Today, I thought I would return to the world of the pretty
defunct Ultimate Universe. A few years ago, I went through an adventure of
sorts. I reviewed Ultimate Spider-Man from the beginning to Mark Bagley’s
departure from the book. I can safely say that it was an awesome run. Last
year, I finally decided to see what the rest of the first run of Ultimate
Spider-Man looked like. I started the Bendis/Immonen run and pretty much got to
Ultimatum, the event that changed the Ultimate Universe for more ill than good.
I actually skipped ahead and read more after that event like Hickman’s Ultimate
Avengers.
Today, I’ll just be listing my thoughts on this run of issues. The issues will be Ultimate Spider-Man #112-133, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3, and Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem. Of course, Brian Michael Bendis is the writer of all of these issues. While Stuart Immonen started his run on the book in #111, he ends up doing his first full issue with #112. Immonen’s been all over the place working on characters like Superman, the X-Men, and many others. Wade von Grawbadger joins the crew as the inker for the book. Grawbadger was one of Immonen’s usual inkers and stays on the book during his duration. The Annual was drawn and inked by David LaFuente, the artist that took over after Ultimatum. Mark Bagley returns to draw some pages in the Requiem mini.
I’m not going to synopsize the whole bunch, but here’s what
more or less happens:
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| All right, Kong! |
- Death of a Goblin (#112-117) – Things are going well for the Parker lad since he’s back with MJ and May knows his secret. Of course, things can’t stay too good. He’s at odds with his X-girlfriend, Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. It doesn’t help that they get put on a class project together. Then, the worst happens as Norman Osborn (the hulking Green Goblin) breaks out of prison and tries to wreak havoc on SHIELD and Peter’s life. Spider-Man and SHIELD (without Nick Fury) end up having a tense team up in taking Osborn down. Harry Osborn also plays a role.
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (#118-120) – Johnny Storm (Human Torch) and Bobby Drake (Iceman) end up coming to Midtown High. They all end up hanging with the gang until something tremendous happens: Liz Allen starts to exhibit mutant powers. Spidey and his friends (ha ha) then have to figure out how to protect Liz because other powerful mutants are on her trail.
- Omega Red (#121) – Peter and Kitty end up turning in their project that literally went up in flames. We find out what happened and it involved the Daily Bugle, the mutant Omega Red, and some collateral damage.
- The Worst Day in Peter’s Life (#122) – Spider-Man ends up getting kidnapped by a surprising villain. MJ and Kitty have to put their feelings aside and find him before this “awesome” villain takes Spidey out.
- Annual #3 – Peter and MJ end up having a bit of a spat over taking their relationship to another level. Meanwhile, the Ultimate version of Mysterio makes his appearance.
- War of the Symbiotes (123-128) – This is basically a revamp of the Ultimate Spider-Man video game. Eddie Brock is back causing havoc and being chased by Silver Sable. Apparently, other corporations want the suit that Peter’s and Eddie’s dads had made. Gwen Stacy (or the Carnage version of her) returns and ends up interacting with Peter and Eddie. SHIELD is also involved. SHIELD is always involved.
- Ultimatum (129-133) – This basically shows what Spider-Man and his supporting cast was up to during the Ultimatum event. Spider-Man is in the thick of it saving lives, teaming up with the Hulk (sort of), and facing off against a Dr. Strange villain he faced before. Meanwhile, MJ, Kitty, Kong, Gwen, and Aunt May are trying to stay alive and not get arrested.
- Requiem (Ultimate Spider-Man: Requiem) – Spider-Man is presumed dead after the events of Ultimatum. Since the incident made J. Jonah Jameson see Spidey in a better light, he decides to do an obituary on him. We also get a couple of flashbacks (drawn by Mark Bagley!) thanks to some unpublished stories. Luckily, Peter is alive… for now (muahaahahaha!)
OPINION
So, what did I think of this era of Ultimate Spider-Man? It was pretty good, but I’ll admit that it’s not as powerful as the Bendis/Bagley era. I’ll go on and comment on the art first since that’s really the biggest change in this era. I thought that Immonen did a good job back in his first stint at the end of Bagley’s run, and he still brings the good here. His style is different from Bagley’s in that it’s a bit more stylized. It’s not a complete departure since you know who’s who. Immonen and Von Grawbadger also make the action look awesome and dynamic. While there may be a couple of off panels here and there (especially this one panel of Peter’s face… dude looked like a puppet), I really liked this duo here.
