When Army brat Aaron Davis sneaks a canister of super soldier serum into his fridge, he has dreams of becoming the next Captain America. However, his fridge-foraging nephew gets there first and unknowingly opens his destiny. That’s right: Miles Morales is Captain America. In this What If…? story, Miles and Tiana Toomes (as Falcon) seek to stop Grey Skull from opening an interdimensional portal that could doom the multiverse. But who are all those other versions of Miles?

As far as set-up issues go, What If…Miles Morales #1 does a serviceable job introducing us to a mini-series of Miles as, well, a bunch of Marvels’ mightiest heroes. The pacing isn’t bogged down, the dialogue is quippy and entertaining enough, and the artwork lays out the action sequences in a digestible way (and props to Miles’s version of the Cap uniform).

That said, the overall issue is generic at best. Anyone familiar with Captain America: The First Avenger will recognize some recycled tropes: A villain with a color-themed skull using a glowy square to accomplish his villainy, a loved one who seemingly falls to his death but comes back, etc. The only intrigue introduced in this otherwise paint-by-numbers entry is the brief glimpse we see of the Miles Morales Comics Universe (MMCU).

While What If…Miles Morales #1 sparks a fun concept, it doesn’t inspire any new ideas beyond insert-this-name-into-this-costume. You can only take an entertaining idea so far without an emotional core or dramatic tension, and this issue has neither.

What If...Miles Morales #1

The MMCU

7.0/10

Miles as Cap

5.0/10

Tania as Falcon

5.0/10

Ganke as Tinkerer

5.0/10

Recycled Plot Points

3.0/10

Credits

Writer: Cody Ziglar
Artist: Paco Medina
Inkers: Walden Wong, Victor Olazaba, Sean Parsons
Color Artist: Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Cory Petit

Credits (cont)

Cover Artists: Sara Pichelli, Alejandro Sánchez
Variant Cover Artists: Brian Stelfreeze; Kaare Andrews; Taurin Clarke; Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado; Iban Coello, Edgar Delgado
Publisher: Marvel Comics