Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #6

After one wild ride it seems a shame to end my coverage of the Death of Spider-Man on a low point. But here it is all the same. After much confusion the Ultimate Avengers and New Ultimates finally team up to take on Gregory Stark and save the world but what should be a bombastic climax completely underwhelms.

I can best compare this series to the bus from Speed. While racing along it can deliver all the thrills and laughs the audience want but if the pace slows down for whatever reason, the weaknesses of the writing becomes so obvious that the whole thing blows up. Or in this case just looks stupid. So once again the attempts to pull drama from characters that haven’t been fleshed out enough, such as the new Black Widow, fall limp. What seemed like an amoral satire tries to grow a conscience at the last minute. I understand that it needed to get in line with the other Ultimate titles in time for the reboot but the way it happens here feels too forced. I wish I didn’t have to resort to clichés but I can’t help that ‘too little, too late’ sums up this issue perfectly.

Bring us the next Superior. Bring us the next Kick-Ass 2. We need to be reminded that Mark Millar is a writer who can push boundaries and still take the time to develop his characters and stories. Otherwise I’ll go and pull out my back issues of Superman: Red Son.

Joe Read.

This series has been the definition of hit-and-miss for me. But I’m happy to write that this issue is a fantastic return to form…because it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s downright ludicrous and that has to mean something when you read comics about men dressed as bats or silver surfers from space on a weekly basis.

I know I can’t judge this as a normal comic book anymore. I can’t relate to any of the characters or sympathize with their problems or feel that strongly about the ‘issues’ that this storyline is dealing with. When it really flies it’s an action packed satirical cartoon, cracking jokes and skulls with equal aplomb. My problem is that Mark Millar’s first two volumes of the Ultimates did this with heart and brains that made the reader care a little more when the fists weren’t flying. Was it Bryan Hitch’s epic artwork? Was it the 13-issue format that took time to develop characters and story? It’s a mystery.

Now that the secret villain of the series has been laid bare the fights come thick and fast and they are loaded with some startling surprises. Hulk pills! Korean Spiderman! Ultimate Ultimate Team-Up! I was grinning from ear to ear reading this wondering how it could any more absurd. I just hope that the conclusion is big and noisy enough to distract me from its shortcomings.

Joe Read.

Ultimate Spiderman #160

And now the end is near and so I face the final curtain. As I write this I look up at my canvas print of the Amazing Spiderman #40 with a muscular Spidey standing over the Green Goblin beside the caption, “SPIDEY SAVES THE DAY!” I can’t help but notice the ironic parallels between that classic cover and this finale as we join our hero taking a final stand against his arch nemesis to protect his friends and family.

If you tore open your super secret polybag expecting to find a huge spectacle or some shocking twist then no doubt you will finish this issue feeling disappointed. However if you have any love for Spiderman, Ultimate or otherwise, then you may agree with me that this is a damn fine ending to a stellar series.

To avoid spoilers please look away now…

I’ll admit that I’d begun to accept the title of this storyline as some kind of macabre red herring. But as the issue drew to a close I felt like a bit of a fool. All this time I spent second-guessing them and they get me with the old double bluff. I believe I was in so much shock that I couldn’t take in the magnitude of this event.

Peter Parker, the Ultimate Spiderman is dead. Bereft of life he rests in peace. Now I know that superheroes die all the time these days so it really is a rarity to read one with this much dramatic weight to it. It would be very difficult to undo the impact of this story with any quick-fix resurrection that might be around the corner. And that certainly shouldn’t be a priority for Marvel because what they have is that rare example of a hero’s journey coming full circle. We can see just how much he has grown in these last moments and with his last words he seems to find a sense of closure that few of us could expect.

One of Mark Bagley’s greatest strengths is that he can put as much manic energy into his action scenes as his smaller character interaction. While the conflict almost approaches Tom and Jerry levels of violence, the sight of Mary Jane hitting the Green Goblin with a truck lifted my spirits. In spite of all the blood and fire, it was Aunt May’s hysterical reaction to the death of her nephew that really sold that pivotal moment to me.

