Ultimate Spider-Man #158
The Ultimates are dickheads and even Spiderman thinks so. He wakes up in shock here and that could be because the Ultimates as written by Brian Michael Bendis have usually tried to look out for him. They may be rougher around the edges but deep down they’re as noble as their Earth 616 counterparts. They certainly wouldn’t leave him buried under rubble. Unfortunately the satirised pricks created by Mark Millar would and they’re the ones he tried to help.
I may have been too hard on this in my last review but my point that this crossover seems to only exist so that Spiderman could be shot is just plain silly. I’m not playing favourites but it’s obvious that one writer cares more about the characters they’re writing than the other.
It’s a credit to Bendis that the more understated moments of this comic always have the biggest impact. There’s a funny exchange between Bobby Drake and Johnny Storm that conveys a lot of frustration about being delegated to supporting players in someone else’s story before they get pulled into the action. On the subject of underplaying things, the gradual portrayal of the Sinister Five as super-powered thugs instead of megalomaniacs makes their appearance here and their simple plan (Find Spiderman. Kill Spiderman) uncomfortably believable.
Mark Bagley really nails the emotional beats of this issue. In particular, he blew me down with a wordless moment early on that perfectly encapsulated Spidey’s selfless nature. He has done a great job of setting the scene for the High Noon style showdown to come and that last moment really helped to stir me up for the endgame.
Joe Read
