Expanding/Organizing Miles' Rogues Gallery
Miles Morales has been finally getting more and more proper baddies for his rogues' gallery, but the big question is how they can get proper staying power. A fair bit of them do seem to not fit well, and I was wondering how we can look at this.
And one idea could be looking at Peter Parker's own rogues gallery. Not to mimic, but what sort of "patterns" emerge. And with that, use those patterns to help expand the Rogues' Gallery of Miles.
I'll be listing some of Miles' foes that already fit a pattern or easily can:
The Bumbler: He seems like he'd fulfill the role similar to Shocker; that of a professional criminal who's just in it for the money and has a bit of a reputation of being a "butt monkey". All Bumbler needs is time to grow into it and he could be a danger. An eccentric professional in it for the money.
White Cat & Inari: They seemed to fulfill a sort of Black Cat role, especially straddling that line between ally and antagonist. However, it all depends on what if further events may lead them down diverging differing paths.
Then we have some that could fit in the patterns, but need one major thing or so tor each it.
The Rabble: Miles' closest contender for an archenemy... She's a pretty good villain, but one I feel is missing one or two things to have long-term staying power. Sure, she's obsessed with Miles and gunning after him personally, but that isn't enough. Right now, she's like a wildfire burning out of control. She either gets put down or burns herself out quickly. In a way, I feel she sorts fits the Venom role, but she also has some elements with Tinkerer and so on. However, she needs more to flesh her out besides her obsession with Miles since it's hard to see her lasting as a long-term threat because of the short-sighted nature of her flaws, not to mention it could become repetitive. She's got a lot of potential, but is more hot cake batter than a fully baked cake.
Julia Gao: The fallen cop. The one who blames Miles for her own fall. Honestly, while the War Cry thing was neat, I have an interesting though for Julia... a venomous one. Her becoming a Symbiote user would be this deliciously ironic full circle thing. Her start of darkness began during the events of Absolute Carnage, so having her bond with a Symbiote in her desperation to fight Miles and complete her transformation into villainy would have a lot of storytelling potential. As for which Symbiote... well, could be a new one, though I'd take the Mania route and have it be a clone of the Carnage symbiote. Being really hammering this "becoming a monster you once fought against", it'd be interesting since while this Carnage clone would have some vague similarities, it could become different. It becoming Julia's new "partner" over in organzied crime of sorts and thus forming this toxic codependent relationship between the two as this new Julia would cause trouble for Miles and others. And given her control freak tendencies, I could see Julia doing viligante work at best, or becoming a crime boss at worst, possibly even doing similar to what Lee Price did with the Mania symbiote. In a way, while she would have the powers similar to Venom or Carnage, I feel she'd fit in more a sort of "Norman Osborn" role for Miles because she has the long-term planning skills and could play the long game.
And now we have some leftover roles that could be filled in here.
The "Doc Ock" role: the shadow, a bad future made manifest. If Doc Ock was basically a representation of how Peter could've grown up, we need one similar to Miles. I think a few of them are contenders, but none really have stood out to fit. I think it would be a fun thing for Miles to go and deal with. He is becoming a man and thus looking at where someone like him could wrong would be away for growth.
The "Lizard" role: The tragic enemy. The one Miles is trying to save. Rabble doesn't fit here as she's too unhinged and she keeps chosing violence, unlike the Lizard who doesn't have that much of a choice. Would have to be a more interesting case, but Miles having some success in helping them here could be intriguing. Maybe could be a vampire given Miles' recent brush with those and as a callout to that.
As for the others... not really sure. Some might with more work, but not really getting any. Assessor I feel could fill a role similar to "Kraven the Hunter", but we need an explanation as for why targeting Miles over anyone else.
I understand this is probably an odd view, given how we're trying to differentiate Miles from Peter, but this isn't about giving him similar villains. It's about looking at the various villains and seeing what archetypes present that we can use to make some good long-lasting ones. After all, these archetypes exist for a reason.
Hope everyone likes.
Posted Nov 5, 2025, 1:47 AM UTC