Warning: contains spoilers for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #38!
Marvel’s Miles Morales is a fan-favorite character and Brooklyn’s Spider-Man, complete with original supporting characters and villains, but the superhero’s new antagonist is one of his most powerful – and based on a menacing villain from Marvel’s recent past. Miles has his own unique spider powers, a family, and love interests. But Miles Morales: Spider-Man #38 gives him a version of the threatening King in Black – in the guise of a former friend.
Just like his predecessor Peter Parker, Miles Morales endured his own painful Clone Saga, except he had to contend with three clones to Peter’s one. Clones Selim, Mindspinner and Shift all attacked Peter in an effort to stabilize their own deteriorating cells, but Miles was able to persuade Shift to switch sides and fight against his former master. Selim and Mindspinner were ultimately defeated, and Shift – who can move his considerable mass to grow extra limbs and swallow his enemies in his body – joined Miles as his adoptive clone brother.
In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #38, written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Christopher Allen and Alberto Foche, Miles and the clone Shift are transported to a future dystopian version of Brooklyn where Selim rules as a ruthless dictator. Joining up with the local resistance, Miles and Shift attack Selim’s base of operations, leading to two human guards frantically calling their superior for help. “My Lord, please, they’re too much for us!” reports an underling. “Your worthless servants beseech your aid!” The “lord” appears: it’s a gargantuan, evil version of Shift, with dozens of eyes and mouths.
This Shift is much more monstrous than Miles’ own adoptive brother, but he also resembles another leader from Marvel Comics: the King in Black. Nothing less than the God of the symbiotes (of Venom fame), Knull, the King in Black, is a monstrous villain with intelligence to match his superior strength. Unfortunately, “Lord Shift” is defeated after a combination attack from Miles and Shift – an attack to which the real King in Black would never succumb.
Nevertheless, Lord Shift has the authority of the King in Black, if not necessarily his power level. It remains to be seen exactly how this evil version of Shift will factor into the rest of the Empire of the Spider story arc. Miles Morales has his own Venom and his own King in Black; though both are formidable foes and both are defeated quite easily, the villains have an alarming tendency to never remain defeated for long.
