The introduction of Miles Morales as Spiderman in the Marvel universe allowed the literary community to explore the character from different angles. One such treatment is this novel which delves into the life of the teenager as he balances his abilities, calling, adolescence, and family history. Moreover, Miles as a minority with both black and Puerto-Rican descents deals with the intersectionality of his identity and racism. Unlike the story of Peter Parker, he struggles with different conflicts that go beyond his role as a friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Miles wants to have a normal teenage experience but the circumstances around him cause a dilemma in his life.
The narrative opens with Miles leading a typical teenager life complete with playing video games, improving his grades, and having a crush. However, he has a family history that hounds him which involves his father and uncle having criminal pasts. His surroundings threaten to influence Miles to have the same outcome in his life but he wants to defy history. The lesson passed down to him by his father is to save himself rather than to save the world. This pressure to succumb to the criminal world and be a product of his environment clashes with his superhero calling. Meanwhile, Miles is having vivid dreams about the machination of modern slavery through the prison system. It stirs his great duty to save the world and defy the low expectations placed on him by society.
The novel tackles the topics such as institutional racism, the prison industrial complex, identity, socioeconomic inequality, and societal pressures. As a black adolescent in the current climate, Miles copes with all these factors in his everyday life. The great power of being a superhero comes with great responsibility to save the world while at the same time saving himself.
