In response to a review, this isn't like amalgam comics. Amalgam comics was about two characters, one from DC and the other from Marvel, being merged into one character, like batman and wolverine to make dark claw. This is more similar to the Avengers/JLA crossover, which briefly showed an alternate universe where the two teams existed in the same universe.
Waking up in a cell was the last thing Miles had ever wanted to happen to him. But the fact that his cell was a metal room with a glowing blue wall from some science fiction film, and he wasn't wearing a mask to hide his identity, made it worse. It made it so much worse. Still wearing the poorly made spiderman costume that was, without a doubt, in bad taste he got to his feet and looked around, more terrified than he has ever been in his life. More terrified than when he had leaped into a burning building to save that girl.
When he had first been bitten by that spider and started developing his powers, he first thought that he was a metahuman. Someone who was born with powers that were activated during puberty because they had the metagene. Having seen metahumans like the x-men on TV, along with having a father who hated anyone with powers, Miles had been frightened and honestly nauseated by the idea that he might be a metahuman. But then Ganke, his best friend, helped him figure out what actually happened. And to his disappointment, Miles absolutely refused to do what every other person who got powers and was the right amount of crazy did. He refused to become a superhero.
And it wasn't that ridiculous of a decision. He was only thirteen after all. The way he figured it, if he ever became crazy enough to actually want to be a hero, it would be better to wait until he was older. Of course, after he three up following his first heroic feat, he was pretty certain he didn't have what it took to be a superhero like spiderman himself. Which was proven the night he died.
Obviously not the original wall crawler, as he would be very old now. No, the friendly neighbourhood spiderman that Miles referred to was Gerry Drew, the son of the original spider woman. The hero would have first appeared when Miles was three years old and at times, the young boy caught glimpses of him swinging through the streets. So really, he hasn't been around for as long as many other costumed vigilantes, such as wolverine or the punisher, with the latter still a known curse on the criminal underworld as shown by the followers he has, something that was revealed just a few weeks ago. But everyone liked spiderman, including some of the villains he fought, with a small minority of them liking him to the point they became obsessed with him.
As Miles began leaping around the walls, trying to find a way to escape while avoiding the glowing sci-fi wall due to having a idea of what it would do to him, he couldn't stop his mind from drifting to the night Gerry Drew died. He had been at school in his dorm with Ganke when they had been told of the massive fight taking place on the Brooklyn bridge. Between the Avengers and the Ultimate's, a team of costumed heroes who specifically worked for the government, that moments later caused the complete destruction of the Brooklyn bridge.
Miles knew that something like that was impossible for him to handle, but the second he heard that spiderman was being attacked by the sinister six, who had used the chaos caused by the two teams fighting to escape prison, Miles knew he had to do something when it became apparent on the news that the spider themed hero was losing the battle. Despite the fact that he wanted to run and hide, he instead chose to run and leap across buildings as fast as he could to where the sinister six were to try and help spiderman in anyway he could. But he was too late.
The next few months were those of sadness and mourning for the fallen hero, and immense guilt for Miles. Because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't help but think that if he had chosen to use his powers to help people, he might have been able to save Drew. He knew it was ridiculous, but he couldn't help himself. And so, despite how he had felt before about costumes, he finally agreed with Ganke that he should accept is responsibility, even if that meant wearing a very large Halloween costume.
Suddenly, a metal door suddenly opened beyond the blue wall and in walked three figures. Two, Miles already recognized to be the people who knocked him out and took him prisoner after three weeks of being the new spiderman. Spider woman, who used to be known as spider girl, and the first superheroine to call herself wonder woman after the original stopped saving people. The man with them, looking like he was in his forties or fifties, walked closer to the blue wall and stared as Miles dropped to the floor, unsure about what he should do.
"Miles Morales, my name is director Drake. I'm the director of SHIELD." the man told Miles with little warmth. "I would like to know what you were doing wearing a spiderman costume and using spider powers much like the late Mr Drew to fight crime despite your age."
