Please No More Multiverse: Reviewing ‘What If…Miles Morales’ #5

While it started off strong, Marvel’s latest attempt to do multiversal stuff with Miles Morales by having him replace various other heroes in their latest What If? storyline truly fizzled out by the end. In these collected five issues quickly it was showcased how much of a rut Marvel has put Miles into as in the final issue he teams up with his other selves and fights a variety of Uncle Aarons.

Everything to do with Miles these days has to do with the multiverse and Uncle Aaron, there is little else happening to actually propel the character forward or do new things with him. At the same time, Uncle Aarons were being chased through multiverses here, Miles’ main ongoing series has been in the midst of a storyline seeing Miles track Uncle Aaron across the multiverse that’s been running for close to a year now in various stages.

Cory Ziglar does a fine job with what he has to work with here, but even his usually stellar writing can’t really polish this into something worth revisiting or remembering down the line. Ziglar has such a good voice and skill, that we see on display right now in Spider-Punk, that it feels like a waste to have him on a circular gimmick book like this. Hopefully, there is more to come for him at Marvel either with Miles or other characters that can go beyond what we were given here.

Paco Media, Walden Wong, and Chris Sotomayor give us a book that is great to look at and the action scenes, as well as the emotional moments, do work well. There is good energy and flow to the scenes, with the colors being bright and smooth just like usual superhero stories with enough shadows and darkness to add the right weight to things.

Cory Petit does his usual great work when it comes to lettering, which stands out no matter what story it happens to be part of. All of the dialogue is not only easy to follow as it flows around the page in the best reading order but there are also elements that add realism such as smaller fonts for lower tones and bigger fonts for louder tones which is always helpful. All of the SFX are not only muted and colorful like other aspects of the art but have fun energy of their own as they fit into the action in big noticeable ways.

Everyone involved is clearly putting their best into this, but the overall concept that they were given just is inherently boring and just a clearly pure gimmick sort of situation. Get them on a regular Miles story that actually lets the character escape the clutches of the multiverse and we could get some great stuff.

What If…Miles Morales #5 is now available.