Secret Empire Exposed: Miles Morales

Each week, we use our super sleuth skills to dig into the histories of the characters fighting on both sides of Secret Empire!

Surviving Secret Wars and making his way into the 616 Universe may have seemed like the best possible thing for former Ultimate Universe denizen Miles Morales, but then Civil War II broke out and a bomb got dropped on him.

In CIVIL WAR II, Spider-Man witness one of Ulysses’ future-visions which saw him holding an impaled Captain America on the Capital steps in Washington, D.C. Ever since, he’s been understandably shaken.

Of course, everything notched up a level when Steve Rogers revealed his true colors veered more towards Hydra green than U.S.A. red, white and blue as Secret Empire kicked off.

The Champion fought bravely at the first battle of Washington, D.C., but soon fell back with his teammates and became part of the resistance. In SECRET EMPIRE #1, he and the other Champions helped save Rayshaun Lucas and get information from Rick Jones.

In the following issue, Black Widow split off from the others, knowing that Steve Rogers could not be saved and needed killing. As she made her exit, Miles stopped her and offered his services, feeling that he would be the one to kill Cap anyway. Initially she denied his offer of help until the other Champions showed up. Then she brought them all in and began giving them Red Room training.

Meanwhile, over in SECRET EMPIRE UPRISING #1, Morales and his teammates helped infiltrate the Hydra Youth Choir which allowed Black Widow to get Viper to join their side. As seen in SECRET EMPIRE #5, the group also helped acquire an old man in a hospital bed who, as we saw in SECRET EMPIRE #7, turned out to be Mosaic!

Before discovering that, though, Miles helped keep the Champions together in #6, convincing the Wasp to stay while also talking to Widow about their views on whether Steve Rogers remained save-able or not.

The actual targeting of Rogers came in SECRET EMPIRE #7 as Widow literally took aim at him while using Mosaic to take over the nearby Hydra troops and the Champions to fill their various roles. Though Black Widow tried holding Miles back from the action, he escaped and did wind up confronting Captain America on those famous steps.

Miles fought well, but that didn’t stop Cap from killing Black Widow in the process. In his rage, Miles achieved the upper hand and stood over Rogers’ body, not far from the piece of jutting rock his vision told him he should impale the former her upon. Instead of giving into to supposed destiny, though, Morales let the Star Spangled Avenger live, even though it meant getting captured by Hydra.

The Empire Strikes Back

The end of SECRET EMPIRE #7 found another legacy hero reclaiming his place amongst his fellow costumed crusaders. As Miles Morales got locked up, alongside his fellow Champions, Sam Wilson donned his Captain America costume, lifted his own shield and declared that this battle had not yet ended. As we remember from a previous installment, Sam had given up hope in the Captain America name after Steve Rogers showed his Hydra allegiance, but now seems to be taking the name back and re-dedicating himself to acting as a symbol for justice and hope in one of the darkest times in the Marvel Universe!