Miles didn't answer. He was too terrified to answer, especially in these conditions. However, the second wonder woman didn't realize this and got angry. Marching closer, she began banging on a metal wall, making Miles jump in fear.
"He asked you a question kid! Why are you dressed like Gerry!?"
"Cassie, calm down.." the only other spider themed person told her, but that did little to help.
"No! I want to know why some snotty little brat thought it was alright to ruin Gerry's legacy!" wonder woman told spider woman.
"I don't think you yelling at the boy is helping Cassandra." a kind voice said to her, originating from a even older man than director Drake, possibly in his sixties, who had just walked into the room followed by a woman Miles instantly recognized as Jessica Drew, the mother of the deceased spiderman.
"Peter? Jessica?" Drake said surprised. "I don't think it's a good idea for the two of you to be here."
"Tim, I think me and Jessica have more right to be here than anyone." the man, Peter, responded. "Just leave us alone with him for thirty minutes, okay? Let us talk with him."
Director Drake, who had a name that Miles would never have imagined him having, simply stared at Peter for a moment before nodding. Soon, despite some reluctance from the female costumed heroes, Miles was left alone with them. Peter watched the door close before walking up to the blue wall and leaning to the side of the metal wall to press a button Miles hadn't noticed until now. The blue wall disappears, but Miles didn't do take this opportunity to escape. He had the feeling that Drake would shoot him if he did.
"Hello there Miles. My name is Peter Parker and this is Jessica Drew." Peter said kindly to Miles while Jessica stayed some distance away just watching him. "So, mutate or metahuman?"
"I-I was bitten on my hand by a spider. So I guess I'm a mutate." Miles responded, feeling slightly less frightened due to how nice Peter was being, but still being frightened.
"Really!?" Peter said, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "Me too! But if you tell me it was radioactive, I'm going to assume that your pulling my leg and that this is all some bad joke."
Miles frowned. "Radioactive? Wouldn't that have made your arm look all weird or something?"
"In a world without immortal thunder gods and time travelers? Yes. In this world however, I end up being your friendly neighborhood spiderman."
"Wait." Miles said, his eyes growing wide as his brain processed what Peter just said. "You mean that...you're..."
"Spiderman?" Peter said with a nod. "Back in my younger days. But let me tell you, if I knew that wearing a spandex would make so many people want to dress like me, I would have done it years before I did."
"So, what's going on?" Miles asked awkwardly, his mouth suddenly dry. "Why am I here?"
"You're here because you decided to wear that costume. And in case you didn't realize, people would tend to get upset because of that." Jessica suddenly spoke, causing Miles and Peter to turn and look at her. "I want to know why you're wearing it?"
"I felt guilty." Miles admitted reluctantly.
"Guilty!" Jessica shouted, shocked. "How can you feel guilty? You never even knew my son!"
"I was there!" Miles suddenly shouted back, himself not even knowing why he shouted. "I was right there when he was being beaten to death by those guys."
Peter and Jessica observed Miles silently as the thirteen year old took deep breaths, before continuing to speak. "I had my powers a few months before that night. I knew I was too young to do anything with them, so I decided to not be some superhero. But then heard what was happening on the news, and how he was shot, so I ran there to try to help."
"Why?" Peter asked. "Not that we're not grateful that you tried, but why? Like Jessica said, you didn't know him."
"I don't know. I just did." Miles replied, the shame becoming evident on his face as he recalled what happened that night. "But when I got there, when I saw the fight, I just...froze. I could have done something to help him, but instead I just stayed on that roof watching him get killed."
Miles looking straight at Jessica, neither of them blinking. "I could have saved him. I'm the reason he's dead."
No one spoke for a few minutes. Instead, the three simply stood still before the fifty year old woman rushed out of the room, trying to cover her emotions. Miles turned to Peter, expecting the greatest hero of them all to look at Miles with hatred for his inaction, but instead all Miles saw was compassion and reassurance.
