Customer Reviews

Ultimate Spider-Man, Vol. 3

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The grand conceit of the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics is that they go back to the beginning of the story when the bite of an irradiated spider granted high school student Peter Parker amazing arachnid-like powers. For those who remember the first 100 issues or so of "The Amazing Spider-Man," writer Brian Michael Bendis, penciler Mark Bagley, and inkers Art Thibert and Rodney Ramos have been providing a high intensity retelling of the tale. This time around Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy are fellow high school students of Peter Parker and the fateful encounter with the Green Goblin comes early on. But this is more than a re-imagining of the Spider-Man saga from the very beginning because these stories are informed by our knowledge of what happened in the first decades worth of issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man."

Volume 3 of the hardback "Ultimate Spider-Man" collects the issues previous reprinted in the fifth and six tradepaperback collections. "Public Scrutiny" (issues #28-32) is different from the previous story arcs in that Spider-Man never fights one super villain in the entire book (even though he certainly wants to). This time the main focus is on Peter Parker being Spider-Man, an issue that is addressed on multiple levels, from Peter being distracted at school to Mary (Jane) having a hard time handling being constantly worried about Peter getting hurt (not calling her Mary Jane is the biggest problem I have with these revisions). This latter point comes to a head after Spider-Man has a bad encounter with the police who are gunning for him because he has been robbing banks and killing police officers. Actually, it is somebody impersonating Spider-Man, which is just another part of the growing headache for our hero.

Bendis is taking pains to explore what it means to be a superhero when you are sixteen years old and in love with the girl next door, who is ticked off that Gwen Stacy has moved in with the Parkers. Meanwhile, the whole bit with Nick Fury and the rules of superheroes in the brave new Marvel universe continues to present intriguing possibilities for the future. Again, Bendis and artist Mark Bagley are taking there time with this one; 32 issues into "The Amazing Spider-Man" Peter Parker was a freshman at E.S.U., while here he is only a sophomore in high school. We can only imagine what he is going to go through before he reaches graduation day. "Public Scrutiny" is as good of a story arc as "Ultimate Spider-Man" has presented to date, even without the standard knock down, drag out fight with a super bad guy.

"Venom" (#33-39) is a quantum leap beyond the Stan Lee days of the original comic to retell the story of Venom. At this point in the tale Captain Stacy is killed while in pursuit of a burglar who had gone on a crime spree posing as Spider-Man, leaving Aunt May to offer his orphaned daughter Gwen a place to live. Meanwhile, after defeating the burglar who has been posing as Spider-Man, Peter is stunned to find out that Mary Jane, who has not only been his girlfriend but the one person he trusts who knows he is Spider-Man, can no longer stand the pressure and breaks up with him. In the wake of that shock Peter connects with Eddie Brock, now a student at Empire State University. It seems Peter and Eddie's dad worked together at the lab and Peter thinks Eddie would like a copy of a videotape of their families enjoying a picnic. Eddie is touched, and has something to show Peter as well, something he calls their "inheritance."

Of course, this is the "black costume," now no longer and alien parasite but a genetic bodysuit. While experimenting with it, the suit leaps onto Peter who discovers it has one big advantage over his regular Spidey suit: it repairs the damage done to him by bullets. But when Spider-Man catches up with the burglar who killed Uncle Ben, his new suit literally goes in for the kill. Eventually Peter will go to Eddie for help, and then it will be time for the suit to find a new person with whom to play and Venom, Spider-Man's evil twin, is truly born. One of the improvements Bendis and Bagley came up with for their revisionist version of Spider-Man was the idea that it was Peter's father who was the scientific genius who came up with the webbing formula. They build on that foundation again by working in both Eddie Brock and the Venom costume into the fabric of the Parker family saga, not to mention Curt Connors. Knowing Eddie gives the conflict with Venom more depth and Peter gets to be a smart kid without being a genius on the level of Tom Swift.

The subplot of Nick Fury being something of a quasi-guardian angel and part-time mentor for Spider-Man is continued, and watching Aunt May and Gwen bond is also going to make things interesting down the road, so be sure to pick up The grand conceit of the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics is that they go back to the beginning of the story when the bite of an irradiated spider granted high school student Peter Parker amazing arachnid-like powers. For those who remember the first 100 issues or so of "The Amazing Spider-Man," writer Brian Michael Bendis, penciler Mark Bagley, and inkers Art Thibert and Rodney Ramos have been providing a high intensity retelling of the tale. This time around Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy are fellow high school students of Peter Parker and the fateful encounter with the Green Goblin comes early on Volume 4 if these hardback editions are the way you want to follow the story.

With every new release in their hardcover line, Marvel continues to prove that they're number one in that department.

Ultimate Spider-man Vol. 3 contains issues #28-39 and the rare #1/2. This volume is slightly smaller than the past collections, but that's due to the smaller arc lengths this time around.

Also included is the usual hefty amount of "special features". As usual, these also prove just how truly INSANE Bill Jemas is. We should all thank every diety available that this man doesn't have full control over Ultimate Spider-man. Tying 'Venom' to Peter's web fluid formula? Can we say contrived, Billy? Thought so.

