I love Spider-Man. He is my favorite superhero and has been for as long as I can remember. I deeply identified with Peter Parker, seeing myself in the hero the same way many others had, my love of the character even influenced my interest in photography, which now I make a living in.

But we’re not talking about Peter Parker today. Instead, we are looking at his successor, the Ultimate Spider-Man…Miles Morales who just received a brand new game this past week.

Miles Morales is a Black teenager of Puerto Rican descent on his mother’s side living in Brooklyn and was first introduced in Ultimate Fallout #4, which dealt with the fallout of the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Marvel comics imprint. Ultimate Marvel was separate from the main Marvel continuity and offered more streamlined stories without the decades of convoluted history, (that said the Ultimate comics became very convoluted themselves).

Miles Morales was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli. According to Bendis, the way the character looked in his first appearance was based on actor Donald Glover wearing Spider-Man pajamas in an episode of Community.

Miles was bitten by a genetically engineered spider, made in an attempt to replicate Spider-Man’s abilities. Miles developed many of the same abilities as Peter such as wall-crawling, enhanced strength, durability and the “Spider-Sense” though not to the same level as Peter’s. Miles also gained two unique abilities: a camouflage power rendering him invisible and the ability to produce bio-electrically charged “venom blasts”.

Miles would gain his own unique black and red costume and, like Peter, managed to acquire his own cast of supporting characters from friend Ganke Lee to his uncle Aaron Davis who is secretly a villain known as The Prowler.

Whereas Peter dealt with the struggle of balancing a normal life and his superhero activities, Miles also typically deals with the added weight of trying to live up to Peter’s legacy and most of his story involves becoming a hero in his own right.

2015’s new “Secret Wars” storyline saw the merger of the main Marvel universe and the Ultimate universe which changed the history of the combined universe and showcases both Peter and Miles living in the same universe and both using the mantle of Spider-Man.

As shown in the excellent movie Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, part of the appeal of Miles is that his existence helps to stress the point that anyone can be Spider-Man. Spider-Man isn’t some fate or destiny, you needn’t be born rich or from another planet. Anyone can be Spider-Man and that makes the legacy of the character so approachable and enjoyable to so many people.

The sequel to Into the Spiderverse is slated for 2022 and the seeds for Miles appearance have been planted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his uncle Aaron in Spider-Man: Homecoming and a reference to the character in the same film.