Marvel Retcons Spider-Man Miles Morales Into Major Event

Miles Morales was created as the new Spider-Man of the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Since Secret Wars, he has become a fixture in the main Marvel Universe. Now Marvel Comics has revealed he was a part of a major Marvel event from before he was ever created.

SPOILERS for Spider-Man Annual #1 by Bryan Edward Hill and Nelson Blake II follow.

Spider-Man Annual #1 is bookended by a fight between Miles and Morbius the Living Vampire. The bulk of the story is a flashback that takes place during the time after Miles got his superpowers, but before he became Spider-Man.

Rather than caught in the machinations of a supervillain, Miles finds himself manipulated by two of his close friends. Ganke and Brent are trying to set Miles up with Brent's sister, Olivia. This is how Miles ends up attending the opening of a fashion-forward pop-up store in New York City.

Miles and Olivia are actually getting along quite well, but this happens to be the night that the Skrulls stage their invasion of Earth. The full story took place in Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis (Miles' co-creator) and Leinil Francis Yu, published in 2008.

The pop-up store opening is interrupted by a space shuttle crashing through the wall. Miles grabs a hoodie and goggles to hide his identity and fights off the first Skrull. Then Spider-Man, Peter Parker, shows up. Except it is not actually Spider-Man, but a Skrull imposter. Miles fights and manages to defeat the false Spider-Man, but he isn't able to save Brent's life.

That was Miles' first night acting like a superhero. It taught him a lesson about always trying to be the best person you can be, which helps inspire him even today and during his fight with Morbius.

The story does lampshade some of the questions that still linger about Miles' continuity now that he's in the Marvel 616 Universe. Miles is one of the few people who still remember the original Ultimate Marvel Universe and those memories are still visceral for him. We know this because of how angry he gets when he first meets Eddie Brock in the pages of Venom. Miles still remembers how police shot and killed his mother while trying to stop Venom even though his history has been rewritten and his mother is now alive again.

So does that mean that Miles has two different sets of memories in my mind? One from his life as told in his Ultimate Marvel series and another history retconned into the 616 that hasn't yet been revealed? These kinds of things do happen when a multiverse gets destroyed and then rebuilt.

Spider-Man Annual #1 is on sale now.