Anyway, Billy Jemas' insanity aside, the two arcs presented here are pretty good. They aren't as fantastic as the past storylines, but these seemed to serve more as prep for what Bendis has cooked up next, ESPECIALLY the Venom arc. Eddie's introduction, the intro to the Venom costume, Peter wearing the black costume, Eddie's transformation, and the fight between Peter/Eddie was compressed into six issues. The whole thing just feels incredibly rushed, especially when it's kept in mind that Bendis took FOUR ENTIRE ISSUES to kill Uncle Ben!

The blame for this has to land on Billy boy's shoulders, who limited the arc to six issues, and insisted that Eddie as Venom appear. Doesn't leave much room for Bendis to develop the characters, now does it? An example of this is that Pete's in the black costume for less than one issue, and within a couple pages, he decides the costume's evil. So much potential was wasted due to the rush to see Venom in all his slobbering glory, and I find that sad.

Backtracking a little, the arc before Venom was great. 'Public Scrutiny' focuses on what happens when Spider-man's reputation is tarnished by an impersonator, and the repercussions that follow. There where some cringe worthy 'why the hell did you retcon that?!' moments, though. If you were angry as all hell about MJ taking Gwen's place in the Goblin arc, then be warned. Another warning, MJ lovers beware: You WILL want to strangle her. Ranting about her family problems and finding them so important after what happens to poor Gwen...well...I will never look at the Ultimate-verse MJ the same way again. Bendis should have just killed her off in the Goblin arc.

Now, for the quality of the hardback..

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Whoever's in charge of DC's hardback department should take note immediately of how it's done. The eye-catching cover screams to be placed out in the open, and the oversized glossy pages are fantastic. Thick and well put together, this book never feels like it'll fall apart if you don't handle it delicately (unlike DC's first volume of 'Hush').

Great addition, though I had to knock a star off the Venom arc's shortcomings.

Once again Bendis has done it again. I haven't really been that interested in Spiderman since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I loved Spiderman. I grew out of it(well, maybe not, just moved onto different superheros). I have picked up the previous hardcovers of Ultimate Spiderman because of Bendis. He has done what I wish all comic book titles would do. Continuity. It's been the same flowing story since page 1. If Peter is hurt, he is hurt for awhile. When Peter and MJ are fighting, they are fighting for many chapters.

What I really like about Bendis is that he "writes the way people talk". His dialog includes stammering, interuptions, emotions. Almost all comic books and a lot of fiction books read like a script.

While I keep going on and on about the writing, let me speak kindly, also, about the art. The artist(sorry, i can't remember off hand) takes what I like about Bendis' writing and gives the razor sharp dialog an even finer point.

I am anxiously awaiting book 4, but for know, I think I'll go back and read 1 through 3.

I have really enjoyed the Ultimate Spider-Man series, and look forward to each hardback volume as it appears. This one I pre-ordered. It is very good, but it pales a little compared to volumes 1 and 2. There is a lack of extra material, something that could not be said about the first two, and we seem to have lost the reproductions of the cover art placed throughout the book.

Story-wise this is pretty good. The Venom story is nicely done, I thought, though it does have the familiar: "meet bad guy, beat-up bad guy, bad guy gone away" which will be followed (I guess) by a "Here's the bad guy again!".

Overall, a good addition to the Ultimate Spider-Man series, though I hope the omissions are a glitch more than the shape of things to come.

This was a well written, well drawn collection of comics. tells the story of the birth of venom. very well done adaption, its not just re printing the original comics with a new coat of paint. Like the small tweaks to the story, that makes it fresh.

This collection is largely taken up by the run in which Brian Michael Bendis attempts to create a version of Venom that's worth reading.

Story-wise, it's pretty well a success. I'd've preferred if it could have been drawn out longer - Spidey wearing the Venom suit for a while and only gradually realising what it was doing to him would have read better than the rather immediate transformation that we get, but it still works okay.

The new backstory for Venom is nice - one of the big advantages of the Ultimate line is the way that, with all the years of experience behind them, they can piece together more tight-knit stories. That works here, bringing Venom in as an essential part of Peter Parker's backstory.

The only real problem is that Venom still looks silly. He's an over-the-top, McFarlane-esque thing that looks goofy and out-of-place in the story. Every time I'd start to get into the story, that ridiculous gaping jaw and writhing tongue would take me out of it.

If you can get past the distracting character design, though, this is a good read, keeping up the quality we've had in the rest of the series up to this point.

ultimate spider-man by bendis and bagley is one of the best series out there. not as much action and non-stop bad guy fighting, but a good mix of that and a lot of peter parker being a teenager with problems (girls, bullies, being grounded, etc.) along with his spidey life.
the series is great great great. only a few minor things that could be better:
1. i don't like how nick fury comes in and tells spider-man he's going to work his whole life for him and shield. the idea of peter being...trapped in a web? haha...well it isn't too cool. superheroes need to fight the good fight because they want to, not because shield will go and take away their superpowers (as fury has threatened) if they don't comply.
2. bendis needs to cut down on the tuchas talk. seriously if parker grew up in nyc today he'd more likely speak spanglish than yanglish.
3. geldoff.

I have read all the books so far and I think there awsome!!!!

A must have in the series!!!!