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| Now this is awesome. Say what you want about this universe, but this should be iconic. |
Bagley returns in the Requiem issues, and he still brings the goods. Not only do we get to see him do Spidey and MJ again, we also get good renditions of Iron Man and The Hulk. Mind you, those two look like they stepped right out of the 616 universe (Hulk was apparently green before the Ultimates). Still, it was cool to see Bagley on board again. I wasn’t too impressed with David LaFuente’s art for the Annual though. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t really feeling it, ya know? The proportions seemed a bit off especially with Spidey’s big head. I know LaFuente becomes the main artist post-Ultimatum, so I’ll have to see how that’s gonna be.
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| Man, this made me miss Bagely even though Immonen's been pretty good. |
Now on to the stories. These were a nice bunch for the most part. I gotta say that I actually enjoyed the more low-stake moments this time. Seeing Peter and his high school crew was nice. It was cool seeing Kong and Kitty (who end up becoming a couple) get added to the roster of Peter’s friends. It was also nice to have Johnny Storm and Iceman show up here too. Just know that they become mainstays post-Ultimatum. The return of Gwen was also handled well even if it got a bit convoluted. That Venom arc was… I’ll touch on that later.
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| While I don't like David LaFuente's art that much here, he has his moments. |
The villains for this era were mixed bag for me. We got ones
like the Green Goblin, Venom, and the Shocker tearing stuff up. While the
villains for those stories weren’t bad, there was something that bugged me
about the big arcs. Then, we get to the Ultimatum tie-ins… I’m having a feeling
that I’ll be touching on that event soon, but from what I can tell, at least
Spidey made it out okay. We get to see Peter and his whole supporting cast get
thrown in the madness of New York getting flooded by Magneto, and it’s handled
pretty well. Not only do we get good moments for Peter, we got good moments for
the rest of his cast. The biggest surprise though would be Jameson’s turn in the
event. It’s good stuff.
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| While I liked this new arc, it makes me want to replay the Ultimate Spider-Man game for the PS2. |
My negatives for the stories aren’t too big. One thing I will say is that things felt a bit off in this era story-wise. While the smaller arcs were nice, the big arcs like the Goblin and Symbiote arc felt off. It’s like they both had too much stuff going on in them. I felt this more with the Symbiote arc. That arc also told its story in a pretty confusing non-linear way with months and flashbacks constantly being at thing. It was quite annoying. The Goblin arc didn’t have too much confusion, but it did rush things especially at the end with Harry Osborn. I don’t have anything outright bad to say about the Ultimatum tie-ins, but that might change with the main book.
REVEALS/UNMASKINGS OF SPIDER-MAN: 5
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| Here we go again... |
Yeah, I’m still going to run this count. When I start to talk about the series, I always ended these things with a running tally of how many times Spider-Man was unmasked and had his identity revealed. Thankfully, I think Bendis got this out of his system, but there weren’t many times in this era. First, Peter gets unmasked at SHIELD headquarters. While they already know his identity, I doubt Acting Director Carol Danvers (yeah, she’s in) knew. Next up, Peter reveals his identity to Liz Allen as she’s wrestling with her new mutant abilities. Next, Kong reveals that he knows that Peter is Spider-man, putting to bed a small plot point from back in the day. Then, Shocker takes off Spidey’s mask when he captures him. Finally, Peter loses his mask when he is presumed dead. Y’all can take a shot of something.
TOTAL TIMES THAT SPIDER-MAN’S BEEN UNMASKED/HAD HIS IDENTITY
REVEALED: 24
FAVORITE MOMENTS
- High-School Drama – A lot of the high school drama was handled well here. The project with Peter and Kitty, the whole New Mutant arc, and a couple of other moments shine here
- Jameson Turns A New Leaf – In the Ultimatum tie-in comics, Jameson realizes that Spider-Man is a force for good.
- Osborn Break-out – If there’s one thing that Norman Osborn is good at, it’s breaking out of the Triskelion. Seriously, it’s an art form.
- Peter getting taken over by the Venom symbiote – This was bound to happen again. The symbiote leaves Eddie and takes over Peter for a bit. Unlike the last time Peter had the symbiote, he has no control, so it’s up to the Ultimates to take him down.
………………………………………………………..
In the end, this was a nice era for this version of
Spider-Man. While it’s not as groundbreaking or memorable as the Bendis/Bagley
era, there are a lot of good things here. Yes, I’m even throwing those
Ultimatum tie-ins on there. I think I know where I’ll be moving next… Lord help
me. I already started to read Ultimates 3 on Unlimited and… what was Jeph Loeb
smoking again? It was probably the same stuff that Mark Millar smoked. Anyway, I'm out. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
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