What Is Miles Morales’ Middle Name & Why Does He Use His Mom’s Last Name?

Many superheroes in Marvel and DC publications eventually get their successors or partners with the same skillset, or as we like to call them, legacy characters. Steve Rogers has Sam Wilson, Clint Barton has Kate Bishop, Logan has Laura Kinney/X-23, and Peter Parker has Miles Morales, who became one of the most popular legacy characters in the last few years thanks to adaptations of the character in the ‘Spider-Verse’ movie franchise and Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man’ video game series. In this article, we will tell you what is Miles Morales‘ middle name and why he uses his mom’s last name since we know his father is called Jefferson Davis.

Miles’ full name is Miles Gonzalo Morales, as it was revealed in the first issue of his ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ series. He was born to Rio Morales and Jefferson Davis. In 2019’s ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #10, it was revealed that Miles was given his mother’s last name because Jefferson’s father was not a good person, and they didn’t want Miles to carry his grandfather’s last name. In 2021’s ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #22, Jefferson Davis also legally changed his name to Jefferson Morales, severing any connection with his abusive father and his estranged brother Aaron Davis.

Miles’ father, Jefferson Davis, used to live with his brother Aaron Davis in Brooklyn during his youth. Aaron, also known as the Prowler, was constantly involved in criminal activities, which Jefferson despised. Aaron would later be indirectly involved with Miles becoming Spider-Man since the radioactive spider that bit Miles got out of Oscorp in Aaron’s bag after he robbed the building. Aaron’s criminal career would eventually make him one of Miles’ enemies. Miles’ family is pretty interesting to talk about, especially because it seems that uncles are always very important in some ways for the characters that don the mask of Spider-Man.

The history of Miles Morales and his family

As we all know, the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, was first created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and first appeared in 1962. The character’s popularity increased quickly among the target audience since Spider-Man was one of the first teenage superheroes who worked alone. At that time, teenage superheroes were usually sidekicks, such as Robin. Spider-Man’s popularity led to many movie, cartoon, and video game adaptations.

The idea of African American Spider-Man first appeared in 2008, before the election Barack Obama won to become the first-ever African American president of the United States. Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli created Miles Morales, and it was decided that this new Spider-Man would be incorporated into the Ultimate Universe, officially known as Earth-1610, instead of Marvel Comics’ Prime Universe, Earth-616.

Miles is depicted as a grade-schooler who lives with his mother, Rio Morales, and his father, Jefferson Davis. Miles’ Spider-Man story begins after his criminal uncle Aaron, the Prowler, steals a formula Dr. Conrad Markus created using Peter Parker’s blood. One of Markus’ spiders crawled into the Prowler’s bag and eventually found its way to Miles, who was bitten by the spider and eventually got his own set of spider-like powers.

After the 2011 storyline ‘Death of Spider-Man,’ in which Miles, who at first doesn’t want to have powers and wants to have a normal life, witnesses Peter Parker’s death at the hands of the Green Goblin. After New York City loses its hero, Miles becomes his successor, revealing his secret only to his best friend, Ganke Lee.

Miles was the only Spider-Man in the Ultimate Universe for some time until Peter Parker reappeared in ‘Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man,’ in which two Spider-Men defeated Green Goblin, who also turned out to be still alive. Although this storyline practically made ‘Death of Spider-Man’ worthless, it gave Peter a chance to have a normal life after he named Miles a worthy successor and then retired to live a quiet life with Mary Jane.

In 2015, Miles Morales was relocated to Marvel Comics’ Prime Universe, Earth-616, after the Multiverse was destroyed and then rebuilt again in the ‘Secret Wars’ storyline. Rebuilding the universe and relocating Miles to the Prime Universe also brought his mother, Rio, back after she was accidentally shot fatally by NYPD in 2013 when they tried to kill Venom. In a new universe, Rio eventually found out the truth about her son’s double life and struggled to come to terms with it.

Miles’ father, Jefferson Davis, legally changed his name to Jefferson Morales in 2021’s ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #22. With that, the Morales family severed all connections to Jefferson’s abusive father and his estranged brother. In 2019’s ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ #13, Rio Morales gave birth to her second child with Jefferson and Miles’ sister, Billie Morales.

The popularity of Miles Morales as Spider-Man rapidly increased in 2018 thanks to the ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ animated movie and ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ video game, in which Miles was a supporting character before he returned in his own spin-off game ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ in 2020. Both of these projects featuring Miles also featured a family tragedy for him, but in different ways.

In ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ Miles’ uncle Aaron was killed by Kingpin after he refused to kill his nephew as the Prowler. In the video game, however, Miles’ father was killed in an explosion when Mr. Negative attacked Norman Osbron’s rally. The video game incarnation of Aaron Davis served as one of the antagonists in Miles’ spin-off game, but he eventually reformed himself when he turned himself in and exposed the Roxxon organization in exchange for a smaller sentence.

Miles Morales will return this year in the ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’ video game, in which one of Miles’ subplots will be seeking revenge against Mr. Negative for killing his father. In the Spider-Verse franchise, Miles is set to return in an upcoming threequel after he got stuck on Earth-42 and trapped by his alternate self, who became the Prowler instead of Spider-Man.

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