I can't believe I forgot to give attention to Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales last year, but I did make up for it by covering his cinematic debut from Into the Spider-Verse. I also reviewed the Marvel Legends figure that better captured his appearance from the movie, but I always wanted a Miles Morales figure that would capture his more serious side as much as I did his animated side. Thankfully, I was able to get exactly that in the recent Marvel Legends wave of Spider-Man characters, tying in both the game, the No Way Home movie, and the general comic lore, all within the Armadillo wave. Now, I'm not sure if I can get this wave in a consistent go like I did with the Stilt-Man wave, but hey, anything is possible if we try hard enough. Plus, I have preorders to fulfill right now. Thankfully, we have this guy to cover because I loved Miles' character!
Here we have Miles Morales Spider-Man in-hand. I have to say ight off the bat I like that the figure's suit details are sculpted instead of merely being paint apps, which is something I will get to shortly in the review. The use of black with red highlights is always an awesome combo, especially in the places where it's used on Miles' suit. It makes for a stealthy yet distinct appearance that helps it stand out from the other black suits in Spider-Man lore, especially the Symbiote one. The web pattern, apart from not being sloppily applied on my copy, reaches part of the torso, leaving for a more modern appearance that doesn't aim for rinse and repeating the same suit tropes of previous incarnations of Miles or the suit in general as far as web patterns are concerned. While they're not painted (which is accurate), the linework on the suit design is quite well implemented and doesn't feel underdone nor does it ruin the suit's sleekness. The proportions are also fitting for Miles' character. In general, the looks of the figure are well-made.
Head sculpt is accurate to the way it would look in the games, from the web pattern to the details of the lenses, which have a similar trait that the MCU Spider suit introduced with emoting lenses that have the shutter lenses of a camera. It's a neat way to make the eyes emote, and one of the few good ideas of the MCU incarnation that is better implemented with superior suit designs seen in the Insomniac games. For his articulation, the head is on two ball joints, adding more expressive range than the normal single ball joint and neck hinge. The shoulders are on butterfly joints, and they can move front and back and in and out. There is a bicep swivel, a double-jointed elbow, and both hands can swivel on their peg as well as hinge in and out. The torso can ab crunch back and forth, and the waist can swivel. The hips can move front and back as well as in and out, the thighs swivel, there are double-jointed knees, and the feet hinge front and back as well as pivot side to side.
For the accessories, you get two electric hands based on one of his attacks, two relaxed hands, two web-thwipping hands, and a Miles Morales head sculpt. The hands are equally painted nicely like the fists are, though the right thwipping hand's pinky is a little bent inward...ouch...
The display options are neat as always, giving you plenty of ways to pose the figure with either matching hands or a mixed combination of them. The alternate hands being translucent combined with the lightning effect is appreciative since it doesn't look jarring overall. As for the Miles head, it does seem a little more like an older version of his appearance in the game, though it may just be from Hasbro not doing it exactly like the Insomniac model because of how different a CGI human will look when made into a toy. At least it fits the character fine enough.
For a variant, Gamestop has a Camo version of the guy, basically in clear blue plastic and no alternate head.
He comes with the right leg of the Armadillo, which means you may need to get the rest of the line if you want to omplete him. Interestingly, the only figure to not come with a BAF piece is the No Way Home version of MCU Spider-Man, and I mean the one with the red and black suit with the golden logo and not the stealth one or whatever he had or will have in the movie. Then again, I'm sure casual Legends fans wouldn't want to be burdened by BAF pieces of a character they don't have much knowledge of, which is fine. Now for a comparison between him and his fellow Insomniac buddy, you can see how much better Miles Morales looks in terms of capturing his game appearance. The first Spider-Man wasn't bad, it's just that having the details being printed on instead of raised in relief like they are on the Miles figure. I do wish they both would use the same tooling of articulation that the second Retro-inspired Spider-Man would have since he has the same torso articulation of a Lightning Collection figure as well as boot swivels, which Peter has but Miles lacks. Otherwise, Miles Morales feels like a better done figure overall compared to Peter Parker, which REALLY makes me hope that if we get new sculpts for the Gamerverse suits of Peter himself, then we get a proper update on him in Spider-Man 2 with raised details in relief as well as a head-sculpt that better suits his appearance. Just don't give him the face he has in the PS5 version of the first game.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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