"I was fifteen when I got my powers." he told Miles suddenly. "Spider bite, same as you. But I didn't hide my powers. Or start fighting crime for that matter. The first thing I did was try to make some money with it."
Miles simply stood silently and stared at Peter, wondering where he was going with this. Taking this as a sign that he could continue talking, Peter continued.
"Got into wrestling. Never liked it myself, always thought it was stupid, but it was the best way to use my powers. Anyhow, long story short, a guy decided to cheat me out of some money just because I beat the guy a few seconds too quickly and a few minutes later he was robbed. Now I could have stopped the guy from stealing the money. He ran straight past me. But I didn't."
Peter took a deep breath, and it was only then that Miles saw that Peter's hands were shaking. "That thief ended up killing my uncle. And that's why I became spiderman. To try and redeem myself for what I did, for rejecting my responsibility."
"And I should too?" Miles asked, shocked by Peter's reveal of his loss.
"No." Peter replied, surprising Miles. "I'm not trying to make you into a hero. Hell, I think you should've. The minimum age for a teenage hero should always be fifteen. What I'm trying to say is...Gerry's death isn't your fault."
"But you just heard me-"
"I know. But I spent years thinking that my uncle's death was my fault. And it was irresponsible for me to not stop that guy from escaping with the money. But I was practically a kid. Had no idea about how hard life could get. I'm not trying to make excuses for myself, but that's just it. I didn't know better. And it's the same with you. You are just a kid. No training whatsoever. You couldn't possibly know how to handle such a situation like that, so how could you save Gerry?"
"But-" Miles began, but he was quickly cut off by Peter.
"Listen, I used my guilt to be a hero. For twenty years, I let it rule my life and nearly take me down a very bad road. Because guilt will do that to you." Peter told Miles firmly, looking at him straight in the eye. "If you want to be a hero and do it to honour someone's memory, go ahead. But don't do it to relieve your conscience of a guilt that you don't truly deserve, because that will always end badly because you will never feel that you've done enough."
The two spider themed heroes looked at each other seriously. Miles had no idea about how he was supposed to respond to all that when the red lights shone on and the blue wall separating Miles and Peter vanished. The two of them looked around worryingly as both heard heavy footsteps outside the door of the room.
"Well, that can't be good." Peter muttered, before dashing towards the door. However, before opening the door and leaving Miles, he turned round to look at the thirteen year old. "Stay here."
Miles only stayed put for approximately three minutes. Maybe less. As he quickly an out of the room, he told himself that he needed to go to a hospital later and cure himself of this disease he apparently had that makes him want to do stupid foolhardy things. Like run into a dangerous situation.
Miles ran through the empty hallways, desperately trying to find someone. Just when he was about to give up hope when suddenly, out of nowhere, Miles felt something grab his legs. Looking down to see that they were hands, he wasn't fast enough to prevent them from pulling his legs and sending him crashing to the ground. Spinning him onto his bag, the hands let go of his legs and started wrapping around his arms until Miles couldn't move.
Soon, it became apparent that the arms belonged to a man who suddenly appeared. A man with the ability to stretch his body, judging by how long his arms were, and who Miles instantly recognized from having seen him before.
"You're plastic man." Miles stated simply. "You and you're friends killed Gerry Drew."
"That we did, though I wouldn't call those idiots my friends." plastic man, wearing the red suit he has always been known to wear, replied. "More acquaintances than friends. Maybe allies, if they are lucky enough for me to call them that."
"But why? You're supposed to be a hero." Miles asked him, still trying to escape but to no avail. "I mean, I saw a world war two photo of you and captain America!"
"Listen kid, I'm going to give you some advice, in case you somehow survive all this." the former hero told Miles, one of his hands growing longer until it was a small distance from spider themed hero's arm. "I spent seventy years fighting the good fight. All I ended up with was a lot of bad memories and dead love ones. It is far better to be the bad guy."
