Ultimate Fallout #4

History

The seeds of Miles Morales were planted as early as 2008, when the prospect of Barack Obama's election as the first African-American president prompted then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and writer Brian Michael Bendis — who had helmed Ultimate Spider-Man since its 2000 launch — to discuss reimagining the Spider-Man mantle with a character who reflected contemporary America. Bendis later credited Donald Glover's appearance in Spider-Man pajamas in a 2010 episode of the television series Community as a concrete visual inspiration for the character. The opportunity to act on those ideas arrived when Marvel decided to kill the Ultimate Peter Parker in the 'Death of Spider-Man' storyline, and Bendis, working with artist Sara Pichelli and with direct editorial input from Alonso, developed Miles Morales as his successor; the character's debut in issue #4 was kept out of promotional materials so that readers would encounter him as a genuine surprise. The issue was structured as three distinct anthology segments — Bendis writing the Miles section with Pichelli on art, Jonathan Hickman scripting the Reed Richards/Maker segment with Salvador Larroca, and Nick Spencer providing a third story illustrated by Clayton Crain — with cover art by Mark Bagley.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Miles Morales (Spider-Man), an Afro-Latino teenager who is the son of an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, debuting on August 3, 2011.
• Miles Morales was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli, with creative input from Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso; his visual look was influenced by actor Donald Glover and the cultural moment of Barack Obama's presidency.
• The issue is part of the six-issue Ultimate Fallout miniseries, which served as the direct aftermath of the 'Death of Spider-Man' storyline in the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610).
• The issue contains three separate stories by three writing teams: Bendis/Pichelli (pages 1–7, Miles's debut), Hickman/Larroca (pages 8–15, Reed Richards), and Spencer/Crain (pages 16–20); cover art is by Mark Bagley.
• The issue also marks the first appearance of Reed Richards in his identity as the Maker — the villainous alternate-universe counterpart to Mister Fantastic — a character concept created by Jonathan Hickman that became a long-running Marvel antagonist.
• In Miles's debut scene, he intervenes against the criminal Kangaroo while wearing a Spider-Man costume similar to Peter Parker's, with onlookers telling him the costume is in 'bad taste' so soon after Parker's death.
• The character's announcement the day before publication, via USA Today on August 2, 2011, generated international mainstream press coverage and a broad public debate about diversity in superhero comics.
• Marvel published an official Facsimile Edition of the issue in September 2021, reproducing the original content; a 1:25 retailer incentive variant with cover art by Marko Djurdjevic also exists for the original 2011 printing.

Cast · 16 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Ultimate Fallout

Variants (4)