So Brian Michael Bendis tops off his record-breaking run and he has every right to be proud. While edgier writers like Garth Ennis and Mark Miller taunt that the classic superheroes would be psychopaths and dickheads in the real world, Bendis seems to offer Ultimate Spiderman as a mature reply that our favourite wall crawler would not. His is a story of true heroic sacrifice…with webs.

Joe Read.

Ultimate Spiderman #159

The fact that this issue revolved around a big fight scene did mean that it flew by in an instant on my first reading but there is more than enough to savor in this outing. After some sporadic action throughout this storyline Mr. Mark Bagley throws in his most kinetic and electrifying work since his return. The pages snap, crackle and pop with the super-powered violence our hero battles and really makes you wonder at the amount of punishment one radioactive teenager can endure.

Those little boxes of Peter’s inner thoughts have never shone through so humbly and with such vulnerability as they do at times here. It just wouldn’t be Spiderman if he weren’t still cracking wise in the face of impending death and those quips still made me smile though my heart was breaking. Watch out for a nicely timed almost DC reference.

I am avoiding spoilers in this review so I won’t go into detail on what Gwen Stacey describes as ‘the very definition of awesome’ but suffice to say that it couldn’t happen to a nicer chap. The moment almost takes a strange pride in establishing an already hardened character as the next Dirty Harry. One might question if they would be as quick to do what they do if they knew what the Punisher had done to Peter but these are desperate times in all the confusion I somehow doubt it.

The final reveal is an infuriating ‘Oh for crying out loud…’ cliffhanger but it certainly didn’t damper by appetite for the end of the end. I know we’re all very anxious to see what Brian Michael Bendis has got for us in his polybag of tricks.

Joe Read.

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

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #4

Let me make it clear: I do not enjoy writing bad reviews. This site is dedicated to good comic books and if we can’t find anything nice to say, we won’t say anything at all. However I have committed to covering the Death of Spiderman and I mean to stick it out until the bitter end.

So previously the Ultimate Avengers were having a big fight with the New Ultimates when Spiderman jumped out of nowhere and took a bullet for Captain America. The timing of that moment was brilliant and the possibilities for where the story could go were numerous and tantalizing. That is why I had to read this installment twice in a row and then pinch myself, because that potential has been completely squandered.

The real-time technique that’s being used to dramatic effect in Ultimate Spiderman right now is abandoned half way through this issue and makes the tie-in of these two titles seem pointless. Something like this might not even matter if the heroes weren’t even more unlikeable than usual. A badly wounded Spidey disappears in the middle of the fighting and none of the Ultimates seem to care? No, they’re all sitting around back at Tony Stark’s penthouse (cue Seinfeld theme) and he barely gets a mention.

By the end its clear that Mark Millar is once again going through the motions. The reveal of the villain in the last few pages felt too familiar to be surprising and any impact intended for the shocking last minute ‘death’ is spoilt if you’re able to turn the page and see the cover for the next issue.

The best thing I can say is that this chapter reveals how everyone’s favorite wall-crawler gets from Ultimate Spiderman #157 to #158. Otherwise I recommend that you skip it and read them instead.

Joe Read.

After checking off eight issues from my Death of Spiderman checklist, the question of when he will die looks like it may soon be answered. It’s difficult to think of a character in the Marvel Universe less deserving of death than Spiderman. Except for Howard the Duck. But in the words of Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, ‘Deserves got nothing to do with it.’

This time we join our hero darting around New York trying not to freak out. Meanwhile the Sinister Six (or Ultimate Six?) are struggling to get their act together. It is a fact we’ve all learned from bad action films that a super villain cannot handle rejection. So it was nice to see that little convention played out between two of Spidey’s most notorious villains even if the result felt a little abrupt.

Brian Michael Bendis clearly has big plans for the character from the deft way he keeps the plot racing and emotions flowing in equal measure. A moment between Peter, Aunt May and Gwen is only a couple of pages long but proves very sweet amid the calamity.

