If you haven’t already heard the good news, it seems that Miles Morales’ life as Spider-Man gets to continue in the Ultimate Universe. He’s not jumping over to the regular Marvel Universe. He’s not dying. Miles gets to live on and continue having adventures, which is fantastic news. I want to keep reading Miles Morales comics for the rest of my natural born life. I want to read Miles as an adult Spider-Man, like normal universe Peter Parker. That’s all I’m about: want, want, want! Unfortunately, I have been denied the excellence of Brian Michael Bendis’ original plans for Miles revealing his identity to his father, and that’s a shame.

Spider-Man Cataclysm #3

The final issue in this 3-parter is a bit of a let down, if only because not much really happens. The emotional confrontation between father and son is short and bittersweet, and the issue ends with just a continuation into the main Cataclysm series. It doesn’t serve as a finale to Ultimate Spider-Man or as much of a finale to this 3-parter.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

I don’t know what Bendis originally planned for the moment when Miles reveals his identity to his father, but I can’t imagine it was this. There’s no way Cataclysm was on the table back when Bendis was putting together his plans for Miles. So to have such an important moment wasted in the middle of this big mess is kind of disappointing. The confrontation happens in a logical and reasonable way, but it leaves a lot to be desired, and a lot on the table. That makes sense, considering the story is going to continue, but for a single issue, it’s just disappointing.

And there’s too much going on with Galactus destroying the world for anything else to matter. Everybody, especially Miles, is in crisis mode. Nothing slows down enough to be cherished. It’s all rush, rush, rush in every direction. So while that means the action is cool, all of the potentially important or interesting story beats are lost in the rush. And then, like I said, the end is just a ‘To Be Continued in the Rest of Cataclysm’ thing. So this issue is fine, and it’s well made, but everything is a little too discombobulated by Cataclysm to be really effective.

Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!

We open with a short teaser about a passenger jet from England trying to land in New Jersey – which, of course, has been destroyed by Galactus. Several fighter jets attempt to turn the jumbo jet around, but the pilot is slow to catch on and flies right into the big purple guy.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Miles has just revealed to his father that he’s Spider-Man. He tries to get his dad to come with him, but Jefferson isn’t hearing it. He’s too struck with emotion at the moment, and pulls back from his son. Jefferson quickly gets angry and accuses Miles of killing his brother, Uncle Aaron. Then Jefferson really goes for the low blow.

Not cool, dad

Miles ignores the hurtful remarks and tries to just get his dad to come with him. Jefferson goes so far as to hit Miles in the shoulder with his cane before that airplane from earlier crashes right in the middle of their street. Miles tells his dad to get inside while he swings off to immediately help people. Jefferson falls to his knees in tears, crying out wordlessly as he sees his son in action as Spider-Man.

Miles, meanwhile, finds the plane.

Galactus hates planes

Spider-Woman joins him, and together they get a few people to safety and then break into the plane. The only passenger on board is, randomly, J. Jonah Jameson. Miles barely recognizes him, but it doesn’t matter, he just tries to get him to safety. He gets Jonah away from the plane in time to avoid an explosion. There’s something Jonah seems to want to tell Miles, but Miles tells him to keep it to himself while he goes off to help other people.

The two Spider-heroes keep people away from the fire and try to figure out how they’re going to help all of these people  – which is when Cloak and Dagger show up to lend a hand. Cloak turns his dark portal into a one-way trip to a hospital in Pittsburgh.

Ugh, Pittsburgh? Really?

They start loading people through the portal, but then a piece of airplane explodes and comes falling towards everyone – so Bombshell shows up and blows it up instead! Spider-Woman congratulates her on being awesome.

Among the people being led into Cloak’s portal is J. Jonah Jameson. He again tries to talk to Miles and tell him something important, but Miles blows him off and tells him just to go through the portal to get help. Jonah says that if they all make it out of this, then Jonah will change his life. Then he heads through the portal.

Meanwhile, Miles heads home to find his dad, but the house is empty. His dad is gone. Then Miles gets a radio call from Captain America, they need his help.

That would make for the ultimate selfie

And that’s where the issue ends. I’m not reading any other Cataclysm comics, but maybe I should start. I’d kind of like to see how it all ends, though the only Ultimate characters I care about anymore are the ones in this comic. So while it’s great to have another issue of the lot of them being heroes, there’s little else to this issue. Everybody runs around, they help a bunch of random civilians, and J. Jonah Jameson acts all cryptically. Jameson’s growing relationship with Spider-Man was another sad loss when Peter Parker died, so maybe Bendis can come up with something new for him to do with Miles.

The confrontation with Miles’ father was disappointing in that nothing really happened – but it’s understandable that nothing happened. Jefferson needs time to react. The whole thing wasn’t about to be solved in just one issue. But I imagine Bendis probably had some much better ideas planned for this moment. Instead, he dropped it in the middle of Cataclysm, with Miles running off to help people. Miles’ mind was elsewhere, and the full power of the revelation was lost on us.

Hopefully Bendis has a lot more planned for Miles and his dad. I guess this issue will just serve as Round 1.