By Mike Greear
The most endearing character Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created was Spider-Man. Not just because he has cool powers and a neat costume, but because underneath the mask, he could be anybody. It’s fitting that at the end of 2018, after saying goodbye to these two legends, the world at large was introduced to the newest Spider-Man, Miles Morales.
Miles Gonzalo Morales was created in 2011 for Marvel Comics’ title, “Ultimate Spider-Man,” by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli. ‘Ultimate’ was set in a universe separate from the original Marvel Comics timeline. A Black and Puerto Rican, bilingual, private school student from Brooklyn, Miles was a Spider-Man for the America that had just elected its first ever Black President. (Miles is not the first Latino Spider-Man–that honor goes to the biracial Mexican Miguel O’Hara, also known as the Spider-Man of the year 2099).