Mark Bagley is on great form once again, easily rising to the challenge of unveiling this big story on a small scale. I will say that his recent depiction of the Green Goblin looks a little rushed compared to his previous work on the character.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room. To avoid spoilers please look away now… It may be undeserved, but you couldn’t come up with a way of offing Spiderman that is more befitting to his character. I’ve observed that superheroes have different techniques; Batman is a detective, Superman is a godlike sentinel, and the Fantastic Four are scientific explorers. Spiderman is a well-meaning teenager. He leaps into the fray with naught but his moral compass to guide him. More often than not it works in his favor. It has nothing to do with ego or bravado but an innocent desire to help. If this leads him to his demise then I can appreciate it.

But I may be jumping the gun if you’ll pardon the expression. I’m not sure yet if I’m taking the title of the storyline too literally or not literally enough. You may have heard that issue #160 will be sold in a plastic bag. This means there’s a big twist coming up and it must be something other than his death. It seems cruel to let a gunshot wound last for three issues.

Joe Read.

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #3

The injection of humour in this chapter makes it a big improvement on the last. Millar’s ‘Balls to the Wall’ style works best when satirizing the kind of Michael Bay blockbusters it appears to imitate. If he forgets to put that tongue in cheek then we get what happened in issue 2. The ridiculously rapid pace of the action here completely disregards any cloak and dagger subtlety that could be explored in the mystery of who the traitor is. However rather than being a hindrance this element helps drive the story towards a brilliant twist, which I will not spoil here.

My gripes with this one are not huge. The jokes about Tony Stark’s alcoholism had worn thin after the first six issues of the Ultimates but Millar insists on flogging that dead horse. It’s a shame to see it after writers like Warren Ellis have proven the character can be developed in interesting ways and not just sidelined for comic relief. While we’re on the subject, why does the Iron Man armour now look just like it does in the movies? It should be the other way around! Then again how can I expect common sense in a comic where Captain Britain and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. are gushing over David Cameron?

For more on the shocking ending of this issue, stay tuned for my review of Ultimate Spiderman #157, coming soon!

Joe Read.

Ultimate Spiderman 156

Peter’s superhero training also continues this month with Captain America taking the reigns. It’s moments like the one shared by those two here that help distinguish the characters of the Ultimate universe from their original versions. Rather than portray Ultimate Cap as the violent xenophobe other writers have, Bendis gives us a stern military man from a different time and one less tolerant of Spidey’s immaturity. It’s a relationship that I don’t think has ever been strained on Earth 616.

The return of Mark Bagley has certainly evoked a sense of nostalgia, taking me back to my comic reading days of the early twenty hundreds (I refuse to use the N word). It provides a great connection to the history of the title and adds to the gravity of coming events. Bagley’s art is, as always, perfectly suited to the frantic action of any good Spiderman story but he also delivers some icy moments of small-scale drama.

We’re heading for something, somewhere I’ve never been, sometimes I am frightened but I’m ready to read more about The Death of Spiderman.

Joe Read.

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates #2

Well color me disappointed. After the last issue seemed to promise a step in a new direction, we get one consisting of nothing but a big punch up. Perhaps I’m becoming increasingly frustrated in my waiting for the Death of Spiderman storyline to pick up momentum but it seems a shame to string the reader along without good enough cause.

I understand how the first two issues now mirror each other and I appreciate the twists at the climax of each. Mission accomplished. My problem here is the way Mark Millar chooses to drag out the use of that device by focusing on the unlikable members of his Black-Ops team that haven’t been fleshed out in the previous volumes. So what we get are a few pages of Nick Fury as he once again ‘puts a team of Bad-Asses together’ and then a big fight that reintroduces another badass. Apparently the word ‘badass’ is a substitute for the word ‘dickhead’. Whatever the case, we’re supposed to be so dazzled by all the badassery that we forget how much the last issue gave us and how little we’re given this time. The artwork by Lenil Yu and Stephen Segovia is the only redeeming feature for me but even this starts to look stale by the end.

This is Millar at his worst: a loud, shallow, clichéd display of action full of exposition-heavy dialogue. If I were writing his school report it would say, ‘Mark can do better if he would only apply himself.’

Joe Read.