In Miles' original reality, Norman Osborn, AKA the Green Goblin, sought to recreate the circ*mstances that created his arch nemesis Spider-Man (Peter Parker). In his efforts at Oscorp, a genetically enhanced spider known as specimen 42 was unknowingly stolen by Aaron Davis, a high-tech thief known as the Prowler. Davis had a relationship with his teenage nephew Miles Morales, one Miles' parents Jefferson Davis and Rio Morales neither approved nor were aware of.
One day, while visiting his uncle to tell him about winning a lottery to enroll at the prestigious Brooklyn Visions Academy, Miles was bitten by the burglarized spider. Upon discovering that the bite left him with super human abilities, Miles had a brief early brush with super heroics when saving people from a burning building. After talking things over with his close confidante Ganke Lee, however, Miles decided that this life wasn't for him.
Later, Miles snuck out of school to watch the Green Goblin and Spider-Man have their climactic battle, which saw both of them perish at the other's hand. Blaming himself for not using his powers to help Peter, Miles attended his funeral, where Gwen Stacy relayed Uncle Ben's lesson that with great power comes great responsibility. Initially, he was inspired to fight crime in a makeshift Halloween costume version of the Spider-Man outfit, but after proving himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), the agency gifted him a new uniform, thus beginning his official career as the new Spider-Man.
Sadly, the first true foe Miles faces is the Prowler, his own uncle. It didn't take long for Miles' uncle Aaron to figure out who this new hero was under the mask. So, as the Prowler, Aaron approached Miles in an attempt to get his help taking down the villain known as the Scorpion. But after Miles figured out that his uncle was using him to take out his competition, he refused to help him any further. Aaron then threatened to reveal Miles' secret to his father Jefferson, leading to a fight between the two that resulted in Aaron's apparent death after a piece of his Prowler tech malfunctioned.
In the aftermath, his father, Jefferson, blamed Spider-Man for his brother's death, pushing Miles even further away from revealing himself to his parents, and leading Spider-Man to be considered a murderer in the press. Despite this difficulty, Peter Parker's Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane Watson reached out to Miles, giving him Pete's old web shooters as encouragement.
Miles received the opposite reaction from Captain America, however, who was still racked with guilt over Peter Parker's death and didn't want to see Miles go down the same path. But Miles ultimately won Cap over, and he decided to train this new wall crawler. But, that training was cut short when Captain America was elected President and Spider-Man joined the Ultimates in battling Hydra. In the ensuing fight, Jefferson ended up killing some Hydra agents who got in his way trying to reach Miles and his wife. The incident left Jefferson despondent.
When the Peter Parker from the prime universe joined Miles' reality, he teamed up with Miles to defeat the Mysterio from Parker's timeline, who had come to this alternate Earth hoping to break his streak of crushing defeats. The adventure proved formative for Miles, as Peter told him he was proud of him for taking up the mantle.
Later, the Daily Bugle reporter Betty Brant began investigating Spider-Man and incorrectly concluded that Jefferson was under the mask, instead of Miles. While trying to find the new Spider-Man, Venom (AKA Dr. Conrad Marcus) killed Brant and attacked Jefferson. Miles was able to save his father, but during the conflict, police accidentally shot his mother, Rio. As she died, Miles revealed to his mother that he was in fact Spider-Man. She told him she was proud of him, but begged him never to tell his father. Racked with guilt, Miles gave up the mantle soon after.
After a year of not being Spider-Man and losing Ganke's confidence over quitting, Miles began dating Kate Bishop, a secret Hydra member. Spider-Woman revealed to Miles that she was in fact a clone of Peter Parker and that Peter would not want him to quit his life as a Super Hero. This lead to Miles donning the mask again before teaming up with her and Bombshell to confront the Roxxon Corporation about their illegal activities and superhuman experiments.
When the Galactus from the prime reality came to this one, destroying New Jersey, Miles tried to save his father as Spider-Man. But, when Jefferson wanted nothing to do with him, he revealed his true identity. Jefferson blamed his son for the death of his wife and brother, before a plane crash separated the two. Miles saved Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson from the wreckage. Jameson, feeling guilt for how he treated the deceased Peter Parker, promised to repay Spider-Man for saving his life. Jefferson, though, was nowhere to be found when Miles made it home.
