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Ultimate Comics Spider-Man

Ultimate Venom Arc

If you know anything about me you know that I love comics…as this blog demonstrates.  What most people don’t know is that it wasn’t always so.  I loved them when I was a kid but by the time I hit high school I started to “out grow” them.  Girls and sports became more interesting and I was under the delusion that I could be an atheletic casanova.  So like so many geeks I went through a rough period in high school.  When it ended and I had come to terms with the fact I was a geek and enjoyed being a geek, I began exploring various geeky cultures.  Which brought me back to comics.  And after a significant hiatus I managed to pick up a few issues of Ultimate Spider-Man.

At this time they were in the midst of the Ultimate Venom storyline and needless to say I was an immediate fan.  I started grabbing every issue I could find.  Six years later I find myself obsessed with the Ultimate universe, having nearly completed my collection I am more enthusiastic about comics in general than ever.

So its fitting that my first comics post on this blog be about the first issue of the second volume of the Ultimate Universe.

To get everyone up to speed, the Ultimate U was designed by Marvel comics to be a gateway into their larger universe for new readership.  At the time Marvel was about to boom in sales and had a plethora of films based on their properties along the way.  So trying to get new people interested was terribly important when so many people were turned off by the extensive histories and large volume numbers most series had.  Thus the Ultimate Universe was born, first with Spider-Man and soon followed by the X-Men, The Ultimates (Ultimate Avengers) and The Fantastic Four along with endless mini-series.  Well six years later the Ultimate U was plagued with a similar issue of being inaccessible to new readership given all the issues (400+) out there.  Marvel decided that it was time to simplify things and start over, this time having the Ultimate U be something unique that stood out from the regular continuity (instead of continually adapting old characters).  But in order to start fresh they needed an ending.

And what better way to wave farewell to Volume 1 of the Ultimate Universe than by killing every living thing getting rid of the old before bringing in the new.  Thus they launched Ultimatum a storyline that would cap off Vol 1 with the worst ending they could possibly think of a highly convoluted destructive storyline to tie up loose ends.  I won’t spoil this one for you because frankly it does that on its own.  The death toll of this one is ridiculous and frankly nonsensical. No one was safe, even characters who had just come back from the dead and characters whom they have continually stated  can’t die.

But thats over with and from the ashes the phoenix is reborn…metaphorically I should say.

Last week they finally launched Volume 2, changing the brand to Ultimate Comics and launching their first two ongoing series Avengers and Spider-Man.  And with each book saw the return of the previous incarnations creators, Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis respectively, both of whom made the Ultimate U something special for me.

I am not going to go into Avengers today, given that Millar’s work is better seen through the entire arc, not single issues.

However, Bendis’ take on Spider-Man has been consistently fun and this issue doesn’t disappoint.

Spoiler Warning:

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 Cover

It starts six months after the Ultimatum wave that rocked Manhattan and life has returned to something resembling normality.  Peter is still struggling to be a teenager and having survived Ultimatum he is forced to take on a part time job as the Daily Bugle is presumably in ruins.  And though he can’t gain any respect in his civilian life as Spider-Man he finds himself loved by civilians and police alike, a disconcerting feeling given that his costume usually harbours nothing but resentment and hatred. At home his life is strangely back to normal with Aunt May finally adjusted to his web-swinging ways and something of a romantic relationship finally developing with Gwen Stacy.

However, its the other side of the story that seems most interesting as newly adapted Ultimate Mysterio says farewell

Page from Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1

to Volume 1 by pitching perhaps the most troublesome foe of Spidey’s, The Kingpin, out the window into traffic bellow.  The final splash page is somewhat horrifying and lets you know that things have indeed changed.

And while that is the aspect that I would most likely be chatting about across the internet most days, its the brief but passionate kiss shared between Parker and Stacy that I find to be the biggest highlight of this issue.  First I am perplexed as last I recall MJ and Peter were still together, and while Gwen has returned from the dead, Peter and Gwen have always been more like brother and sister.  Thats not to say I don’t like this development.  Gwen has always been my favorite Spidey gf but this seems out of no where and I am left wanting more.  Sadly there isn’t a whole lot more said as we barely see MJ and we have yet to see Parker integrated back into his usual social life.

So there are still questions to be answered.  What happened after Ultimatum?  Will we see when MJ, May and Co all discover that Peter is alive after-all? What’s happening with the Daily Bugle? How will Jonah’s tune change (if at all) upon discovering Spider-Man is alive? Where is the supporting cast: MJ, Kenny, Flash, Kitty?? With the X-Men gone will Liz Allen rejoin the Spidey cast?  What about Iceman-Bobby Drake (who is featured on the cover)?? Why did Johnny Storm suddenly collapse?? What happened to the female Spidey clone who seemed to have a larger role to play through Ultimate, is featured on the cover, but is no where to be seen?? And who is Mysterio??

Frankly I can’t wait to have all these questions answered and its been a long time since I was this jazzed about a comic line.

Kudos Bendis for twice having restored my love for comics and twice proving how awesome Ultimate Spider-Man is.  Its once again returned to the top of of my weekly stack and the first issue I always read.