Marvel unveils new spin on crime-fighting

Peter Parker is dead and gone, but Spider-Man's still slinging webs and fighting crime. And it's not just a new teenager climbing Manhattan buildings, it's an entirely new crime-fighter, from the colour of his suit to the complexion of his skin.

Meet Miles Morales, a half-black, half-Hispanic American teenager who, inspired to do good after the death of Parker at the hands of the Green Goblin, takes flight and has his first fight in the pages of Marvel Comics' Ultimate Fallout No 4, in comic shops in the US today.

The Ultimates imprint is separate from Marvel's bigger universe, where Parker is alive and well. Writer Brian Michael Bendis, who has scripted every issue of Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man since it first appeared in 2000 to wide acclaim, maintained a new hero would replace Parker, felled in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man No 160 this summer.

But his replacement was a secret, until now. Bendis said the decision came down to the story, to keep it fresh and vital and new. Morales, he said, is nothing like his predecessor.

"He's younger than Peter Parker, he's coming from a completely different background, a completely different world view," Bendis said. ap