Written by: Saladin Ahmed
Art by: Javier Garron, David Curiel, and VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: Wednesday 20, 2019

With how the current Amazing Spider-Man book is going, this is probably my go to Spider-Man book! Truly has humor, balancing superhero life, and trying to get the girl. With the first three issues we see Miles on a team up, now let’s check out this cool down issue where we see Miles trying to be Miles. Let’s dig in and see what we have here…

We start this issue off with Vice Principal Lyle looking at Miles Morale’s record, talking about how he knows his secret… secret is skipping school! Mentioning that his records have shown a bit suspicious. He plans to track down Miles and have a word with him during his first period class.

However, one thing the Vice Principal doesn’t know is that twelve hours earlier, Mile’s friend Judge has worked his magic and convinced Miles to ditch school the next day to head to the museum to check out an exhibit on Biggie’s Original Notebook Pages. Thankfully Ganke gave them, in which his sickness inspired them the great idea by being sick themselves. And Judge even had leverage on Miles to join, got Mile’s crush Barbara to join in on the fun.

The next day see Judge put his plan in action as him, Miles, and Barbara skip school. Miles goes up against his first hurdle, getting past the security guard that is always at the gate. Thankfully they have Miles, he was able to distract the guard enough for them to leave school grounds.

Back at school, we see Vice Principal Lyle heading to Mile’s first period class, Creative Writing, where he learns there that Miles has called in “sick”. Lyle seems a bit suspicious of Miles but Dan Sumida, the Creative Writing teacher defends Miles and talks highly of him.

Later we see our skipping students have made their way on to a train heading to the museum. As Miles and Barbara get all comfy on the train, they get rudely interrupted when the train gets derailed and goes off course. Miles needs an excuse to get away and change into his costume to check out the situation. He slowly moves to the next car explaining that everyone is pushing him to the next car. Barbara accidentally slips out that Miles is her boyfriend as he is being pushed away. As Miles makes it out of the car, he quickly goes invisible and shots some of his webbing that he has under his clothes at the train to make it stop. Thankfully everyone is okay, reports are saying train got derailed due to an Atlantis attack. Barbara looks suspicious on how quick the train got saved right after Miles left their site. I will admit that this page looks beyond gorgeous!

At the school, Lyle orders Louis, his secretary, to look up if Miles is actually sick. She informs him that he marked himself sick via online before school started. He notices that Barbara and Judge have marked themselves sick as well and gets a bit more suspicious. Vice Principal Lyle storms out of his office and heads straight to Mile’s room to check up on him. Ganke luckliy enough was able to cover for him just in time for Principal Evans to grab Vice Principal’s attention for them to head to his review hearing in the city. I know this is only issue four and first issue that is focusing on Mile’s life more, but feel like we really haven’t gotten the real Ganke. Remember first reading him in the Ultimate Spider-Man book, could instantly become a fan favorite, now it seems like they gave that role to Judge.

Our fellow skipping students finally make their way to the museum, just to admire the exhibit cases of Biggie, Mos Def, and Jay Z. While Miles and Barbara are feeling all romantic and in the mood again, cue for horrible timing from a bad guy. Once again Miles tries his best to get away from his friends, in order to change. There we meet the new villain, Frost Pharaoh. I will give Saladin Ahmed this, his newly created villains are actually pretty good. Miles does what he does best and dodges all of the attacks right before taking him down himself, of course Barbara is once again suspicious of the coincidence.

Later, the gang heads to the movies where Ganke is the one that ruins the mood between Miles and Barbara when he shoots Miles a text giving him a heads up that Vice Principal Lyle is out looking for him. Which seems like a lot of time has passed since Vice Principal Lyle banging at the door to now. The gang quickly and successfully beats Vice Principal Lyle back to school. That night, we see Miles in bed writing to his journal about a wonderful day he had all right before realizing that now he may actually be sick.

Final Thoughts:

Well this cool down issue was a great way to introduce us to Miles which I have not read much of his life in general since his first debut in comics. Javier Garron does a killer job on the art! The dialogue felt great even though not fan of Ganke, I get that he is sick, but now feel like Ganke isn’t the funny guy anymore. Hoping to see more of Vice Prinicpal trying to be the antagonist while Miles is at school. Looks like the next issue is Tombstone, and I am looking forward to that! Always been one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, since saw him on the Animated Show.

9/10