You know, if there’s one thing that literally gets away from
me here, it’s talking about some Ultimate Spider-Man. Luckily, I think I know
where I’m going to end it here with that series. I think after the last volume,
I needed a break. It’s not that it was bad, but Bendis did do away with a
character I liked. For now, let’s get back on the show. We’ll finally get an
idea of what the new Spider-Man movie will be soon, so this feels like a good
time to get back on the horse.
The next volume is titled Superstars. I don’t know if Bendis
was a fan of Molly Shannon’s character from Saturday Night Live, but there you
go. Instead of some weird woman, we get some heroes in this new batch. Think of
it as “Ultimate Marvel Team-Up” or something. The creative team is pretty
much the same as it has been for the last couple of volumes. Bendis is writing
and Bagley is drawing. The inking is handled by Scott Hanna, the colors are done
by J.D. Smith with Chris Satomayor, and the lettering is done by Chris
Eliopoulos. So, let’s see Spider-Man go through some “hilarious” hi-jinks, make
a friend, and suffer through a demonic nightmare.
Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 12: Superstars
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Scott Hanna
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Colors: J.D. Smith
and Chris Satomayor
Wolverine
After a hilarious intro from BMB, this story starts out when Peter wakes up at home and is a little grumpy. He then begins to notice
something’s off. We then cut to Logan who’s a bit groggy himself. Both heroes
then come to a startling revelation: they’ve switched bodies! Peter calls his
house and talks to Logan. They try to set up a meeting before school. At school
the two meet and try to figure out what caused this. Before they can really do
any more, Peter tells Logan to go to class since he’s had a lot of absenses.
Logan tells Peter to lay low until it’s all sorted out. Of course, Peter gets
into trouble and is arrested by the police.
I gotta agree with Pete on this one, Jean. I'd be wary of y'all too if ya did this sort of thing.
Logan is able to sneak out of school and heads to the jail
where Peter’s being kept. Meanwhile, Peter uses his one call to call the
X-Mansion and tries to tell them what happened. Later, Logan dons Pete’s mask
and webshooteers and breaks Peter out of jail. After they argue some more, they
spot the Shocker robbing a bank and take him down. Suddenly, the X-Men show up
in the Blackbird. It turns out that Jean did this since Logan was flirting with
her again and she put his mind in the place where he would least think it.
After she switches their minds back into their original bodies, Peter
rightfully cusses them out and leaves. The story ends in hilarious fashion with
he and MJ.
Human Torch
The story starts out in the Baxter Building. Johnny Storm is
eating breakfast when Sue Storm comes to him and tells him that he needs to
finish high school. He had only one semester left before the accident. Johnny’s
hesitant but the rest of the Fantastic Four encourages him to do it. At this
time, the Fantastic Four are a secret, so Johnny goes to Midtown High since
he’d get questions at his old high school. There, Liz Allen takes a liking to
him, so she goads MJ into asking him to come to a bonfire later that night. She
also talks Peter into coming. They even plan on going on a fancy date later
that week.
At the bonfire,
things go smoothly until Johnny accidentally catches on fire and freaks every
one out. This especially freaks out Liz who’s a bit of a mutant-phobe. Peter and
MJ talk to him there and the next day at school. Johnny can’t tell them a lot about his
situation but he wants to see Liz again. Pete and MJ know that isn’t going to
happen, so Peter jumps into costume and goes to talk to Johnny. The two hit it
off well and even save some folk in a burning building. The story ends with a
renewed Johnny heading back home.
Doctor Strange
The story starts out with Peter and MJ on that fancy date I
mentioned earlier. She strangely starts to ask about his day and about the
mysterious Doctor Strange. We end up seeing stuff before the date. After Peter
gets rebuffed by the Ultimates, he heads to work and gets sent out with Ben
Urich to have an interview with Doctor Strange. By the way, this is Stephen
Strange Jr., the son of the original Doctor Strange who disappeared years ago.