Not long after the Galactus catastrophe and the subsequent death of Captain America, the Ultimates disbanded, paving the way for Spider-Woman to form a new team without S.H.I.E.L.D. backing, focused on street-level criminal activities. She enlisted Miles, Kitty Pryde, Bombshell, and Cloak and Dagger, two other subjects of Roxxon's experiments. Together, the team battled the Serpent Skulls street gang led by rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Brock Rumlow, AKA Crossbones. Their team wasn't trusted or respected due to their youth and relative inexperience, but after taking on Scourge, a serial killer who hunted criminals, they were able to gain the trust of the local law enforcement.
When the time-displaced X-Men from the prime timeline arrived in this reality, Spider-Man introduced them to his reality's X-Men. After battling Doctor Doom, he also helped them get home. Spider-Man and Black Widow were then embroiled in a reality-spanning war when the Inheritors, a group that feasted on spider powered people, attacked them. Spider-Man and Black Widow joined with other alternate-reality Spider-Men and Women to defeat the Inheritors. With this reality's S.H.I.E.L.D. gone following Galactus' attack, custody of a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison facility was transferred to the private sector. With the loosened security, Green Goblin, previously thought dead, easily escaped.
Meanwhile, Miles prepared to tell his girlfriend, Katie, that he was Spider-Man. Asking Mary Jane Watson for advice, Miles learned that Peter Parker was still alive and secretly living a normal life. Miles told Katie his secret, but she ran away in fear. The Green Goblin soon attacked Miles, angry someone else was Spider-Man, but Peter joined Miles in driving off the villain. As the Spider-Men regrouped, Osborn apparently murdered J. Jonah Jameson. Then Green Goblin attacked again, and in their rage, the Spider-Men apparently killed him. Peter then gave Miles his blessing to continue being Spider-Man before leaving with Mary Jane. That night, after a change of heart, Miles' dad returned home and reconnected with his son. Miles went to Katie's home to straighten out their relationship, but Katie's father attacked him, revealing himself as a Hydra agent and his family as Hydra members, including Katie. Hydra abducted Miles' family and friends and, with Doctor Doom's help, prepared to experiment on Miles to reverse engineer his spider powers.
When Doom's tests accidentally triggered an explosive release of Miles' venom blast ability, Miles broke free. Simultaneously, the Ultimates tracked down Miles and helped him defeat Doctor Doom. As Miles ended his relationship with Katie, the prime universe appeared in the middle of nearby space, turning the sky red, signaling an incursion between Earths during the collapse of the Multiverse. During a battle between the two Earths, Spider-Man hid aboard a life raft carrying the Cabal, a group of nihilistic beings who had slaughtered worlds in trying to stop the Multiverse's collapse. Surviving reality's destruction in the raft, Spider-Man eventually found himself on Battleworld, a planet created from reality's remnants by an all-powerful Victor von Doom of the prime reality, eventually encountering the Manhattan realm comprised of fragments of both realities.
Alongside Reed Richards and others who remembered the world before the God Emperor Doom remade it in his own image, Miles helped convince Battleworld's inhabitants to rebel against their ruler. He teamed with the Peter Parker from the prime timeline and the Maker to sneak into Doom's castle and investigate the source of his power, where they found the Molecule Man hidden beneath Doomstadt. The Molecule Man asked for something to eat and, somewhat surprisingly, Miles had a hamburger in his pocket, which he gave him. The Molecule Man was now in Miles' debt. After Doom was defeated, Miles woke up in the newly rebuilt prime reality, where it appeared he had always lived, with his father and his no longer deceased mother, as well as all of his friends. This was the Molecule Man's gift.
Over time, Miles got used to living in a new reality, if only because his life hadn't changed all that much. He was still a student at Brooklyn Visions Academy with Ganke and only his father knew about his double life as Spider-Man. This universe's Peter Parker had become his new mentor and he also joined a new team of Avengers. Things were going well until the second Civil War, when Ulysses Cain, an Inhuman precog, saw a vision interpreted to mean Miles would kill Steve Rogers in the near future. Ultimately, that scenario didn't come to pass and the events that transpired left Miles and other young heroes disillusioned with their forebears in the Super Hero community. Eventually, Miles joined a new team of Champions, with Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Nova (Sam Alexander), Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Viv Vision, and the time displaced teenage Cyclops.
Later, Miles teamed up with Peter again in battling the Taskmaster, who was working for a mysterious benefactor trying to rip a hole to an alternate reality. The Taskmaster's boss turned out to be the original reality's Miles Morales, an older, scarred man who lived life in lavish obscurity, having once been a criminal and close confidante of the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk. This Miles tried to find an alternate reality where his lost love still lived, which he found in a resurrected version of Miles' old world. After this encounter, Miles told Peter that he felt being Spider-Man was something distinctly belonging to Peter, because its origins were rooted in Peter's pain.