And with that, plastic man's free hand clenched into a fist and began flying towards Miles' face.
"And then what happened?" Ganke asked Miles.
"Well, out of nowhere, wonder woman showed up and began beating plastic man to the ground while telling me to run. So I did, trying to find help, and found everyone fighting that aftershock lady. You know, the daughter of electro."
"Including spiderman?" Gang's asked hopefully and Miles smiling. Ever since Miles had told his best friend that he had met the original wall crawler, Ganke had been going crazy with jealously and asking Miles all sorts of questions.
"Yes, spiderman included. Anyway, I went all invisible when she wasn't looking and managed to sneak up behind her. Then I touched her shoulder and I, well, zapped her with that thing I do."
"Your venom blasts."
"We are not calling it that." Miles stated simply.
"Why not? It's sounds awesome."
"He's right." a voice suddenly said, making the two friend look to their side to see a red headed woman walking towards them, a metal briefcase in hand. "It does sound awesome."
"I'm sorry, what?" Miles asked, understandably terrified.
"We've met. You know, up there." the woman told him, pointing up to the sky with her free hand. "I was the girl in the red and blue costume who didn't speak much."
"Oh, you're spider-" Miles began, his yes widening as he realized he was talking to spider woman.
"Hey, don't need to call me that. My name is May." she quickly cut him off, looking at him with a mixture of sadness and strangely hope. "Anyway, I'm here to give you this and to tell you that you have one shot."
Upon seeing the confusion on his face, while Ganke looked between them trying to figure out what was happening, May continued. "Before what happened with aftershock and everything, we were going to give you a warning and keep an eye on you. But after seeing what you did and discovering that you stopped two muggings after leaving the helicarrier yesterday, we've decided to give you a shot."
Mike's eyes widened even more as he realized what she was saying, and it took all his willpower to keep his jaw from dropping in surprise. Quickly, in an attempt to make sure he doesn't look stupid, he begins to speak. "You mean that...that you're letting me..."
"Be the new wall crawler?" May finished. "Yeah, seeing as you have both Drew's blessing and Parker's. Personally, I wouldn't have allowed it, but they are certain about you. But there are rules you have to follow, we're not going to let you do whatever you want. We will be keeping an eye on you and training you, and if we think you should sit somet out, you will sit it out. Understood?"
Miles nodded. Jessica handed him the briefcase, but held onto it for a second as he grabbed it, getting Miles' attention. She looked him straight in the eye as she began to talk.
"Look, this isn't some game or some hobby you can give up on whenever you want. If you choose to do this, if you choose to go out there and help people, you have to be responsible. Because if you decide to become part of this, you have to understand that everything you do from here on has consequences. It means you're representing something bigger than you. Do you get that?"
Slowly, Miles nodded again and May gave him a thin smile as she allows him to take the briefcase into his hands. Without saying a word, she walked away from the two of them, leaving Miles to be questioned by Ganke.
"Who was that?" he asked quickly, obviously worried for his friend.
"I think that was spider woman." Miles answered, using both hands to open the metal briefcase. Inside was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.
"Oh my God. Miles, do you know what this means?" Ganke asked Miles, as both of them looked down at the freshly made spider themed costume inside the briefcase. "You're officially spiderman."
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and remember to tell me if you see any spelling mistakes. If no one realized, the wonder woman in this chapter is the Cassandra Sandsmark version of wonder girl and in this can fanfic, mutants have been replaced with metahumans, thought they are still the same as mutants from Marvel. Now, I have some ideas about what to include in later chapters, but if you have any ideas about what you would like to see next, do let me know. By the way, since this chapter and the first chapter are more Marvel than DC, the next chapter will include more DC characters than Marvel and will take place in 1945 to focus on Golden Age characters.