Ganke Lee is the enthusiastic best friend and confidant to Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man, and will do anything to help him balance his life as a Super Hero.
From Another Universe
Hailing from the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610), the Korean American Ganke Lee is a teenager that attends Brooklyn Vision Academy with his best friend, Miles.
Savvy Chemist and Solid Friend
While Ganke is known to be Miles’ best friend and a strong supporter of his Super Hero career, he’s also an ace at chemistry. He helps Miles make new web-shooter fluid using Peter Parker’s formula.
Super-Powered Friends
Ganke is best friends with Miles Morales, who, when bit by a spider, receives superpowers. For Ganke, this news is the best thing ever and he encourages his friend to become a hero, and use his new abilities to fight crime. He supports Miles in becoming a Super Hero and offers emotional support that only a best friend can. The pair rooms with Judge, another student, at their school Brooklyn Visions Academy. Ganke also encourages Miles to join the Young Ultimates—a super-powered group of teenagers that fight big bads .
Thanks to Spider-Man’s actions during the incursion—the colliding of Earth-1610 and Earth-616 universes—Earth-616 and Ganke survive. As if having existed in that universe the whole time, things don’t change much for him. He attends Brooklyn Visions Academy with his best friend Miles, and later bonds with mutant Fabio Medina, AKA Egg. He invites Fabio to join him and Miles at the Academy as their roommate. This invitation, and Ganke’s reveal of Miles’ secret identity to Fabio, results in tension between the two besties. But they eventually reconcile.
After needing some help tracking down Spider-Man, Ganke teams up with YouTube blogger, Danika Hart. They eventually start dating, and Ganke accidentally reveals Spider-Man’s name to her. Her strong feelings for Ganke lead her to keep his friend’s identity a secret.
Assailants
After Miles shares his identity as Spider-Man with his girlfriend, Katie Bishop, whose parents are secretly agents of the terrorist group Hydra, her parents capture Miles, his father, and Ganke. They narrowly escape thanks to their Brooklyn Visions Academy roommate and friend, Judge, NYPD’s Detective Maria Hill, and other super-powered friends.
Ultimate Universe History
While Ganke minded his own business in his room, his best friend Miles came crashing in to tell him a secret, one so dangerous he made Ganke swear not to tell anyone. As Ganke watched Miles try to show him his secret, nothing happens. Miles electrocuted Ganke’s miniature Lego sailing ship that he had spent weeks building, sending the pieces flying. Ganke, realizing his friend had superpowers, searched the internet to discover that he had similar abilities to Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man. He immediately advised Miles to fight crime and save the world with his spider-powers, despite Miles’ initial hesitation. Ganke also purchases Miles a Spider-Man Halloween costume to wear so he can be a Super Hero, which Miles wore against the criminal Frank Oliver, AKA Kangaroo. He also listened to Miles’ family troubles over his villainous uncle Aaron, AKA Prowler, who attempted to get Miles to team up with him, and told Miles that he’d have to battle him to get him off his back.
After Miles’ mom perished from a stray police bullet, Ganke supported Miles as much as possible, reminding him of all the good he has done as Spider-Man, but Miles ultimately quits heroics for a year. Ganke became bitter toward Miles for no longer being Spider-Man, but Miles returned after Ganke, with Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman’s help, convinced him that there was a need for a Spider-Man. Not long afterward, he told his new girlfriend, Katie Bishop, that he was Spider-Man, but she ran away. Her father, secretly an agent of Hyrda, drugged and kidnapped him, his father, and Ganke as part of a Hydra plot with Doctor Doom. However, they are all freed thanks to Ganke and Miles’ roommate Judge, Det. Maria Hill, and Miles’ colleagues, the Young Ultimates.
Post-Incursion
When the incursion occurred and the Ultimate universe collided with the Marvel Universe, Earth-616, Ganke’s universe ended. Thanks to Miles ally Owen Reece, AKA Molecule Man, Ganke, along with other friends and family of Miles, were transported by Molecule Man to the revived Earth-616 as if they had lived their lives there the whole time.
When Ganke wanted to meet the new student at the Academy, mutant Fabio Medina, Miles did not understand Ganke’s excitement over him. Ganke associated Fabio with positive body image representation since they looked similar in terms of their body shapes. However, when Ganke and Miles met him, Ganke revealed Miles’ secret identity to Fabio intending to give Miles someone to relate to on a more visceral level. Despite the tension caused by both Ganke and Miles reconciled.
After Miles disappeared for a time, Ganke became involved with Danika Hart, a YouTube blogger, and asked her to give him a heads up if her viewers knew anything about his whereabouts. To protect his friend’s identity, Ganke refused to tell her his name, so he told her to call him “Ned” and Danika agreed, and their relationship started to move into dating territory. But Ganke eventually let Miles’ name slip. Danika, knowing how much she could capitalize on knowing Spider-Man’s identity decided to keep it secret, having falling in love with Ganke.
