morales first appeared in Ultimate Fallout #4, released August 3, 2011, with an October 2011 cover date. Marvel Comics published the issue through its Ultimate Marvel imprint, a separate continuity created to refresh its biggest characters for new readers.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created Miles as the successor to the Ultimate Universe’s Peter Parker. Pichelli also helped design the character, with editorial input from then-Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso.

The idea had been developing for years. Marvel’s Ultimate imprint launched in 2000, and Bendis had written Ultimate Spider-Man from its first issue. Around 2008, Bendis and Alonso discussed creating a Spider-Man who reflected a more diverse America. The concept was shelved during the Ultimatum storyline, but it eventually found its opening.

That spark came in 2010, when Bendis saw actor Donald Glover wearing Spider-Man pajamas in the Community episode “Anthropology 101.” Glover had also publicly campaigned to play Spider-Man. Bendis reportedly thought, “I would like to read that book.”

Marvel then made the decision to kill the Ultimate Universe’s Peter Parker in the 2011 “Death of Spider-Man” storyline. The question of who would take over became urgent. Bendis, Pichelli, and Alonso built Miles as a Black Puerto Rican teenager from Brooklyn. He is bitten by a spider genetically engineered from Peter Parker’s blood and eventually takes up the Spider-Man mantle.

Marvel kept Miles’s identity secret until the issue shipped. USA Today broke the news on August 2, 2011, one day before release. Even then, Miles appeared only on the final pages of Ultimate Fallout #4, swinging into view in a black-and-red costume. His debut worked as a reveal instead of a traditional introduction.

The choice was controversial. Some readers saw Miles as a replacement for Peter rather than a character with his own future. Marvel pushed forward anyway. That decision turned Miles into one of the company’s most important modern characters.

How It Grew

2000: Marvel launches the Ultimate Marvel imprint, and Brian Michael Bendis begins writing Ultimate Spider-Man from issue #1.
2011: Peter Parker dies in Ultimate Spider-Man #160. Miles Morales debuts in Ultimate Fallout #4.
September 14, 2011: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 launches Miles’s first ongoing series, written by Bendis with art by Sara Pichelli. The series runs for 28 issues.
2012: In Spider-Men #1, Miles meets the main Marvel Universe’s Peter Parker for the first time. The five-issue crossover later helps inspire the Spider-Verse films.
2014–2015: Miles becomes a key player in Marvel’s Spider-Verse crossover. The Ultimate Universe is then destroyed in Secret Wars, and Miles and his family move to the main Marvel Universe, Earth-616. His mother, Rio, is brought back to life.
February 3, 2016: Spider-Man #1, later retitled Spider-Man: Miles Morales, launches Miles’s first main-universe series. He becomes New York’s neighborhood Spider-Man while Peter Parker operates globally.
December 14, 2018: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hits theaters with Shameik Moore voicing Miles. The film wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2019, becoming the first Marvel superhero film and first non-Disney/Pixar film to win the award.
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ends with Miles stranded in an alternate universe and pursued by a villainous Prowler counterpart.
June 18, 2027: Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is scheduled to arrive in theaters, closing the animated trilogy.

On Screen

Miles reached television before he became a movie headliner. Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man introduced him in season three as an alternate-universe Spider-Man, voiced by Donald Glover in that season and Ogie Banks in season four. The character later became known as Kid Arachnid and joined the Web Warriors.

In the 2017–2020 Spider-Man animated series, Nadji Jeter voiced Miles as “Spy-D,” a student at Horizon High who is mentored by Peter Parker.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has acknowledged Miles without putting him on screen. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Donald Glover plays Aaron Davis, who mentions having a nephew. Spider-Man: No Way Home adds another reference when Electro says, “There’s gotta be a black Spider-Man somewhere out there.”

Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse changed the scale of the character’s screen presence. The 2018 film made Miles the lead of a multiverse adventure built around multiple Spider-heroes, drawing from Dan Slott’s 2014 comic storyline. Across the Spider-Verse expanded the mythology and left Miles trapped in a dangerous alternate reality.

The upcoming Beyond the Spider-Verse is the final chapter. Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson are directing, with a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham. The film is scheduled for June 18, 2027.

A live-action Miles Morales film is also in development at Sony, according to producer Amy Pascal in 2023. The animated trilogy, however, remains the defining screen adaptation of Miles’s origin and rise.

Start Reading Here

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis Vol. 1 is the cleanest starting point, collecting Miles’s debut and his first five solo issues.
Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection collects the debut, Miles’s first year, and his first meeting with Peter Parker in one volume.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Vol. 1 follows Miles after Secret Wars as he settles into the main Marvel Universe.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 collects the complete early Ultimate Universe run, including Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Spider-Men, and Miles’s later Ultimate stories.

For more essential comic-book starting points, check out Your First 10 Comics.