Urich and Peter are turned away by his assistant, Wong. Ben heads off while
Peter hangs around. Pete’s Spidey Sense goes off and realizes something not
right. He changes into costume, climbs up, and sees Strange on the floor. He
busts in ready for action but something happens.
Hmm... smells like foreshadowing...
Back at the date, Peter begins to realize that stuff isn’t
right. He finds out that he’s in a nightmare and his worst fears are coming to
life. He fears
that his loved ones will die because of him. Outside Pete’s head, Strange wakes
up. He and Wong realize that the being that took him down is now in Peter.
While Peter does what he can in the nightmare, Strange and Wong look for spells
to release Pete from it. Eventually, Strange makes it into Pete’s mind and
faces the Nightmare. He’s able to root it out of Peter. Even though
everything’s good, Peter’s freaked out and heads home. The story ends with MJ
coming to Peter’s house and trying to see why he never showed up for the date.
OPINION
So, what do I think of this trade? While it’s not my
favorite from the series, I do like this one. I like that instead of some big
6-part story arc, we get three short arcs. After what happened last time, I
think things needed to slow down. All of
the arcs range from good to decent. We really hadn’t seen Spidey do much
teaming up or hanging out with other heroes, so seeing him have some one-on-one
interactions with heroes is a good thing. I also liked how they were different
in tone. Wolverine’s arc was pretty much a comedy while the others were more
serious. Strange’s arc was especially strange (pun intended) but in a good way.
My favorite from the bunch was actually the Human Torch arc. I also felt that
the guest stars got their moments to shine as well.
As for the regular cast, not much changes. There is more
fallout over what happened to Gwen and Pete’s decision to step away from
Spider-Man for a while. We also get the idea that Peter and MJ are getting to
settle down into a groove. Don’t be shocked if this doesn’t last long
especially after Peter’s encounter with Nightmare. It was nice that we got to
see Liz do something other than hang around too. We even get some Daily Bugle
action for a bit. As usual, the artwork was pretty good. I feel like a broken
record saying that. Bagley and the art team did their best to make a lot of the
moments work. The action especially worked. I also liked that the Nightmare
scenes in Strange’s arc. It provided something different from the regular
artwork in the book.
As for the negatives, I do have some this time. While the Wolverine
arc had funny moments, it wasn’t that great. It really made Jean Grey come off bad. What’s
funny about that mind-switch is that it was actually hinted at in Ultimate
X-Men when Wolverine returned to the team and Jean basically threatened him to
back off. I get Logan had to get his lesson but why bring Spidey into it? That
was messed up. Also, while I liked the Human Torch arc, the rest of the arcs
are okay. They’re not bad, but I did feel that something was missing with them.
I do wish Peter had gotten to interact more with Dr. Strange as well since the
ending felt rushed.
Unmaskings/Reveals of Spider-Man: 1
He gets unmasked at Doctor Strange’s house. I guess it would
make sense in this case since Strange had to see what was wrong with him. At
least he doesn’t blurt out his name or anything. Still, he gets unmasked by
someone here, so take a drink, eat an Oreo, or go to Five Guys Burgers. Take
your pick.
Total Unmaskings/Reveals of Spider-Man: 14
While I didn’t enjoy this one as much as others, there were
some good stuff here:
-Peter freaking out as Logan – While that arc was pretty
lightweight and silly, it was funny seeing those two freak out in each others’
bodies. Peter had it rougher and some good humor came from it.
-Peter’s nightmare – Peter saw some screwy in that
nightmare. Mary Jane even turned into Elektra! It might be cool but that goes
out the window when she tries to kill you.
-Marvel Team-Up – The interactions between Spidey and the
Human Torch were good. It’s literally a friendship in the making.
………………………………………………………….
Overall, this one is fine. It’s not groundbreaking nor is it
utter dreck. It’s pretty much filler and not bad filler either. It gives the
reader a bit of a break before the heavy stuff comes. Trust me; it’s going to
get heavy, Doc! Next time, an old face returns to the book and stuff goes down.
For now, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there during this holiday season.
NEXT TIME: HOBGOBLIN!
No comments:
Post a Comment