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This article, Duke Morales (Earth-4313), is property of MysteryScooby. |
No. You keep it. I have a bunch at home anyway. And don't worry about me suing you. I'd be honored to have you carry on my legacy. And I'm sure Dark Claw feels the same way.
- —Spider-Boy
History
Early Life
Duke Morales was the son of Dr. Elaine Morales, MD and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jeff Morales. Duke was a Metamutant who inherited his father's photokinetic abilities, while also developing the ability to manipulate darkness, Morales was unaware the source of his powers; however, as his father hated his fellow metamutants and pretended to be human instead.
At the age of eight, Duke and his family were kidnapped by Hyena. Dark Claw came to their rescue, with Duke using his umbrakinetic abilities to give the vigilante the opening he needed. Only Dark Claw was aware of the assistance he was given.
Heroics
While going through his father's fridge, Duke accidentally exposed himself to what he would later discover to a mysterious canister. He quickly discovered he had developed the proportional abilities of a spider. Suspicious of his father, he decided to follow him to his liaison job to Project Cadmus. It turned out it was a stolen Spider DNA Serum prototype developed by Spider-Boy.
Still needing a sample for his buyer, Jeff stole another one. Not knowing who to turn to, Duke decided to take matters into his own hands and stop his father. Duke confronted Jeff, who revealed that he also had photokinetic powers, which he called his "Scorpion Sting." While this caught him off guard, he was able to surprise his father using his umbrakinetic abilities to drown out his light.
His father's client turned out to be the Green Goblin. While Duke briefly held his own, he was no match for a seasoned super-villain. He ended up being saved yet again by Dark Claw. He revealed that he had been keeping an eye on Duke. Seeing he had potential, he offered to train him as a member of the New Gotham Talons. After much consideration, he took the codename "Shadow-Spider."
Spider-Boys
Duke was attacked by Mechanical Slayers who believed he was an associate of Spider-Boy's. After defeating the robots, Shadow-Spider sought out Spider-Boy in New York City. Finding him, Spider-Boy arrogantly suggested him of infringing on copyright before they were ambushed by the slayers. Duke's danger sense allowed him to escape capture, but Spider-Boy was not so lucky.
Shadow-Spider found that Spider-Boy had dropped his Web-Pistol and used its link to his Utility Belt to track him down. The young spider was able to free him from captivity and the two destroyed the Mechanical Slayers, but were unable to capture their creator, Spencer Killgrave. In a show of gratitude, Spider-Boy gave Duke his blessing and let him keep the Web-Pistol.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Adhesion
- Danger Sense
- Photokinesis
- Camouflage: Duke is able to warp light around him, allowing him to camouflage.
- Energy Blasts
- Super Agility
- Super Durability
- Super Reflexes
- Super Stamina
- Super Strength
- Umbrakinesis
Abilities
- Combat Master
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
- Clawed Gloves
- Web-Pistol
Notes
- Duke Morales was an amalgamation of Miles Morales and Duke Thomas.
Trivia
- "Shadow-Spider" is the alias used by Miles during his time in Weirdworld.
- Duke considered the names Spider-Lark and Spider-Signal. The latter was a reference to Thomas' primary alias of The Signal and was the name of a gadget called the Spider-Signal, similar to how The Signal was comparable to the Bat-Signal. The former is a name twice associated with Thomas. Bruce Wayne referred to him as Lark during a hallucination in Batman (Vol. 2) #35 and Thomas considered the codename in Batman and the Signal #1.
- How he became a Spider-Totem is similar to how the Miles Morales of Earth-22532 became a Super-Soldier.
- Shadow-Spider using clawed gloves was a reference to Len Wein originally wanting Wolverine to use clawed gloves.
- Similar to both his fuses, he excels in creative writing.