Miles Morales: Spider-Man

Ganke Lee is Miles’s best friend and roommate. Ganke is a Korean American teenager who loves to dance, write a type of Korean poem called the sijo, and play video games. He is mischievous and loves to joke around. In his personal life, Ganke is struggling with the seemingly hostile divorce of his parents, and uses his poetry as a way to explore and grapple with his complex emotions. He experiences a resolution when he reminds his parents that he loves them, and they reciprocate wholeheartedly (252).

Ganke acts as a regulator for Miles; he helps Miles maintain a balance between his two identities as teenager and superhero. He encourages Miles to both help people as Spider-Man and enjoy his life as a normal teenage boy. Ganke sometimes gets Miles in trouble, encouraging him to use his abilities as Spider-Man for personal gain, but has good intentions. He believes Miles is a good person, and reassures him when he becomes worried that he will end up like his uncle. He is extremely loyal, supporting Miles in his decisions but also preventing him from running headfirst into danger when he can.

Mr. Chamberlain is one of the antagonists of the novel. He works as a history teacher at BVA and uses his position of power to discuss harmful beliefs about slavery and incarceration. His position as a teacher is simply a means for him to “break” young Black students before they can be “snatched” away (to prison). In truth, Mr. Chamberlain works for the Warden, an elderly man with the supernatural ability to warp reality (often by manipulating minds). Mr. Chamberlain is only one of an army of “Chamberlains,” and his personal task is to get “close to breaking [Miles],” whom he knows is Spider-Man (219).

A flat character, Mr. Chamberlain’s purpose is to catalyze Miles’s development. He is the reason why Miles chooses to return to his role as Spider-Man, as he subjects the boy to constant racism and frames him for stealing from the Campus Convenience store, which leads to the loss of his scholarship.

The Warden only appears in the last three chapters of the novel, but is the main antagonist pulling the strings, leading all of the Chamberlains in their goal to reinforce “new” slavery (the prison system). He is depicted as an old, white man who has lived for hundreds of years. His goal is to “snatch” as many Black people as possible to continue “new slavery.” The imagery surrounding the Warden includes a white cat with many tails, which alludes to a kind of whip used on unruly prisoners in a prison in New York (Paulson, Linda Dailey, “Sing Sing.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 March 2023).

Jefferson “Jeff” Davis is Miles’s father, and, alongside Miles’s best friend Ganke, is one of the only people who know that Miles is Spider-Man. Mr. Davis is a man with a strong sense of duty, something he has worked hard to replicate in Miles. He, along with his now deceased brother Aaron, dropped out of high school and began stealing to make money. Eventually, he left this life behind, and as a result, left his brother Aaron behind too.

Mr. Davis cares deeply about Miles and wants him to avoid the same mistakes that he made in his youth, but in attempting to voice this, he scares Miles. He unintentionally convinces Miles to disown his identity as Spider-Man by instilling high expectations of heroism. He presents Miles with the question of “Who’s gonna save you?”—which makes Miles question his role as a hero, but in the end, inspires him to return to the mantle to stand up for himself and his community against the Chamberlains and the Warden (7).

Alicia is a student at BVA and Mile’s romantic interest. She is the great-granddaughter of a Harlem Renaissance poet who worked with some of the greatest writers of the era like Langston Hughes; she seems to have inherited her great-grandmother’s skills as a poet and is the president of BVA’s poetry club, the Dream Defenders. Alicia is brave and confident; she is unafraid to stand up to injustice and reminds Miles what it means to advocate for one’s community by staging two protests against their racist history teacher, Mr. Chamberlain.

Alicia may be a secondary character, but is not without her own conflict and development. Whereas Miles’s conflict with Mr. Chamberlain ultimately takes place outside of the classroom, Alicia’s arena is the classroom. Alicia’s weapon of choice is words, and considering her affinity for poetry, this fits her character. During her first protest, Alicia writes her words of protest before chanting them in the classroom. She later poses the question that Miles’s own father asked him—“Who’s gonna save you?”—when she becomes upset at his refusal to stand up for himself and his peers (7). With honest criticism and support, Alicia inspires Miles to fight the Warden and Mr. Chamberlain’s influence.